INTRODUCTORY LECTURE. 
17 
an exquisite sensibility for commendation, who look for praise 
for a mere act of duty, and dread lest the discharge of that duty 
might be esteemed as sufficiently paid by its accomplishment. 
And who are they upon whom this insinuation of injustice is 
cast ! Are they strangers, having no sympathies for the feel- 
ings and interests of the candidate ? Are they cotempora- 
ries, jealous of his success, or anxious to defeat him? Are 
they those who, ignorant themselves of their profession, are 
incapable of appreciating the knowledge of it in others ? Far 
be it from any one of those who has suffered his dread to 
keep him away from the tribunal, to answer these interroga- 
tories in the affirmative. The facts are too glaringly opposed 
to such assertions, not to appal the stoutest hardihood which 
would hazard them. Instead of strangers, destitute of sym- 
pathy, they have had those who had known and anxiously 
watched their progress in knowledge ; instead of jealous co- 
temporaries, they have had generous seniors, most desirous of 
the success of the candidate ; instead of ignorant judges, in- 
capable of discovering merit, they have had the knowledge 
and experience of their professors, aided by members of the 
College, specially selected for their fitness. Away then, with 
the dread of difficulty, and relying upon industrious applica- 
tion to study and observation, let no such excuse ever be 
offered for the neglect in future. 
" Our doubts are traitors 
And make us lose the good we oft might win, 
By fearing to attempt." 
Let the remarks here suggested, while they pay all possi- 
ble deference to real diffidence, serve to banish this dread of 
too severe an examination, and expose the fact that such ex- 
cuses are mostly had recourse to by him, who would brave 
the charge of ignorance, risk the stigma of incompetent, 
hazard the title of rejected !!! 
Let me beseech you, who now are about to constitute the 
class, who will be placed in the position of those of whom we 
VOL. VIII. — NO. I. 3 
