Cleveland daily leader. [volume] ([Cleveland, Ohio]) 1865-1873, 1866-02-23

Inns ADDRESS WIS ONueu OUT Vi buie
mornings report of the Commencement
Exercisesl
Ia the prosecution of the Profession to
which you are now publicly consecrated,
there is one requisite, 80 essentially indie
pendent of the teachings from any chair,
and yet so fundamentally necessary to
genuine success, that l ask g place for its
brief consideration, in the precious mo-
ments Of this occasion.
l mean an ardent, passionate, yet ra-
tional love, Of your calling. A love glow
ing in your minds as their most engrossing
motive force, and existing independent of
any or ell subjective aims or ends As
really Divine Gift, as truly an inspiration,
as the sculptor, the orator or poet. O.
1t is true, some, and / will not deny,
many, enter the Profession, without this
inspiration, choosing il, and pursuing it
only as a means to al end part of whom,
sooner or later, faint under its labors, shrink
from its responsibilities, and either dwarf
into downright poverty of intellect and
purse, or hy to other and more lucrative
pursuits and alas for the popular distrust,
yea even obloquy which their habits and
influence cast upon the name of Doctor, and
which more than anything else opens wide
the door to chsTlatanry.
Others of whom. with q keener scent for
gain, aud a shrewder spirit, by the dint and
expedients of common trade and dicker,
win out of the profession a material pros
perity and cling on to it to the end of their
years, but alas, for the blunders and failures
which haunt like ghosts their opinions and
remedial ministry, and thefuneral pageants,
the frequent mournful witnesses to their
career. For whoever enters the Profession
without this passion, or whoever in its pros
ecution suffers its Impeachment or ex-
haustion, will be doomed to toll and suffer
as in servitude to his fellow man, like the
galley slave, or, greedy and mercenary, will
be sure to measure his successes more by
what be gains than by what he does.
Now this love of your calling, like every
other God given power of the soul, is capa-
bic of an indefinite cultivation and expan-
sion, as it is Of neglect and exhaustion.
Let us consider briefly the influences,
which work out these widely different and
important results.
Your profound and varied research in
fields already traversed by you, to attain
your present vantage ground Of professional
learning and skill, has no doubt greatly
strengthened this enthusiasm for your life
work.
But satisfaction at your present standard
of attainments, will not long maintain this
passion against the adverse influences
which will confront you, all along in your
career. Yes, something more will be needed
than the consciousness that you have climb
ed to an attitude, whence the retrospect is
rich and glorious, and from whose broad dO-
main you have gathered and garnered to
safety; for this passion, not to suffer loss,
demands the constant stimulation of a
grand prospective of knowledge opportunity,
such as the limitless and unemployed realms
of truth and privilege, which will ever lie
before, beyond and above you.
Hence, to keep alive, and much more, to
strengthen and enlarge this passion, for
your calling, careful, patient study, meth
odized and continued so long as YOU may
live, is absolutely necessary, Study, not
alone in your Libraries Of books, new and
old study, not only in professional inter
course and consultation, man with man, or
in the discussion OF local and general con-
neetions, but study at the couch of disease
and pain, study in the chamber Of the dead,
study with the knife,a and lens, and crucible,
and drug. Oh be unwilling to live or to die
without having contributed something TO
the advance Of that halcyon era, which
prophets in medicine have longed for, but
died without the sight, when pathology
shall be so apprehended. Materia Medica,
so rich in resource and reliable Therapeu-
tics SO exact that the catalogue Of the IN
cured and uncurable shall be blotted from
nosology, and death becomes except from
accident what God originally designed it to
be, the Oblivion Of sge--our final struggle
with time.
But not alone upon the delights and re-
wards Of continued and systematic study
does the passion depend for its encourage
ment and expansion. NOS for the grand
objective aims and ends Of the Profession
are never failing sources Of energy and re-
nsWsl.