244 
INTRODUCTORY LECTURE. 
try have triumphed over their scanty allotments, and gained 
them a position, despite difficulties that would have damped 
the ardour of many a more fortunate student. 
In thus speaking, it is with no view of raising cloudsof dis- 
couragement and distrust ; on the contrary, it is intended to 
draw such inferences as will prove a source of hope and 
satisfaction to all who enter this hall with the true motives. 
The pharmaceutical beginner should be thoroughly im- 
pressed with the fact, that there is nothing really valuable 
in this world to be gained without industry, and that perse- 
verance will conquer the difficulties of any pursuit possible 
to his powers. He should constantly keep in mind that the 
main object of his apprenticeship is the acquisition of a 
thorough and solid pharmaceutical education ; in a word, to 
become master of his profession. With this view to the fu- 
ture, he will perform more cheerfully the tedious and often 
disagreeable details of his daily course ; knowing that they 
are inseparable from the business; and that time will make 
it his province to direct, as it is then to obey. The interests 
of his preceptor should be as his own; and the disinterested 
performance of duty will yield him a richer reward in con- 
sciousness of rectitude, than all the temporary gratifications 
arising from too much attention to selfish ends. 
The love of pleasure is innate in most of us, — too often it 
is the grand object of life presented to the youthful mind ; 
rendering irksome and distasteful its humbler avocations, — 
wise is he who can cheerfully submit his pleasures to his 
duties, and, by a proper appreciation of the true ends of ex- 
istence, extract enjoyment from every occurrence that pre- 
sents; whilst his mental powers, unshackled by passion, and 
unclouded by discontent, are left free to wrestle with the 
genius of knowledge, and wrench from her those precious 
treasures, that she is ever ready to yield to the victorious. 
It is an often repeated truism that "knowledge is power," 
but it is only so to him, who knows how to use and apply 
it to the exigencies of life. Without an active use of ac- 
