Page:Advice to Medical Students (1857) William Henry Fuller.djvu/10

10 have it always available in practice. But, beyond all this, if you would succeed in your career, and occupy an honorable position in the world, you must learn to cherish self-respect and honesty of purpose,—feelings inconsistent with mean or dishonorable actions; you must evince integrity of conduct, generosity of character, and kindliness of feeling towards your professional brethren; you must acquire a habit of self-restraint which shall enable you to bear with the waywardness of your patients, and a gentleness of manner and cheerfulness of disposition which shall render you a welcome visitor to them; you must learn to sympathise with them in their afflictions, to counsel them in their distress, and in every way so to regulate your conduct as to make yourselves their friends, as well as their advisers. These are habits which take root in youth and grow with the man; and if you do not implant them in early life, and cultivate them assiduously, you will find, when it is too late, that you have neglected to lay one of the surest and best foundations of professional success.

Truly may it be said at the present moment, that your fortunes are placed in your own hands, and that you may make or mar them as you please. There is no walk of life in which persevering industry and good moral conduct meet with a surer and more lasting reward, or in which a life of idleness and misconduct more certainly leads to misery and ruin. Men will not willingly entrust you with their lives if they consider you careless or incompetent; neither will they admit you into the privacy of their families if they believe you to be sensual or profligate. As you sow, so will you reap. In order that there may be a good harvest, the land must be manured and carefully prepared, the seed must be sown in due season, the weeds which spring up must be rooted out, and the soil must be diligently cultivated throughout. Each act of husbandry must be performed in its appointed season, and on each much time and labour must be bestowed. So is it also