MISSIONARY PREPARATION.
A.D. 1836--1840.
His desire to be a missionary to China--Medical missions--He studies at
Glasgow--Classmates and teachers--He applies to London Missionary
Society--His ideas of mission work--He is accepted provisionally--He
goes to London--to Ongar--Reminiscences by Rev. Joseph Moore--by Mrs.
Gilbert--by Rev. Isaac Taylor--Nearly rejected by the Directors--Returns
to Ongar--to London--Letter to his sister--Reminiscences by Dr. Risdon
Bennett--Promise to Professor Owen--Impression of his character on his
friends and fellow-students--Rev. R. Moffat in England--Livingstone
interested--Could not be sent to China--Is appointed to
Africa--Providential links in his history--Illness--Last visits to his
home--Receives Medical diploma--Parts from his family.
It was the appeal of Gutzlaff for China, as we have seen, that inspired
Livingstone with the desire to be a missionary; and China was the
country to which his heart turned. The noble faith and dauntless
enterprise of Gutzlaff, pressing into China over obstacles apparently
insurmountable, aided by his medical skill and other unusual
qualifications, must have served to shape Livingstone's ideal of a
missionary, as well as to attract him to the country where Gutzlaff
labored. It was so ordered, however, that in consequence of the opium
war shutting China, as it seemed, to the English, his lot was not cast
there; but throughout his whole life he had a peculiarly lively interest
in the country that had been the object of his first love. Afterward,
when his brother Charles, then in America, wrote to him that he, too,
felt called to the missionary office, China was the sphere which David
pointed out to him, in the hope that the door which had been closed to
the one brother might be opened to the other.
When he determined to be a missionary, the only persons to whom he
communicated his purpose were his minister and his parents, from all of
whom he received great encouragement[8]. He hoped that he would be able
to go through the necessary preparation without help from any quarter.
This was the more commendable, because in addition to the theological
qualifications of a missionary, he determined to aquire those of a
medical practitioner. The idea of medical missions was at that time
comparatively new. It had been started in connection with missions to
China, and it was in the prospect of going to that country that
Livingstone resolved to obtain a medical education. It would have been
comparatively easy for him, in a financial sense, to get the theological
training, but the medical education was a costly affair. To a man of
ordinary ideas, it would have seemed impossible to make the wages earned
during the six months of summer avail not merely for his support then,
but for winter too, and for lodgings, fees, and books besides. Scotch
students have often done wonders in this way, notably the late Dr. John
Henderson, a medical missionary to China, who actually lived on
half-a-crown a week, while attending medical classes in Edinburgh.
Livingstone followed the same self-denying course. If we had a note of
his house-keeping in his Glasgow lodging, we should wonder less at his
ability to live on the fare to which he was often reduced in Africa.
But the importance of the medical qualification had taken a firm hold of
his mind, and he persevered in spite of difficulties. Though it was
never his lot to exercise the healing art in China, his medical training
was of the highest use in Africa, and it developed wonderfully his
strong scientific turn.
[Footnote 8: Livingstone's minister at this time was the Rev. John Moir,
of the Congregational church, Hamilton, who afterward joined the Free
Church of Scotland, and is now Presbyterian minister in Wellington, New
Zealand. Mr. Moir has furnished us with some recollections of
Livingstone, which reached us after the completion of this narrative. He
particularly notes that when Livingstone expressed his desire to be a
missionary, it was a missionary out and out, a missionary to the
heathen, not the minister of a congregation. Mr. Moir kindly lent him
some books when he went to London, all of which were conscientiously
returned before he left the country. A Greek Lexicon, with only cloth
boards when lent, was returned in substantial calf. He was ever careful,
conscientious, and honorable in all his dealings, as his father had been
before him.]
It was in the winter of 1836-37 that he spent his first session in
Glasgow. Furnished by a friend with a list of lodgings, Livingstone and
his father set out from Blantyre one wintry day, while the snow was on
the ground, and walked to Glasgow. The lodgings were all too expensive.
All day they searched for a cheaper apartment, and at last in Rotten Row
they found a room at two shillings a week. Next evening David wrote to
his friends that he had entered in the various classes, and spent twelve
pounds in fees; that he felt very lonely after his father left, but
would put "a stout heart to a stey brae," and "either mak' a spune or
spoil a horn." At Rotten Row he found that his landlady held rather
communistic views in regard to his tea and sugar; so another search had
to be made, and this time he found a room in the High street, where he
was very comfortable, at half-a-crown a week.
