^DIDiBliSS 
 
 iroiEM mm 1 mm ^: 
 
 
 OF THE 
 
 CALDWELL INSTITUTE, 
 
 February 6th, 1850, 
 
 ON OCCASION OF THEIR 
 
 BY REV. S. A. STANFIELD. 
 
 PUBLISHED BY ORDER OF THE SOCIETY. 
 
 I 
 
 HILLSBOROUGH: 
 PRINTED BY DENNIS HEARTT, 
 
 1850. 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2013 
 
 http://archive.org/details/addressdelivered1850stan 
 
©®miEIE®lP(D)HID3EH©ffi< 
 
 Adelphian Hall, February 9th, 1850. 
 Dkar Sir : 
 
 At a recent meeting of the Adelphian Society, held in their Hall, we 
 were instructed to return you the thanks of that body for the very able and 
 instructive address delivered before them on their fourteenth anniversary ; 
 and request a copy of the same for publication. Permit us, sir, personally 
 to add our own solicitations that you will comply with the request of the So- 
 ciety. 
 
 With very high respect, 
 
 JUNIUS I. SCALES, "J 
 HENRY PRESTON, I Committee. 
 JAMES RICHARDSON, J 
 Eev. S. A. Staxfibld. 
 
 Castleton, Person, N. C, March 4th, 1850. 
 Gbhtlbmbx t 
 
 Your polite note of the 9th of February, was only received two days ago. 
 The address was written with no expectation that it would be published, 
 and in great haste, but such as it is, it belongs to the Society, and I send it, 
 with the simple expression of the opinion that the most suitable disposition 
 you can make of it, is to deposit it among your archives. 
 With high regard, 
 
 a A. STANFIELD« 
 Messrs. J. L Scales, 1 
 
 H. Prestox, Y Committee, 
 J. Richarmox. J 
 

 Mr. President, and Fellow Members of the Adelphian Society; 
 
 Should one of our fellow citizens, whom the marvel- 
 lous accounts which we have heard ot the newly discovered 
 El Dorado have tempted to leave their homes and friends 
 and rush forward in pursuit of some golden vision — should 
 such an one return to his family, his arrival would doubtless 
 occasion no little excitement in the midst of the community 
 from which he had gone out. Numerous would be the ques- 
 tions which would be asked him. Every one whom he met 
 would be anxious to know what he had seen by the way, 
 what he had found in the land of gold, and what he had brought 
 back with him home. Especially would this be the case with 
 those who contemplated an excursion of the same sort. Ea- 
 gerly would they seek and carefully would they treasure, 
 such information concerning the place, the population, the 
 manners, customs and modes of life, and every thing con- 
 nected with the subject, as might aid them in the prosecution 
 of their future plans. The " El Dorado" of life with you, 
 young gentlemen, is the period when you shall enter upon its 
 active duties. To that time do you look forward with eager, 
 perhaps with restless anxiety. Every thing connected with 
 it is interesting to you, and every hint and suggestion con- 
 cerning it will be kindly received and properly appreciated. 
 "When those who have arrived a little before you at what was 
 their land of promise, come back to you, to unite with you in 
 celebrations of this sort— especially those upon whom you 
 have conferred the honor of inviting to address you, you 
 might reasonably expect them to entertain you with some ac- 
 count of what they have seen and heard in this land in which 
 
you feel so deeply interested. I shall, however, rather aim, 
 on this occasion, to throw out some hints which shall guide 
 you on your journey, than to speak of any thing connected 
 with the land to which you are hastening. I propose to make 
 some remarks to you on Reading. While I shall make no 
 distinct divisions of the subject, what will be said will have 
 reference to the two questions — how we should read, and 
 ivhat we should read. 
 
 I have selected this subject, because I am convinced that 
 it is one on which students need suggestions. It is one on 
 which experience and observation have taught me some 
 things which I trust may be useful to others. 
 
