ll sometimes be called to the vilest of the vile and
the filthiest of the filthy.

Their office is indeed a noble one; but is noblest of all when performed
honestly, in the fear of God, with a view to do good, and not merely to
please mankind and gratify their own ambition. Above all, they should
not practise medicine for the mere love of money. A physician should
have a heart overflowing with benevolence, and should feel it incumbent
upon him, at every step in his professional life, not only to do good to
his patients, but to all around him. He should be a guide to mankind,
physically, for moral ends. He should let his light so shine, that they,
seeing his good works, may be led to glorify the Father who is in
heaven. His object should be to spread, by the good he performs, the
everlasting gospel, just as truly as this should be the object of him
who ministers in holy things at the altar. Such a physician, however, at
first, I was not. Such, however, I soon aspired to be; such, as I trust,
I at length became. Of this, however, the reader will judge for himself,
by-and-by. "By their fruits ye shall know them."

CHAPTER XXVII.

A DOSING AND DRUGGING FAMILY.

For several months of the first year of my medical life, I was a boarder
in a family, all of whom were sickly. Some of the number were even
continually or almost continually under the influence of medicine, if
not of physicians. Here my trials were various, and some of them severe.

But I must give you a particular description of this family; for I have
many things to say concerning it, some of which may prove instructive.

Mr. L. had been brought up a farmer; but being possessed of a delicate
constitution, had been subsequently converted into a country
shop-keeper,--a dealer, I mean, in dry goods and groceries. As is usual
in such cases, he was in the habit of keeping a small assortment of
drugs and medicines. The circumstance of having medicine always at hand,
and often _in_ hand, had led him, as it has thousands of others, into
temptation, till he had formed and confirmed the habit of frequent
dosing and drugging his frail system. But as usually happens in such
cases, the more medicine he took, the more he seemed to require, and
consequently the more he swallowed. One thing prepared the way for
another.

With Mrs. L. matters were still worse. In the vain belief that without a
course of medication, _she could never have any constitution_, as she
was