xxxi INFLUENCES WHICH FORMED IT 389 



burdens besides his own, he looked out for the weak and 

 the oppressed, and he worked for the better time which 

 did not come until long afterward ; helping, though he 

 knew it not, to prepare the way, to cast up a road, for 

 the redeemed to walk in. 



Many are the influences that go to build a man's 

 character. It would be interesting, if it were possible, 

 to analyse the chief factors in forming that of Fothergill. 

 Much he owed to inheritance, and he knew it : for he 

 would stir up the younger scions of his stock to remember 

 the " frank disinterested noble spirit of the Fothergills : 

 excuse," he adds, " my vanity." To an outsider other 

 family traits are clearly visible a strong will and a 

 liability to impulse ; features which, uncontrolled by 

 Fothergill's dominant conscience and spirit of love, might 

 easily lead to obstinacy and ill-temper. He came of 

 free-born Yorkshire yeomen, who had embraced the 

 Quaker faith in the unseen guiding Spirit, and held that 

 faith with tenacity. This religion of his youth, severe 

 and exacting, because only thus might its votaries be 

 kept unspotted from the world, survived his schooldays, 

 and was probably reinforced during his apprenticeship. 

 In Edinburgh he met with a broad and a humanising 

 influence, the personal character of Monro primus giving 

 its tone to the medical school. There are signs that his 

 strict Quaker upbringing, still fostered by his father, 

 was put to the test, but if it was shaken it recovered its 

 sway. The result of all was that Fothergill achieved, 

 in his own person, the unique combination of the scrupu- 

 lous Friend with the man of wide interests and liberal 

 thought in other spheres. He attained this character 

 early in his career and held it to the end. The friendships 

 which he made at college and afterwards had their part 

 in leading his thoughts into other lands and new phases 

 of life. Through his religious society he had much to 

 do with the American colonies, and they stimulated his 

 political ideals. He saw arising beyond the Atlantic a 

 great free nation ; its struggles stirred in him the passion 

 of liberty. Here Franklin influenced him, probably also 



