TO E. C. PERCIVAL[7].
Reading edition
TO E. C. PERCIVAL[7].
Permit me, my dear Son, to offer to your acceptance this little manual of Medical Ethics. In the composition of it, my thoughts were directed towards your late excellent brother[7], with the tenderest impulse of paternal love; and not a single moral rule was framed without a secret view to his designation, and an anxious wish that it might influence his future conduct.
To you, who possess in no inferior degree my esteem and attachment, who are prosecuting the same studies, and with the same object, my solicitudes are naturally transferred: and I am persuaded, these united considerations will powerfully and permanently operate upon your ingenuous mind.
It is the characteristic of a wise man to act on determinate principles; and of a good man to be assured that they are conformable to rectitude and virtue. The relations in which a Physician stands to his patients, to his brethren, and to the public, are complicated and multifarious; involving much knowledge of human nature, and extensive moral duties. The study of professional Ethics, therefore, cannot fail to invigorate and enlarge your understanding; whilst the observance of the duties which they enjoin, will soften your manners, expand your affections, and form you to that propriety and dignity of conduct, which are essential to the character of a gentleman. The academical advantages you have enjoyed at Cambridge, and those you now possess in Edinburgh, will qualify you, I trust, for an ample and honourable sphere of action. And I devoutly pray, that the blessing of God may attend all your pursuits, rendering them at once subservient to your own felicity, and the good of your fellow-creatures.
Sensible that I begin to experience the pressure of advancing years, I regard the present publication as the conclusion, in this way, of my professional labours[8]. I may, therefore, without impropriety, claim the privilege of consecrating them to you, as a paternal legacy. And I feel cordial satisfaction in the occasion of thus testifying the esteem and tenderness, with which, whilst life subsists, I shall remain,
Your affectionate friend,
THOMAS PERCIVAL.
Manchester, Febr. 20, 1803.