V. CHEVILLERE TO B. RANDOLPH.
(In continuation.)
"New-York, 18--.
"Who do you think it was who met me at such an unlucky moment,
just, perhaps, as I was about to stumble upon some clew to unravel
the mysteries of this fair little breathing ignis fatuus? It was
no other than young Arthur, our old schoolfellow, from Kentucky.
He has come hither to attend a course of medical lectures, though
they have medical lectures in his own State. Arthur was not of our
class, nor yet one of the glorious three, but he was an old and
respected friend and schoolmate, and therefore his acquaintance
could not be cut quite so unceremoniously at the very moment of
its renewal; and even if I had made some silly excuse to avoid him
for the moment, he would undoubtedly have seen me kicking my heels
in the street, 'like a strange dog in a crowd,' as Damon has it;
so I reluctantly wheeled about with him. His companion was also a
student of medicine, and a native of this city; he was introduced
to me by the name of Hazlehurst. I am aware you are anxious to
know what they could be seeking in the identical house in which I
had just blockaded my fair fugitive. I wish, as heartily as you
can do, that I could explain that matter to our mutual
satisfaction. I pumped our inchoate doctors in vain; they
explained their own visit to the house very satisfactorily, upon
the grounds of professional business, in the name and on behalf of
their preceptor, for it seems Arthur has been here all the summer;
but they neither saw nor heard of any lady in the premises, and
all further inquiries were of course ended by the interpretation
which Arthur chose to put upon my inquiries concerning a fair
fugitive, so soon after my arrival. He was not a little pleased to
hear that Lamar was in the city, in close league with a countryman
of his own.
"By-the-way, Arthur is a noble fellow and an accomplished
gentleman. He has all the prerequisites of natural capacity and
elementary acquirements, for the study of his arduous profession.
I know no young gentleman who has chosen a profession in every way
better suited to his peculiarities of mind and temperament. You
will doubtless recollect that he always had a fondness for the
natural sciences, and this, after all, is the true 'condition
precedent' for making a profound and philosophic physician. How
lamentable it is that such minds are always thrown in the
background in our colleges! This results from that everlasting
_dingdong_ hammering at languages, before the pupil has discovered
their uses, and without any regard to his peculiarities of mind.
Those students who, like Arthur, exhibit an apt capacity for the
study of things, and their properties and relations, are almost
always dull at the study of their representatives, or, in other
words, languages; why, then, do the instructers in these
institutions destroy the energies and the vigour of such a mind,
by making him fail at those things for which nature has
disqualified him, or, rather, for which nature has too nobly
endowed him? I am no enemy to the study of the vehicles by which
we communicate with our fellow-men, but I am an enemy to the
uniform, monotonous drilling, which all collegians in this country
receive alike, because I have observed in this process, that
third-rate minds invariably rank first. There are, in every
college, numbers of young gentlemen who have parrot-like
capacities, and memories that retain little words; but who, if
required to originate ideas of their own, would soon show the
native barrenness of their understandings.
"Look around you now in the world, and see what has become of
these _distinguished_ linguists! One out of a hundred, perhaps,
has received a professorship in some new institution, and the
others are all falsifying the promises of their precocious youth;
while of the thoughtful and abstract dunces, as they were
considered in college, many are building up lasting reputations,
upon the deep and solid foundations which our hackneyed systems of
education could not develop. Necessity and the world develop them;
and these, we soon find, are very different from college life.
Now, college discipline should imitate the world in this respect;
it should develope every man's peculiar genius. Neglect of this is
the true reason why so many men distinguish themselves in the
world, who were considered asses in college, and why so many who
were considered amazingly clever in college, are found to be
little better than asses in the world.
"Now that I have somewhat recovered from the chagrin of Arthur's
mal-apropos appearance, I am really glad that he is here. I must
surely see the lady again. Indeed, I am resolved to do so, if I
have to stay here twelve months; and then Arthur's presence will
much facilitate our design of surveying the under-currents of the
busy world. You know that I am not prone to trust the surface of
things. I shall therefore follow him into many places besides his
fashionable resorts. He tells me that a malignant epidemic is said
to be prevailing here, and that their visit to the sick person
before mentioned was with a view to ascertain whether the patient
really had malignant symptoms. They think she had not. I was not
so much interested in the affairs of their patient during the
discussion on the subject, as I was in their possible consequences
upon others,--but of that more in my next. Young Doctor Hazlehurst
seems to be a very fashionable personage, but gentlemanly in his
manners, and unaffected in his deportment.
"They walked with me to our hotel, in order to see Lamar, but
unfortunately he was out. However, Arthur left college greetings
for him, and young Hazlehurst left his address, and invitations
for us both to call at his father's house, who, it seems, lives in
the city; so you see we have made the first step towards seeing
both the upper and under-currents during our sojourn. Whatever
they bring forth shall be as faithfully chronicled as your own
adventures. Truly,
"V. CHEVILLERE."