58 CRITIQUES AND ADDRESSES. [in. 



teacher and mine, Dr. Sharpey. He was at that time 

 one of the examiners in anatomy and physiology, and 

 you may be quite sure that, as he was one of the 

 examiners, there remained not the smallest doubt in my 

 mind of the propriety of his judgment, and I accepted 

 my defeat with the most comfortable assurance that I 

 had thoroughly well earned it. But, gentlemen, the 

 competitor having been a worthy one, and the examina- 

 tion a fair one, I cannot say that I found in that cir- 

 cumstance anything very discouraging. I said to myself, 

 " Never mind ; what's the next thing to be done ? " 

 And I found that policy of " never minding" and going 

 on to the next thing to be done, to be the most important 

 of all policies in the conduct of practical life. It does 

 not matter how many tumbles you have in this life, so 

 long as you do not get dirty when you tumble ; it is 

 only the people who have to stop to be washed and made 

 clean, who must necessarily lose the race. And I can 

 assure you that there is the greatest practical benefit in 

 making a few failures early in life. You learn that 

 which is of inestimable importance that there are a 

 great many people in the world who are just as clever as 

 you are. You learn to put your trust, by and by, in an 

 economy and frugality of the exercise of your powers, 

 both moral -and intellectual ; and you very soon find out, 

 if you have not found it out before, that patience and 

 tenacity of purpose are worth more than twice their 

 weight of cleverness. In fact, if I were to go on dis- 

 coursing on this subject, I should become almost eloquent 

 in praise of non-success ; but, lest so doing should seem, 

 in any way, to wither well-earned laurels, I will turn 

 from that topic, and ask you to accompany me in some 

 considerations touching another subject which has a very 

 profound interest for me, and which I think ought to 

 have an equally profound interest for you. 



