If  he  do  not  carry  with  hTmTFicstandi^
the  purest  honor;  if  he  take  the  slightest
advantage  of  his  position ;  Jf  he  fail  to  keep
pvhat  he  sees  and  hears  buried  in  secrecy  as
)'  inviolable  as  that  of  the  confessor;  if  he  ex-
I  pose  what  must  be  revealed  to  him, — he  falls
from  his  high  station,  and  becomes  an  afflict-


CHARACTER    OF    THE    GENTLEMAN.  83

ing  injurer  and  sower  of  evil  instead  of  a
comforter,  allaying  pain  and  stilling  sorrow
where  he  can.  The  eifect  of  a  gentlemanly
spirit  and  consequent  manners  is  even  great
in  that  branch  of  the  healing  art  in  which
you  may  least  expect  it, — in  surgery.  I  have
passed  months  in  hospitals,  and  have  had
ample  opportunity  to  observe  the  different
effects  produced  upon  the  patients,  though
soldiers  and  sailors  they  were,  during  serious
operations,  even  the  amputation  of  limbs,  by
kindly,  gentlemanly  surgeons,  and  by  those
who  chilled  their  victim's  heart  with  gruff
words  or  handled  him  with  hasty  and  mechanic
hands.  How  gratefully  do  the  poverty-stricken
remember  a  kind  word  of  the  physician  under
whose  care  they  have  been  in  the  hospital !
How  lasting  an  impression  of  horror  does  the
harshness  of  those  physicians  produce  who
make  the  patient  bitterly  feel  his  poverty  in
wealth  and  friends,  in  addition  to  his  bodily
pain  and  an  aching  heart !
_Spme  of  you,  no  doubt,  will  become  editors
of  newspapers.  \  The   journal    has   become   a


84  CHARACTER    OF    THE    GENTLEMAN.
