Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1873-08-09
CLAW AND nEDIcISE.. |.


p0nse made by Major b. u. Bidwell to
the toast 'I.s= and Medicine" 1t is
so appropriate and so well expressed
that we take the privilege of publish
lngIt: - =--.
Mr.. PRESIDENT: I have somewhere
seen the idea expressed that the law
yer's profession depends on the moral
depravity of man, the physicians on
his physical infrmities. This is one
of those thoughts which are too often
born and thrown upon the world with
out labor pains. The harmony of the
universe is its obedience to fixed and
changeless divine law. From the
merely vitalized monad to the highest
intelligences in heaven all is harmony,
all order. The statutes regulating
trade and commerce, as well as others
might mention, are necessities of
mans political being; and no moral
tone however exalted, no civilization
however advanced, can possibly dis
pense with the necessity for them
Pain and disease are but the means or
dained of God for the enforcement of
his decree, 'the day thou eatest thereof
thou shalt surely die," and are but
conditions of mans existence, without
which he would not be man, but an
other and different being. Through
the long weary ages the sons of profess
sional toll, worshipping no, imaginary
deity, but bowling at natures altar,
have sought to discover and declare
the laws of natures God. The stones
on which Moses inscribed the COM
mands of God are not the only tablets
on which Jehovah has written the laws
which control mans destiny. When
gazing on the yet mysterious characters
which his finger has traced on the
earth, and in the systems that circle
and burn in the cerulean vault of the
upper deep, the poet-kiDg exclaims,
What is man that thou art mindful of
him?"
For the efforts and progress you have
made in your noble profession you de-
serve the gratitude and "God bless
you" Of mankind. Your fame does
not rest on the crushed hopes of your
fellow-men, nor on the ruins of once
splendid empires, but was all achieved
in the interests of humanity. The last
note in Niagara's hymn of praise to
Natures God will one day be sounded;
the last bead in Times rosary counted;
old Oceans restless moan shall be
hushed into awful silence; the sun
himself shall float acharred and black
ened mass In the heavens; but be
yond the storms that wreck, the sins
that damn" your deeds will be named
among the splendprs of the eternal
world. t gt
L have thought that your efforts in
behalf Of suffering man would be more
justly appreciated were your profession
better understood. The man who
knows something of anatomy, physiol-
ogy and pathology can thank God with
a deeper seEse of gratitude for health
and convalescence than he who knows
nothing of them.
l confess with regret that law has
compelled you to pursue one of the
most important of your professional
studies In secret. An uneducated pub
lie opinion has placed the ignorant,
pretentious quack in the path of your
progress men as ignorant of the fun
damental principles which underlie
your profession as the islander of Tor
ris Strait, who prove themselves false
to every noble or virtuous sentiment,
and are ready to compound honor for
the mere boon of existence, are too Of !
ten encouraged by liberal patronage.
In the far-off past, beyond the count
less generations, amid the obscurities
of antiquity, the star of your healing
art arose above the world. That star
has become asun which aings its splen-
dors over the woes of life and the sor-
rows Of time. 1t should be your pride |
and pleasure to preserve the names |
and deeds of the old priests of your
profession, who labored as pioneers in
the wilderness of science, encouraged
by an undoubting faith, cheered by
hope, and guided by an occasional
gleam Of light from the far off palace
of truth. They sighed for the great
Sabbath-day Of science, with all of its
revealed beauties, whose morning is
now breaking ON the world. Study
their works with the same spirit with
which the humble Christian reads the
strange story Of mans creation, his
fall and redemption" In their names,
in the name of God and suffering hu-
manity, let me beg you tonight to
kneel around the altar of honorable
kindle anew in the hearts
golden censor the fame of devotion,
and with souls pure as yestal's swear
to drive the piratical craft of quack-
cry from the high seas of science. That
idiots spit the slime of de-
traction at you, and for the time deface
he purity of your noblest creations, is
10 cause of discouragement. A doubt
ng ra bile, who knew not what they
lid, cursed, reviled, and spit upon the
Redeemer Of the world. Heed but the
Toice of duty, which is the voice of
Tod calling to you from the very heay-
ms; discard the falsities that starve
he soul and feed the heart on food fit
,nly for swine; and while conscience
ings her peaceful song ON the battle
ields of life you will walk like profess
ional Meshachs through the fame un-
lurt. Let your watchword be the
command of God to IsraePs leader in
he desert, Speak to the children Of
.srael that they 90 tor,oard, until ma
ure's problems are all solved, and the
light Of science reveals the footprints
# the Creator in all of his mysterious
yorks. Then will mans mind no lon-
,er struggle in helpless weakness; but
IS Abraham saw his God, so man shall
zee the truth, "and wondering fall upon
lis knees"
Borne on the tide of feeling, I have
orgotten to properly illustrate the SEN
iment to which l should have res
,onded. In conclusion, gentlemen, let
ne express the hope that after ''life's
ong storm of trouble and of tears" is
'ver you may, in the language of the
monarch of his race, "cross over the
liver and rest under the shade of the
rees.
STORY OF A PICTURE.-A painter
moe wanted a picture of innocence,
md drew the likeness of child at
,rayer The little supnlieaDt was