Life and Letters of Charles Darwin, vol 1 | Page 9

to
others, and, though hating extravagance, to perform many generous
actions. For instance, Mr. B--, a small manufacturer in Shrewsbury,
came to him one day, and said he should be bankrupt unless he could at
once borrow 10,000 pounds, but that he was unable to give any legal
security. My father heard his reasons for believing that he could
ultimately repay the money, and from [his] intuitive perception of
character felt sure that he was to be trusted. So he advanced this sum,
which was a very large one for him while young, and was after a time
repaid.
"I suppose that it was his sympathy which gave him unbounded power
of winning confidence, and as a consequence made him highly
successful as a physician. He began to practise before he was
twenty-one years old, and his fees during the first year paid for the keep
of two horses and a servant. On the following year his practice was
large, and so continued for about sixty years, when he ceased to attend
on any one. His great success as a doctor was the more remarkable, as
he told me that he at first hated his profession so much that if he had
been sure of the smallest pittance, or if his father had given him any
choice, nothing should have induced him to follow it. To the end of his
life, the thought of an operation almost sickened him, and he could
scarcely endure to see a person bled--a horror which he has transmitted
to me--and I remember the horror which I felt as a schoolboy in reading
about Pliny (I think) bleeding to death in a warm bath...
"Owing to my father's power of winning confidence, many patients,
especially ladies, consulted him when suffering from any misery, as a
sort of Father-Confessor. He told me that they always began by
complaining in a vague manner about their health, and by practice he
soon guessed what was really the matter. He then suggested that they
had been suffering in their minds, and now they would pour out their
troubles, and he heard nothing more about the body...Owing to my
father's skill in winning confidence he received many strange
confessions of misery and guilt. He often remarked how many
miserable wives he had known. In several instances husbands and
wives had gone on pretty well together for between twenty and thirty
years, and then hated each other bitterly; this he attributed to their

having lost a common bond in their young children having grown up.
"But the most remarkable power which my father possessed was that of
reading the characters, and even the thoughts of those whom he saw
even for a short time. We had many instances of the power, some of
which seemed almost supernatural. It saved my father from ever
making (with one exception, and the character of this man was soon
discovered) an unworthy friend. A strange clergyman came to
Shrewsbury, and seemed to be a rich man; everybody called on him,
and he was invited to many houses. My father called, and on his return
home told my sisters on no account to invite him or his family to our
house; for he felt sure that the man was not to be trusted. After a few
months he suddenly bolted, being heavily in debt, and was found out to
be little better than an habitual swindler. Here is a case of trustfulness
which not many men would have ventured on. An Irish gentleman, a
complete stranger, called on my father one day, and said that he had
lost his purse, and that it would be a serious inconvenience to him to
wait in Shrewsbury until he could receive a remittance from Ireland. He
then asked my father to lend him 20 pounds, which was immediately
done, as my father felt certain that the story was a true one. As soon as
a letter could arrive from Ireland, one came with the most profuse
thanks, and enclosing, as he said, a 20 pound Bank of England note, but
no note was enclosed. I asked my father whether this did not stagger
him, but he answered 'not in the least.' On the next day another letter
came with many apologies for having forgotten (like a true Irishman) to
put the note into his letter of the day before...(A gentleman) brought his
nephew, who was insane but quite gentle, to my father; and the young
man's insanity led him to accuse himself of all the crimes under heaven.
When my father afterwards talked over the matter with the uncle, he
said, 'I am sure that your nephew is really guilty of...a heinous crime.'
Whereupon [the gentleman] said, 'Good God, Dr. Darwin, who told you;
we thought that no human being