rance or not, I could not avoid the pangs of habitual
condemnation.

There were, I grant, a few extenuating circumstances in the case. One or
two causes existed, of premature decline, on which, in a work like this,
I cannot stop to expatiate. It was also very unfortunate for him that he
was accustomed to look on the dark side of things, and to forebode ills,
where, oftentimes, none existed.

Notwithstanding my former ignorance and doubt, and numerous misgivings,
in cases like the foregoing, I have of late years, on a maturer review,
been obliged very frequently to confirm my earlier decisions. In the
case which has been detailed in this chapter, I have, on the whole, come
to a belief that my first judgment was nearly correct; and that the
patient actually perished, as much as men ever do, of premature old age.
It is, indeed, very possible that had I pursued a different course in
several important particulars, his life might have been prolonged for a
year or two. Men have a tendency to become what they are taken to be;
and many a person has died much sooner for being taken to be near his
end, and treated accordingly. If we would have our patients recover, we
must take for granted that recovery is at least possible.

In the case above, I believe I lost reputation, in large measure.
Several shrewd people insisted, at the time and long afterward, that I
ought to have had medical counsel. Mr. ----, they said, was too good a
man to lose without a more persevering effort to raise him. They charged
me with having got my name up, and having at the same time grown
careless. Had he been properly doctored, they said, from the very first,
they believed he might still have been alive to ornament and bless
society.

CHAPTER XLVII.

DAUGHTERS DESTROYING THEIR MOTHER.

There are, of course, many ways of destroying or killing people. To
kill, with malice aforethought, though sometimes done, is a much less
frequent occurrence than killing in the heat of passion, or by
carelessness; by leading into bad habits, or by the injudicious use of
medicine.

Then, again, there is such a thing as killing by omitting to keep alive.
Thus we have sins of omission as well as of commission. If I leave a man
in a mill-pond and suffer him to drown, or if I suffer him to take a
dose of arsenic or Prussic acid, when I might, with the utmost ease, or
even with considerable difficulty, prevent it,--is it not, in a
practical sense, to destroy o