KŌBE, February, 1896.
DEAR OCHIAI,--I am delighted that you have taken up medicine, for two
reasons. First, it will assure your independence--your ability to
maintain yourself, and to help your people. Secondly, it will change all
your ideas about the world we live in, and will make you large-minded
in many ways, if you study well. For in these days, you cannot study
medicine without studying many different branches of science--chemistry,
which will oblige you to understand something of the nature of the
great mystery of matter,--physiology, which will show you that the
most ordinary human body is full of machinery more wonderful than any
genius ever invented,--biology, which will give you perceptions of the
eternal laws which shape all form and regulate all motion,--histology,
which will show you that all life is shaped, after methods that no
man can understand, out of one substance into millions of different
forms,--embryology, which will teach you how the whole history of a
species or a race is shown in the development of the individual, as
organ after organ unfolds and develops in the wonderful process of
growth. The study of medicine is, to a large extent, the study of the
universe and of universal laws,--and makes a better man of any one who
is intelligent enough to master its principles. Of course you must
learn to love it,--because no man can do anything really great with a
subject that he does not like. There are many very horrible things in
it which you will have to face; but you must not be repelled by these,
because the facts behind them are very beautiful and wonderful. There
is so much in medicine--such a variety of subjects, that you will have
a wide choice before you in case some particular branch should not be
attractive to you.
Also do not forget that your knowledge of English will be of great use
to you in medicine, and that, if you love literature, medicine will give
you plenty of chance to indulge that love. (Some of our best foreign
authors, you know, have been practising physicians.) In Kōbe I find
that some of the best Japanese doctors find English very useful to them,
not only in their practice, but also in their private studies. But you
will also have to learn German; and that language will open to you a
very wonderful literature, if you like literature--not to speak of the
scientific advantages of German, which are unrivalled.
Well, I trust to hear good news from you later on. Take great care of
your health, I beg of you, and believe me ever anxious for your success.
Very truly always,
LAFCADIO HEARN.