As the cormorant is generally regarded to be the dernier cri in voracity, the incident illustrates the old saying of the biter bit.

Dr. Janet's essay is the dernier cri of science, and leaves Dr. Nevius just where it found him.

Thou art ready to cry all day long, 'I have left undone that which I ought to have done;' till, at times, thou longest that all was over, and thou wert beginning again in some freer, fuller, nobler, holier life, to do and to be what thou hast never done nor been here; and criest with the poet 'Tis life, whereof my nerves are scant; 'Tis life, not death, for which I pant; More life, and fuller, that I want.