found: but few among them are blessed with the disposal of their own time, and the opportunity of improving it.—SOUTHEY, Colloquies, Coll. xi.

Nothing can so effectually tend to the improvement of an art, as the making it the interest of those who practise it to contribute to its improveBut it happens unfortunately that the spirit and application required for the advancement of Medicine, is often checked by a necessary attention to private interest. Physicians are influenced by the same general motives of action with other men. Some of them love Medicine, and would gladly devote their time and attention to it, as far as their situation could admit; others practise it merely as a trade. JAMES GREGORY, M.D., Duties and qualifications of a Physician, Lect. vi.

Here men will be always sinners; and as long as Clergymen are men, they will be so too: for they have the same infirmities with other men, the same corrupt affections and depraved desires, and act always under the same, and perhaps grievouser, temptations than other men. And therefore you must not think it strange that they also fall like other men. . . And, as the present circumstances are, it is the great mercy of God if there are not more Clergymen wicked than otherwise. — DEAN PRIDEAUX, Letter, Quarterly Review, vol. 144, p. 85.

Society possesses two or three strong, stiff frames, in which all persons of liberal education

who need or desire a fixed place and specific designation must consent to be set. Which of these frames is the best adapted to the nature of the individual, and allows him the largest and most commodious room for exerting his powers for his own. and the public good, is a question not in every instance very easy to determine. Fortunate, indeed, are they to whom it presents no difficulty, when the promptitude of decision arises from clearness of conviction and not from the absence of thought. on the other hand, it is not always just to attribute even a long fluctuation to levity or caprice. I must further observe that the particular change [of profession,] which has led to these remarks is of no very uncommon occurrence; but one of which I could produce a great number of examples ancient and modern. BP. THIRLWALL, Letters, Literary and Theological, 1881, p. 93.

But,

After delivering prizes, the gaining of which has depended solely on merit, I may be expected to end with the usual encouraging peroration, that industry and ability command success. But I can not, except in a modified form, agree to this copybook maxim, when applied to your future struggles with the world. Doubtless few who are prudent, energetic, and industrious, fail to attain some fair degree of worldly success; but the race is not always to the swift, or the battle to the strong. Circumstances affect efforts,-promoting, arresting, or diverting them. The road to success is often

that which a high-minded man can not travel; he can not learn to fetch and carry, to subserve the interest of a patron or a mob. I do not seek to undervalue success: Duty to yourselves and those whom you may bring into the world enjoin its pursuit in moderation. - MR. JUSTICE GROVE, Address at St. Mary's Hospital; Brit. Med. Fourn., 29 May 1869.

L* *,

'A man ought to know,' said W***** 'that life is a difficulty; and he has got to go through it successfully. A woman looks at it as a mere impulse of pleasure.'

Johnson observed that so many objections might be made to everything, that nothing could overcome them but the necessity of doing something. No man would be of any profession, as simply opposed to not being of it; but every one must do something. - BOSWELL'S Life, 1770.

Improbability and impossibility are two frightful words to weaker minds; but by diligent and wise men, they are generally found to be only the excuses of idleness and ignorance. For the most part they lie not in the things themselves, but in men's false opinions concerning them. * ** I wish you an affable behavior, a clear innocence, a comprehensive knowlege, a well-weighed experience, and always to remember, that it is more than the greatest Prince can do, at once to preserve respect, and neglect his business.- PUCKLE'S Club, p. 91.

There is no better hope for any man than to proceed in good heart and good temper in the path which he has prudently and soberly begun, - to proceed in it with a large stock of patience, and with perfect hope and trust in God Almighty, who will assuredly crown his virtue with peace and contentment, if he do not bless his labor with worldly reward.-W. H., Letter, 1837.

In our daily life, on a cursory view of human nature, we see many things calculated to perplex and embarrass us. We see, for instance, men rich in intellectual attainments unable to secure for themselves a sufficiency of ordinary necessaries; whilst, on the other hand, we see plain uneducated men, of unquestionably a lower order of intellect, quietly and diligently plying their avocations, it being an invariable rule with such men, under all circumstances to execute business with prompt and decisive action, and by a wise and economical application of time and means amassing money; and in a few years of wholesome thrift we find them rolling in wealth.

We are apt to refer matters of this kind to some mysterious dispensation of Providence beyond our comprehension, and wholly independent of human control; but on a closer inspection of the circumstances of any particular case, we often find all mystery vanishes, and we are able to trace men's failures to natural causes. It will frequently be found that such failures are referable to some weak point in mind or body, or to a defect in the balance

of power amongst the different functions,- a victim to the baneful effects of the worst of all habits, procrastination, and irresolution, a want of nerve and energy, a deficiency of animal and moral courage, which is necessary for success in the practical struggles of life. With him there is a constant miscalculation of time and means, occasioning continual hurry, difficulty, expedients, penury.— MR. GREAVES, President of the Lancashire Veterinary Association; Med. Times and Gaz., 2 April 1864.

Let my woful experience warn you against procrastination,- a fault much less likely to be committed in the world than in the University, where there is often no particular reason for doing a thing at a particular time. A man of energy begins to-day, if he has no good reason for waiting till to-morrow.- MR. JUSTICE MAULE, Letter to his Brother.

... And thus thinking of physical influence, let us remember that what is vulgarly called nervousness is an enemy which many men know to their cost is not to be got over. The firmest assurance that you have done a thing many times, and so should be able to do it once more, may suffice to enable you to look forward to doing it without a vague tremor and apprehension. There are human beings, all whose work is done without any very great nervous strain: there are others in whose vocation there come many times that put their whole nature upon the stretch. And