MEDICAL PROFESSION IN MODERN THOUGHT. 331 



perhaps he has hardly ever been surpassed ; and that the grand les- 

 son to be learned from the extraordinary esteem and affection which 

 he inspired, from the infection of earnestness and sincerity which 

 spi-ead from him, and from the elevating influence which he exerted 

 upon those who were brought into close converse with him, is a les- 

 son which the history of human progress through the ages teaches 

 too, and which needs much to be had in remembrance in these days 

 of the glorification of science. It is this : that great as is knowledge, 

 the moral nature is greater still ; that the impulses of evolution which 

 move the world come not from the intellect, but from the heart ; 

 that he who would work upon the hearts of others must speak to 

 them from the heart ; that everywhere and always we have to recog- 

 nize the predominance of the heart over the intellect. 



Perhaps if I could recall vividly the thoughts and feelings of my 

 mind when sitting there twenty-five years ago, and compare, or rather 

 contrast, them with my thoughts and feelings now, I might extract 

 from the comparison the essence of a quarter of a century's experi- 

 ence of life, and impart to you what it will probably take you a quar- 

 ter of a century to acquire. But I am doubtful whether that would 

 not be to do you a great disservice, for I could hardly fail thereby 

 to take much heart out of your hopes, much ardor out of your enthu- 

 siasm, much energy out of your exertions. Moreover, I feel pretty 

 sure that what I could say, however wisely it might be said, would 

 not be of the least use to you. Neither nations nor individuals profit 

 much by the experience of other nations or of other individuals ; 

 they must go through their experience for themselves, learning 

 through suffering, succeeding through blundering, attaining to the 

 calmness of wisdom through the fevers of passion ; and many times 

 only when opportunities are gone, and their consequences in irrevo- 

 cable operation, is it seen perhaps how much better use might have 

 been made of them. No doubt there is wise purpose in this inability 

 of the young to take home and assimilate the experience of those 

 who are older ; for I know not how they could preserve that enthu- 

 siasm and freshness of spirit which make life itself a joy, and beguile 

 them to pursue with eagerness its aims, were their illusions destroyed, 

 as illusions one after another are destroyed by experience. In the 

 full stream of its young energy life is too little conscious for reflec- 

 tion ; to live is happiness enough ; in its later stages more and more, 

 as the heart is applied to know wisdom, is it felt to be vanity and 

 vexation of spirit. This may seem a hard doctrine, but it is true ; it 

 has been the experience of the greatest sages of all times ; it is the 

 central thought of the great religious systems of the world. 



Let me pass, however, from reflections which, if pursued, might 

 tend to dishearten rather than to hearten you, and endeavor to show 

 you that, as things go, you have made a good choice of a profession 

 for your life's work. I should be thought to have ill discharged the 



