374 LETTER TO 



which nothing can be more distressing to him. 

 He often, therefore, applies to one, who ac- 

 knowledges no difficulty in the treatment of 

 diseases, who pretends to see clearly what is 

 hidden from human beings, and who speaks of 

 uncertain events, as if they were entirely under 

 his command. In this way, the sick man is 

 gratified, but too frequently at the expence to 

 the physician of one of the most valuable parts 

 of the character of a gentleman, and faithful 

 observer of nature. The exquisite painting by 

 Moliere of the vanity, affectation, and pedantry 

 of the French physicians of his time, exhibits 

 a resemblance to the general character even of 

 English physicians of the present day, which is 

 sufficiently strong .to make it probable, that those 

 qualities are, in a greater or less degree, almost 

 inseparably connected with the exercise of the 

 medical profession. But he in whom they exist, 

 though he should have the most upright inten- 

 tions, will often decide as unjustly, when his 

 own interest or consequence in the world is 

 concerned, as if he had been actuated by the 

 vilest motives. Before men, who are not go- 

 verned by others, can do what is right, they 

 must first clearly perceive it, which nothing cer- 

 tainly more effectually prevents, in whatever 

 has relation to themselves, than a false or ex- 

 travagant opinion of their own worth. 



