interest or gratification. Those who have read the life of Prescott, by his friend Mr. Ticknor, will perhaps trace some likeness between him and Dr. Wood, at least in the trait just mentioned. There is no happiness, says that pleasing writer and charming man, so great as a permanent and lively concern in some mental occupation. "No other enjoyment can compensate or approach to the satisfaction and constantly increasing interest in some intellectual labor; the subject of meditation when I am out of my study, and of diligent stimulating activity within. To say nothing of the comfortable consciousness of directing my powers in some channel worthy of them, and of contributing something to the stock of useful knowledge in the world."[1]
Much of the work of Dr. Wood required undisturbed leisure, and was therefore done at night, when he was less liable to interruption. His professional brethren, responding to nocturnal calls and passing his residence in their lonely walks, would often find his study alight far into the small hours of the early day. Much of his Treatise on the Practice of Medicine was written between ten o'clock in the evening and four in the morning. He toiled with as much zeal and assiduity as if his daily bread depended upon his daily labor. But happily his industry was a calm and steady flame, which, unlike the irrepressible energy of Godman, diffused its light without consuming the body that nourished it. It was a resource in all time of sorrow and of joy, and his especial solace after the loss of his wife. Every hour being thus consecrated by vigorous and healthful effort, the heart was
- ↑ Haec studia adolescentiam alunt, senectutem oblectant, secundas res ornant, adversis perfugium ac solatium praebent, delectant domi, non impediunt foris, pernoctant nobiscum, peregrinantur, rusticantur.—Cicero.
