MR. MAYER’S ORATION. 
779 
upon the respective lectures ; and if it was not so, they could be 
refused their certificates of attendance, without which they should 
not be allowed an examination. I had hoped that, by this time, 
my colleagues and self, who have laboured for the obtainment of 
a charter, might have been enabled to have congratulated the 
profession upon possessing a chartered college of examination, in 
order that we might occupy the same relative situation towards 
the veterinary art, as the College of Surgeons and the Apothe- 
caries’ Company do towards the medical schools of the United 
Kingdom. This is the only true position the profession can 
occupy as a chartered body, with full and unfettered advantage 
to itself and to the Royal Veterinary College. This would form 
a new era in our history, and would tend to give a greater im- 
petus to the onward course of veterinary science than any event 
that has occurred since the first formation of the Veterinarv Col- 
lege. Did 1 not feel assured that my friends Mr. Sewell anu Mr. 
Spooner would give me credit for not meaning any disrespect to- 
wards them in touching upon this tender ground, but that they 
would attribute it to my zeal for the welfare of the art, 1 should 
not have done it. 
It is on you, Gentlemen, who form the rising generation, and 
are now, as students, passing through your curriculum at the Ve- 
terinary College, that the important duty will devolve of carrying 
t)ut and maturing the plans of those who have gone before you, 
and whose zeal and perseverance have brought us thus far. Let 
the importance, therefore, of the objects stimulate you to lay a 
good foundation, in an educational point of view, in order to 
qualify you to act your part in the great drama of life with credit 
and dignity to yourselves, and permanent good to the profession 
you follow. 
For the attainment of knowledge, as a celebrated man used to 
advise his pupils — “ Let your search after truth be eager and 
constant. Be wary in admitting propositions to be facts before 
vou have submitted them to the strictest examination. If, after 
•/ m ' 
this, you believe them to be true, never disregard or forget any 
one of them, however unimportant it may at the time appear. 
Should you perceive truths to be important, make them motives 
of action — let them serve as springs to your conduct. 
“ Many persons acknowledge truth with apathy ; they assent 
to it, but it produces no farther effect on their minds. Truths, 
however, are of importance in proportion as they admit of infer- 
ences which ought to have an influence on our conduct ; and if 
we neglect to draw those inferences, or to act in conformity to 
them, we fail in essential duties.” 
“ That which most dignifies man, is the cultivation of those 
intellectual faculties which distinguish him from the brute ere- 
