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on a wider footing. Far be it from us to-day to dampen the ardor 

 or throw aught in the way of those who are carrying out this 

 work ; hut none the less is it true that there is a culture deeper, 

 higher, and more profound than any university can give. 



This is the self-culture of the true scholar, for which a university 

 at best can but lay the foundation. The highest culture must be 

 forever self-culture. A man may be aided by others up to a cer- 

 tain point ; into the unknown he must travel alone. Aye, more 

 than this, before he reaches that unknown he must for himself 

 trace out the obscure, unfrequented paths which mark the out- 

 lying regions of uncertainty in knowledge. 



It is to afford opportunity for this self-culture that the Academy 

 exists. There are but few men whom destiny has marked for such 

 a course. The study halls of the Academy must always be for 

 the few but the work of the few is the life of the nation. I 

 must assert, then, the pre-eminent claims for such institutions as 

 our Academy. Talk of your universities of the large crowds 

 that haunt their doors of the annual overflow of vigorous trained 

 young talent wherewith they bless surrounding regions. Why, 

 our old Academy is the gymnasium in which men train themselves 

 for professorships in the universities. 



There is a class of medical men who, in their early professional 

 life, study deeply the natural sciences, and who often through 

 life add to the practical duties of their profession investigations of 

 natural history. I do not remember a single great name of such 

 a character in Continental Europe. Yet in the British Islands, 

 the brightest lights of the profession the Hunters, Coopers, 

 Brodies, Reids, Bells, Beales, Pagets, etc. the foremost medical 

 thinkers, leaders, and practitioners of their days, have been of 

 this character students of natural history who have applied the 

 methods and facts of their sister science to their profession, and 

 thereby climbed to their proud pre-eminence. In our own city the 

 names of Rush, Morton, Harlan, Wood, and some about us, 

 mark our origin. And, indeed, it is chiefly through such men 

 that the great renown of our city, as a medical centre, was ac- 

 quired. Speaking for this class of men, I would say to the citi- 

 zens of Philadelphia, as they value the fair name of their city ; as 

 the}' respect and honor that profession into whose keeping they 

 place all that is dearest to them ; as they hope for skilful rescue 



