ADDRESS 
 
 DELIVERED BEFORE THE STUDENTS OF 
 
 MORNING STAR INSTITUTE, 
 
 NASHVI LLE, IM. C, 
 
 May 29, 1857. 
 
 BY 
 
 WM. F. GREEN, ESQ. 
 
 fJuMtejjrir Jg &zqutst. 
 
 RALEIGH: 
 
 HOLDEN & WILSON, PRINTERS TO THE STATE. 
 
 1857. 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2013 
 
 http://archive.org/details/addressdeliveredOOgree_0 
 
* 
 
 Nashville, N. C, ifoy 29, 1857. 
 Dear Sir: 
 
 We, a Committee of the Students of the Morning Star Institute, respectfully 
 solicit a copy of the Address you delivered before us to-day. 
 
 Let us assure you we highly appreciate, and will endeavor to follow, the coun- 
 sel contained in your excellent and instructive Address. 
 With profcund respect, 
 
 We remain your obedient servants, 
 ELIAS BUNN, 
 
 J. B. BARNES, )■ Committee. 
 W. H. BLOUNT, 
 W. F. Green, Esq. 
 
 Louisburg, N. C, June 9, 1857. 
 Dear Sirs : 
 
 Your very polite and flattering note of the 29th ult., in which you request a 
 copy of the Address I had the honor to deliver before you on that day for publica- 
 tion, is duly appreciated. 
 
 Whilst I am satisfied the Address does not merit the complimentary terms in 
 which you speak of it, yet if the counsel attempted to be given shall be of service to 
 you as intimated, I yield to your solicitation and place a copy at your disposal. 
 With sincere regard, and earnest wishes for your success and happiness, 
 
 I am, 
 
 Yours, most truly, 
 
 WM. F. GREEN. 
 Messrs. Elias Bunn, ) 
 
 J. B. Barnes, >• Committee. 
 W. H. Blount, ) 
 
 0* 
 

 H» 
 
 
 
ADDRESS 
 
 Young Gentlemen of the Morning- Star Institute i . 
 
 Had I yielded to inclination, rather than a sense of duty 
 and an earnest desire to contribute to your pleasure and to 
 the noble enterprise which brings us together this day, the 
 task you have imposed upon me would have fallen upon 
 another more competent. And even now I could wish you 
 had selected some devotee of learning, of deep and varied 
 research, who had penetrated farther the mazy windings of 
 life's pathway — some bold and successful adventurer in the 
 fields of literature, who would return and meet you on this 
 festive occasion — meet you, as you press forward in your 
 joyous march, full of life and of hope and of youthful fancy ; 
 and here, by this leaping fountain of knowledge, unfold to 
 you the rich treasures of a well-stored mind and the expe- 
 rience of riper years. 
 
 The occasion, young gentlemen, is one full of interest 
 and fit for calm reflection. Some of you may regard it as 
 the end of labor and toil. Impatient of restraint and the 
 wholesome discipline of the schoolroom, you may look to 
 it as the harbinger of a bright and happy vacation, when 
 text-books shall be laid by, and the tuition of your instruc- 
 tors dispensed with for a season ; when with minds as free 
 from care as the very breeze that fans the rosy tinted 
 cheek of health, you shall press once more, with elastic 
 step, nature's velvet lawn — dash with nimble foot the pearly 
 dew drop from the wild flower's cup, and listen with de- 
 lighted ear to the untaught carols of gay-plumed birds, 
 along the fringed banks of the murmuring silver brook. 
 
 But, in the bosoms of parents and friends, the occasion 
 has awakened feelings of a graver and deeper concern. 
 The anxiety depicted upon each countenance, and the 
 
6 
 
 watchful attention given your past exercises, can not fail 
 to impress upon your minds the fact, that they have been 
 scanning the application and proficiency of each one of you 
 during the past session, and marking well the promises of 
 your youth. 
 
 With earnest hope and unfaltering patience will they 
 wait for after-years to redeem the promises of this blooming 
 springtime of your life. You can redeem every pledge and 
 promise of your youth — you can more than realize ' your 
 own and the highest expectations of parents and friends : if 
 you but make the firm resolve to so, the work is half per- 
 formed. 
 
