The legitimate goal of professional ambition : an address, introductory to the course of lectures in the medical department of the St. Louis University : delivered in O'Fallon Hall, October 31st, 1853 / by Wm. M. McPheeters.

  • McPheeters, William M. (William Marcellus), 1815-1905.
Date:
1853
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The legitimate goal of professional ambition : an address, introductory to the course of lectures in the medical department of the St. Louis University : delivered in O'Fallon Hall, October 31st, 1853 / by Wm. M. McPheeters. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    give direction to their future course, instead of assuming to be the architects of their own fortunes—subjecting alone to the will of the sovereign disposer of all events. If the simple love of distinction, or the bare desire for eminence were all that is required—if a Pew fitful efforts would suffice in lieu of the persevering toil and industry, at which alone success can be purchased, then indeed, in the vocabulary of youth there would be no such word as fail. But who does not know lhat such is not the case ? Who has not learned from experience that labor is inseparably connected with all that is truly great or desirable in life ?—For, strive to enter in is as clearly and distinctly inscribed over the door which leads to the temple of science, as over lhat straight and narrow gate, which leadeth unto everlasting life. But, while something more than the simple love of distinction is ne- cessary to success, yet it must be admitted that this desire constitutes an essential element in the attainment of success and is by no means to be disregarded. Indeed, the love of eminence, the desire to be dis- tinguished among our fellow men, is a principle so deeply implanted in the human heart, that its exercise seems almost as natural as the in- voluntary act of respiration by which our bodily organization is sus- tained. It is nature's stimulus to noble enterprises and heroic de< It touches the secret strings which set in motion the whole mental machinery—rouses every latent energy of the mind—breathes fresh life into the drooping frame, and imparts the spirit necessary to the accomplishment of the task proposed. Men are not content merely 1o drag out the three score years and ten, allotted to them b} their creator, but they pant for immortality, and desire that their names shall live, that their memories shall be revered for ages after their bodies shall have crumbled into dust, and become mingled again with their mother earth. This longing after im- mortality, has ever been the great mural lever, which has moved the mind of man and enabled it to achieve all those mighty intellectual re- sults which have so tended to dignify and elevate the human species, and enabled man to claim a kindred with Divinity itself. It was tliis anticipation which crowned the joy of Harvey when by the combined agency of reason and experiment he had succeeded in demonstrating the route of the circulation. This hope, which animated the mind of Newton amid those philosophical researches which ultimate- ly developed the immutable law of gravitation, and pointed out that force by which all matter, from the minutesl microscopic atom to the innumerable systems of worlds lying far beyond the range of human vision, are all hound together in one harmonious and stupendous whole. This, which lead Hcrschell to penetrate the far oil. and almost illimitable regions of space, and add a new world to our system. This, it was