INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS. 
603 
an exact reverse. The Genius of Progress is also the pos- 
sessor of a cup of decomposition, in which unfaithful servants 
melt away with melancholy rapidity. 
The great problem of this country, of all the callings of 
life, and therefore of our profession, and of every individual 
member of it, is, how to make the moral and higher develop- 
ment of our nature go hand in hand with that progress which, 
as I have just shown, is a necessary part of the present state 
of the world. In thus addressing you, I would not, how- 
ever, have you think that 1 am going to indulge in abstract 
questions foreign to your attendance here to-day. I am only 
speaking of such things as underlie all successful study, and 
all profitable career in after-life. From the fact of com- 
mencing your pupilage in this college now, instead of ten 
years ago, you are entering upon a discipline of more ex- 
tended study of the science of the healing art, in common 
with all its fellow-branches of human knowledge and skill. 
To do your duty, then, a greater healthiness of mind is 
needed than heretofore. The lessons you have to learn 
will require greater attention, and attention is only possible 
where steadiness, sobriety, and diligence are carefully ob- 
served with a fixed and continuous purpose. 
T dwell first upon the moral wants of the veterinary pro- 
fession, because these are the real keys which open the doors 
to all the other necessary elements of success. Natural 
talents are nothing in themselves, except as seeds planted in 
the ground of a strong moral nature and a steady will. 
Will, indeed ! the will to pursue the good, is the greatest 
and most surprising force of all. It can turn small powers 
into great ones by its genial warmth and its incessant 
endeavours. “ Where there’s a will, there’s a way,” says a 
wise proverb. 
Steady will is the beginning of a man’s intellectual orga- 
nization, and it gives unity and consistence to his acts, and 
stamps the seal of experience on all his efforts. It is, speak- 
ing figuratively, the heart of his mind, which goes on 
pulsating throughout his life, keeping alive all his powers, 
and is at work even when he thinks himself free from its 
influence. Thus, as you can easily see, in proportion as his 
will is poor or rich, steady or fitful, pleasure loving or duty 
loving, so will be the fruits of the life he is following ; such 
his relation to the sciences to which he is devoted ; and such 
his success in the practice of the profession he has chosen. 
Now the will requires much supervision, and must, so to 
speak, medicine and train itself ; because, whatever be the 
explanation, it has, in all of us, a great many weaknesses. 
