Excerpt from The Canada Educational Monthly, Vol. 19: January to December, 1897 You are here, gentlemen, to be educated for the great and honorable work to which, by God's help, you intend to dedicate the remainder of your lives. With more or less of previous education and preparation, you have come up here to gain that special knowledge and skill which are necessary for the due performance of' your duties as surgeons and physicians. And here a remark may be offered which might seem more appropriate at an earlier moment in your educational history, but which is never really out of place. It is, that every professional man should do his best to have under his special training, and as its foundation and basis, a sound and good general education. Without this we are not only likely to be narrow and contracted in our views and sympathies, but we shall fail to gain that firm grasp of the facts and principles of our own special subject of which only an educated mind is capable. It is our business not only to learn and to know certain things. This is good and necessary. But it is our business also to be educated men, with minds cultivated and disciplined so as to have keenness of perception and discrimination. Without this much of our labor wilt be aimless and unprofitable. And although it is desirable that this foundation should be well laid before we raise the superstructure of special instruction, yet much may be done by an earnest and diligent man to repair the omissions and defects of an earlier education. Let us only try to feel the importance of this qualification, and we shall find ways and means of supplying much, at least, of that which is lacking. And the time which is expended for this purpose will certainly not be wasted. Along with this general education it is most important to foster a knowledge and love of literature, first and chiefly, of course, the literature of our own language, but also, if possible, that of some other or others. On this subject it were possible to say much; but it would never be possible for one man, or for many men, to say all that might be said. For a man to use books merely to learn all that may be acquired on the special business of his life would be to condemn his mind to perpetual sterility. Literature humanizes, elevates, refines, enriches, strengthens. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.