 There is one remark, however, which it is proper to make 
 before we proceed to the subject in hand. It is, that while 
 you are members of this institution, or of any other, you 
 should never suffer reading to interfere with diligent and 
 proper attention to your text books. The great danger to 
 which, as students, you are exposed, is that you will be tempt- 
 ed to neglect your text books. We live in an age of excite- 
 ment, in a time of great stir and commotion among the na- 
 tions of the earth. In our own land we see on every hand 
 the exhibitions of a spirit of activity ; with us, all is progress 
 and growth. Some of us have been astonished in our youn- 
 ger days in reading the story of Aladdin with his wonder- 
 ful Lamp, at the account of a palace built in a single night; 
 but we have lived to see what surpasses the strangeness of 
 fiction — cities built in a day, and nations born in a year. 
 The excitement and activity which are every where now to 
 be seen, operate badly on the cause of learning and solid at- 
 tainments. They create an impatience of the stillness of a 
 student's life. Unfortunately, while men have been making 
 the most wonderful discoveries in every thing else, they have 
 yet discovered no easy road to learning. W r hile the steam 
 engine drives through the length of the land, and while light- 
 ing conveys for us our messages, the votary of learning must 
 still toil to climb the steep, and must trim the midnight 
 lamp. No method has yet been found of expanding the 
 mind, of strengthening its powers, or of filling it with useful 
 knowledge except the slow process of hard stndy. The spi- 
 
rit of the age, however, is against this. It is fashionable in 
 many quarters to declaim against the system of education 
 which requires the most of it, and the young experience a 
 double tendency to tire and complain of what appears to them 
 a slow and useless drudgery. A young man whose imagina- 
 tion is constantly going on to the active scenes of manhood, 
 but who calls to mind the fact that before he shall enter up- 
 on the promised land he must devote years to the study of 
 ancient languages and the mathematics, is apt to grow im- 
 patient, and ask to what purpose is all this waste. " Cui 
 bono? I can't see what good it will do," has caused many a 
 young man to stop in the midst of a course of mental disci- 
 pline and development, which if prosecuted, would have 
 made him a fit man for any station in life. The object for 
 which you are sent here is, that you may be qualified for the 
 discharge of the duties which shall devolve on you in life. 
 The plan of instruction and the course of studies is that 
 which the experience of the world, and the embodied judg- 
 ment of the wisest and best, has determined to be the most 
 suited for the purpose in view. The sole design in the erec- 
 tion of this school was the good of those who should here be 
 taught, and through them the good of the world. This In- 
 stitution was founded by wise and good men, with many 
 prayers and much sacrifice, that it might be a blessing to 
 those who from time to time should assemble here — a blessing 
 to the church, and a blessing to the world. This, then, 
 should constitute a sufficient reason why you should make 
 your first and chief end as members of the Institution, to at- 
 tend to the duties assigned you by your professors. 
 
 There is one error into which we are apt to fall, and on 
 which much of the doubt about the propriety of classical and 
 mathematical studies is founded. This mistake is in refe- 
 rence to the prime end to be had in view in the education of 
 the young. Perhaps a majority of the people in the world, 
 and a large portion of intelligent men, if asked why the young 
 are sent to school, would answer, for the acquisition of know- 
 ledge. And hence it appears so strange, that so much time 
 should be spent in acquiring knowledge which is so little us- 
 ed. The acquisition of knowledge is not the end for which 
 
you are sent here. Mental discipline is the first and chief 
 end of education. It is not knowledge we need, so much as 
 mental power. Self-culture, mental development, intellectu- 
 al stability and reliability, is what is necessary to make a 
 man. The mind should not be a repository, but a forge ; not 
 a pool, but a spring ; not a reservoir, but a fountain. The 
 object in training men is to fit them to do those things which 
 it requires mind to do. A man that has power to think, to 
 judge, to weigh, to fabricate, to balance and determine, is 
 the educated man ; and he who cannot do these things, though 
 he have all knowledge, is a, fool. To make a ploughman or 
 a woodman, we ask first a full development of the physical 
 powers. To make a carpenter, we desire first bodily strength, 
 and then skill in the use of tools, afterwards acquaintance 
 with the rules of building. Suppose you were to put a boy 
 to be an apprentice at any trade, do you not see that skill 
 would be required before knowledge? So when we would 
 train the minds of men for work, our first object is to secure 
 mental discipline, and then they are prepared to acquire and 
 use knowledge. Bearing these things in mind, we see much 
 reason in the course which has been pursued in giving so 
 great prominence to classical and mathematical studies. 
 They are, to an eminent degree, disciplinary. The laborious 
 pursuit of them secures an amount of intellectual culture 
 and mental development, which no other plan of study can 
 secure. They call into practice, and give constant exercise 
 to a greater number of the mental powers ; they prevent ma- 
 ny bad mental habits into which, under almost any other 
 system, we are liable to fall. 
 
