NON NOBIS SOLUM. 
409 
Such institutions as yours are the corner stones of practical 
Christianity. In Greece and Rome in the plenitude of their 
enlightenment and power, there were no veterinary schools, not 
even a hospital, nor a poor-house, nor a retreat for the insane; nor 
were the great men of Greece and Rome much commemorated 
for their philantrophy and benevolence. How broad, how ex¬ 
tensive, how universal your benignant objects, bringing all ani¬ 
mated creation into the wide and unfettered compass of divine 
sympathy. Is the golden motto based upon disinterested humane 
instincts, or are we but practically extending the narrow selfish¬ 
ness of our mercantile natures ? Are our sympathies quickened 
by a swift recognition of the helplessness of the dumb creation, 
or do we sordidly yield comfort and succor to them because of 
their uncomplaining helpfulness to us. The philosophy of the 
motto is so pure and exalted that it seems to be divorced from 
worldly considerations and to be the natural sequence of the prac¬ 
tice of the highest Christian civilization. 
To some of you it may have happened during the recent sharp 
and boisterous weather, in passing along a city street, however 
crowded, to note what varieties of animal life were in sight. If 
so, doubtless, such were touched at heart to see that the horse 
was the only friend of man that was his willing aid in his skirmish 
with the elements, with which civilization ever seems at war. 
I need hardly except the fair sex, not those who rebel at be¬ 
ing included under the generic word man, any more than their 
most sensitive sisters who would rather encounter the bitterest 
storm than the odium which for them the word strong minded 
carries. All these, upon such a day as I have in mind, were safely 
quartered at home, and if one permitted himself to pursue the 
train of thought so suggested, how far it would lead! 
In the removal of rock and ground to make room for the 
stately palaces, grand warehouses and the comfortable homes, in 
the bringing material for the erection of these to the right place, 
in the transportation of men and the food of man and of merch¬ 
andize between them, how active and indispensable has been this 
good, faithful friend and efficient aid. 
Next, the mind making excursion beyond the city to the forests 
