58 
EDITORIAL OBSERVATIONS. 
establish a principle, while a solitary instance oftentimes proves 
delusive. Again, something may have been passed unnoticed 
by one person which another at even first sight recognises, 
so that “ in the multitude of counsellors there is wisdom.” 
We can hope for progress only in proportion to our useful- 
ness. The principles of our common science ever remain 
the same. Their development constitutes its growth ; 
and although this may, in some measure, be dependent on 
the idiosyncrasies or peculiarities of those individuals who 
devote themselves to this special object, nevertheless there is 
a still greater cause in operation, namely, the benefit that 
the profession, as a whole, derive from our work. If there 
be any doubt of the permanent utility of an art, it will only 
exist for a time as a novelty; — it will “have its day — but if 
otherwise, it must continue to advance ; and as it regards our 
own, we cannot allow ourselves for a moment to question its 
importance or value. 
It is pleasing, on turning over the pages of the last volume, 
which are somewhat more in number than antecedent ones, to 
find an absence of all acrimonious expressions arising from 
an indulgence in personal controversies. These from the 
first we had resolved to exclude, and with only one or two 
exceptions, has our editorial right of exclusion been called 
for. It is true animadversions have been made, inquiries 
instituted, censure mildly expressed, corrections suggested, 
and imperfections deplored; but all this is allowable, and 
such indeed as ever will be the case, since rarely is it that we 
see things “ eye to eye,” while to our own faults we are most 
commonly blind. Those, then, who give themselves the 
trouble to advise and correct us, only manifest the interest 
that they take in our welfare, and prove their desire to co- 
operate in advancing the common interests of our profession ; 
whilst from the adoption of their proposed alterations good 
possibly may in the end be derived, for we have alread}> r said 
that we have not attained to perfection, nor do we ever hope 
to do so ; neither are we so wedded to our opinions as to 
suppose that with us alone is wisdom. But the wise man 
has said that the beginning of strife is as the letting out of 
water; and the breach once made, we know not to what an 
