“Your most affectionate
“humble servant,
“E. Hulse.
“P.S.—Since the writing of this, I am certainly informed that Dr. Shaw is gone over to Hanover with the Duchess of Newcastle. I believe you never will have a fairer opportunity of settling in this town than the present.”
Dr. Heberden’s answer.
“August 30, 1748.
“I take the opportunity of returning my thanks by Mr. H., for your most obliging letter. No one can be ignorant that your assistance and recommendation must be of the highest advantage to any person who was beginning the practice of physic in London; and I am persuaded they would at any time have determined me to fix there, though I had otherwise no such intention. But I never was rightly informed that I had such a valuable opportunity in my power. By what accident or mistake it happened, I do not know, but the person you mention never acquainted me with it at all, nor indeed any one else with authority from you. I had only heard accidentally, that you had expressed yourself with great civility, on a supposition of my removing to London. There was no reason, when I first heard such reports, to imagine that they amounted to any thing more than your good wishes. As soon as I could believe there was the least probability of your intending to assist me with your interest, I immediately took the liberty of writing to you. I must reckon it among my greatest misfortunes, that this application came too late: though I shall always think myself under the same obligations to you, as if I had enjoyed the benefit of your kind intentions. My best acknowledgments are due for the assurances of your disposition to assist me still, where your other engagements have not put it out of your power; and it is with the highest satisfaction that I find myself possessed of a place in your friendship. I propose seeing London some time in October, in order to consult with some friends about the advisableness of my settling there, when I hope to have the pleasure of paying my respects to you.”
He settled in London the following Christmas. The name of the person alluded to in Sir Edward Hulse’s letter does not appear, for it was effectually erased from the original letter, though it shows something indicative of a superior mind to be told, that Dr. Heberden afterwards lived on terms of friendship with the author of so base a transaction. Not long after he came to reside in town, he met Dr. Mead in consultation at the Duke of Leeds’, and observed his faculties to be so impaired, that he then determined within himself, that if he ever lived to the same age of seventy-eight, he would give up practice. And this resolution he strictly adhered to, saying that people’s friends were not forward to tell them of their decay, and that he would rather retire from business several years too soon, than follow it one hour too long.
“Plutarch,” said he, “has told us that the life of a vestal virgin was divided into three portions; in the first of which she learned the duties of her profession, in the second she practised them, and in the third she taught them to others.” This, he maintained, was no bad model for the life of a physician; and when he had passed through the two first of these periods, he addressed himself diligently to the work of teaching others. The motto prefixed to his commentaries was expressive of this his favourite maxim—