At the close of the session in April he returned to Blantyre and resumed
work at the mill. He was unable to save quite enough for his second
session, and found it necessary to borrow a little from his elder
brother[9]. The classes he attended during these two sessions were the
Greek class in Anderson's College, the theological classes of Rev. Dr.
Wardlaw, who trained students for the Independent Churches, and the
medical classes in Anderson's. In the Greek class he seems to have been
entered as a private student exciting little notice[10]. In the same
capacity he attended the lectures of Dr. Wardlaw. He had a great
admiration for that divine, and accepted generally his theological
views. But Livingstone was not much of a scientific theologian.
[Footnote 9: The readiness of elder brothers to advance part of their
hard-won earnings, or otherwise encourage a younger brother to attend
college, is a pleasant feature of family life in the humbler classes of
Scotland. The case of James Beattie, the poet, assisted by his brother
David, and that of Sir James Simpson, who owed so much to his brother
Alexander, will be remembered in this connection.]
[Footnote 10: A very sensational and foolish reminiscence was once
published of a raw country youth coming into the class with his clothes
stained with grease and whitened by cotton-wool. This was Livingstone.
The fact is, nothing could possibly have been more unlike him. At this
time Livingstone was not working at the mill; and, in regard to dress,
however plainly he might be clad, he was never careless, far less
offensive.]
His chief work in Glasgow was the prosecution of medical study. Of his
teachers, two attracted him beyond the rest--the late Dr. Thomas Graham,
the very distinguished Professor of Chemistry, and Dr. Andrew Buchanan,
Professor of the Institutes of Medicine, his life-long and much-attached
friend. While attending Dr. Graham's class he was brought into frequent
contact with the assistant to the Professor, Mr. James Young. Originally
bred to a mechanical employment, this young man had attended the evening
course of Dr. Graham, and having attracted his attention, and done
various pieces of work for him, he became his assistant. The students
used to gather round him, and several met in his room, where there was a
bench, a turning-lathe, and other conveniences for mechanical work.
Livingstone took an interest in the turning-lathe, and increased his
knowledge of tools--a knowledge which proved of the highest service to
him when--as he used to say all missionaries should be ready to do--he
had to become a Jack-of-all-trades in Africa.
Livingstone was not the only man of mark who frequented that room, and
got lessons from Mr. Young "how to use his hands." The Right Hon. Lyon
Playfair, who has had so distinguished a scientific career, was another
of its habitués. A galvanic battery constructed by two young men on a
new principle, under Mr. Young's instructions, became an object of great
attraction, and among those who came to see it and its effects were two
sons of the Professor of Mathematics in the University. Although but
boys, both were fired at this interview with enthusiasm for electric
science. Both have been for many years Professors in the University of
Glasgow. The elder, Professor James Thomson, is well known for his
useful inventions and ingenious papers on many branches of science. The
younger, Sir William Thomson, ranks over the world as prince of
electricians, and second to no living man in scientific reputation.
Dr. Graham's assistant devoted himself to practical chemistry, and made
for himself a brilliant name by the purification of petroleum, adapting
it for use in private houses, and by the manufacture of paraffin and
paraffin-oil. Few men have made the art to which they devoted themselves
more subservient to the use of man than he whom Livingstone first knew
as Graham's assistant, and afterward used to call playfully "Sir
Paraffin." "I have been obliged to knight him," he used to say, "to
distinguish him from the other Young." The "other" Young was Mr. E. D.
Young, of the Search Expedition, and subsequently the very successful
leader of the Scotch Mission at Lake Nyassa. The assistant to Dr. Graham
still survives, and is well known as Mr. Young, of Kelly, LL.D.
and F.R.S.
When Livingstone returned from his first journey his acquaintance with
Mr. Young was resumed, and their friendship continued through life. It
is no slight testimony from one who knew him so long and so intimately,
that, in his judgment, Livingstone was the best man he ever knew, had
more than any other man of true filial trust in God, more of the spirit
of Christ, more of integrity, purity, and simplicity of character, and
of self-denying love for his fellow-men. Livingstone named after him a
river which he supposed might be one of the sources of the Nile, and
used ever to speak with great respect of the chief achievement of Mr.
Young's life,--filling houses with a clear white light at a fraction of
the cost of the smoky article which it displaced.
