626 
INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS. 
laggards, but aiding the onward march, as it is only by so 
doing that we can hope to maintain our position in society. 
This is a period of restless activity, and unless we keep pace, 
we shall soon be left in the distance. I have already said I 
am no advocate for innovation unless I see its necessity, and 
this I think I do ; therefore, it is, I have suggested those 
helps to mind-progress, and am very desirous that with 
this school they should originate. Depend upon it the love 
of innovation and the dread of it, are equally remote from 
true policy. 
Having thus glanced at the present state of the profession 
and its probable or anticipated future, permit me now to 
offer you, as students, a word or two of advice, for we are 
not ignorant of your wants, nor would we be oblivious of 
your interests. This, in my opinion, should constitute the 
greater part, if not the whole of an introductory address ; 
but as others favour us with their presence on these occa- 
sions, so the subjects chosen are commonly of a general 
nature. We feel gratified bv their being here, and encouraged, 
since they thus give proof that they feel an interest in our 
well-doing; and in my own name and the names of my 
colleagues, I beg they will accept our acknowledgments. 
And now, addressing my younger friends in the way of 
admonition, after having welcomed them to their studies 
collectively, 1 would first do so by an appeal to their moral 
responsibility, then enter somewhat into the details of their 
studies, and close by pointing out the advantages that are 
sure to result from consistency of conduct and correct 
deportment being maintained by them throughout life. 
Under the first head, permit the following extract : 
ce Man, viewed as a sentient, passing, perishing creature, 
has in this world a destiny to fulfil, a task to accomplish, 
efforts to put forth and to repeat, necessities to satisfy, 
faculties to be developed, capacities to be ever enlarged and 
improved. But there is another aspect in which man must 
also be viewed, and in which other conditions of action come 
into play. Viewed as a spiritual being, he entertains the 
idea of immortality, and feels a consciousness that his soul, 
an emanation from God, shall after its period of pilgrimage 
is over — a pilgrimage of mingled sorrows and joys, good and 
ill — shake itself loose from its earthly entanglements, and 
return again to the bosom of that God, sanctified by piety 
and love, purified by repentance, and ennobled by the 
achievements and triumphs of thought. 
“ View man in the first of these aspects, and we see him 
analogous to the animals that surround him. The plant 
