Temple University School of Dentistry - Odontolog Yearbook (Philadelphia, PA)

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THE RECORD Nineteen Twenty-one lllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllliilllllllllllllilllira What is here presented to our consciousness and what I desire to press home to conviction upon our minds is, that the advancement of any institution of learning is dependent largely upon the personal advancement of those who constitute its alumni; and that each alumnus, who would see his Alma Mater advance, must for her sake study self-advancement. Progression in the whole demands progression in the units. If every graduate in the past of the Philadelphia Dental College had become famous, and the highest type of a practitioner, it would require no argument or sophistry to prove her supremacy; or that it is the thing for any one entering dentistry to become a graduate from her; for this fact would in itself argue fame and success. If this picture delights our eyes, if such is the reputation and respect we wish for our diploma, let us not lose sight for a single moment of the fact that the halo we desire to have reflected upon us by it must be first earned in our individual labors. That individual laborers in the same department of life's many activities never attain exactly the same apparent pinnacle of success is explicable only in a comprehension that the difference is produced by the variety existing in the innate characteristics of individuals. These characteristics find expression, and in the professional man do more to make what is termed success or failure than does that which is strictly professional. While I desire never to be understood as under-rating the value of each man having an extended and correct knowledge of the art which he proposes to practice, I hazard nothing in saying that the personnel exerts a greater influence on the end attained than does this knowledge. Again, it is clear that what is success for one is not success for another. External circumstances have much to do in determining what constitutes this important matter. Self-advancement is thus found to be largely based upon a knowledge of ourselves and of the existing state of the things with which we have to do. Knowledge of these is, indeed, power. Ponder well upon this doctrine in all its latitude of meaning, and mourn not because your life is not in all its externals as the life of your envied neigh- bor. See to it, on the. contrary, that in the one essential point it differs not—that looked at by itself, it is a consummate success. Those who consult us for our services always consider that we are professionally the peer of all others from among whom they make their choice; and the community at large accept the verdict, or at least one of equality, tinless facts prove to the contrary. Should we, therefore, be not so unfortunate as to destroy the position by a gross exhibition of professional lack, it is apparent that any elevation is to be gained entirely through avenues of personal qualities. As these are not native Page Nine

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©ebi'catton To the Members of the Class of 1921: The completion of another circle of time has brought to our Alma Mater her fifty-eighth commencement season; and to us, her children, the accompanying festive occasion of rejoicing. The ranks to-day are not as they were a year ago—it is impossible for them to remain fixed and stationary—some have been mustered out, not a few enlisted. This is true all along the line of years. Prolong the vision backwards—the original six members of the first family circle have long since become but a memory, but there are brothers greeting the young recruits of to-day, who have been in commission more than forty years. They, you and I constitute the Alumni of an honored institution. To the halls, where each in turn has listened with student’s eagerness to words of knowledge and of truth, where heights of science have been scaled, and depths of mystery penetrated, let us return year after year and pay our tribute of thanks, “That the fountains here opened, still gush by the way, And the world for their healing is better to-day.” and to renew to the good school our vows to remember its honor and guard its renown. It has fallen to my lot to express these feelings in language for you. In the discharge of this duty, it is not simply for me to make such important declaration as the volume of affection bestowed by all. saying that our hearts to-day beat as one; but a requirement that I should, in addition, freshen in our minds that upon which the fulfillment of such pledges depends. Permit me then to suggest that the whole of anything is composed of units, that assemblies are made up of individuals; and that the desire of the mass, to be realized, be made the aim of the individual; for success or failure here, if in the majority, surely determines a like result for that body of which one is a component part. If then there is placed in each heart the virtuous and praiseworthy desire to contemplate in professional life only those things which arc true, honest, just, pure, lovely and of good report, the water which flows from such fountains will be of the clearest crystal. Honor, reputation, respect and all that is the merited reward of true manliness will be paid with deference by those having cause to drink; and the mother of such offspring shall be blessed. On the contrary, if evil, baseness and wrong flows forth in our lives, then surely shall we be shunned, and she truly become a discredit and a reproach. Page Eight

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THE RECORD Nineteen Twenty-one only, but also acquired, it is apropos and a great temptation to speak in this connection of them and of their modes of action. The study is thus, indeed, an illimitable one, but it is more germain to narrow this universality, for any reflecting mind will have but little trouble to cull from the experience of the world, and present separately, the thousand-and-one gems in character upon which great heroes have risen. “To those turrets where the eye Sees the world as one vast plain, And one boundless reach of sky.” More important is it that we should contemplate here the points around which these gems invariably crystallize, and from which they spring. The old couplet rises from memory— “Two principles in human nature reign, Self-love to urge, and reason to restrain.” and in it we find enfolded the root upon which grow, bud, flower and fruit the distinguishing characteristics of those who have, or would carry themselves into prominence. Self-love never has been, nor never can be, self-love alone. It is bound to widen into social love, finding the private in the public good, and between the benefit which is present, and that which is future, reason broadened by cultivation, attention, habit and experience distinguishes always, sacrificing the former for the latter. It is, therefore, for us but to give free play to these principles to secure the highest future public good for the community in which we live, and by so doing to raise ourselves head and shoulders above our contemporaries. It is impossible for me to conceive any higher purpose in life than that which is here so clearly defined; the concentrated consecration of all that is good in us to bless our fellowman; and the energetic suppression of all that is evil in our nature that it may not work him harm. L. ASHLEY FAUGHT. D.D.S. Page Ten