 Nature has done all for you that wisdom and power 
 could conceive and execute. Man is the last work of the 
 Almighty, and the crowning glory of his creation. Other 
 creatures are formed prone to earth, grovelling in dispos- 
 ition, and ■" obedient to appetite." But behold the erect 
 posture of man, the symmetry of his mechanism, and the 
 nobleness of his bearing ! — they bespeak the superiority and 
 excellence of his creation. Look upon the form divine of 
 the youth who is in the act of transition from puberty to 
 manhood ! His blood leaps through his veins, and the ga- 
 zelle bounding o'er the flowery lawn is not more agile and 
 airy than he. His eye and cheek bespeak the varied emo- 
 tions of his soul. His voice is attuned to harmony, and the 
 graces of his person and the manliness of his form, vie with 
 each other for excellence. It is full of life and beauty and 
 majesty, that youthful form — a model inimitable by the 
 chisel of a Phidias or a Praxitiles ! 
 
 But how much more to be wondered at and admired is 
 the living principle that rules and animates that form ! The 
 body, however beautiful and majestic, is of the earth, 
 earthy — it fades and decays. Its sphere of action is limited 
 and circumscribed. It has speed of feet, but no wings with 
 which to fly. It may scale the mountain summit, but it 
 can rise no higher. But who or what can limit or circum- 
 scribe that intangible and spiritual essence, the human 
 mind ! Princes have shut up with iron bars and grates the 
 
bodies of their subjects, hoping to check what they con- 
 sidered the inroads of heresy and the erratic flights of 
 thought. But even there, amid the damp vapors of a loath- 
 some cell, with an eye turned inward, it woukj draw upon 
 its own treasured resources, and revel in the fancies of its 
 own imagination. On the wings of the morning it flies to 
 meet the sun at his rising, follows him in his course through 
 the heavens, till his brighter glory is withdrawn, then 
 watches each star as with silent step of fear it steals forth ; 
 chases the comet in its eccentric flight through the depths 
 of space, noting its returns at intervals of an hundred years, 
 even to the very day, hour and moment. Turning to earth, 
 it penetrates her darkest abodes, and walks among her hid- 
 den fires, or dives into the depths of ocean and gathers her 
 pearly wealth. Standing upon the present, an isthmus of 
 time, it looks back upon -the sea of the past, and forward 
 into that of the future. It holds converse with the men of 
 other days — the patriots, sages, and heroes of antiquity ; 
 weighs their deeds in the balances of enlightened reason, and 
 approves or condemns them. It sits by the side of the Ptole- 
 mies and Pharoahs of Egypt ; beholds the sculptor giving 
 form to the Sphynx, and hears the busy hum of industry and 
 the sharp clink of the mason's chisel, fashioning the granite 
 blocks of the pyramids ; attends iEneas in his flight to 
 Italy, and, with the twin brothers, lays the first stone in the 
 walls of imperial Pome. It is familiar with the philosophy 
 of Socrates and Plato, and with the noble band of Grecian 
 youth that follow in their train — delights " inter sylvas 
 Academi qucerere verumP It is in the assembly when the 
 fire and persuasive tones of Demosthenes' eloquence move 
 the Greeks like a troubled sea against Philip and his hosts. 
 It is in the Roman Senate when Cicero denounces the fierce 
 Cataline as a conspirator and an enemy to his country. It 
 marks alike the progress of Empires and of States, discern- 
 ing the springs of prosperity and greatness, and the causes 
 of dissolution and decay. Laden with the knowledge and 
 experience afforded by the past, it goes to work for the 
 
present and the future. It conceives, it plans, it executes, 
 How mysterious and grand its operations ! 
 
 And yet, if we are lost in astonishment at the capacity of 
 human intellect, which is but a scintillation stricken out 
 from the Great Source of light, how utterly futile become all 
 attempts to comprehend the infinitude of mind possessed 
 by the great I Am ! who fashioned the spheres and rolled 
 them from his mighty hand into the immensity of space, 
 and so wisely adjusted. the power of attraction and of cen- 
 trifugal force, that each amid the millions in motion should 
 move in harmony in its respective orbit ; who so inclined 
 each planet upon its axis, that, as it moves around its com- 
 mon centre of attraction, it shall experience the vicissitudes 
 of day and of night and of seasons. 
 
