4 
J. LAW. 
principles and practical details of that science to which you pro¬ 
pose to devote your lives. Y on will often miss the guiding hand 
and wise counsel of your former teachers, and you will at times 
be puzzled by new and unexpected developments and pathology; 
but you will steadily gain in good judgment, and the power of 
applying sound principles to individual cases, and in an intelligent 
self-reliance, which will grow with your years and your availed-of 
opportunities. You will find that there is still much to learn ; 
that what you have hitherto studied as general principles require 
many elastic adaptations when applied to particular cases; but, 
in applying these, you will be building up a superstructure of 
experience and skill which will swell into constantly increasing 
proportions as you proceed with your work. You will find the 
richest fields for investigation, views that the most assiduous of 
your predecessors have not even touched, and precious gems 
waiting to be culled by skilled and tireless workers. You will 
learn, however, that your position is not without its drawbacks. 
True merit is not always speedily recognized, and you may at 
times be shocked to see that hoary quackery, or even that which 
is young and aggressive, has left you behind in the race for pop¬ 
ular support, and the question may obtrude itself, whether, after 
all, you have laid out your time and means to the best account. 
Permit one who has matriculated into this school a few years in 
advance of you, to offer a few words of counsel and encourage¬ 
ment. 
First, then, never lapse into the idea that you have finished 
your studies, and that you can now afford to lie on your oars and 
be carried by the current to the haven of success. Keep it evei 
in mind that you have but graduated from one school into ano¬ 
ther, in which you must continue your curriculum with undimin¬ 
ished ardor if you would excel. Nor will a few months or years 
bring you any nearer to that point beyond which progress will be 
impossible. 1 ou will find that constant and endless gradations 
await you ; that every step gained but gives you a vantage-ground 
for the next; and that even with old age “ the patriarch pupil 
must be learning still, and dying leave his lesson half-unlearned.” 
And yet, gentlemen, this day marks a most important turning 