 If men in the pursuits of life owe their success to the pos- 
 session, or their failure to the want of any one quality more 
 than another, that quality is the command of the attention ; 
 the power of abstraction ; ability to fix the mind intensely 
 on one subject to the exclusion of all others. On the culti- 
 vation of this habit, your success in life will in a great mea- 
 sure depend. Now there is nothing so well calculated to 
 produce and fix this habit, as the course of study which you 
 are daily required to pursue. To acquire this alone would 
 be worth whole years of diligent and laborious study, if you 
 
9 
 
 did not gain a single idea, or add to your store of knowledge 
 a single fact. Patient application is also hardly less neces- 
 sary to secure success. The restlessness of the human mind, 
 the reluctance with which it confines itself for a Ions: time 
 to any one subject, its proneness to reverie and castle build- 
 ing, the impatience of the imagination, are among the great- 
 est obstacles to success in all pursuits requiring severe and 
 protracted mental application. Now to overcome these it 
 is necessary not only that we obtain control of the attention, 
 but that we be able to endure patiently mental labor. A ha- 
 bit of patient application is indispensable, and this is secur- 
 ed by the plan of study to which you are here required dai- 
 ly to attend. The drudgery of translation, of using diction- 
 ary and grammar, of proceeding inch by inch and step by 
 Step, is admirably suited to form and fix this habit. Compa- 
 rison, judgment and memory are likewise important men- 
 tal processes, which will be greatly developed and exercis- 
 ed by attention to your classical studies. But on these I can- 
 not dwell. I sincerely believe, if it were possible for a 
 young man to devote years to the patient, accurate, and dil- 
 igent study of the languages and mathematics, and at the end 
 should have every idea blotted out which he had acquired, 
 merely leaving to himi;he benefit of his mental discipline, this 
 alone would compensate him for his time, labor and expense. 
 You may take two men of equal native mental strength, — 
 one of whom has gone through this course of discipline and 
 has obtained the consequent advantages, but has entirely neg- 
 lected all general reading, history, philosophy and litera- 
 ture ; and another who has devoted his time to what is term- 
 ed the acquisition of useful information ; and set them to stu- 
 dying a profession, and in a little time the man of disciplin- 
 ed mind will leave the other far in the distance. 
 
 Young men often take up a notion that it is better to neg- 
 lect their studies and read, and contend that they gain by it 
 in the end. In this, however, they are mistaken. For, from 
 the want of the mental discipline which they are neglecting, 
 they do not know how to read. They cram their minds with 
 a quantity of unarranged and undigested knowledge, and 
 ideas by which they are little benefitted, and find in the end 
 
10 
 
 that they have almost entirely thrown their time away. Of 
 two young men, one of whom is a diligent student, and yet 
 secures such a portion of his time as he can spare from his 
 studies to judicious reading ; and the other spends his whole 
 time in reading ; the difference in the amount of information 
 gained at the end of a year would be much less than you would 
 be ready at first to imagine. I might add many other reasons 
 to impress upon your minds the prime importance of dili- 
 gent and unremitting devotion to your text books, but I have 
 already been much diverted from my original purpose, with 
 which I must now proceed. 
 
 Next in importance to mental discipline, is the acquisition 
 of knowledge. Much of this is gained in the regular course 
 of study prescribed in our schools. Your mathematical stu- 
 dies will conduct you into boundless regions of thought ; and 
 incidental to your classical studies is much knowledge of 
 history, biography, mythology, philosophy of human lan- 
 guage, and an abundance of thoughts and arguments on an 
 endless variety of subjects. To all these it is important to 
 attend. Besides, in the various departments of history, phi- 
 losophy, poetry and polite literature, not to speak of the read- 
 ing belonging particularly to the several learned professions, 
 there are exhautless sources of knowledge. 
 
