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industry and prudence, and of earnest effort in tlie pursuit of trutli 
Ihe severe asthmatic attacks from which my father suffered in later 
years were “so distressing as to awaken the sympathies of all, and 
caused many to marvel at his wonderful How of genial and animated 
discourse during times of release from pain.”* 
Iri one of his essays in the ‘ Critic ’ (Review of Life of William 
Scoreshy, 18G1) he remarks : 
It IS pleasant to review the life of a good man— one who has achieved 
distinction, yet kept the whiteness of his soul.’ We feel a personal interest 
m his strivings, and claim to participate in his success. Thank Heaven 
there are many such in every profession, and in the midst of the heroes of 
Arctic discovery, yet distinct from the rest-like the pole star among the 
constel ations of the North-is the figure of William Scoreshy. We rise 
from the perusal of his ‘Life’ with a better opinion of human nature, 
01 we have liere the e.xample of a man tried more than most of 
us hewe been, and coming out of the furnace unharmed, purified, 
victorious. It has been too mucli the tendency of the age to attribute 
riglit-doing and ill-doing to ‘ organization ; ’ but, practically, we all know 
what It is to look back upon opportunities wasted, and struggles which 
need not have ended in failure. We remember being struck with the sound 
practical sense of Jane Eyre’s advice to Mr. Rochester, ‘ to begin at once so 
to think and act that in a few years he would have laid up a new and 
stainless store of recollections, to which he might revert with pleasure ’ 
And they who read this Life of Scoresby will find the precept illustrated, 
with tli6 tidditiou of other and more exalted motives.’’ 
Family ties prevented my father from taking many extended 
holiday excursions during the later years of his life. But one 
of the most interesting trips he ever took was in 1857, when 
he was invited by Mr. Robert McAndrew to join him in a 
dredging expedition to Vigo Baj'-, an opening on the Spanish 
coast. Mr. Lucas Barrett, then 19 years of age, accomjianied 
them. On the 20th of May they started from Gosport in IMr. 
McAndrew s yacht “ Naiad,” full of sjiirits and eager expectation 
to haul up “ the treasures of the deep.” Their outward voyage 
was a tantalizing one, for before they sighted Spanish land they 
experienced a very heavy gale, the wind was dead against them, 
and at one time they could do nothing but “ lay to ” and hope it 
w'ould moderate before they drifted all the way back again. They 
were forced to keep under cover, watching the petrels, when each 
* Obituary notice in the ‘ Reader,’ July 22ml, 
