Mr. Abernethy had, in his last illness, repeatedly expressed his anxiety that every kindness and care should be shown towards her to whom he felt so much indebted; and he had prophetically suggested, as probable, what really happened. He said, "Take every care of your dear mother. She may have many and perhaps serious illnesses; but she will still be, most likely, a long-lived woman." This legacy, we have reason to know, was most fully and kindly administered. One circumstance, on the occasion of his marriage, is very characteristic of him: namely, his not allowing it to interrupt, even for a day, a duty with which he rarely suffered anything to interfere—we mean the lecture at the hospital. Many years after this, I met him coming into the hospital one day, a little before two (the hour of lecture), and seeing him rather smartly dressed, with a white waistcoat, I said: "You are very gay to-day, Sir." "Ay," said he; "one of the girls was married this morning." "Indeed, Sir!" I said. "You should have given yourself a holiday on such an occasion, and not come down to lecture." "Nay," returned he. "Egad! I came down to lecture the day I was married myself!" On another occasion, I recollect his being sent for to a case just before lecture. The case was close in the neighbourhood, and it being a question of time, he hesitated a little; but being pressed to go, he started off. He had, however, hardly passed the gates of the hospital before the clock struck two, when, all at once, he said, "No, I'll be —— if I do!" and returned to the lecture-room. CHAPTER XV. OF ABERNETHY'S BOOK ON "THE CONSTITUTIONAL ORIGIN OF LOCAL DISEASES," OTHERWISE "MY BOOK." "From the barr'd Vizor of Antiquity Reflected shines the Eternal light of Truth, As from a mirror; all the means of action, The shapeless masses, the materials, Are everywhere around us. What we need Is the celestial fire, to change the flint Into transparent crystal, bright as fair." LONGFELLOW'S "SPANISH STUDENT."