Page:Transactions of the Provincial Medical and Surgical Association, volume 2.djvu/579

 honestly gained and would wear well; and that there was a certain prospect for him of an almost immediate practice, so large as to free him, in a few years, from every difficulty. Man's wordly wisdom is as vain as his disquietude. All these expectations, which I was fully justified in representing to him, and which he, at times, indulged in with reasonable hope, were frustrated at once. Just as the prospect about him was clearing, and years of reputation and of independence, or, even, of wealth, seemed to be opening upon him, a slight accident, acting upon a frame rendered very irritable and feeble by mental restlessness, extinguished his life almost without any effort or appearance of resistance in his constitution.

This memoir, however imperfect, will be perused by many who, having known something of Dr. Darwall, will be interested in anything that recalls his name. It will, also, be looked into by some who, perhaps, acquainted with my deceased friend, and with myself, may feel some kind of curiosity to learn in what manner I have touched on certain points connected with the opinions held by Dr. Darwall on the important subjects of religion and politics: opinions which had so constant an influence on his conduct and were so conspicuously proclaimed on many occasions, as not to be passed over in silence. On this subject, which I approach with some reluctance, but which cannot be wholly avoided, I shall express myself with truth and freedom, but without exaggeration. The office of the biographer is not to render the praise of the dead worthless by making it indiscriminate, nor yet to conciliate the favour of the living by disingenuous concealments;