OYSTER CULTURE IN AMERICA. 717 



between the lethargic conduct the want of mercantile 

 self-respect involved in the views of our people and their 

 legislators, and the extraordinary energy of the Americans. 



We live in a highly civilized age, and if we fail to 

 grasp its spirit we shall go to the wall before the oyster 

 cultivators of America or France, or even Holland, just as 

 surely as we are only awakening from the lethargy of our 

 neglected opportunities to cope with, if not to rival, other 

 nations, whose native wisdom and patient labour, rewarded 

 by success, ought to raise the blush of shame upon the face 

 of every Englishman. 



It is true we cannot recall the past, nor can we resist 

 the progress of events, but we can control it if we will be 

 wise in time. Wise in time what time ? A year ? 

 five years, or a decade which ? Now is the Hour ! 

 Granted, " It is never too late to mend ;" but we have had 

 many of those " now's" and " hours" in time gone by, far 

 more emphatically warning in their significance than italics 

 can make them on paper, and they are daily repeating 

 themselves have we heeded, or do we heed them ? 



We have had, and we have still amongst us, able men 

 of science gentlemen who were and are qualified by an 

 extensive experience with our fisheries who have published 

 pamphlets and volumes, and have proved in their Lectures, 

 that while the reason for the non-success of our ostracul- 

 tural attempts is perfectly clear and simple, the greatest 

 ignorance upon this point exists in the minds of the 

 people. 



It is not essential that a patient should know the 

 nature and cause of his disease, but this knowledge is of 

 the greatest importance to his physician, and it is of equal 



