A Way of Life
For the prestigious Silliman Lecture at Yale in the spring of 1913 Osler gave the lay- sermon, A Way of Life. When Harvey Cushing found the manuscript, he saw that Osler had included a poem from the Sanskrit and had made the following note, '"To be put in should another reprint be called for." (Slide) The section from the Sanskrit, which has been included in all further reprints, follows:
Listen to the Exhortation of the Dawn! Look to this Day! For it is Life, the very LiFe of Life. In its brief Course lie all the Varieties and Realities of your Existence. The Bliss of Growth, The Glory of Action, The Splendor of Beauty; For Yesterday is but a Dream And Tomorrow is only a Vision; But Today will live and makes Every Yesterday a Dream of Happiness And every Tomorrow a Vision of Hope.
Look well, therefore, to this Day! Such is the Salutation of the Dawn!
The inscription preceding the manuscript of the lecture was the famous quotation of Goethe, "What each day needs, that shalt thou ask. Each day will set its proper task."
Osler urged each student to have a philosophy of life in thought, in word, or in deed worked out so well that his actions operated almost unconsciously. Then he proceeded with beautiful prose to describe the way to train oneself to acquire good habits gradually by long and steady repetition. "It is the practice of living for the day only and for the day's work, life in day-tight compartments..." He recalled that, "Dr. Johnson remarked upon the trifling circumstances by which men's lives are influenced by the first book which they read, some early conversations which they have heard, or some accident which excited ardor and enthusiasm."
