It is difficult to imagine a scene more moving to the master, more gratifying to the pupil, or more honourable to both. As the style was very characteristic, we select a few passages. He commences the lecture by saying, of Sir William Blizard, that "he was my earliest instructor in anatomy and surgery, and I am greatly indebted to him for much valuable information. My warmest thanks are also due to him for the _interest he excited in my mind towards these studies_, and for his excellent advice. 'Let your search after truth,' he would say, 'be eager and constant. Be wary in admitting propositions to be facts, before you have submitted them to the strictest examination. If, after this, you believe them to be true, never disregard or forget _any one_ of them, however unimportant it may at the time appear. Should you perceive truths to be important, make them motives of action. Let them serve as springs to your conduct. If we _neglect to draw such inferences_, or to act in conformity with them, we fail in essential duties!'" Again, in remarking how Sir William excited his enthusiasm by the _beau-idéal_ which he drew of the medical character, Mr. Abernethy observed: "I cannot tell you how splendid and brilliant he made it appear; and then he cautioned us _never_ to tarnish its lustre by any disingenuous conduct, or by anything that bore even the _semblance_ of dishonour." Abernethy, then proceeding in a strain, warm, yet apologetic (Sir William being present), at length concluded his public thanks to his venerable instructor, by saying, "what I have now stated is a tribute due from me to him; and I pay it on the present occasion in the _hope_ that the same precepts and motives may have the same effects on the junior part of my audience as they were accustomed, in general, to have on the pupils of Sir William Blizard."[14]
Abernethy then proceeded to advocate similar lofty views of the nature and duties of our profession in the following manner: "That which most dignifies man, is the cultivation of those qualities which most distinguish him from the brute creation. We should indeed seek truth for its importance, and act as the dictates of reason direct us. By exercising our minds in the attainment of medical knowledge, we may improve a science of great public utility. We have need of enthusiasm, or of some strong incentive, to induce us to spend our nights in study, and our days in the disgusting and health-destroying duties of the dissecting-room, or in that careful and distressing observation of human diseases and infirmities which can alone enable us to alleviate or remove them; some powerful inducement," he adds, "exclusive of fame or emolument (for, unfortunately, a man may attain a considerable share of reputation and _practice, without being a real student of his profession_). I place before you the most animating incentive I know of—that is, the enviable power of being extensively useful to your fellow-creatures. You will be able to confer that which sick kings would fondly purchase with their diadems, which wealth cannot command, nor state nor rank bestow:—to alleviate or remove disease, the most insupportable of human afflictions; and thereby give health, the most invaluable of human blessings."