PHYSIOLOGY OF LIFE. 65 



with the " poor Indian," believe themselves to have re- 

 ceived from the Supreme Reason. 



It would he blindness not to see, or affectation to pre- 

 tend not to see, the work at which these sarcasms were 

 levelled. The author of that work is abundantly able to 

 defend his own opinions ; yet I should be ambitious to 

 address him at the close of the contest in the lines of the 

 great Roman poet : 



" Et nos tela, Pater, ferrumque hand debile dextra 

 Spargimus, et nostro sequitur, de vulnere sanguis." 



In Mr. Abernethy's Lecture on the Theory of Life, it 

 is impossible not to see a presentiment of a great truth. 

 He has, if I may so express myself, caught it in the 

 breeze : and we seem to hear the first glad opening and 

 shout with which he springs forward to the pursuit. But 

 it is equally evident that the prey has not been fol- 

 lowed through its doublings and windings, or driven 

 out from its brakes and covers into full and open view. 

 Many of the least tenable phrases may be fairly inter- 

 preted as illustrations, rather than precise exponents of 

 the author's meaning; at least, while they remain as a 

 mere suggestion or annunciation of his ideas, and till he 

 has expanded them over a larger sphere, it would be unjust 

 to infer the contrary. But it is not with men, however 

 strongly their professional merits may entitle them to 

 reverence, that my concern is at present. If the opinions 

 here supported are the same with those of Mr. Abernethy, 

 I rejoice in his authority. If they are different, I shall 

 wait with an anxious interest for an exposition of that 

 difference. 



