276 
PHARMACEUTICAL MEETING. 
There is yet another aspect in which study of natural science is even more 
important,—just as a healthy tone of mind is of greater price than intellec¬ 
tual accomplishment,—I allude to its soothing and humanizing influence, 
which seems intended as the natural antidote to the worry and the rough usage 
of the world. The lesson drawn from the “ lilies of the field ” had, possibly, a 
wider significance than even those to whom it was addressed could fully ap¬ 
preciate. It was from deep experience that our great poet-philosopher could 
say, 
“ that Nature never did betray 
The heart that loved her ; ’tis her privilege, 
Through all the years of this our life, to lead 
From joy to joy: for she can so inform 
The mind that is within us, so impress 
With quietness and beauty, and so feed 
With lofty thoughts, that neither evil tongues, 
Hash judgments, nor the sneers of selfish men, 
Nor greetings where no kindness is, nor all 
The dreary intercourse of daily life, 
Shall e’er prevail against us, or disturb 
Our cheerful faith, that all which we behold 
Is full of blessings.” 
Some will be disposed to urge that the standard I have set is a high one, 
and I do not affect to deny it. Better to strive towards high attainment, 
even though we may, through human weakness, fall short of it, than to rest 
contentedly on a lower level. Life is ever a compromise between the aspira¬ 
tions of our best moments and the obstacles that mar their fulfilment, and the 
higher the aim, when coupled with honest endeavour, the better the accom¬ 
plishment. To some are given larger, to some smaller opportunities, but the 
same responsibility pertains to all, that they should be employed to the utmost, 
whether in the greater or the humbler sphere. If it were not for the fear of 
saying too much, I might, in conclusion, try to draw a picture for the en¬ 
couragement of even the youngest here,—a word-picture from actual life, 
that would be a justification for even more than I have said. I would tell 
you of one gone from us who still lives in the memory of some now present; 
of one who, with fewer privileges of early education than most of you, and 
dependent on the same avocation as ourselves for his livelihood, yet attained 
a name and an influence that the greatest might envy. Born in Spitalfields a 
hundred years ago, engaged in early life in an uncongenial occupation, and, 
even at the age of seventeen, scarcely in a position to anticipate that pharmacy 
would be his calling, and still within a few years—diligent alike in matters 
of business and in pursuits beyond the pale of its multifarious demands— 
in the front rank not only as a pharmaceutist, but in scientific and social rela¬ 
tions. Take an opportunity of looking at the portrait that hangs over the 
mantelpiece of our Council Boom, of William Allen, the first President of this 
institution, who, dying at a venerable age, did but see the Society through 
its first infancy and gave it his blessing. You may trace even in the picture 
his philosophic calmness and large-hearted benevolence. I should the more 
have liked to have read to you the lesson of his life, because, by his loss at so 
early a period of our history, his name is not associated with the great 
struggles in which we have been engaged, and stands in danger of being over¬ 
looked amongst us. I have said that his youth gave him no special ad¬ 
vantages either pecuniary or educational; he had to work his way (we know 
what that means) to succeeding positions of increased responsibility in that 
well-known pharmacy in Plough Court, of which he eventually became the 
principal, and with which his name is inseparably connected. With all this 
