LORD KENYON. 375 



Many of our physicians have no doubt re- 

 ceived little injury from the causes of the cor- 

 ruption of character, to which they have been 

 exposed ; and some few may have escaped their 

 influence altogether. One of these few, Dr. 

 William Heberden, I must conclude to have 

 been well known to your Lordship, from the 

 eulogy which you pronounced upon him, dur- 

 ing the trial of Dr. Stanger's cause. He was 

 probably, indeed, the only physician with whom 

 you were intimately acquainted, and hence, 

 from the natural error of attributing to a whole 

 species the properties of its only individual we 

 have seen, you might imagine, that he possessed 

 his many virtues in common with the rest of his 

 class. But Dr. Heberden, my Lord, stands, in 

 a manner, alone in his profession. No other 

 person, I believe, either in this or any other 

 country, has ever exercised the art of medicine 

 with the same dignity, or has contributed so 

 much to raise it in the estimation of mankind. 

 A contemplation of his excellencies therefore 

 can afford little help towards obtaining a just 

 notion of the general worth of physicians. In 

 speaking of a mole-hill, we would not employ 

 terms that had relation to the immensity of a 

 mountain. 



Were I, my Lord, possessed of talents ade- 

 quate to the undertaking, I should here en- 

 deavour to describe at full length the character 