 Such and far greater is the Author of our being, and so 
 great are the gifts and capacities of mind and of body with 
 which He has blessed us. 
 
 But, young gentlemen, these gifts and talents are of no 
 avail and useless, unless they be cultivated and improved. 
 These are capabilities rather than powers positive and ac- 
 tive of themselves. Like a beautiful statue undeveloped 
 in a rough block of marble, requiring the chisel and the 
 skill of the sculptor to reveal it to the eye ; or, like the 
 acorn which holds the giant oak in embryo, it must needs 
 have air, heat and moisture,' before it can shoot forth 
 branches and spread a refreshing shade. From the very 
 beginning, a decree unquestionably designed for man's hap- 
 piness has gone forth as the accompaniment of these high 
 powers. God has declared by the silent and inflexible laws 
 of metaphysics, that no mental excellence shall be attained 
 without labor determined and continual. Those articles 
 which are of great price and value are the equivalents of 
 much labor and toil. Things of little worth float upon the 
 surface, but he that would gather pearls must dive to the 
 bottom of the ocean. So this work of mental improvement 
 and self-development, so full of promise and rich reward, is 
 one of determination and unceasing labor. It is a work 
 which must be performed by each one of you for himself — 
 
9 
 
 it cannot "be done by proxy, no, never by another. There 
 has not yet been discovered any cunning or device by which 
 this law of mental development can be evaded. You may 
 and you ought to be assisted, but the work can never be 
 accomplished without. your free and hearty co-opera';ion. 
 And now is the time to lay the foundation deep and strong, 
 to work manfully upon the superstructure, and rear at least 
 the frame-work of an education, in these halcyon days of 
 your youth, in this spring-time of life, when the body is 
 healthful and vigorous, and the mind quick to receive im- 
 pressions. And need I portray to yon the advantages, and 
 argue the necessity of cultivating and improving your 
 talents? Do not the age and the country in which you live, 
 and the loveliness of polite literature, as well as the useful- 
 ness and sublimity of science hold out to you sufficient in- 
 ducements to labor and to study? I say the age, because 
 it is one of rapid and onward progress— lethargy and su- 
 pineness can no longer be tolerated. Things move at the 
 whistle of the steam engine and the quick click of the tele- 
 graph. 
 
 Just now, in the latter half of the nineteenth century, 
 is the inventive genius of man, aided by art and untiring 
 industry, unfolding upon a grand scale the hidden resources 
 of the material world, constraining unwilling contribution 
 from intractable matter to the comfort, convenience and 
 happiness of the race. Now do the white sails of com- 
 merce catch every breeze, and the prow of the majestic 
 ship lash into foam the bosom of the ocean, as she bears 
 along the fruits of industry from every clime and nation 
 upon the globe. Now does the iron horse, with breath of 
 fire and lungs that know no fatigue, dash over the plains, 
 waking with shrill neigh sleeping echo in the hills and val- 
 leys, carrying the mineral and agricultural wealth of rural 
 and inland districts, and with unwonted velocity and the 
 comfort of the "fireside, transporting the curious, the pleas- 
 ure-seeking and the merchant to scenes of attraction and 
 the busy marts of trade. Now does the power-press repro- 
 duce in the twinkling of an eye the wisdom and philosophy 
 
10 
 
 of departed sages ; set forth the elaborated thoughts and 
 ideas Of the statesman, metaphysician and divine, dissem- 
 inating knowledge in every town, village and private circle 
 wherever education has shot a ray of light — compared with 
 which the slow plodding of the ancient manuscript copyist 
 sinks into insignificance, and the wonder arises that knowl- 
 edge so fettered increased at all. ~Now does the benign in- 
 fluence of Christianity take into its embrace the moral na- 
 ture of mankind, purifying the heart and elevating the 
 thoughts and affections to objects invisible and eternal. 
 