Beyond their own department, men of science are often as lax and
illogical as any; but when scientific training is duly applied, it
genders a habit of thorough accuracy, inasmuch as in scientific inquiry
the slightest deviation from truth breeds endless mischief. Other
influences had already disposed Livingstone to great exactness of
statement, but along with these his scientific training may be held to
have contributed to that dread of exaggeration and of all inaccuracy
which was so marked a feature of his character through life.
It happened that Livingstone did not part company with Professor Graham
and Mr. Young when he left Glasgow. The same year, Dr. Graham went to
London as Professor in University College, and Livingstone, who also
went to London, had the opportunity of paying occasional visits to his
class. In this way, too, he became acquainted with the late Dr. George
Wilson, afterward Professor of Technology in the University of
Edinburgh, who was then acting as unsalaried assistant in Dr. Graham's
laboratory. Frank, genial, and chivalrous, Wilson and Livingstone had
much in common, and more in after-years, when Wilson, too, became an
earnest Christian. In the simplicity and purity of their character, and
in their devotion to science, not only for its own sake, but as a
department of the kingdom of God, they were brothers indeed. Livingstone
showed his friendship in after-years by collecting and transmitting to
Wilson whatever he could find in Africa worthy of a place in the
Edinburgh Museum of Science and Art, of which his friend was the
first Director.
In the course of his second session in Glasgow (1837-38) Livingstone
applied to the London Missionary Society, offering his services to them
as a missionary. He had learned that that Society had for its sole
object to send the gospel to the heathen; that it accepted missionaries
from different Churches, and that it did not set up any particular form
of Church, but left it to the converts to choose the form they
considered most in accordance with the Word of God. This agreed with
Livingstone's own notion of what a Missionary Society should do. He had
already connected himself with the Independent communion, but this
preference for it was founded chiefly on his greater regard for the
_personnel_ of the body, and for the spirit in which it was
administered, as compared with the Presbyterian Churches of Scotland. He
had very strong views of the spirituality of the Church of Christ, and
the need of a profound spiritual change as the only true basis of
Christian life and character. He thought that the Presbyterian Churches
were too lax in their communion, and particularly the Established
Church. He was at this time a decided Voluntary, chiefly on the ground
maintained by such men as Vinet, that the connection of Church and State
was hurtful to the spirituality of the Church; and he had a particular
abhorrence of what he called "geographical Christianity,"--which gave
every man within a certain area a right to the sacraments. We shall see
that in his later years Dr. Livingstone saw reason to modify some of
these opinions; surveying the Evangelical Churches from the heart of
Africa, he came to think that, established or non-established, they did
not differ so very much from each other, and that there was much good
and considerable evil in them all.
In his application to the London Missionary Society, Livingstone stated
his ideas of missionary work in comprehensive terms: "The missionary's
object is to endeavor by every means in his power to make known the
gospel by preaching, exhortation, conversation, instruction of the
young; improving, so far as in his power, the temporal condition of
those among whom he labors, by introducing the arts and sciences of
civilization, and doing everything to commend Christianity to their
hearts and consciences. He will be exposed to great trials of his faith
and patience from the indifference, distrust, and even direct opposition
and scorn of those for whose good he is laboring; he may be tempted to
despondency from the little apparent fruit of his exertions, and exposed
to all the contaminating influence of heathenism." He was not about to
undertake this work without counting the cost. "The hardships and
dangers of missionary life, so far as I have had the means of
ascertaining their nature and extent, have been the subject of serious
reflection, and in dependence on the promised assistance of the Holy
Spirit, I have no hesitation in saying that I would willingly submit to
them, considering my constitution capable of enduring any ordinary share
of hardship or fatigue." On one point he was able to give the Directors
very explicit information: he was not married, nor under any engagement
of marriage, nor had he ever made proposals of marriage, nor indeed been
in love! He would prefer to go out unmarried, that he might, like the
great apostle, be without family cares, and give himself entirely to
the work.
His application to the London Missionary Society was provisionally
accepted, and in September, 1838, he was summoned to London to meet the
Directors. A young Englishman came to London on the same errand at the
same time, and a friendship naturally arose between the two.
