304 ON MEDICAL EDUCATION xii 



my best to play my part heartily, and to rejoice 

 in the success of those who have succeeded. Still, 

 I should like to remind you at the end of it all, 

 that success on an occasion of this kind, valu- 

 able and inii)ortant as it is, is in reality only 

 putting the foot ui)on one rung of the ladder 

 which loads upwards; and that the rung of a lad- 

 der was never meant to rest upon, but only to 

 hold a man's foot long enough to enable him to 

 put the other somewhat higher. I trust that 

 you will all regard these successes as simi)ly re- 

 minders that your next business is, having en- 

 ioved the success of the dav, no lono;er to look at 

 that success, but to look forward to the next diffi- 

 culty that is to be conquered. And now, having 

 had so much to say to the successful candidates, 

 you must forgive me if I add that a sort of under- 

 current of sympathy has been going on in my 

 mind all the time for those who have not been 

 successful, for those valiant knights who have 

 been overthrown in vour tournev, and have not 

 made their ap])earance in public. I trust that, 

 in accordance with old custom, they, wounded and 

 bleeding, have been carried off to their tents, to 

 be carefully tended by the fairest of maidens; 

 and in these days, when the chances are that 

 every one of such maidens will be a qualified 

 practitioner, I have no doubt that all the splinters 

 will have been carefully extracted, and that they 

 are now physically healed. But there may re- 



