XII

ON MEDICAL EDUCATION

[1870]


It has given me sincere pleasure to be here today, at the desire of
your highly respected President and the Council of the College. In
looking back upon my own past, I am sorry to say that I have found that
it is a quarter of a century since I took part in those hopes and in
those fears by which you have all recently been agitated, and which now
are at an end. But, although so long a time has elapsed since I was
moved by the same feelings, I beg leave to assure you that my sympathy
with both victors and vanquished remains fresh--so fresh, indeed, that
I could almost try to persuade myself that, after all, it cannot be so
very long ago. My business during the last hour, however, has been to
show that sympathy with one side only, and I assure you I have done my
best to play my part heartily, and to rejoice in the success of those
who have succeeded. Still, I should like to remind you at the end of it
all, that success on an occasion of this kind, valuable and important
as it is, is in reality only putting the foot upon one rung of the
ladder which leads upwards; and that the rung of a ladder was never
meant to rest upon, but only to hold a man's foot long enough to enable
him to put the other somewhat higher. I trust that you will all regard
these successes as simply reminders that your next business is, having
enjoyed the success of the day, no longer to look at that success, but