EDITORIAL OBSERVATIONS. 
37 
that there are some among us who affect to contemn it^ 
although they are ever resorting to it; and others never 
contribute to it lest^ as they from a mistaken notion think, 
their professional brethren should become as wise as them¬ 
selves. Such characters are always ready to receive, but 
they never give in return. By all such persons as the above, 
surely science, abstractedly considered, is never benefited. 
Still there are -those who, although not contributors to 
the press, nevertheless do, by their deportment and practical 
abilities, aid in the advancement of our common art. 
This is necessary, since, without controversy, we live in 
an age the very antithesis to that designated the dark ages. 
The torch of science now sheds her glowing light around, 
dispelling the mists of doubt and apprehension, and em¬ 
boldening men to aver that, within certain limits, there is 
no such thing as an impossibility. Well was it recently 
said by the premier, that the great improvement of modern 
times is the diffusion of light or knowledge. With that 
light comes warmth, and with that a vivifying power which 
gives animation and life to the whole mass.^^ Nor alone in 
reference to our own profession should a love of science 
actuate us, since in all the divisions there is that which 
awakens thought, and by expanding the mind lifts it from 
Nature up to Nature’s God. Each section holds the other 
by the hand, forming a grand circle that cannot be broken 
or interfered with with impunity. Each, too, becomes a 
liberalizer of the ideas and a civilizer; in proof of which we 
might refer to the state of those who know nothing of the 
laws of science. We remember it has been somewhere said 
that it was held by the ancients that the gods, in their 
beneficence to man, sold all good things, and the price at 
which they were to be bought was labour. This fanciful 
description is not without its practical application, which, 
however, need not here be made .—Labor omnia vincit.^^ 
And the wise man has told us that the soul of the diligent 
shall be made fat. 
Continuing our retrospect we may be permitted to observe, 
that scarcely a month passes without our having the pleasing 
task of adding to the list of contributors, the second of 
which now assumes a goodly proportion. May it continue 
to increase. 