 This being the onward march of the age in which we live, 
 there can be no time for loitering, no time for delay. If 
 you would enter the lists, you must do so girded and pre- 
 pared for the race. If you stop on the way for preparation, 
 you lose the prize, you fail to reach the goal of honorable 
 distinction and bechronicled in the legends of renown. I 
 say the country in which 3^011 live, because it holds out to 
 you high inducements and honorable rewards — by reason 
 of its free and happy institutions, its genial climate, its fruit- 
 ful soil, its majestic rivers, its mountains of mineral wealth, 
 and its mighty commerce on the great oceans that wash its 
 shores. Our government recognizes no favored class, no 
 royal blood, entitled, by the accident of birth, to high pre- 
 rogative, to position and honor. Our constitution expressly 
 and wisely excludes all titles of nobility, of pomp and of 
 heraldry. The road to distinction and fame lies open, and 
 invites alike the beggar's boy and the millionare's son. The 
 only requisites demanded for office and promotion, are vir- 
 tue and capacity in the aspirant ; and these alone must be 
 looked to in all free governments, if they are to be perpetu- 
 ated, if they are to continue prosperous and happy. 
 
 Your fathers now, nnder the providence of Heaven, 
 wield at the ballot-box the destiny of this country ; each one 
 a ruler and a sovereign in his own asserted and independ- 
 ent right ; acknowledging allegiance to no power but that 
 of the Most High. Many of the great and distinguished men 
 of this generation have already passed off the stage of ac- 
 tion. A Webster, a Clay, a Calhoun and a King, have 
 
11 
 
 yielded up their [places in legislative halls, in the cabinet, 
 and at the council-board of the nation. It must be, when 
 such brilliant lights go out in the political firmament, that 
 a shadow will fall upon the land : this shadow can alone be 
 dispelled by the rising of new luminaries of intellect, of 
 equal effulgence and brightness. 
 
 You, young gentlemen, are the heirs apparent to the 
 sovereignty of this great Republic. Soon your fathers and 
 the entire troop of actors upon the political arena, will pass 
 away, and you will be called upon to take their places in 
 the pulpit, at the bar, and in the halls of State and federal 
 legislation. You will be compelled to assume the trust and 
 the responsibility of conducting the affairs of the greatest 
 and most powerful free government upon the face of 
 the globe. To you will be confided 'the control of our 
 army and navy and vast, commercial relations with the 
 powers of the earth. To your keeping will be entrusted 
 that sacred emanation of the wisdom of our forefathers — the 
 American Constitution ; and upon your interpretation of its 
 principles, and adherence to them, will depend the future 
 union and harmony and confederation of States, and the 
 happy solution of that great problem — the capacity of 
 man for self-government. Into your hands will be placed 
 the flag-staff of our glorious "stars and stripes," never yet 
 dishonored, never jet trailed in the dust before mortal foe ; 
 upon you will depend the protection of this ensign of our 
 glory, this escutcheon of our fame. It guards and shields 
 us now from insult and attack, by recollection, on the part 
 of our enemies, of the prowess, the chivalry, and patiiotism 
 of our fathers ; the many hard contested and bloody battle- 
 fields over which it has proudly waved, though tattered in 
 shreds, yet in victory and triumph. But if yon shall suffer 
 it, while in your custody, to be insulted and trampled upon, 
 it will no longer, as now, protect, wherever its azure field is 
 unfurled, our commerce and trade and our citizens, whether 
 they roam upon the high seas or on foreign soil. These are 
 grave trusts and responsible duties, for the proper and faith- 
 
12 
 
 ful performance of which posterity will hold you to a strict 
 account. 
 
 The true and faithful performance of them will depend 
 upon the amoint of intelligence and virtue and patriotism 
 you shall bring to ^he undertaking. If you shall come to 
 the task prepared, as you should be, the gray-headed sires 
 of the land will commit to your charge, without forebodings 
 and misgivings, the rich heritage and the future weal and 
 destiny of our country; and in their declining years, they 
 will fondly hope that for a longer time than lived the Bo- 
 man Republic, our gallant old ship of State will ride, with- 
 out hurt or damage, the storms of internal strife, of faction 
 and fanaticism, and of foreign hate. As these are high and 
 responsible trusts, let me urge you to make yourselves equal 
 to the occasion whenever they shall fall upon you ; and do 
 not, we entreat you, mistake the character of true greatness 
 and true nobility, which alone can fit you for their dis- 
 charge. They consist, as we confidently assert and believe, 
 in virtue, in moral and intellectual worth. 
 