Livingstone's young friend was the Rev. Joseph Moore, afterwards
missionary at Tahiti; now of Congleton, in Cheshire. Nine years later,
Livingstone, writing to Mr. Moore from Africa, said: "Of all those I
have met since we parted, I have seen no one I can compare to you for
sincere, hearty friendship." Livingstone's family used to speak of them
as Jonathan and David. Mr. Moore has kindly furnished us with his
recollections of Livingstone at this time:--
"I met with Livingstone first in September, 1838, at 57 Aldersgate
street, London. On the same day we had received a letter from the
Secretary informing us severally that our applications had been
received, and that we must appear in London to be examined by the
Mission Board there. On the same day, he from Scotland, and I from the
south of England, arrived in town. On that night we simply accosted each
other, as those who meet at a lodging house might do. After breakfast on
the following day we fell into conversation, and finding that the same
object had brought us to the metropolis, and that the same trial awaited
us, naturally enough we were drawn to each other. Every day, as we had
not been in town before, we visited places of renown in the great city,
and had many a chat about our prospects.
"On Sunday, in the morning, we heard Dr. Leifchild, who was then in his
prime, and in the evening Mr. Sherman, who preached with all his
accustomed persuasiveness and mellifluousness. In the afternoon we
worshiped at St. Paul's, and heard Prebendary Dale.
"On Monday we passed our first examination. On Tuesday we went to
Westminster Abbey. Who that had seen those two young men passing from
monument to monument could have divined that one of them would one day
be buried with a nation's--rather with the civilized world's--lament, in
that sacred shrine? The wildest fancy could not have pictured that such
an honor awaited David Livingstone. I grew daily more attached to him.
If I were asked why, I should be rather at a loss to reply. There was
truly an indescribable charm about him, which, with all his rather
ungainly ways, and by no means winning face, attracted almost every one,
and which helped him so much in his after-wanderings in Africa.
"He won those who came near him by a kind of spell. There happened to be
in the boarding-house at that time a young M.D., a saddler from Hants,
and a bookseller from Scotland. To this hour they all speak of him in
rapturous terms.
"After passing two examinations, we were both so far accepted by the
Society that we were sent to the Rev. Richard Cecil, who resided at
Chipping Ongar, in Essex. Most missionary students were sent to him for
three months' probation, and if a favorable opinion was sent to the
Board of Directors, they went to one of the Independent colleges. The
students did not for the most part live with Mr. Cecil, but took
lodgings in the town, and went to his house for meals and instruction in
classics and theology. Livingstone and I lodged together. We read Latin
and Greek, and began Hebrew together. Every day we took walks, and
visited all the spots of interest in the neighborhood, among them the
country churchyard which was the burial-place of John Locke. In a place
so quiet, and a life so ordinary as that of a student, there did not
occur many events worthy of recital. I will, however, mention one or
two things, because they give an insight--a kind of prophetic
glance--into Livingstone's after-career.
"One foggy November morning, at three o'clock, he set out from Ongar to
walk to London to see a relative of his father's[11]. It was about
twenty-seven miles to the house he sought. After spending a few hours
with his relation, he set out to return on foot to Ongar. Just out of
London, near Edmonton, a lady had been thrown out of a gig. She lay
stunned on the road. Livingston immediately went to her, helped to carry
her into a house close by, and having examined her and found no bones
broken, and recommending a doctor to be called, he resumed his weary
tramp. Weary and footsore, when he reached Stanford Rivers he missed his
way, and finding after some time that he was wrong, he felt so dead-beat
that he was inclined to lie down and sleep; but finding a directing-post
he climbed it, and by the light of the stars deciphered enough to know
his whereabouts. About twelve that Saturday night he reached Ongar,
white as a sheet, and so tired he could hardly utter a word. I gave him
a basin of bread and milk, and I am not exaggerating when I say I put
him to bed. He fell at once asleep, and did not awake till noonday had
passed on Sunday.
[Footnote 11: We learn from the family that the precise object of the
visit was to transact some business for his eldest brother, who had
begun to deal in lace. In the darkness of the morning Livingstone fell
into a ditch, smearing his clothes, and not improving his appearance for
smart business purposes. The day was spent in going about in London from
shop to shop, greatly increasing Livingstone's fatigue.]
"Total abstinence at that time began to be spoken of, and Livingstone
and I, and a Mr. Taylor, who went to India, took a pledge together to
abstain[12]. Of that trio, two, I am sorry to say _(heu me miserum!),_
enfeebled health, after many years, compelled to take a little wine for
our stomachs' sake. Livingstone was one of the two.
[Footnote 12: Livingstone had always practiced total abstinence,
according to the invariable custom of his father's house. The third of
the trio was the Rev. Joseph V.S. Taylor, now of the Irish Presbyterian
Mission, Gujerat, Bombay.]
