ON THE COMMENCEMENT OF A NEW YEAR. 17 
May you and the readers of The Veterinarian, during the 
course of its 365 days, shed no tears but those of joy; heave no 
sighs, but those that may be averted by your Christmas bills; 
and may you remain as free from trouble and disappointment as 
veterinary surgeons can possibly expect in this sublunary world ! 
May you have few idle hopes, as idly cherished, to remember; 
few airy structures of imagination, raised but to crush you by 
their fall, to recollect; and, above all, may you be entirely free 
from the pang occasioned by a perseverance in the path of error, 
after your better feeling and judgment had warned you to with¬ 
draw, whilst culpable vanity and the shame of retracting led you, 
perhaps, to the very brink of dishonour, merely to avoid its 
semblance ! And few there are, even of the best of us, who will 
find such scrutiny vain and unprofitable. 
u Vain was the man, and weak as vain, 
Who said, were he ordain’d to run 
His long career of life again, 
He would do all that he had done.” 
But, to return to the year that has just been added to the 
mighty and countless mass of unreturning time: taken as a 
mere period of twelve calendar months, it has seen some benefits 
accrue to the veterinary profession ; on the other hand, it has also 
witnessed the contrast so amusingly displayed between the actions 
and professions of some professional characters, as well as be¬ 
tween their merits and pretensions. It has seen the pretender 
strut about in full and unblushing effrontery, killing and curing 
the poor animals that may have been unfortunate enough to be 
submitted to his skill secundum artem, as fortune favoured his 
treatment. It has also seen folly and ignorance triumphant and 
prosperous, whilst worth and talent were kept in the back¬ 
ground. 
But I beg your pardon for trespassing thus long on your 
time, or, what is of more consequence to you, space in The 
Veterinarian. I am, gentlemen, a well wisher to your pub¬ 
lication, and, what is still better, occasionally a correspondent. 
It grieves me much at the evident decrease of your contributors; 
I hope, however, that the spirited letter of Mr. Allinson will be 
of some service in rousing the writing powers of our veterinary 
brethren. For myself, I promise you for the year 1834 a few 
papers, entitled Reminiscences of my College Life ,” and, like 
other papers of its kind, the author will remain unknown. If 
you approve of them, give them a space in The Veterinarian ; 
if not, burn them. I promise to send you nothing that can be 
considered as libellous, or that can injure yourselves or any other 
person. 
VOL. VII. 
C 