 One thing that is calculated to puzzle and perplex the 
 mind of a young man about to commence a course of reading, 
 is the apparently infinite number of books. To one who goes 
 into a large library and casts his eye around and reads the 
 titles and the title pages, and then thinks how little he has 
 read, how little he can read, and how little he knows of what 
 he has read, the mental impression which arises is a feeling 
 of pain. When, too, he looks at a newspaper and sees the 
 number of books which are constantly coming from the 
 press, and thinks of what is now happening in the world, and 
 what time it will take to record it all, — he is forcibly im- 
 pressed with the fact that he has fallen behind the world, and 
 will probably never catch up. Considering, then, the great 
 number of books that are in the world, and the little time we 
 can spare from laborious studies and active duties for the 
 purpose of reading, let us fix a few maxims by which our con- 
 duct in this ^articular may be regulated. 
 
11 
 
 i. iiet us not attempt to read all the books in the world. 
 There are two good reasons for this maxim. 
 
 1st. It is impossible to read them all. There are a great 
 many written in languages which we do not understand. 
 We can't read all in the English language. If we suppose 
 that there are only 200,000 volumes, and we read one every 
 day, Sundays excepted, it would take six hundred years ; and 
 then by the time we got through, there will be as many more. 
 It is a clear case, then, we cannot read them all. 
 
 2d. It is not desirable to read them all. For if we had 
 all the ideas in all the books in the world in our heads, we 
 would not have room for anything else. A great many of 
 them are not worth reading. We could not remember them 
 all if we could read them. We need not expect, then, to 
 read every book we see or hear of. 
 
 II. As we cannot read all, let us endeavor to select ju- 
 diciously those books that we do read. Here is an all-im- 
 portant point. " Of making many books there is no end." 
 *< Evil communications corrupt good manners" — not less 
 true of books than men. Our time is precious. That which 
 is wasted we cannot recall. Unless we consent to be igno- 
 rant in an enlightened age, we must read. Many of us have 
 access to books of every description; we must make a selec- 
 tion. It cannot be expected on an occasion of this sort, that 
 I should pretend, even if I were competent to do so, to give 
 any opinion as to the relative merit of the various works 
 which fill our libraries. I would merely venture to suggest, 
 that perhaps the most improving reading for young men is to 
 be found in standard works of History. " History is philo- 
 sophy teaching by example." Every page of history is in- 
 structive. Your leisure hours cannot be more suitably em- 
 ployed than in reading History. The most interesting of all 
 histories is the Bible. Considered merely as a book of au- 
 thentic history, apart from its connexion with our immortal 
 interests, it is the most interesting book in the world. The 
 student of history should begin with the Bible. It is the 
 most ancient of all histories. In it we have an account of 
 the infancy of man, and without it as a key all other history 
 would be an enigma. Let no man, then, be content, so long 
 
12 
 
 as he is ignorant of Bible history. The history of our own 
 country is of course full of interest to us all ; and that we 
 may understand it, it is necessary that we should go back to 
 the mother country, with whose history our own is so inti- 
 mately blended. Church history also demands at the hands 
 of every educated man an attentive perusal ; the history of 
 the Reformation especially. Passing over biography, poe- 
 try, the English classics, &c, I remark that works of fiction 
 should not be permitted to encroach on your time. I would 
 gladly impress upon you the fact that time is precious ; and 
 you have no time to throw away in reading trash. There 
 are exceptions to the rule, but yet it is true, that he who 
 spends his time in reading works of fiction, is wasting the 
 precious moments which God has given. Works of fiction 
 are read merely for present gratification ; hence the manner 
 of reading is so rapid that we never retain any valuable facts 
 or sentiments which may be found in them. That this re- 
 mark is true, any person will be convinced, if he will take 
 a pen and endeavor to write down some of the ideas contain- 
 ed in the last novel he has read. This habit of rapid and 
 careless reading has, too, a very injurious effect upon the 
 mind. Apart from the doubtful moral effect of novel read- 
 ing, and leaving out of view the fact that in works of fiction 
 we never get a correct view of men and things — which are 
 represented not as they are, but distorted to suit the pur- 
 purse or fancy of the writer, and often to pander to a sick- 
 ly sentimentalism in the reader — and passing by a variety 
 of considerations which might be urged against the practice, 
 it is sufficient to say that it is a loss of time. And you have 
 no time to lose. You are soon to be called to act a part in 
 life. To act that part well, it is necessary that you should 
 be men — men of mind — men of energy — men of nerve — not 
 puny dwarfs, not sentimental women. If you wish to be 
 men, do hard work, eat solid food, and lose no time. 
 
