Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 31.djvu/88

78 it only remains to add that the observance of moral requirements is essential not only to physical well-being, but to the highest intellectual development and happiness; that, in fact, the pursuit of health and the cultivation of morals are alike to be regarded only as means to higher ends. It is obvious that the man of fine physique does not live for the observance of the laws of hygiene merely, but he observes hygienic laws as a necessary means of comfortable and wise living. So neither does the upright man live merely for the observance of moral laws, but he observes moral laws not only as the mode of living which is alone endurable to him, but as essential to the full realization of his best possibilities and powers as an intellectual and spiritual being. Personal morality has, in fact, been defined as the highest degree of psychical health. From this point of view it appears that as hygienic laws are an expression of the most complete adjustment between the physical life and its physical environment, so the moral law is an expression of the most complete adjustment between the psychical life and the social environment.

The most difficult of ethical problems is regarded as that of uniting the highest well-being of the individual with the greatest good of society the reconciliation of an advantageous egoism with that degree of altruism which the welfare of society demands; but that there is ultimately no antagonism between these two objects is evident when we look deeply enough and broadly enough at the problem. The definition of morality just given brings out the fact that individual progress and the progress of society at large are inextricably associated—that we can not, if we would, separate ourselves from the great world of humanity of which we form a part.

Whoever, then, pursues a career which ministers to the welfare of society as well as to his own individual good, contributes doubly to the general progress. How conspicuously this applies to the medical life (and in a far higher sense than is generally understood) it has been my purpose to show this morning. May you pursue your chosen work with all the devotion of heart naturally inspired by scientific truth consecrated to the highest interests of humanity! In contributing to these interests, your own personal aims can not fail of satisfactory fulfillment.

The first Roman emperor whose name marks a golden era in history is said to have claimed as his greatest triumph that, having found Rome a city of sunburned brick, he should leave it a city of marble. May your ambition as far exceed that of the great Roman as the future city of will outvalue that world-renowned city of the past! May you contribute toward the glad appearing of this long-sought paradise—this city of our dreams—whose foundations shall be laid upon recognized natural laws; whose streets shall be paved with good intentions realized; whose walls shall sparkle with the gems and fine gold of virtuous and generous conduct; and whose atmosphere