University of Maryland School of Pharmacy - Terra Mariae Yearbook (Baltimore, MD)

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K)Si:i ' ll C. KKANCK. i6

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K! BB ■il H Hk DH B t 2 O H a fct o :i M 15

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THE EXAMPLE OF AN EMPEROR BY JOSEPH C. FRANCE. A MAN who is entering upon his career with the natural and laudable hope of reaching therein at least a low degree of fame and fortune, needs a stout heart. — and much besides. He must have, in the first place, a clear conviction of his fitness for the struggle : possunt quia posse vidcntur, is a pithy saying. In the second place, there must be an increasable measure of actual fitness ; the man whose self-confidence has no other basis than ignorance, is but as a sounding brass. Finally, there must be opportunity ; but opportunity will profit a man nothing unless, by systematic and patient training, he keeps himself ready to kick the ball when it shall come to his feet. It may very wi. ' ll be objected by the candidate for success, that these ideas lack both nov- elty and vitalizing power ; and that what he needs is something more definite and practical. How may a man acquire a just confidence in himself? In what way can he increase his native capac- ity and learn, if not to create, at least to find and recognize opportunity? To such and similar questions, I believe that there is but one answer fairly adequate. In the larger sense, these things must be self-taught : and the lesson will never be learned until the student has. by a thorough self- examination, discovered his own particular limitations and deficiencies. Know Thyself, is a maxirn old as Egypt, and we are all ready enough to give it a formal assent ; but in a modern scheme of education, the practice of the maxim has but a small place. Lack of mental concentration, and of the power to hold on to an idea until you have seen through it : the habit of letting the tongue act in advance of the brain : indulgence in slovenly and disjointed speech, — ignoring the rule that every sentence, spoken or written, should contain a thought and be aimed as a bullet is aimed at a target ; the inability to draw legitimate inferences and to see things in their true proportions ; the distrust of your own final conclusions and an exaggerated conformity to prevailing opinion ; a shrinking from the downright No — these are failings which we see and deplore, frequently enough in others. Not however, until a man has discovered his own deficiencies : and not until self-kni)wl- edge has awakened a healthy, and not a morbid, dissatisfaction, will he be in the way of improve- ment and likely to command success because he deserves it. We read in Rabelais that his hero. Panurge, had every faculty except reason : and there will always be men whom no amount of introspection can improve. The present purpose, however, is not to deal with the numerous successors of Panurge. but to give a brief account of an em])eror who formed his life upon the principle of daily self-examination : who tried to learn his true self and live it ; and who found his philosophy sufiicient for the needs of an exciting and tem- pestuous career. 17