124 THE FISHERIES. 



of man ! These are the paths of progress in the 

 world of thought —this the interminable struggle, to 

 make the world of matter, subservient to the world 

 of mind. 



Such then, must be our future. — Our sciences and 

 useful arts ; our rising energies ; our commerce and 

 our manufactures, our agriculture and our Fisheries, 

 our broad expansive fields and golden valleys : the 

 material elements around us are the primary sources 

 of prosperity and national wealth, and nature has 

 not been ilhberal to us : the native intellect, with the 

 capacity for arts, enterprise, and manufactures, if 

 duly encouraged, is in no wise inferior: our soil is fer- 

 tile, and our shores and rivers prohfic. — We have the 

 earth to subdue it, and the fishes of the sea, to exercise 

 dominion over them. Have we hitherto done so 

 wisely or well? — For our misuse of the one, the 

 doomed potato is our lesson ; for our abuse of the 

 other, our deserted rivers are the retribution. 



We have thus cast a hurried glance, and transiently 

 shadowed forth our social indications : we see in the 

 past, a sad and harrowing scene ; and in the present, 

 scope and field for hopes, and fears, and many gloomy 

 apprehensions : fain would we lift the veil, and peer 

 into the future — but this vision is withdrawn from 

 us. It may be dark and lurid ; or calm and peace- 

 ful as the summer sun, sinking with mellow ray upon 

 the western wave, it may be bright and hopefuL 

 Our night may pass — the dawn of day may come — 

 but let us up and be doing. 



