University of Maryland Baltimore Dental School - Mirror Yearbook (Baltimore, MD)

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The Mi rror By JAMES KENDALL BURGESS. ' Tis distance lends enchantment to the view And robes the mountain in its azure hue! Thomas Cambell. Proximity spoils perspective! We say in jest that we cannot see the city for the houses but it is literally true that when we are close enough for accurate obser- vation of the individual house the vision is there- by so circumscribed that we are unable to obtain that larger view that we might fairly describe in terms of the city as a whole. So, too, we speak of events. It is frequently said that we shall not be able to place correct estimates and relative values on men and matters concerned in the World War until the lapse of sufficient time for prejudices to cool and the vices and virtues rooted in its soil and growing side by side, have had time to bring forth their fruits so that they may be examined and evaluated by competent and un- prejudiced appraisers. The same psycholog- ical facts pertain to every phase of human act- ivity. We are rarely able to estimate the im- portance of even the ordinary events of our daily lives and frequently say of the results of this or that happening, Time will tell . This is true as well of College Life with its many sided activities. Here are gath- ered men from every section of the globe bound together by the common ties of humanity and mutual professional interest. We meet in the lecture hall, the infirmary, the laboratory,the fraternity hall, the home. We engage in close association in all the varied pursuits common to life in such institutions. Here are formed acquaintanceships which ripen into friendship and deepen with the passing of time and the influence of association. Here are fostered mu- tual interests in different types of professional service and various phases of student activity. Here are engendered confidence or distrust, fond ness or prejudice, respect or indifference for offi- cial or lecturer or demonstrator; and as the in- fant learns to lisp the name of Mother so the student comes into consciousness of his relation- ship and learns to respect or even to reverence the name of Alma Mater. But during the College days there is in all of these relations and associations and activities so much of detail, so much that ob- 16

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' RARY . E co: -— 1. ' — E:N TAL SURGERY. THE OLD and THE N E W

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triides itself upon the surface, so much of straight line and sharp angle, such vivid colors in clean- cut outline, such shrill notes in the bugle call at taps and reveille and the measured beats of the marching song that we are not conscious of the potential mellowness and sweetness and beauty that lie at the heart of it all. It is only with the passing of the years that we catch the perspective and comprehend its meaning. Leaving school we go out upon the broad high- way of Life and climb its hills and peaks of responsibility, of effort, of achievement. It is from such some vantage point perhaps that we look back upon that distant scene and discover that the base of time has blurred detail, faded line and angle, blended and softened the vivid colors into one harmonious whole so that in- stead of the grating exactness we were wont to see upon the surface we catch a vision of the very heart of the picture, sense the inwardness of its meaning and comprehend in some measure its inherent tenderness and beauty. The shrill sounds of the bugle call have melted into the far off half imagined strains of a Mother ' s voice calling Home Sweet Home. It is when we desire to revitalize in our minds the vigorous and stirring events of these blessed days, to Hve again their association and activities, to listen once more to the voices we loved, to smile again through the old joys and feel anew the heart throbs that stirred us here and to stimulate afresh the impulses and desires and ambitions generated under the in- fluence of these surroundings that we shall long to come again to this clear spring of our young manhood as one retraces his steps and revels again in the scenes dear to his childhood. The mirror is for reflection. It gives back to us the image of the object we place before its polished surface. When Time shall have wrought his will upon us and the responsiblities of Life left their imprint upon the brow — in a day of tri- umph perchance and amid new scenes of hap- piness or, it may be in some lonely and dis- appointed hour we may bridge the chasm and find new inspiration in these blessed days that we pass through but once but live in memory a thousand times, sweetened and glorified by the magic hand of time, if we but turn the pages of this delightful book and catch here the reflec- tion of all that is sweet and wholesome and worth while in this splendid record of associ- ates and events, this treasure house of portrait and legend, this cherished year book of The Baltimore College of Dental Surgery — my book and your book — The Mirror. 17