59 



The world, according- to some, is many millions of 

 years old. At the very lowest computation ever made 

 (that of the learned Archbishop Usher) it is 5870 

 years old. For 5770 years of this period almost 

 everybody believed in witchcraft. Has the human 

 race all at once become so very wise, when, till so 

 lately, it was so very foolish. I must say I can see 

 no reason whatever to think it has. Forms of folly 

 and superstition change. Human nature remains 

 much the same. Of course, I know that I must not 

 expect assent to this view. It is contrary to the 

 constitution of thing's for people to disbelieve in then 1 

 age having* arrived at true knowledge, or to see that 

 the knowledge of one age is the ignorance of the 

 next. As Emerson says, before Napoleon's time 

 everybody believed that the art of war had been 

 carried to the utmost perfection to which it was 

 capable of reaching. Probably the delusion is a 

 valuable provision of nature. For upon most people 

 the truth would no doubt have a disheartening 

 effect the truth, namely, that knowledge is but the 

 knowledge of to-day, to be replaced by the know- 

 ledg-e of to-morrow. 



O 



The foregoing pages I have written solely with a 

 view to the improvement of the veterinary profession. 

 My only object has been their good. I could not 

 bear to see such a large class of w ell-meaning* and 

 otherwise respectable persons sunk so deep in ignor- 

 ance, so I determined to devote some of my time to 

 their instruction. Of course, I know there can be 