 The time has been, when men were accustomed to look 
 to wealth and rank and ancestral memorials as the expo- 
 nents of greatness, and were loath to acknowledge it with- 
 out such insignia — when the more mementoes of great bat- 
 tles by fathers won, the more marble statues and columns 
 and paintings one could boast, the greater were his claims 
 upon his fellow-men for estimation and honor. Often for 
 these have the people lavished applause and bestowed their 
 homage, and for lack of them, withheld respect and hurled 
 contempt. When Caius Marius w~ould aspire to office the 
 people demanded the evidences of his rank ! " What," said 
 he, " if I can show no family statue, enumerate no long line 
 of illustrious ancestors ! I can show the scars of those 
 wounds I received in facing the enemies of my country! 
 I can show the standards and the armour I have taken from 
 the vanquished ! These are ray statues, these the honors I 
 boast ; not left me by inheritance, but earned by absti- 
 nence, by toil, by valour, amid clouds of dust and seas of 
 blood." 
 
13 
 
 The power of wealth to confer honor is exceeding great. 
 Where riches are amassed, men gather like vampires at- 
 tracted by the smell of blood, to pay homage and fan the 
 breeze of flattery. It can make fawning parasites liberal 
 of their bought praises ; it can throw the mantle of a venial 
 charity over the crimes of high places ; extenuate them by 
 the fascinations of eloquence ; embellish them by the flow- 
 ing numbers of the poet's lay, and soften them by the mel- 
 low tints of the painter's pencil ! But those who found 
 their claims upon such unstable basis, live in the memories 
 of men only by their contact with the truly great — they are 
 the barnacles and shell-fish that cleave to the keel of the 
 massive ship as she rides the ocean billows of time, and en- 
 ters, suffused with glory, the port of future generations. 
 
 " Where is the fame 
 Which the vainglorious of earth 
 Would seek to eternize? The minutest wave 
 That swells the flood of agts, whelms in nothing 
 . The unsubstantial bubble " 
 
 Mental and moral excellence are the only sure basis of true 
 nobility. It comes not by birth, not by chance, not by the 
 favor or sycophancy of men. It is the gift of heaven, not 
 of heraldry — a sparkling gem set in the coronet of fame, 
 and polished by the hand of industry. Such grandeur and 
 nobleness of mind as characterized a Newton, a Luther and 
 a Locke — men claiming and receiving from their fellow T - 
 men nothing save only what their own intrinsic merits enti- 
 tled them to. They were giants traversing the fields of 
 thought in search of nature's laws and of truth ; laying hold 
 upon the bases of mountains of error, and upheaving their 
 foundations. Pioneers they were in the unexplored wilds 
 of hidden knowledge, removing the accumulated rubbish 
 of ages in Church and State ; levelling hills and filling up 
 valleys for the rapid and triumphant progress of posterity 
 to glory and renown. These are Heaven's aristocracy, the 
 true noblemen of earth. They have erected their own 
 monuments — not of granite and marble, as the Knights of 
 Heraldry are wont to do, but of that imperishable material, 
 
