For the process of democracy is not degrading, but lifting.
Like Christianity, democracy demands faith, and has as its inspiring
interpretation of civilization evolution towards a spiritual goal. Yet
the kind of faith required is no longer a blind faith, but one founded on
sane and carefully evolved theories. Democracy has become a scientific
experiment.
In this connection, as one notably inspired by emulation, by the joy of
creative work and service, the medical profession comes first to mind.
The finer element in this profession is constantly increasing in numbers,
growing more and more influential, making life less easy for the quack,
the vendor of nostrums, the commercial proprietor of the bogus medical
college. The doctor who uses his talents for gain is frowned upon by
those of his fellow practitioners whose opinion really counts. Respected
physicians in our cities give much of their time to teaching, animating
students with their own spirit; and labour long hours, for no material
return, in the clinics of the poor. And how often, in reading our
newspapers, do we learn that some medical scientist, by patient work, and
often at the risk of life and health, has triumphed over a scourge which
has played havoc with humanity throughout the ages! Typhoid has been
conquered, and infant paralysis; gangrene and tetanus, which have taken
such toll of the wounded in Flanders and France; yellow fever has been
stamped out in the tropics; hideous lesions are now healed by a system of
drainage.
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