Lectures on the means of promoting and preserving health : delivered at the Mechanics' Institute, Spitalfields / by T. Hodgkin.

Date:
1835
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Lectures on the means of promoting and preserving health : delivered at the Mechanics' Institute, Spitalfields / by T. Hodgkin. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    and absolute authority within the circle of their own influence. Admire and imitate the example of the former, whilst you reject their principle* as danger- ous; but adopt and adhere to the principles advo- cated by the latter, whilst you carefully shun their inconsistent and self-condemned practice. If you can thus free yourselves from the influence of party feeling, you will be in a much more favour- able condition to exercise your cool and deliberate judgment on various matters, with which this feel- ing is now unhappily mixed up ; and it may be hoped, that your judgments respecting them may be sound and stable, instead of being uncertain, inconsistent, and versatile. Public measures and public men would, in an especial manner, be judged of and treated as they ought to be, by individuals arrived at years of discretion ; and not in a manner which bears the closest resemblance to the freaks of spoilt children, who one hour are highly pleased with a new- toy, which in the next they break to pieces. We need not look to the history of the Grecian republics for instances of great men, at one time almost idolized as benefactors, or saviours of their country, and shortly after, the victims of its intolerance anil persecution. The leaders of parties, professing the most opposite opinions, have experienced the same kind of versat ile treatment, even in this country, notwithstanding its pretensions to advancement in civilization and superior intelligence. Neither the yells, nor missiles of the mob, nor the peevish and inconsistent invec- tives of firni'-serving and unprincipled scribblers, whose meanness and cowardice find shelter I mm pre- sent punishment and future infamy, in the conceal- ment of their names, can materially affect the cha- racter, which posterity will ever attribute to greal talents and great achievements: but they will mark in history, the country ami the period of their occur- rence, and testify how much or barbarism and pro- fligacy there remained amongst us. I cannot omit recommending another subject to the