 III. One great mistake into which young men are apt 
 to fall, is that of rapid reading. Some are ambitious to say 
 they have read a great deal ; others think it is a sign of smart- 
 ness to read a book through very quick. Some books are 
 written in such a style as to make us anxious to see the end. 
 
13 
 
 A maxim which we should lay down is, that we will read 
 ivell what we do read. To read well, it is necessary that we 
 should in most cases read slowly. An English lawyer of 
 great distinction said of himself, that when he first commenc- 
 ed the study of his profession it was in company with seve- 
 ral others. At first they greatly outstripped him. While 
 he was reading one book they would read three or four. In 
 a short time the difference between them was clearly per- 
 ceptible. They had indefinite ideas of a great many things; 
 he had learned a few things well. All the eminence he at- 
 tained he ascribed to the fact, that he had been willing to go 
 slowly, that he might learn well. The late John Q. Adams, 
 in writing to his son, says, et Young people sometimes boast 
 of how many books and how much they have read; when, in- 
 stead of boasting they ought to be ashamed of having wasted 
 so much time to so little profit." One clear and distinct 
 idea is worth a whole world of misty ones. 
 
 The objection to rapid reading is, that the mind is crowd- 
 ed with thoughts, in such quick succession, that, before one 
 is appropriated and appreciated it is displaced by another. 
 The mind is not a crucible into which you may throw every 
 thing carelessly and promiscuously, with the expectation 
 that all will be arranged in the most suitable and beneficial 
 manner. As well might you expect the body to be strong and 
 vigorous, if you were constantly throwing into it soups, and 
 slops, and meats, and everything else, at all times and in all 
 quantities, as the mind to improve by a system of promiscu- 
 ous and rapid reading. That what you read may benefit you, 
 you must understand and remember it. That you may un- 
 derstand, you must take time to think. That you may re- 
 member what you have read, it must be made a part of your 
 own intellectual furniture, and this requires time, attention 
 and labor. In the Patent Office at Washington City and the 
 Institute adjoining, are collected the greatest variety of spe- 
 cimens of every sort; the mechanic arts, the animal, mine- 
 ral, and vegetable kingdoms, have all contributed their stores. 
 The visiter is constantly attracted from one rare or beauti- 
 ful thing to another. Now if you go there, and stay two or 
 three hours and try to sec everything, and then come out, 
 
14 
 
 you will find that you could hardly describe a single thing. 
 You would have a confused idea of a great many things, and 
 a definite idea of nothing. If you were to visit the city of 
 New York and take your stand upon Broadway, you would 
 see from five to ten thousand persons in fifteen minutes. 
 Now, you might exert all your powers, but would find it im- 
 possible to call to mind any of the numerous countenances 
 which you had seen. The reason is, that the number and 
 rapid succession of objects has prevented a clear and distinct 
 idea of any. We may do our very best, and reading will be 
 with most of us " very much like going to spring in a sif- 
 ter." But still the great reason why we are so little bene- 
 fitted is, the careless and rapid manner in which we read. 
 The mind will not retain what it has not made its own. 
 Facts and ideas become our own when they are clearly com- 
 prehended and fixed by some principle of mental association, 
 not otherwise. To read rapidly, then, defeats the very pur- 
 pose at which we aim. Our time is lost — our minds wea- 
 kened. While a student of this Institution, I was intimate 
 with two young men who took a race through Hume's Histo- 
 ry of England. One commenced and read through the first 
 volume in a week, and commenced the second. The other 
 commenced the first ; and then for weeks they had a race, 
 one reading to catch up, the other to keep before. Each 
 thought he was doing very smart in reading so fast. I com- 
 menced about the same time to read Shakespeare's works, 
 and for four or five weeks read a volume a week. At the 
 expiration of the time, would have been as much at a loss to 
 say what I Jiad read, as the stranger would be to describe 
 the men he met on Broadway. Some books, from their ve- 
 ry nature, make you hurry to the end. Of this sort are most 
 works of fiction, and for this very reason you should not read 
 them. It is begetting a bad habit to no purpose. So of the 
 plays of Shakespeare ; History of the Reformation by Dr. 
 Merle cle Aubigne ; and of the history of England by Ma- 
 caulay. There is a fascination and excitement and an in- 
 terest which leads you to hasten to the conclusion. If we 
 suffer ourselves to yield to this influence, we should read 
 again and again. The oftener you read some books the bet- 
 
