82 APPENDIX, 



dress to answer each to his complete satisfaction^ in 

 his own way. Of course the degree was conferred 

 on him. 



Instead of entering immediately into the practice 

 of medicine, he determined to avail himself of the 

 advantages to be found in the schools of London and 

 Edinburgh, at that time the first in the world. In 

 this, he displayed his usual judgment. It has been 

 remarked that, with few exceptions, those who have 

 been great in the learned professions, have abstained 

 from practice at an early age. The cause is obvious. 

 The elements of science lie too deep to be attained, 

 without long and patient thought. The mind requires 

 retirement and tranquility, to exert its powers of re- 

 flection to their full extent. But these are incompati- 

 ble with the bustle, the anxiety, the agitation of active 

 life. There was another reason too, formerly of 

 great weight, though not so now, for finishing a me- 

 dical education in Europe. Our own schools were in 

 their infancy, and he who had been initiated in others 

 of so much greater celebrity, carried with him a splen- 

 dour, reflected from the masters under whom he liad 

 studied. This had appeared in Morgan, Shippcn, 

 Kuhn, and Rush, too plainly to be overlooked by the 

 searching eyes of Wistar. Accordingly he went to 

 England, in October, 1783. 



