EDITORIAL OBSERVATIONS. 
531 
tinctive marks of his character as the energy with which he 
encounters them. An Aristotle or a Euclid fights as 
resolutely as an Alexander, and it costs as great an effort 
to read one of nature’s laws as to assert the human law of 
might; but the one contest is visible, and the other seen 
onty in its results. The pleasures of the victory and the 
struggle are perhaps as great in the one case as in the 
other. There is in both the precious drop of triumph to 
sweeten life—made precious only by the difficulty by which 
it has been purchased/’ Selfishness is always contemptible, 
and to be contented with stagnation shows a want of mental 
power. To be “ up and doing” is our advice to our junior 
members, and we think we see a desire for this evinced in 
the formation of the different veterinary medical associations 
throughout the country. These must be instrumental for 
good, if they be only properly conducted, by their becoming, 
not only centres from whence power will emanate, but, 
through the information which they will be the means 
of disseminating, the body will ultimately become permeated, 
“ for a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump.’’ 
It has been poetically said, “ The great glaciers of the 
Alps fulfil their course in about a human generation. 
Noiselessly and imperceptibly they slide from the place of 
their mountain birth to the valley in which they are dis¬ 
solved ; and yet each year marks every part with change— 
the fresh snow consolidates into ice at their cradle—the 
various marks and fissures attest their course—they melt 
away at their terminus—the snowy child of the mountain 
having become a river of living waters to fructify the 
sunny plain.” So it is with communities. A gradual 
change is constantly taking place. Every year causes us 
to look upon older heads and faces. Those once students 
take the place of their fathers, and palpable advances are 
being made as time passes onwards. It is but right, then, 
that such measures should be adopted as will not only meet 
the exigencies of the moment, but become of a permanent 
benefit; and this will, of course, depend much, if not entirely, 
upon the conduct of those w 7 ho, placed at the head, have 
the management of affairs. 
