THE 
VETEKINAIUAN. 
VOL. XXXI, 
No. 371. 
NOVEMBER, 1858. 
Fourth Series, 
No. 47. 
THE INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS, 
Delivered by the Principal — Professor Spooner, 
at THE 
OPENING OF THE SCHOLASTIC SESSION AT THE ROYAL 
VETERINARY COLLEGE, Oct., 1858. 
Gentlemen,-— Times and seasons appear to repeat them- 
selves. This is, however, but a superficial view of the 
subject; for new men, new duties and new conditions of the 
arts and sciences, fill every year, and even every month, and 
make all parts of time different from those which have gone 
before. Many of you are here for the first time, possessed 
doubtless by new hopes and fears, borne up by new* aspira- 
tions, and some of you perhaps with a resolution to achieve 
triumphs which others, who have preceded you, have sought 
in vain to accomplish. On the other hand, I have many 
times appeared in the capacity of your guide and counsellor 
at the beginning of a session, and as such have often 
addressed bodies of youthful aspirants, sitting upon the same 
benches as those you now occupy ; and I am bound to say 
that on each of these occasions I have felt the full weight of 
the responsibility which attaches to so important and serious 
a position. And yet, although in this respect I may seem to 
be an “old stager,” my feelings, I will take upon me to say, 
if not so fresh and youthful, are, at any rate, equally as 
anxious as your own. 
The progress of mind, my young friends, is the cause 
of this really incessant change, amounting even to novelty, 
to those who occupy apparently routine positions. In 
like manner all the arts and sciences, all the businesses of 
xxxi. 80 
