Page:Introductory lecture on medical jurisprudence - delivered in the theatre of the Royal Dublin Society, on Saturday, the 16th November, 1839 (IA b21916512).pdf/19

17 we now propose. No doubt; but the bar was not then as now, filled to overflowing; and besides, there is a period in all professions when learning is almost an incumbrance, while superficial and showy attainments gain, as if from their very levity, the highest places. But that day is past for the bar of Ireland, and he who now hopes to rise by his own exertions must be resolved to study, to labour, to learn. There are, indeed, other modes of rising or getting on in the Profession—the favour of Government, or the influence of party. But the favour of Government is a doubtful, and often a dangerous dependence; and at the best, while he, who enters the Profession looking to its aid, is stopped by some gilded bauble that is flung across his path, his competitor, who relies upon himself, passes him in the race, and gains the prize. Look at the men who have risen to eminence, and who adorn, by their learning and ability, your Profession both in this country and in England. Have they not been almost invariably the architects of their fortunes? Was it not by long laborious study they built up their solid and enduring fame? Power sought them—they did not hang upon power; and in their high and influential stations they have the proud and cheering consciousness that Governments could only circulate in a wider and more useful sphere that which the public had already stamped as pure and genuine. But to rely on the influence of party in a Profession such as yours, that demands for the discharge of its high duties the most stainless integrity, the most unbending rectitude, and the most fearless independence; to seek to advance by becoming the mouth-piece through which the passions^ the prejudices, and the malignant feelings of the crowd—whether the high or the lowly born—are to have vent; or by being bound to the chariot and serving to swell the triumph of a political leader, is the most abject condition to which an educated man can possibly degrade himself,