122 THE FISHERIES. 



ent lore and forensic reminiscences?— a mere ideal; 

 — the charm and gift of eloquence ! the high and 

 patriotic aspiration ! the poetic fire ! and those 

 purer and simpler traditions of the jurist, and the 

 statist, that would make eternal truth, and social 

 good — free from contentious wish, bias, or worldly 

 dross — the only rule, and purpose, object, aim, or 

 end, to be attained. 



And our Church ; our University — shall these be 

 touched ? The lofty spire ; the ivy-clustered wall ! 

 dear to our thoughts, and cherished in our recollec- 

 tions. — But let us pass hastily from this : revered, 

 beloved, time-honoured is the retrospect; but "sha- 

 dows, clouds, and darkness," we fear, " rest upon it." 



Our Medical institutions, and the science, and prac- 

 tice of the * healing art ' — Have not these also felt 

 the ruthless hand of innovation and reform ? We 

 may safely answer in the affirmative : the decline, too, 

 of one profession or resource re-acts upon another : 

 so many links displaced, the whole social chain is in 

 disorder. But so long as disease and pain, and all 

 the motley train of mortal ills, must be the lot of 

 humanity, and man must still, in health or in dis- 

 ease, but onward " crawl toward death," the heal- 

 ing art, with all its humanizing attributes, will hold 

 its enviable place, and have its honourable fame ; 

 but its pulse will throb, and rise or fall, with the 

 advance or retrogression, of our national resources. 

 The issue for it too will be momentous ; its institu- 

 tions may wane, its honorary distinctions diminish, 



