down from its walls for the accommodation of invading forces, its
strength will be of very little practical advantage. Great
passions are oftener the weak, than the strong points of great
men. Now I do not believe it possible for a man to exercise a high
degree of power upon the hearts and minds of others, and, at the
same time, be under the influence of any variety of passion. A man
cannot be the shivering subject of an outside force, acting upon
him through his passions, and at the same time a centre of
effluent power. Action and passion are opposed to each other; and
when one has possession of the soul the other is wanting. They
involve two distinct attitudes of the mind, as truly as do
thanksgiving and petition.

The world often finds fault with great men because they are cold;
but they could not be great men if they were not cold. A physician
is often preferred by a family or patient because he is "so
sympathizing," as they call it. They forget that a physician is
necessarily untrustworthy in the degree that he is sympathetic
with his patients. A physician may be thoroughly kind, and out of
his kindness there may grow a gentle manner which seems to spring
from sympathy; but I say unhesitatingly that in the degree by
which a physician is sympathetic with his patients, is he unfitted
for his work. A dentist who feels, in sympathy, the pain that he
inflicts upon a child, is unfitted to perform his operation. The
surgeon who sensitively sympathizes with a man whose diseased or
crushed limb it has fallen to his lot to remove, has lost a
portion of his power and skill, and has become a poorer surgeon
for his sympathy. Physicians themselves show that they understood
this when a case for medical or surgical treatment occurs in their
own families. If their wives or their children are sick, they