THE ALUMNI JOURNAL 87 



Besides the 105 who have succeeded in passing- all the examinations 

 and accomplishing all the work required, there were 15 who re- 

 ceived their degrees last autumn, and there were 5 Doctors of 

 Pharmacy and 18 pharmaceutical chemists who received their de- 

 grees from the President of Columbia University at the University 

 commencement. There will be some to receive their degrees there 

 this year. 



Before I can confer your degrees upon you, young ladies and 

 gentlemen, I wish, in the first place, to congratulate you on the 

 successful completion of what you have undertaken to accomplish 

 in this College, but I want you to realize that your education is 

 not completed. You have acquired a certain amount of knowledge, 

 but there is something more important that I hope you have all 

 acquired. You have learned how to learn, you have learned how 

 to acquire, and that is something which you must continue to ac- 

 quire as long as you live. I hope that you have made yourselves suf- 

 ficiently familiar with the literature of your profession ; that you 

 will have it constantly with you so that you may keep pace with 

 the advances in the science and art of pharmacy. A great many 

 things are necessary in this life for success — knowledge is one of 

 them, but there are many others, honesty, integrity- -but the great 

 thing — as important as any — is to learn to distinguish the essential 

 from the unessential. A great many men start out in life apparent- 

 ly equipped with everything necessary for success ; they are honest, 

 they are upright, they are honorable, they are industrious, yet they 

 are often complete failures because they employ their efforts over 

 work at subjects that are not worth working at, that it is not possi- 

 ble to accomplish anything at ; judge, think of this before you act, 

 so that when you work, you work for a purpose. Some people call 

 want of success bad luck ; they say they never had an opportunity, 

 but the difficulty is they did not recognize their opportunities or 

 they failed to make use of them ; the opportunity went by, and it is 

 said that it does not often come back ; you must recognize it. 



There is another thing, and that is: When an opportunity is 

 presented to them to do something, the first question they ask is, 

 "What is there in it for me?" That is the greatest mistake a man 

 can make in life. If anything presents itself to any one of you to 

 do, the question to ask is: Is it worth doing? Is it worth doing? 

 And if it is worth doing, do it. Take what comes to you for doing 



