TRUE POSITION OF VETERINARY SCIENCE. 
315 
Science is the weapon put into your hands for the warfare 
against disease and destruction. Use it not blindly, as the awk¬ 
ward savage wields his ponderous club, but skilfully as the culti¬ 
vated swordsman dexterously thrusts his polished blade. Not 
only in the long run. but in every individual case would the 
latter vanquish the former in an encounter, other things being 
equal. 
Fully armed and equipped with this weapon, you are ready 
for the battle, and may challenge with the fullest confidence the 
competition of any who enter the field with other arms. 
Let the attainment of true scientific culture be the principal 
end in view. In this way only is true professional standing and 
dignity reached. Ilemember that veterinary science is but one 
department of natural science, and that the study of nature is the 
noblest occupation of the human intellect. You belong to the 
grand army whose pursuit is the tracing of that mysterious 
thread, that winds through labyrinthine paths, whose exit lies at 
the end of the yet impenetrated wilderness of nature. 
I told you in the commencement of my discourse, that though 
thousands of years have elapsed, we are still in the position of 
the ancient Egyptians. Our idol is still the mysterious goddess 
who personifies nature, and our object is to lift the drapery from 
that face whose features no mortal yet has seen. Here we are 
assembled in a temple built in her honor and devoted to her 
worship. It is not so lofty or magnificent as the temples of old, 
but still we may find that within its walls our worship may be 
devoutly pursued. Our faculty are the priests who attend to the 
performance of her rites, and are ready to instruct novitiates in 
the duties that those rites require. You are the devotees who, 
feeling yourselves moved to pay your devotion, have come to 
receive instruction in the methods which that homage demands 
for its proper performance. You have to undergo an arduous 
apprenticeship that requires some sacrifice, but when you possess 
the secrets reserved for those who are deserving of being received 
into the upper circle of the fold, you will feel amply compen¬ 
sated for the difficulties conquered in the accomplishment of the 
task. 
