1 cordial thanks, knowing how to appreciate an impartial
2 critique. Patman qui meruit Jerat .—** Be his the palm
3 who merits it.”
4 If my work meets with a favorable reception, and is
5 considered useful, I shall feel happy in having attained
6 my most ardent wishes; I shall forget the toils, dangers,
7 and sacrifices I have undergone, and, moreover, escape
8 the lot of many, who, after having spent the greater
9 portion of their lives and fortune, and, not (.infrequently,
10 ruined their health, in rendering themselves useful to
11 mankind, have too often met with ingratitude, and,
12 sometimes, with persecution. Many benefactors of the
13 human species have experienced such treatment, and
14 analogy almost prepares us to expect it. If wfe turn
15 to the histories of important discoveries and Inventions,
16 we shall find, tiiat, on their first announcement, they
17 were contemned and ridiculed, while the inventors and
18 discoverers were laughed at, misrepresented, and vilified.
19 Sydenham, whose memory we must revere, was, by
20 several of his cotemporaries, stigmatized with the name
21 of quack, and murderer. Many now celebrated men,
22 who, in the fourteenth century distinguished themselves
23 by their knowledge of physical science, were burned as
24 sorcerers. Galileo was imprisoned in his seventieth year,
25 for maintaining the rotation of the earth ; and posterity
26 may, perhaps, admire some of our cotemporaries, who
27 having done much for the advancement of arts and
28 sciences, have not enjoyed the esteem they merit.
29 We daily observe what extraordinary things can be
30 achieved by persevering practice, and what strange facts
31 are brought to light by scientific investigation; never-