A memoir of James Jackson, Jr., M.D : with extracts from his letters to his father, and medical cases collected by him / by James Jackson.

  • Jackson, James, 1777-1867.
Date:
1835
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A memoir of James Jackson, Jr., M.D : with extracts from his letters to his father, and medical cases collected by him / by James Jackson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    the distinction. Once, when a little boy, he had kept at the head of his class for two or three days, and then a younger boy got above him. I reproached him for permitting this. But he said, with great naivete, that the other boy ought to be at the head sometimes. I hardly gave him credit at the moment for this generous wish for the gratification of his rival, but his com- panions in later life will agree with me in believing that it was the result of that interest in the happiness of others, which he manifested more and more strongly as long as he lived. In college his ready sympathy led him at first into the com- pany of those, who were most gay, and for a few months he joined in their pleasures. At the end of six months the ex- cellent president gave me warning that my son had become in- timate with those, whose company was the most dangerous. This would have caused me great distress but that, happily, my son had recently given me the same information and had told me that he had discovered his danger; in fact, as soon as he perceived the vices of his associates, he no longer sympa- thized with them; he had broken with them. It was so; and his connexion was never afterwards renewed with them, nor with those who were like them. He now happily formed an intimacy with one who encouraged all his virtuous aspirations, and he began to cultivate, upon principle, a purity of heart, of which the fruits were forming in all his subsequent life. He was not led into habits, nor into any feelings of austerity. Gaiety he could not dismiss; it was ever springing up in him. He was guilty of imprudences like others. But he constantly studied his duty, he cultivated more and more the best princi- ples of action, and from year to year his standard of excellence was placed higher and higher. He never attained a distin- guished rank in his class by an exact attention to his collegiate duties, a circumstance which I do not mention in commenda-