Page:In defense of Harriet Shelley, and other essays.djvu/347

 A MAJESTIC LITERARY FOSSIL

a wheelbarrow and gather weeds and offal, and build some more, while those others were getting in their work. And if our reverend doctor came and found him there, he would be dumb with awe, and would get down and worship him. Whereas if Galen should appear among us to-day, he could not stand any body s watch; he would inspire no awe; he would be told he was a back number, and it would surprise him to see that that fact counted against him, instead of in his favor. He wouldn t know our medicines; he wouldn t know our practice; and the first time he tried to introduce his own we would hang him.

This introduction brings me to my literary relic. It is a Dictionary of Medicine, by Dr. James, of Lw- don, assisted by Mr. Boswell s Doctor Samuel Johnson, and is a hundred and fifty years old, it having been published at the time of the rebellion of 45. If it had been sent against the Pretender s troops there probably wouldn t have been a survivor. In 1 86 1 this deadly book was still working the cemeteries down in Virginia. For three genera tions and a half it had been going quietly along, enriching the earth with its slain. Up to its last free day it was trusted and believed in, and its devastating advice taken, as was shown by notes inserted be tween its leaves. But our troops captured it and brought it home, and it has been out of business since. These remarks from its preface are in the true spirit of the olden time, sodden with worship of the old, disdain of the new:

If we inquire into the Improvements which have been made by the Moderns, we shall be forced to confess that we have so

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