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THE P HAR MACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
[October 7,1371. 
Above all, be true eacli one to liimself in this 
respect, that lie feels and acts as if lie knew, that it is 
essentially necessary to keep up the stock of know¬ 
ledge already gained by the maintenance, more or 
less, of habits of investigation and study; for at the 
present time it is impossible for any one to take his 
true position as an educated pharmacist, unless he 
diligent!} 7 keeps himself abreast in all that pertains 
to pharmaceutical chemistry. I know that in 
making this statement I lay myself open to the 
remark, that in many cases the opportunities for 
.self-improvement are so few, and the means of cul¬ 
tivating the scientific department of our business so 
meagre, that it is almost impossible to evoke from 
odd minutes or even hours such results as those 
at which I have hinted. But to meet such a feeling, 
may I not refer to cases where the most brilliant 
talent has, after being clouded and hid amidst diffi- 
-culties and struggles, emerged and shone with daz¬ 
zling lustre in the horizon of science. It has been 
.surmised that Sir Humphry Davy would never have 
been the great philosopher he became had he been 
favoured with extensive privileges in his early 
career, and that the discipline through which he was 
compelled to pass, owing to his comparative povert} 7 , 
developed the perseverance and energy so necessary 
in his future researches to raise him to a pinnacle 
.of fame few in the world ever reached. But to go a 
-.step further, it is known that the late Professor 
Faraday, pupil and successor to the illustrious 
Davy, being of very humble parentage, was, at the 
early age of thirteen, apprenticed to a bookbinder, 
and while following this his intended occupation, 
was found one day reading an article on electricity 
in a volume of the ‘ Encyclopaedia Britannica,’ which 
had been sent to be bound. The gentleman to whom 
the book belonged, on making this discovery, was so 
much struck, that he presented Faraday with a 
ticket to attend Davy’s lectures at the B. 03 r al Insti¬ 
tution, soon after which he was admitted to a place 
in the philosopher’s laboratory, and readied, as you 
•all know, long before his death, a world-wide renown 
and reputation. 
Of these two great men it has been said, “ Both 
were greater because of their first difficulties; but 
they were greater because they had the mental con¬ 
stitution which required such difficulties to brace 
their power. Had the} 7 been originally men of ordi¬ 
nary mental gifts, they would have remained until 
death in their original obscurity. Had they, in 
common with their great mental endowments, pos- 
-sessed unlimited facilities, they might never have 
passed the bounds of a respectable mediocrity.” 
I cannot, therefore, impress too strongly upon all 
the great importance of a just appreciation of the 
value of time. Every man is apt to waste or mis¬ 
spend time; and we know, if once lost, it can never 
he regained. We can measure its flight, but we 
cannot, for a single moment, arrest its onward pro¬ 
gress ; onward, onward, since the world began; and 
on, unceasingly on, until the period when time itself 
shall be no more. The cliild of }'esterday becomes 
the man of to-day ; and it such be the unceasing and 
rapid flight of time, it certainly becomes all impor¬ 
tant to economize and use the precious and never- 
.to-be-recalled minutes ere they flit for ever away. 
Well has Marsden put it when he says,— 
u * What is limeP ’ 
I asked an aged man,—a man of cares, 
Wrinkled and curved, and white with hoary hairs; 
‘ Time is the warp of life,’ he said ; ‘ O tell 
The young, the fair, the gay, to weave it well.’ ” 
I know it is not an easy thing for the youtliful 
mind to realize, in all its fulness, the value of time. 
There are so many allurements, so many whisper¬ 
ings, and so many attractions, that the mind is fre¬ 
quently insensibly led away, until, when the oppor¬ 
tunity is over and the day far spent, regret and 
disquiet creep in, where all might have been peace 
and satisfaction. How often in mental review does 
the man of riper years wander back to time which 
has passed like a vision, and with such remembrances 
find what might have been otherwise a pleasing 
picture, so blurred and defaced, that pain, humilia¬ 
tion and vexation are all the more intensified from 
the few bright and beautiful spots which, like “ apples 
of gold in a picture of silver,” may be seen struggling 
through the gloom, carrying the conviction that 
many opportunities had been lost which might have 
been turned to useful account, but now gone for 
ever ! 
I make these statements very plainly and boldly, 
because I believe I am right in believing that there 
is no one now hearing me, for whom these remarks 
are specially intended, who has not a brief space of 
unoccupied time more or less on his hands; and I 
wish to draw the particular attention of all such to 
the full value of spare minutes, and to inculcate the 
amount of good to be done by a methodical and sys¬ 
tematic arrangement of the short half-hour in the 
morning, evening, after meals, or, indeed, at any time 
of the day or night. I have a very pleasing recollec¬ 
tion of what could be done in our own business at a 
period when hours of attendance were very much 
longer than at present. During my residence in 338, 
Oxford Street, not one minute was lost at breakfast, 
dinner, or tea. Each young man had his book on 
the table; while the evenings after 10, or even 11, 
o’clock were devoted to reading and study. More 
than myself are now alive to testify to the good re¬ 
sults arising from such organization; and few things 
afford me greater pleasure than in recognizing, while 
I now address you, a living witness of the truth of 
what I have just stated, in the person of my old, tried, 
and valued friend, Mr. Hills, in himself a type of all 
that is good, 'generous, and amiable; and who, I 
am proud to say, was my fellow-companion during 
the whole time I was in Mr. Bell’s establishment. 
With a view to impress still further upon my 
young friends the inestimable value of time, I can¬ 
not resist introducing a picture which I feel assured 
will interest all, namely, a glance at the early years 
of the life of an eminent and excellent man; who, 
while in this world, so measured and arranged his 
time, that he greatly advanced the temporal and 
spiritual good of many of his fellow-creatures, and 
whose life and actions we may well strive not only 
to admire, but, in many respects, to imitate. 
About ninety years ago there lived in Spitalfields 
a silk manufacturer. I must ask you, in imagina¬ 
tion, to accompany me to liis mansion, and wending 
our way upstairs into a boy’s apartment, there find 
an inmate in the form of a youth about fourteen 
years old. This young boy is not idle; he has evi¬ 
dently head and hands employed. He is endeavour¬ 
ing to make some tubular instrument, the materials 
employed being card-board and glass. He is trying 
to make a telescope. Money to purchase one, or 
even better materials with which to attempt its con¬ 
struction, were not within his reach; but yet a tele- 
