The Daily Herald

FOR THE HERALD.

PROFESSIONAL LIFE.

The extract in the Herald of the 11th, was a too limited view of the Physician's fate. His destiny is far higher, his views more elevated, than a recompense from the illiberal, or the approbation of those who are incompetent to judge. "Like the minister and the lawyer he must often labor in vain. The complication of the law is such as to demand more labor in preparing causes than in trying them; talent of the first order must sometimes set down defeated under the verdict of justice; but, there are times when a signal triumph over wrong, affords a nobler recompense than money, and gives the advocate the gratifying assurance that knowledge is power.

The minister of the gospel too has his "hard fate." He devotes his youth and life to literary labor with moderate and uncertain support; and his time and benevolence is open to the claims of all who come within the sphere of his influence. He feels that he is in the most responsible of all stations, that which connects this life with the future—that he is to solace the troubles, sickness and sorrows which he cannot fully relieve, and impart mental strength, the power of religious trust, and he too must like his divine master meet with ingratitude; but who can appreciate the recompense of the servants of the most high,—who, like the apostles, were of all least rewarded, did they look for compensation in this world; but, do they not partake in the joy of the angels of Heaven, when a soul is saved from death—a sinner turned to repentance. And if the servants of God are not exempt from the dust of the way, the trials of a career of virtue and goodness, shall the physician expect to be? Will he regard as of any importance those very inconveniences that spring from the diseases and weakness it is his business to remedy; the unreasonable anxiety of friends, or the fatigues and privations of the campaign in which he is enlisted? Unless indeed the learned professions carry into them the spirit of their superiority, their votaries will not be men of elevated minds. Unless they are recompensed by the divine philosophy that enlightens their path, it will be rough and toilsome. The true physician is above the reach of the idle jokes of ignorance, levelled at empiricism—his moral courage will be equal to every exigency for which his learning and skill will have prepared him. He calmly goes on sustained by the highest motive, responsibility to God, and not to men alone. He calculates on doing his duty—and not on the gratitude of man. But when he meets with it, 'tis like the fragrant flower by the side of the rough path; and if he meets with liberal pecuniary recompense, it is not the amount that gratifies him half so much as that he is justly appreciated by the intelligent.

Like the lawyer and the minister he feels bound to the same court of inquiry, where the question will be, how much have you improved the two talents intrusted? have you developed with skill and industry the means of cure enveloped in the materials of the healing art, as it came unadulterated from the hand of the great physician?

Doubtless the millennium of medicine as well as of religion will come; when the resources of nature shall be fully opened; health preserved, or if disorders spring from the undue enjoyment of the gifts of providence, the chamber of sickness shall be lighted up with true science, and the groping darkness of cruel experiment on the sick, by the shameless cupidity of empiricism, have ceased; and when the sufferer will impart his symptoms with a certainty of relief, so long as the functions of organic life remain; and the physician will be truly deemed the best, as well as most trusted of friends.

So too we shall see the time when a just reverence for the jurisprudence of our country will exempt it from oppressive delays; and when also, the lion of fanaticism shall lie down with the lamb of peace, in the primitive fold of faith.