Transcribed from the 1921 Macmillan and Co. edition by David Price, email ccx074@pglaf.org. Proofed by Dimitri Papadopoulos, Lynn A. Weinberg, Stuart Bennett and Mary Willard. WASHINGTON SQUARE BY HENRY JAMES BY MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED ST. MARTIN’S STREET, LONDON 1921 1921 COPYRIGHT COPYRIGHT First published in 1881 p. 1I p. 1 During a portion of the first half of the present century, and more particularly during the latter part of it, there flourished and practised in the city of New York a physician who enjoyed perhaps an exceptional share of the consideration which, in the United States, has always been bestowed upon distinguished members of the medical profession. This profession in America has constantly been held in honour, and more successfully than elsewhere has put forward a claim to the epithet of “liberal.” In a country in which, to play a social part, you must either earn your income or make believe that you earn it, the healing art has appeared in a high degree to combine two recognised sources of credit. It belongs to the realm of the practical, which in the United States is a great recommendation; and it is touched by the light of science—a merit appreciated in a community in which the love of knowledge has not always been accompanied by leisure and opportunity. It was an element in Dr. Sloper’s reputation that his learning and his skill were very evenly balanced; he was what you might call a scholarly doctor, and yet there was nothing abstract in his remedies—he always ordered you to take something. Though he was felt to be extremely thorough, he was not uncomfortably
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