EDITORIAL OBSERVATIONS. 
35 
are glad to see that the army has become alive to the good 
that necessarily must result from them. Moreover we are 
much pleased to be informed that they have received the 
countenance and support of the principal veterinary surgeon 
to J^he army, for we know him to be ever anxious to 
promote the advancement of the profession. 
There is no doubl that much may be accomplished by 
associated labour and perseverance. A single honey bee, 
it is said, with all its industry and the innumerable journeys 
it has to perform in the summer season to gather honey 
from the nectaries of flowers, obtains only about a tea¬ 
spoonful. Yet from a hive of them, often from sixty to a 
hundred pounds of this delicious form of sugar are taken. 
So the ant will ^^for one poor grain labour and toil and 
strive,^^ but being gregarious in its nature, in numbers they 
gather enough food to supply their wants during the long 
period that nature seals up her sources of sustenance from . 
them. Or, as the wise man has put it, The ants are a 
people not strong, yet they prepare their meat in the 
summer, and are exceeding wise.^’ We might also have 
referred to the mighty workings of the coral-polyp, and 
others. Slow growth has indeed been stated to be the law 
of stability. The enduring and more useful trees do not 
spiing up like the comparatively worthless fungi at their 
base, or luxuriantly grow like the parasite that entwines 
itself among their branches, robbing them of support. A 
rock requires ages to become consolidated : but when this 
has been attained, in vain do the billows dash against it; 
they are only thrown oflp in impotent and noisy foam. 
Having so long received support and encouragement, we 
continue of the same mind we ever were. Nor are we 
likely, having put our hands to the plough, to turn back. 
There is something that is soul-cheering even in the endea¬ 
vours made to perform one’s duty. Nor are we altogether, 
as we think, to set aside the hope of a recompense of a 
reward.^^ Our poet laureate is right when he tells us that 
we shall find— 
“ The toppling crags of duty scaled 
Are close upon the shining table-land— 
To which our God himself is moou and sun.” 
