University of Virginia Library

14. CHAPTER XIV.

“Who do you think it was who met me at such
an unlucky moment, just, perhaps, as I was about
to stumble upon some clew to unravel the mysteries
of this fair little breathing ignis fatuus? It
was no other than young Arthur, our old school-fellow,
from Kentucky. He has come hither to
attend a course of medical lectures, though they
have medical lectures in his own State. Arthur
was not of our class, nor yet one of the glorious
three, but he was an old and respected friend and
schoolmate, and therefore his acquaintance could
not be cut quite so unceremoniously at the very
moment of its renewal; and even if I had made
some silly excuse to avoid him for the moment, he
would undoubtedly have seen me kicking my heels
in the street, `like a strange dog in a crowd,” as
Damon has it; so I reluctantly wheeled about with
him. His companion was also a student of medicine,
and a native of this city; he was introduced
to me by the name of Hazlehurst. I am aware you
are anxious to know what they could be seeking

in the identical house in which I had just blockaded
my fair fugitive. I wish, as heartily as you can do,
that I could explain that matter to our mutual satisfaction.
I pumped our inchoate doctors in vain;
they explained their own visit to the house very
satisfactorily, upon the grounds of professional
business, in the name and on behalf of their preceptor,
for it seems Arthur has been here all the
summer; but they neither saw nor heard of any
lady in the premises, and all further inquiries were
of course ended by the interpretation which Arthur
chose to put upon my inquiries concerning a fair
fugitive, so soon after my arrival. He was not a
little pleased to hear that Lamar was in the city, in
close league with a countryman of his own.

“By-the-way, Arthur is a noble fellow and an
accomplished gentleman. He has all the prerequisites
of natural capacity and elementary acquirements,
for the study of his arduous profession.
I know no young gentleman who has chosen a
profession in every way better suited to his peculiarities
of mind and temperament. You will
doubtless recollect that he always had a fondness
for the natural sciences, and this, after all, is the
true `condition precedent' for making a profound
and philosophic physician. How lamentable it is
that such minds are always thrown in the background
in our colleges! This results from that
everlasting dingdong hammering at languages,
before the pupil has discovered their uses, and
without any regard to his peculiarities of mind.

Those students who, like Arthur, exhibit an apt
capacity for the study of things, and their properties
and relations, are almost always dull at the
study of their representatives, or, in other words,
languages; why, then, do the instructers in these
institutions destroy the energies and the vigour of
such a mind, by making him fail at those things
for which nature has disqualified him, or, rather,
for which nature has too nobly endowed him? I
am no enemy to the study of the vehicles by which
we communicate with our fellow-men, but I am an
enemy to the uniform, monotonous drilling, which
all collegians in this country receive alike, because
I have observed in this process, that third-rate
minds invariably rank first. There are, in every
college, numbers of young gentlemen who have
parrot-like capacities, and memories that retain
little words; but who, if required to originate ideas
of their own, would soon show the native barrenness
of their understandings.

“Look around you now in the world, and see
what has become of these distinguished linguists!
One out of a hundred, perhaps, has received a professorship
in some new institution, and the others
are all falsifying the promises of their precocious
youth; while of the thoughtful and abstract dunces,
as they were considered in college, many are building
up lasting reputations, upon the deep and solid
foundations which our hackneyed systems of education
could not develop. Necessity and the
world develop them; and these, we soon find, are

very different from college life. Now, college
discipline should imitate the world in this respect;
it should develope every man's peculiar genius.
Neglect of this is the true reason why so many
men distinguish themselves in the world, who were
considered asses in college, and why so many who
were considered amazingly clever in college, are
found to be little better than asses in the world.

“Now that I have somewhat recovered from the
chagrin of Arthur's mal-apropos appearance, I am
really glad that he is here. I must surely see
the lady again. Indeed, I am resolved to do so, if
I have to stay here twelve months; and then Arthur's
presence will much facilitate our design of
surveying the under-currents of the busy world.
You know that I am not prone to trust the surface
of things. I shall therefore follow him into many
places besides his fashionable resorts. He tells me
that a malignant epidemic is said to be prevailing
here, and that their visit to the sick person before
mentioned was with a view to ascertain whether
the patient really had malignant symptoms. They
think she had not. I was not so much interested
in the affairs of their patient during the discussion
on the subject, as I was in their possible consequences
upon others,—but of that more in my
next. Young Doctor Hazlehurst seems to be a
very fashionable personage, but gentlemanly in his
manners, and unaffected in his deportment.

“They walked with me to our hotel, in order to
see Lamar, but unfortunately he was out. However,

Arthur left college greetings for him, and
young Hazlehurst left his address, and invitations
for us both to call at his father's house, who, it
seems, lives in the city; so you see we have made
the first step towards seeing both the upper and
under-currents during our sojourn. Whatever
they bring forth shall be as faithfully chronicled as
your own adventures. Truly,