272 
PHARMACEUTICAL MEETING. 
Squire, Professor Bentley and many others who have lent willing aid, you 
have an assemblage of specimens possibly unequalled in Europe. 
The exercise of the observing faculties you will thus be led into, forms the 
natural antithesis to that waste of energy you term ‘ cramming.’ I can 
scarcely trust myself to speak of a process so dishonest in itself, so unworthy 
of any rightly-minded student, as that implied in the significant, if some¬ 
what "inelegant epithet: indeed, I do not know that a word more appro¬ 
priate from the very disgust which it occasions, could be coined to meet the 
CcLSG* 
It is too often as a fancied antidote to neglect of duty in the early or 
mid-portion of a student’s career that this process of cramming is resorted to, 
and it may thus be regarded as a natural sequel to idleness. Montaigne, in 
one of his charming essays, has well described the state of mind induced by 
laxity of mental discipline. He says, “ As we see ground that has lain fallow, 
if the soil is fat and fertile, produce innumerable sorts of wild herbs that 
are good for nothing, for want of being cultivated and sown with seeds 
proper for our service ; even so it is with our minds, which if not applied to 
some particular subjects to check and restrain, rove about confusedly in the 
vague expanse of imagination.” Above all things avoid this desultory half¬ 
hearted work which is in reality but idleness. Learn a little, if you have not 
opportunity to learn much; but whether it be much or little, learn with 
mastery. The rapid acquirement of superficial knowledge, the tax of the 
memory for a temporary purpose, to a degree beyond the capacity for as¬ 
similation, cannot be of any permanent benefit. The recollection of this 
fact will do much to remove the temptation to trust in a great exhaustive 
effort for results that only diligence and constancy will rightly ensure. 
As to the mode in which you pursue your studies, accept the advice of your 
professors, and follow 7 it out w ith your whole heart. You can show your ap¬ 
preciation of their instruction in no way better than by asking for more. 
They have no interest beyond your advancement; their crown is in your in¬ 
tellectual prosperity. Do not omit, on the fancied ground of intrusion, to 
ask for explanation of whatever you do not rightly comprehend in connection 
with their discourses. Nothing is so discouraging to a lecturer as the lack 
of earnestness in his audience, which, if it exists, manifests itself in a hundred 
different ways. The look of submission rather than enjoyment, the furtive 
observation of the timepiece, unpunctuality in entering and eagerness to 
leave the lecture-room, are symptoms that drain the enthusiasm of a teacher. 
If in the presence of these discouragements a lecturer may appear to fail to 
carry his class with him, the fault is chiefly their own. If your ow n interest 
is not sufficient to stimulate you to the endeavour to obtain the largest 
amount of advantage during this most important period of your life, recol¬ 
lect that you are not alone in the world, and that you owe much to those 
by whose means you enjoy the advantages before you. No good was ever 
done in the world without self-denial, the bitterest of Christian virtues in 
practice, but the one that soonest of all yields sweetest fruit. 
Do not suffer yourselves to be led away from wffiat you know to be right 
by associates, well-meaning though they may be, wffio, nevertheless, do not 
show by their conduct that they have grappled with the great problems of 
their existence. “ Be very circumspect,” says an old author, “ in the choice of 
thy company. In the society of thine equals thou shalt enjoy more pleasure, 
in the society of thy superiors thou shalt enjoy more profit,” and this is 
equally true in its moral and intellectual application. 
In the address that w 7 as delivered in this room, a year ago, prominence was 
given to the importance of the study of natural objects and natural phe¬ 
nomena, as a corrective to the habit of mind engendered by application to 