"One part of our duties was to prepare sermons, which were submitted to
Mr. Cecil, and, when corrected, were committed to memory, and then
repeated to our village congregations. Livingstone prepared one, and one
Sunday the minister of Stamford Rivers; where the celebrated Isaac
Taylor resided, having fallen sick after the morning service,
Livingstone was sent for to preach in the evening. He took his text,
read it out very deliberately, and then--then--his sermon had fled!
Midnight darkness came upon him, and he abruptly said: 'Friends, I have
forgotten all I had to say,' and hurrying out of the pulpit, he left
the chapel.
"He never became a preacher" [we shall see that this does not apply to
his preaching in the Sichuana language], "and in the first letter I
received from him from Elizabeth Town, in Africa, he says: 'I am a very
poor preacher, having a bad delivery, and some of them said if they knew
I was to preach again they would not enter the chapel. Whether this was
all on account of my manner I don't know; but the truth which I uttered
seemed to plague very much the person who supplies the missionaries with
wagons and oxen. (They were bad ones.) My subject was the necessity of
adopting the benevolent spirit of the Son of God, and abandoning the
selfishness of the world.' Each student at Ongar had also to conduct
family worship in rotation. I was much impressed by the fact that
Livingstone never prayed without the petition that we might imitate
Christ in all his imitable perfections[13]."
[Footnote 13: In connection with this prayer, it is interesting to note
the impression made by Livingstone nearly twenty years afterward on one
who saw him but twice--once at a public breakfast in Edinburgh, and
again at the British Association in Dublin in 1857. We refer to Mrs.
Sime, sister of Livingstone's early friend, Professor George Wilson, of
Edinburgh. Mrs. Sime writes; "I never knew any one who gave me more the
idea of power over other men, such power as our Saviour showed while on
earth, the power of love and purity combined."]
In the Autobiography of Mrs. Gilbert, an eminent member of the family of
the Taylors of Ongar, there occur some reminiscenses of Livingstone,
corresponding to those here given by Mr. Moore[14].
[Footnote 14: Page 886, third edition.]
The Rev. Isaac Taylor, LL.D., now rector of Settringham, York, son of
the celebrated author of _The Natural History of Enthusiasm_, and
himself author of _Words and Places, Etruscan Researches_, etc., has
kindly furnished us with the following recollection: "I well remember as
a boy taking country rambles with Livingstone when he was studying at
Ongar. Mr. Cecil had several missionary students, but Livingstone was
the only one whose personality made any impression on my boyish
imagination. I might sum up my impression of him in two
words--simplicity and resolution. Now, after nearly forty years, I
remember his step, the characteristic forward tread, firm, simple,
resolute, neither fast nor slow, no hurry and no dawdle, but which
evidently meant--getting there[15]."
[Footnote 15: On one occasion, in conversation with his former pastor,
the Rev. John Moir, Livingstone spoke of Mr. Isaac Taylor, who had shown
him much kindness, and often invited him to dine in his house. He said
that though Mr. Taylor was connected with the Independents, he was
attached to the principles of the Church of England. Mr. Taylor used to
lay very great stress on acquaintance with the writings of the Fathers
as necessary for meeting the claims of the Tractarians, and did not
think that that study was sufficiently encouraged by the Nonconformists.
Any one who has been in Mr. Taylor's study at Stanford Rivers, and who
remembers the top-heavy row of patristic folios that crowned his
collection of books, and the glance of pride he cast on them as he asked
his visitor whether many men in his Church were well read in the
Fathers, will be at no loss to verify this reminiscence. Certainly
Livingstone had no such qualification, and undoubtedly he never
missed it.]
We resume Mr. Moore's reminiscences:
"When three months had elapsed, Mr. Cecil sent in his report to the
Board. Judging from Livingstone's hesitating manner in conducting family
worship, and while praying on the week-days in the chapel, and also from
his failure so complete in preaching, an unfavorable report was given
in.... Happily, when it was read, and a decision was about to be given
against him, some one pleaded hard that his probation should be
extended, and so he had several months' additional trial granted. I
sailed in the same boat, and was also sent back to Ongar as a naughty
boy.... At last we had so improved that both were fully accepted.
Livingstone went to London to pursue his medical studies, and I went to
Cheshunt College, A day or two after reaching college, I sent to
Livingstone, asking him to purchase a second-hand carpet for my room. He
was quite scandalized at such an exhibition of effeminacy, and
positively refused to gratify my wish.... In the spring of 1840 I met
Livingstone at London in Exeter Hall, when Prince Albert delivered his
maiden speech in England. I remember how nearly he was brought to
silence when the speech, which he had lodged on the brim of his hat,
fell into it, as deafening cheers made it vibrate. A day or two after,
we heard Binney deliver his masterly missionary sermon, 'Christ seeing
of the travail of his soul and being satisfied.'"
