LORD KENYON. 373 



rules to others, and the feeling of self-import- 

 ance, which this situation excites, in time often 

 diffuses itself over every part of their conduct. 

 Men too form insensibly an estimate of their 

 own worth, from secretly comparing themselves 

 with those whom they see most commonly. But 

 well-employed physicians spend much of their 

 time in the company of persons weakened in 

 mind by disease, and of the female attendants 

 of sick rooms ; it ought not then to seem strange, 

 if, like schoolmasters from conversing chiefly 

 with children, they should acquire an opinion 

 of their own talents, much higher than what 

 they merit. 



I shall take notice of only one other source 

 of injury to the character of physicians. Those 

 among them of the greatest learning and ex- 

 perience know well, that the most unexpected 

 changes sometimes take place in diseases, and 

 are best acquainted with the difficulty of re- 

 ferring to their proper causes, the various events 

 that occur in so complicated a structure as the 

 human body. It might therefore be thought, 

 that such men would always be modest, cautious, 

 and even timid, in the practice of their art. But 

 this is not the conduct which recommends a 

 physician most. It suggests to a sick person, 

 what indeed may be true, that a doubt exists 

 respecting the nature of his complaints, than 



