Characteristics

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: WAS now again at ease as to the future, and without occupation. A man of some thirty-six years of age, I was master of three languages, well read in a general way, and, as may have been seen, a practised and interested observer of my fellow men. Moreover, I had had the experience of a long illness, and found, therefore, renewed pleasure in outdoor life as well as in a myriad of things which are to be seen in field and wood, and air and water. Mere science had in it for me little that I liked, and it was clear to me that only in my own profession was there what I desired?a combination of ever-changing science, and its constant applications to medicine as an art. Having no wish to increase my fortune, ! took chiefly to consulting practice, declining cases at will, and was lucky enough to obtain a good hospital position. Contented with my daily work, and the constant problems it set before intelligent curiosity, I lived at tranquil ease, my friends making for me a large part of the pleasure of life. Some of them I loved for groups of moral qualities, some for the mental food with which they stimulated me. There were others who were dear because they found something in me to like and to trust and to use, and who themselves were not in any way remarkably attractive except for having a notable capacity to love. Undoubtedly there are folks whom one loves as one does some quite useless pleasant dog. From all of which it may be clear that I had many friends. Some of them were always interesting, and this is rare?although I may as well confess here that more people have interest for me than is the case with educated men in general. Even those who are generally looked upon as commonplace often find a warm corner at the hearth-side of my heart. When friends die or drift away, I like...