The nature of the physician’s employment, it must be obvious to the reader, is calculated to fit him eminently to enjoy and to adorn social life. He is commonly the pleasing companion as well as the warm and faithful friend. The freedom of his intercourse with all sorts and conditions of men imparts an ease and a zest to his conversation, and he has an abundance of facts and anecdotes to illustrate every remark which may be made. It is for this reason, as Dr. Rush says, that “physicians in all countries have been the most welcome guests at the tables of the great, and are frequently waited for with the most impatience at clubs and in convivial companies.” One of the chief sources of the happiness of the physician is the gratitude of his patients. I have already said enough upon this subject, and I would now simply remark, that, though there is much ingratitude which is a sore trial to him, many of his patients gladden him in the midst of his toils and anxieties with tokens of gratitude of the most delightful character. And among these tokens, the testimonials which he receives from the poor, humble as they are, are often more highly prized than the costly and splendid presents of the wealthy. Finally, a great source of happiness is afforded to the truly benevolent physician in the opportunity which he has for exerting a good moral influence. When by his instrumentality the abode of vice and misery has been converted into one of virtue and peace, and especially when his counsel and influence have been the means of saving a soul from death, he has a higher joy than all success however brilliant, and honor however profusely awarded, and gratitude however ardent, can impart to his soul. In conclusion I remark, that, though the trials and disappointments and mortifications of a medical life are numerous, very vexatious, and sometimes almost insupportable, yet the pleasures which come from the sources to which I have alluded vastly predominate over them all, and make the practice of medicine, when pursued with right motives, as a noble profession, and not as a trade, to be in the main eminently satisfactory and delightful. FOOTNOTES: [45] To estimate the public benefits which the medical profession has conferred upon the world, you need only to look at the zealous, and I may say _leading_, agency, which it has always exercised in instituting and maintaining Hospitals, Asylums for the Insane, Institutions for the Instruction of the Deaf and Dumb, and the Blind, and Associations for the advancement of the sciences. [46] Hence comes the fact, that many of the most eminent men in the various departments of science have been furnished from the ranks of the medical profession. APPENDIX LETTERS[47] FROM A SENIOR TO A JUNIOR PHYSICIAN. ON THE IMPORTANCE OF PROMOTING THE RELIGIOUS WELFARE OF HIS PATIENTS. LETTER I. ON THE DIFFICULTIES OF THE UNDERTAKING. MY DEAR FRIEND,