The meeting at Exeter Hall was held to inaugurate the Niger Expedition.
It was on this occasion that Samuel Wilberforce became known as a great
platform orator[16]. It must have been pleasant to Livingstone in
after-years to recall the circumstance when he became a friend and
correspondent of the Bishop of Oxford.
[Footnote 16: _Life of Bishop Wilberforce_, vol. i, p. 160.]
Notwithstanding the dear postage of the time, Livingstone wrote
regularly to his friends, but few of his letters have survived. One of
the few, dated 5th May, 1839, is addressed to his sister, and in it he
says that there had been some intention of sending him abroad at once,
but that he was very desirous of getting more education. The letter
contains very little news, but is full of the most devout aspirations
for himself and exhortations to his sister. Alluding to the remark of a
friend that they should seek to be "uncommon Christians, that is,
eminently holy and devoted servants of the Most High," he urges:
"Let us seek--and with the conviction that we cannot do
without it--that all selfishness be extirpated, pride
banished, unbelief driven from the mind, every idol
dethroned, and everything hostile to holiness and opposed to
the divine will crucified; that 'holiness to the Lord' may be
engraven on the heart, and evermore characterize our whole
conduct. This is what we ought to strive after; this is the
way to be happy; this is what our Saviour loves--entire
surrender of the heart. May He enable us by his Spirit to
persevere till we attain it! All comes from Him, the
disposition to ask as well as the blessing itself.
"I hope you improve the talents committed to you whenever
there is an opportunity. You have a class with whom you have
some influence. It requires prudence in the way of managing
it; seek wisdom from above to direct you; _persevere_--don't
be content with once or twice recommending the Saviour to
them--again and again, in as kind a manner as possible,
familiarly, individually, and privately, exhibit to them the
fountain of happiness and joy, never forgetting to implore
divine energy to accompany your endeavors, and you need not
fear that your labor will be unfruitful. If you have the
willing mind, that is accepted; nothing is accepted if that
be wanting. God desires that. He can do all the rest. After
all, He is the sole agent, for the 'willing mind' comes alone
from Him. This is comforting, for when we think of the
feebleness and littleness of all we do, we might despair of
having our services accepted, were we not assured that it is
not these God looks to, except in so far as they are
indications of the state of the heart."
Dr. Livingstone's sisters have a distinct recollection that the field to
which the Directors intended to send him was the West Indies, and that
he remonstrated on the ground that he had spent two years in medical
study, but in the West Indies, where there were regular practitioners,
his medical knowledge would be of little or no avail. He pleaded with
the Directors, therefore, that he might be allowed to complete his
medical studies, and it was then that Africa was provisionally fixed on
as his destination. It appears, however, that he had not quite abandoned
the thought of China. Mr. Moir, his former pastor, writes that being in
London in May, 1839, he called at the Mission House to make inquiries
about him. He asked whether the Directors did not intend to send him to
the East Indies, where the field was so large and the demand so urgent,
but he was told that though they esteemed him highly, they did not think
that his gifts fitted him for India, and that Africa would be a more
suitable field.
On returning to London, Livingstone devoted himself with special ardor
to medical and scientific study. The church with which he was connected
was that of the late Rev. Dr. Bennett, in Falcon Square. This led to his
becoming intimate with Dr. Bennett's son, now the well-known J. Risdon
Bennett, M.D., LL.D., F.R.S., and President of the Royal College of
Physicians, London. The friendship continued during the whole of Dr.
Livingstone's life. From some recollections with which Dr. Bennett has
kindly furnished us we take the following:
"My acquaintance with David Livingstone was through the
London Missionary Society, when, having offered himself to
that Society, he came to London to carry on those medical and
other studies which he had commenced in Glasgow. From the
first, I became deeply interested in his character, and ever
after maintained a close friendship with him. I entertained
toward him a sincere affection, and had the highest
admiration of his endowments, both of mind and heart, and of
his pure and noble devotion of all his powers to the highest
purposes of life. One could not fail to be impressed with his
simple, loving, Christian spirit, and the combined modest,
unassuming, and self-reliant character of the man.
