I will tell you now what you
would never have known had this affair never occurred. Jim, at heart,
hates his father's profession. He is a dutiful son and, rather than
give you pain, he was prepared to sacrifice all his own feelings and
wishes. But the lad is full of life and energy. The dull existence of a
country surgeon, in a little town like this, is the last he would adopt
as his own choice; and I own that I am not surprised that a lad of
spirit should long for a more adventurous life. I should have told you
this long ago, and advised you that it would be well for you both to
put it frankly to him that, although you would naturally like to see
him following his father's profession, still that you felt that he
should choose for himself; and that, should he select any other mode of
life, you would not set your wishes against his. But the lad would not
hear of my doing so. He said that, rather than upset your cherished
plans, he would gladly consent to settle down in Sidmouth for life. I
honoured him for his filial spirit; but, frankly, I think he was wrong.
An eagle is not made to live in a hen coop, nor a spirited lad to
settle down in a humdrum village; and I own that, although I regret the
manner of his going, I cannot look upon it as an unmixed evil, that the
force of circumstances has taken him out of the course marked out for
him, and that he will have an opportunity of seeing life and
adventure.
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