The life and correspondence of Andrew Combe / By George Combe.

  • Combe, George, 1788-1858.
Date:
1850
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The life and correspondence of Andrew Combe / By George Combe. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    their probable judgments ; but possessing no standard of other men’s thoughts and feelings adequate to guide him in making a selection on such a principle, he at times became perplexed, and hesitated in his course. To obtain, if possible, some glimpse into the probability of his success or failure, he solicited a number of in- telligent persons, some of them the intimate friends of Dr Combe, and others individuals who had never seen either him or his biographer, to read the first half of the work, and to favour him with their opinions, as a guide to his conduct in preparing the remaining por- tion of the Memoir. The impressions which they com- municated in answer to his appeal were highly instruc- tive to him, and the following condensed abstract of a few of them, may, it is hoped, prove useful also to the reader in preparing him for perusal of the volume. As these communications were not intended for publication, only the substance of them is here presented. A physician in extensive practice in England, ex- pressed himself to the following effect :—‘‘ Dr Combe’s chief characteristics were sagacity, integrity, kindness, prudence, and intellectual activity ; but he was not dis- tinguished as an original thinker, and made no disco- veries in science or medicine. The leading interest of his Life, therefore, in England, will consist in its exhibiting the history of a peculiar mind placed in pe- culiar circumstances ; I mean a mind eminently Scotch, formed under a Scotch education.” Another physician, also in extensive practice, said: —‘« Dr Combe belonged to the class of minds which 18 original in the best sense of the word: He looked di-