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Dr. Heidegger is an enigmatic old medical doctor who performs an experiment on his four elderly friends to test the hypothesis that youth is inseparable from folly. Though Dr. Heidegger is a scientist, his study is filled with magical objects and his experiment involves magical water from the Fountain of Youth. Therefore, Dr. Heidegger’s outlook is not wholly rational, despite him being a doctor. Furthermore, though Dr. Heidegger is trying to prove a moral hypothesis—that morality is associated with age—the morality of Dr. Heidegger’s own behavior is left open-ended. On the one hand, Dr. Heidegger seems moral because he does not drink the magical water, so he does not succumb to foolish behavior. On the other hand, though, he baits his elderly friends into indulging their worst impulses. At the end of the story, Dr. Heidegger announces that he will never drink from the Fountain of Youth, suggesting that he had considered doing so, but wanted to witness its effects for himself before deciding. Whether this is wise or cruel, Hawthorne never explicitly says. Dr. Heidegger was once in love with Sylvia Ward and was engaged to marry her before she died.
Dr. Heidegger Quotes in Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment
The Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment quotes below are all either spoken by Dr. Heidegger or refer to Dr. Heidegger. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment
Quotes
And, before proceeding further, I will merely hint that Dr. Heidegger and all his four guests were sometimes thought to be a little beside themselves,—as is not unfrequently the case with old people, when worried either by present troubles or woeful recollections.
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Now Dr. Heidegger was a very strange old gentleman, whose eccentricity had become the nucleus for a thousand fantastic stories. Some of these fables, to my shame be it spoken, might possibly be traced back to my own veracious self; and if any passages of the present tale should startle the reader's faith, I must be content to bear the stigma of a fiction monger.
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“I love it as well thus as in its dewy freshness,” observed he, pressing the withered rose to his withered lips.
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“Yes, friends, ye are old again,” said Dr. Heidegger, “and lo! the Water of Youth is all lavished on the ground. Well—I bemoan it not; for if the fountain gushed at my very doorstep, I would not stoop to bathe my lips in it—no, though its delirium were for years instead of moments. Such is the lesson ye have taught me!”
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Dr. Heidegger Quotes in Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment
The Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment quotes below are all either spoken by Dr. Heidegger or refer to Dr. Heidegger. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment
Quotes
And, before proceeding further, I will merely hint that Dr. Heidegger and all his four guests were sometimes thought to be a little beside themselves,—as is not unfrequently the case with old people, when worried either by present troubles or woeful recollections.
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Now Dr. Heidegger was a very strange old gentleman, whose eccentricity had become the nucleus for a thousand fantastic stories. Some of these fables, to my shame be it spoken, might possibly be traced back to my own veracious self; and if any passages of the present tale should startle the reader's faith, I must be content to bear the stigma of a fiction monger.
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“I love it as well thus as in its dewy freshness,” observed he, pressing the withered rose to his withered lips.
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“Yes, friends, ye are old again,” said Dr. Heidegger, “and lo! the Water of Youth is all lavished on the ground. Well—I bemoan it not; for if the fountain gushed at my very doorstep, I would not stoop to bathe my lips in it—no, though its delirium were for years instead of moments. Such is the lesson ye have taught me!”
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