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THIS book is a broken record of portions of the lives of certain friends of mine, and of what I, Owen North, physician, have seen and heard. My people, who were of the Society of Friends, came from Wales, and were with Penn in the Welcome, but had lapsed from grace and followed the religious guidance of Hicks. I was further emancipated by the study of medicine, which I took to because it interestedme andnot of necessity, since at the age of twenty-one I was a man of ample means, free to do as I liked. After a year of hospital work, and three years of added study in Europe, I came home to settle in my native city. Whatever value this irregular account of myself and my friends may have is due to the care with which I have watched the developmental growth of character. I like, therefore, to say at the outset what I appear to myself to have been leaving the reader who likes to follow me to learn for himself what life did to foster the good or ill that was mine by nature. In early manhood I was shy, reserved, and self-conscious. Al- ways ambitious, and disliking failure, my youth did not supplyme with such other competence of motives as to urge me to success in consecutive study. What I liked to do I did fairly well When older I found that the power to do best what I enjoyed doing led at last to the easier doing of whatever I willed to do. I cannot remember that as a boy any intellectual work had for me the smallest attraction. In those days it was thought inmy native city not quite reputable to have no distinct occupation in life, and under this influence I began to study medicine. As I became in- creasingly interested in the studies of the profession I had chosen, I was curiously surprisedto find that the capacity to concentrate my thoughts, which I never had in youth, rapidly grew in fact I developed later thanmost men. About the time I began to like scientific study I lost for life the sense of ennui which had been one of the peculiarities of my childhood, and too, with success, became quietly sure of myself and more and more capable of sustained effort. Finally my long absence abroad enabled me usefully to escape from many of the narrowing associations ofmyyouth, and to enter on life untrammeled. I found, indeed, as I grew older, that the comrades of my youth were no longer such. I had moved away from them but friendly time brought others whom I learned to love better and with more reason. It is only needful to, add that I succeeded in my profession, and at the outbreak of the great civil war was in an enviable posi- tion, having a practice far beyond what would have been possible in Europe at my time of life.The call of war stirred me in many ways. My people had been Friends from the day of their landing in America, but I myself had ceased to be, like them, troubled with scruples as to war. I only hesitated as to how best I could serve my country. That in some way I must do this was clear to me. As to slavery I had been little disturbed j it was a gangrene sure in time to die of its own accursedness. But the thought of a dismembered land, and, above all, the final insult of Sumter, settled for me, as it did for thousands, what I ought to do. I soon saw that as a surgeon I could be of most use. I was, as the world goes, rich, and had no need to consider the future. Accordingly I gave up all my appointments, and entered the service as an assistant surgeon in theregular army. Of this life I mean to say little...
| ISBN-13 | 9781406781014 |
|---|---|
| ISBN-10 | 1406781010 |
| Weight | 0.89 Pounds |
| Dimensions | 5.51 x 0.67 x 8.50 In |
| List Price | $29.95 |
| Format | - |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Pages | 316 pages |
| Publisher | Read Books |
| Published On | 2007-09-01 |
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