15 
 
 Jfcter. You would be more benefitted by reading one of the 
 plays of Shakespeare a dozen times, than you would by read- 
 ing in the same time a dozen plays ; just as he who has tho- 
 roughly committed the Gospel of Matthew, though he has 
 never read a single chapter besides, is better read in Scrip- 
 tures than he who has carelessly read the whole Bible. Let 
 your maxim be, then, in reading, "festina lente;" and be not 
 ashamed that you have to confess ignorance of many books, 
 — but never say I have read it but do not remember what is 
 in it. 
 
 IV. Of the same tendency, and arising from the same 
 cause, is the habit of listless inattentive reading. I have 
 heard of a physician who had a pupil who fell into this habit, 
 and for the want of interest often took a nap in his chair 
 with his book lying open before him. His preceptor would 
 always turn back several leaves, and when he awoke he 
 would start from the point to which he had been turned, 
 without perceiving that he had ever read it before. It is 
 needless to say all such reading is worse than play. 
 
 In reading you will find much use for books of reference. 
 In reading History, the Atlas should be your constant com- 
 panion. To get a correct view of history without a know- 
 ledge of Geography, is impossible. Use your dictionary 
 freely also. Seek out the meaning, classical, literary and 
 historical allusions. Be slow to pass any thing which you 
 do not understand, if there is in your reach any book which 
 may explain it. Compare the views of different authors up- 
 on the same subjects. Labor to fix important events and 
 facts in your memory. To this end cultivate habits of asso- 
 ciation. Bring your knowledge to bear on what you read. 
 Here you will find much use for Greek and Latin. These 
 will often give you a better idea of the meaning of a word 
 than can be gotten from any dictionary. Converse about 
 what you read, and write about it. In this Society you find 
 an excellent opportunity of using knowledge as it may be 
 acquired. But I must cease. 
 
 Young gentlemen, I congratulate you upon the return 
 of the anniversary of your Society. I am glad to be able to 
 join you in its celebration. The name " Adelphian," is all 
 
16 
 
 that now remains of what it was when I was a regular mem- 
 ber. The place, the hall, the books, the members, are no 
 longer the same. Those who were associated with me here 
 are widely scattered in this world. Some are gone to their 
 final resting place. But still I love the Society ; I love 
 the name ; I love the meaning of the name. There is some- 
 thing in a name. I love the memories which cluster around 
 that name. It brings to mind the memory of happy days, 
 I love the faces which it calls up before me. The name is 
 all that remains, did I say ? You have the motto still — Vir- 
 tue, Literature, and Science. Gentleman, cherish that name, 
 pursue that motto. Be a society of brothers ; cultivate and 
 cherish the feeling that you are brethren. Carry out the 
 spirit of your motto. Put virtue first. As a Society be 
 virtuous ; as individuals love virtue. Seek not a cold and 
 stoical morality ; but virtue, the twin sister, the virgin 
 daughter of pure religion. In the hearts and wishes of those 
 who built this institution, religion has the first place; sci- 
 ence, and literature the next. Virtue, true virtue, the off- 
 spring of religion, has the first place in the motto of your 
 society ; let it likewise have the first place in your hearts. 
 Wisdom says, I love them that love me, and they that seek 
 me early shall find me. Her ways are ways of pleasant- 
 ness, and all her paths are peace. She cometh down from 
 above, and is first pure, and then peaceable, gentle, easy to 
 be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiali- 
 ty and without hypocrisy.