WARREN". 233 memory presented to him, on every emergency, the extensive stores of his knowledge, — and that solidity of judgment, which regulated their appli- cation to the case before him, would have equally enabled him to outstrip competition in any depart- ment of science and art. He was one among the first of his professional brethren who departed from the formalities which had long rendered me- dicine a favourite theme of ridicule with the wits who happened to enjoy health. He was one of the few great characters of his time, whose popu- larity was not the fruit of party favour ; without any sacrifice of independence, he gained the suffrages of men of every class, as well as the more difficult applause of his own fraternity. He enjoyed the friendship of many distinguished men, and among others, of Lord North ; his conversation, indeed, was peculiarly fitted to conciliate every variety of age and of temperament. The cheerfulness of his own nature, and the power which he possessed of infusing it into others, enabled him to exercise over his patients an authority very beneficial to themselves ; and in this respect, as in some others, he has left an instructive example to future pro- fessors of medicine, who perhaps do not always sufficiently seek to inspire the objects of their care with a train of animating thoughts. The chamber of the sick is no enlivening scene to those who enter it, but cheerfulness of manner is not the less agreeable to the sick, because repugnant to the feelings of the attendant ; it is one of the surest modes of acquiring the confidence of a patient, and in some cases operates as a restorative of no mean efficacy.
