It was so at
Philadelphia, and it was so at Edinburgh.
"Our extramural teacher in anatomy was about to give a competitive
examination. Now, on these occasions, we were particularly obnoxious.
Often and clearly as it had been proved, by _'a priori_ reasoning, that
we _must_ be infinitely inferior to the average male, we persisted in
proving, by hard fact, that we were infinitely his superior; and every
examination gave us an opportunity of crushing solid reasons under hollow
fact.
"A band of medical students determined that for once _'a priori_
reasoning should have fair play, and not be crushed by a thing so
illusory as fact. Accordingly, they got the gates closed, and collected
round them. We came up, one after another, and were received with hisses,
groans, and abusive epithets.
"This mode of reasoning must have been admirably adapted to my weak
understanding; for it convinced me at once I had no business there, and I
was for private study directly.
"But, sir, you know the ancients said, 'Better is an army of stags with a
lion for their leader, than an army of lions with a stag for their
leader.' Now, it so happened that we had a lioness for our leader.
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