"He placed himself under my guidance in reference to his
medical studies, and I was struck with the amount of
knowledge that he had already acquired of those subjects
which constitute the foundation of medical science. He had,
however, little or no acquaintance with the practical
departments of medicine, and had had no opportunities of
studying the nature and aspects of disease. Of these
deficiencies he was quite aware, and felt the importance of
acquiring as much practical knowledge as possible during his
stay in London. I was at that time physician to the
Aldersgate Street Dispensary, and was lecturing at the
Charing Cross Hospital on the practice of medicine, and thus
was able to obtain for him free admission to hospital
practice as well as attendance on my lectures and my practice
at the dispensary. I think that I also obtained for him
admission to the opthalmic hospital in Moorfields. With these
sources of information open to him, he obtained a
considerable acquaintance with the more ordinary forms of
disease, both surgical and medical, and an amount of
scientific and practical knowledge that could not fail to be
of the greatest advantage to him in the distant regions to
which he was going, away from all the resources of
civilization. His letters to me, and indeed all the records
of his eventful life, demonstrate how great to him was the
value of the medical knowledge with which he entered on
missionary life. There is abundant evidence that on various
occasions his own life was preserved through his courageous
and sagacious application of his scientific knowledge to his
own needs; and the benefits which he conferred on the natives
to whose welfare he devoted himself, and the wonderful
influence which he exercised over them, were in no small
degree due to the humane and skilled assistance which he was
able to render as a healer of bodily disease. The account
which he gave me of his perilous encounter with the lion, and
the means he adopted for the repair of the serious injuries
which he received, excited the astonishment and admiration of
all the medical friends to whom I related it, as evincing an
amount of courage, sagacity, skill, and endurance that have
scarcely been surpassed in the annals of heroism."
Another distinguished man of science with whom Livingstone became
acquainted in London, and on whom he made an impression similar to that
made on Dr. Bennett, was Professor Owen. Part of the little time at his
disposal was devoted to studying the series of comparative anatomy in
the Hunterian Museum, under Professor Owen's charge. Mr. Owen was
interested to find that the Lanarkshire student was born in the same
neighborhood as Hunter[17], but still more interested in the youth
himself and his great love of natural history. On taking leave,
Livingstone promised to bear his instructor in mind if any curiosity
fell in his way. Years passed, and as no communication reached him, Mr.
Owen was disposed to class the promise with too many others made in the
like circumstances. But on his first return to this country Livingstone
presented himself, bearing the tusk of an elephant with a spiral curve.
He had found it in the heart of Africa, and it was not easy of
transport. "You may recall," said Professor Owen, at the Farewell
Festival in 1858, "the difficulties of the progress of the weary sick
traveler on the bullock's back. Every pound weight was of moment; but
Livingstone said, 'Owen shall have this tusk,' and he placed it in my
hands in London." Professor Owen recorded this as a proof of
Livingstone's inflexible adherence to his word. With equal justice we
may quote it as a proof of his undying gratitude to any one that had
shown him kindness.
[Footnote 17: Not in the same _parish_, as stated afterward by Professor
Owen. Hunter was born in East Kilbride, and Livingstone in Blantyre. The
error is repeated in notices of Livingstone in some other quarters.]
On all his fellow-students and acquaintances the simplicity, frankness,
and kindliness of Livingstone's character made a deep impression. Mr.
J.S. Cook, now of London, who spent three months with him at Ongar,
writes: "He was so kind and gentle in word and deed to all about him
that all loved him. He had always words of sympathy at command, and was
ready to perform acts of sympathy for those who were suffering." The
Rev. G.D. Watt, a brother Scotchman, who went as a missionary to India,
has a vivid remembrance of Livingstone's mode of discussion; he showed
great simplicity of view, along with a certain roughness or bluntness of
manner; great kindliness, and yet great persistence in holding to his
own ideas. But none of his friends seem to have had any foresight of
the eminence he was destined to attain. The Directors of the Society
did not even rank him among their ablest men. It is interesting to
contrast the opinion entertained of him then with that expressed by Sir
Bartle Frere, after much personal intercourse, many years afterward. "Of
his intellectual force and energy," wrote Sir Bartle, "he has given such
proof as few men could afford. Any five years of his life might in any
other occupation have established a character and raised for him a
fortune such as none but the most energetic of our race can
realize[18]."
[Footnote 18: _Good Words_, 1874, p. 285.]
