A commentary of medical and moral life, or, Mind and the emotions, considered in relation to health, disease, and religion. / By William Cooke.

  • Cooke, William, 1785-1873.
Date:
1852
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A commentary of medical and moral life, or, Mind and the emotions, considered in relation to health, disease, and religion. / By William Cooke. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by King’s College London. The original may be consulted at King’s College London.

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    There never was a time, perhaps, when the mental faculties were so much brought under culture, and urged to activity, as they are now. High intellectual endowments and acquirements are held in great respect; and yet it is remarkable that even in those classes of society, in which the highest advantages of education are enjoyed, the result does not show that sound reasoning, and true wisdom, are uniformly commensurate with literary or logical acquirements. It is not intended to discuss the subject of mind and the emotions metaphysically. A person who for many years has been actively engaged in any calling that gives him much intercourse with mankind, in all conditions, must have acquired some valuable information relative to the diversity by which they are characterised. He may neither have the time, nor the talent, for a very refined elaboration of his materials; but he may supply, in plain statements, many useful facts, and momentous truths, which other ■writers can adapt to a more intellectual order of purposes. In no field of human occupation is there equal access to diversities of character, in its variety of condition as to mind and moral feeling, with that realized in the medical profession; and few individuals could have spent many years in its active duties without being somewhat rich in a species of knowledge which it might be useful that the community should be acquainted with. And to fellow- labourers, similar as their observations may be, it is by no means useless that what has been observed and experienced by one of themselves should be communicated. Indeed, it is held among the profession, as a body, to be highly dis-