Varied, however, as is the course of human life, few men have arrived at eminence without difficulty. We do not mean that ephemeral prominence of "position" which makes them marked in their day; but that which leaves the impression of their minds on the age in which they lived, or on the science or other pursuit which they had chosen—original minds, who have enlarged the boundaries of our knowledge. Such men usually have the ample gifts of nature with which they are endowed, somewhat counterbalanced by the difficulty experienced in the successful application of them. Abernethy had not been altogether exempt from such difficulties. With a sensitive organization, he had had to make his own way; he had experienced the difficulties which attend the advocacy of opinions and principles which were opposed to, or at all events different from, those generally entertained. He had had to encounter that misconstruction, misrepresentation, ridicule, even malice—save the mark!—which are too frequently provoked by any attempts to tell people that there is something more correct than the notions which they have been accustomed to value. Still, when we compare Abernethy's course with that of _many_—we had almost said _most_—benefactors to science, he might be said to have been a fortunate man. If a man has power, and a "place to stand on"—and Abernethy had both—truth will tell at last. A retired spot, a room in an obscure street, near St. Bartholomew's, had been by his unaided talents expanded into a theatre within the walls of the hospital. This was becoming again crowded; and, although it formed a satisfactory arena for the development and illustration of his principles, the increasing audiences were significant of the coming necessity of a still larger building; which was, in fact, a few years afterwards, constructed. He had indeed arrived, as we imagine, at a point which was comparatively smooth water, and which we are inclined to regard as the zenith of his career. In the opening of his beautiful lectures at the College, Abernethy, in one of his warm and earnest endeavours to animate his audience to regard benevolence, and the love of truth, as the impulses which could alone urge on, and sustain, industry in cultivating the "Science" of our profession, had observed that, "unfortunately, a man might attain to a considerable share of public reputation without being a real student of his profession." There have been indeed too many examples of that, as also of those who, after years of labour, have failed to obtain a scanty living.