But his early friends were not so much at fault. Livingstone was
somewhat slow of maturing. If we may say so, his intellect hung fire up
to this very time, and it was only during his last year in England that
he came to his intellectual manhood, and showed his real power. His very
handwriting shows the change; from being cramped and feeble it suddenly
becomes clear, firm, and upright, very neat, but quite the hand of a
vigorous, independent man.
Livingstone's prospects of getting to China had been damaged by the
Opium War; while it continued, no new appointments could be made, even
had the Directors wished to send him there. It was in these
circumstances that he came into contact with his countryman, Mr. (now
Dr.) Moffat, who was then in England, creating much interest in his
South African mission. The idea of his going to Africa became a settled
thing, and was soon carried into effect.
"I had occasion" (Dr. Moffat has informed us) "to call for
some one at Mrs. Sewell's, a boarding-house for young
missionaries in Aldersgate street, where Livingstone lived. I
observed soon that this young man was interested in my story,
that he would sometimes come quietly and ask me a question or
two, and that he was always desirous to know where I was to
speak in public, and attended on these occasions. By and by
he asked me whether I thought he would do for Africa. I said
I believed he would, if he would not go to an old station,
but would advance to unoccupied ground, specifying the vast
plain to the north, where I had sometimes seen, in the
morning sun, the smoke of a thousand villages, where no
missionary had ever been. At last Livingstone said: 'What is
the use of my waiting for the end of this abominable opium
war? I will go at once to Africa.' The Directors concurred,
and Africa became his sphere."
It is no wonder that all his life Livingstone had a very strong faith in
Providence, for at every turn of his career up to this point, some
unlooked-for circumstance had come in to give a new direction to his
history. First, his reading Dick's _Philosophy of a Future State_, which
led him to Christ, but did not lead him away from science; then his
falling in with Gutzlaff's _Appeal_, which induced him to become a
medical missionary; the Opium War, which closed China against him; the
friendly word of the Director who procured for him another trial; Mr.
Moffat's visit, which deepened his interest in Africa; and finally, the
issue of a dangerous illness that attacked him in London--all indicated
the unseen hand that was preparing him for his great work.
The meeting of Livingstone with Moffat is far too important an event to
be passed over without remark. Both directly and indirectly Mr. Moffat's
influence on his young brother, afterward to become his son-in-law, was
remarkable. In after-life they had a thorough appreciation of each
other. No family on the face of the globe could have been so helpful to
Livingstone in connection with the great work to which he gave himself.
If the old Roman fashion of surnames still prevailed, there is no
household of which all the members would have been better entitled to
put AFRICANUS after their name. The interests of the great continent
were dear to them all. In 1872, when one of the Search Expeditions for
Livingstone was fitted out, a grandson of Dr. Moffat, another Robert
Moffat, was among those who set out in the hope of relieving him; cut
off at the very beginning, in the flower of his youth, he left his bones
to moulder in African soil.
The illness to which we have alluded was an attack of congestion of the
liver, with an affection of the lungs. It seemed likely to prove fatal,
and the only chance of recovery appeared to be a visit to his home, and
return to his native air. In accompanying him to the steamer, Mr. Moore
found him so weak that he could scarcely walk on board. He parted from
him in tears, fearing that he had but a few days to live. But the voyage
and the visit had a wonderful effect, and very soon Livingstone was in
his usual health. The parting with his father and mother, as they
afterward told Mr. Moore, was very affecting. It happened, however, that
they met once more. It was felt that the possession of a medical diploma
would be of service, and Livingstone returned to Scotland in November,
1840, and passed at Glasgow as Licentiate of the Faculty of Physicians
and Surgeons. It was on this occasion he found it so inconvenient to
have opinions of his own and the knack of sticking to them. It seemed as
if he was going to be rejected for obstinately maintaining his views in
regard to the stethoscope; but he pulled through. A single night was all
that he could spend with his family, and they had so much to speak of
that David proposed they should sit up all night. This, however, his
mother would not hear of. "I remember my father and him," writes his
sister, "talking over the prospects of Christian missions. They agreed
that the time would come when rich men and great men would think it an
honor to support whole stations of missionaries, instead of spending
their money on hounds and horses. On the morning of 17th November we got
up at five o'clock. My mother made coffee. David read the 121st and
135th Psalms, and prayed. My father and he walked to Glasgow to catch
the Liverpool steamer." On the Broomielaw, father and son looked for the
last time on earth on each other's faces. The old man walked back slowly
to Blantyre, with a lonely heart no doubt, yet praising God. David's
face was now set in earnest toward the Dark Continent.