14 
 
 thought, — founded upon a rock of diamond 'brilliancy and 
 firmness, their stately proportions, self-luminous, shall attract 
 the gaze of admiring -millions. Would you compare the 
 nobility of intellect with that of the inheritors of greatness, 
 go to Westminster Abbey and behold the gorgeous monu- 
 ments that rise over the remains of England's royalty — the 
 Plantagenets, the Stuarts, the Tudors, and those of the 
 house of Brunswick. Compare the emotions excited in 
 your breast, by this scene, with those you feel when view- 
 ing the plain tombstones that point out the ashes of the 
 Bard of Avon, of Milton, of Young, of Thompson, of Gold- 
 smith and Gray — the untitled genius, wit and learning that 
 moulder by their side. Or count over the names of the 
 Emperors and Queens that lie garnered in the dreary pomp 
 of monumental marble in the capuchin vaults of Vienna. 
 Weigh their dust with the blood and calamity of their 
 peasant's war, their thirty years war, and all the vile pre- 
 tences for which they made their kingdom an aceldama and 
 a charnel-house. Where now is their nobility, where that 
 greatness of which they thought themselves the sole pro- 
 prietors ! Gone ! forgotten like a dream. Their's was the 
 name without the reality, the shadow without the substance. 
 The traveller strolls indifferently by their mausoleums, ad- 
 mires their magnificence and the skill of the architect ; but 
 regards them only as sepulchral piles over corruption — the 
 last vain attempts of fictitious greatness to excite admira- 
 tion and perpetuate a name. 
 
 The reigns of kings and queens, the titled great of earth, 
 have served little other purpose than for the historian to 
 mark by them the epochs of great events, the discoveries 
 and inventions of the sons of genius and of intellect. 
 
 It is unnecessary, young gentlemen, and the time allow- 
 ed on this occasion will not permit one, to pass in review 
 and urge upon your attention the advantages of a thorough 
 and intimate acquaintance with each different branch of 
 science, of literature and of art. These things, as you pro- 
 gress, I am sure will be fully and faithfully brought to light 
 by your competent and efficient instructors. 
 
15 
 
 But permit me to say to you, that after you shall have 
 completed the circle of learning and of human research, 
 and realized the truth of the declaration made by Sir Fran- 
 cis Bacon, that "knowledge is power" — after you shall 
 have explored, with Newton, with Ilerschel and La Place, 
 the fields of ether, fretted with golden fires, and surveyed 
 them as with compass and chain ; ascertained the revolu- 
 tions of planets, and their physical phenomena; calculated 
 the velocity of light, the chances of eclipses and the coming 
 of comets, and made the science of astronomy tributary to 
 the wants of commerce and of navigation ; after you shall 
 have penetrated, with Lyell, Hugh Miller and Agassiz, the 
 strata of the earth's crust, classifying the fossil remains of 
 extinct animal life there entombed, and read the changes 
 and convulsions it has suffered, as inscribed upon the pages 
 of this mighty book by the finger of the Almighty ; after 
 you shall have learned, as far as revelation and the pages 
 of history can teach, the past experience and the future des- 
 tiny of the human race ; after you shall have acquired all 
 this learning, and much more, you may still be unworthy 
 the respect and confidence of your fellow-men — you may 
 be more powerful for wickedness and for evil than for good 
 and virtuous deeds. The heart, with its affections, must be 
 cultivated no less than the intellect. 
 
 I can point you to one who acquired in an eminent de- 
 gree all these helps of greatness ; a man of brilliant talents, 
 of great learning, eloquence, fascinating manners, and the 
 most captivating address ; one of the few who, entering the 
 war of independence with ardor and flattering prospects, 
 disappointed the expectations he had created, dishonored 
 the cause he had espoused, and ended in shame and igno- 
 miny a career which he had opened with splendor. This 
 man was the third Yice-President of the United States, a 
 Senator in Congress, and a competitor with Thomas Jeffer- 
 son for the highest office in the gift of the people, though 
 he well knew the votes he received had not been cast for 
 that office. Disappointed and baffled in his scheme of sel- 
 fish ambition, the fiendish thought of treason seizes his soul. 
 
m 
 
 16 
 
 He is suspected, arrested, and charged with the crime, and, 
 though acquitted, believed to have been guilty. Aaron 
 Burr was destitute of moral principle, of virtue, and recti- 
 tude of purpose — wanting in these, he lacked everything. 
 Better be the poorest beggar that crawls, and virtuous, 
 than brilliant and accomplished as Byron, Yoltaire and 
 Burr, and vicious as they. 
 
 " Talents augel bright, 
 If wanting worth, are shining instruments * 
 
 In false ambition's hand to finish faults 
 Illustrious and give infamy renown." 
 
 Let me urge you then to invest yourselves and all the 
 knowledge you may acquire in the robes of virtuous prin- 
 ciple, integrity and uprightness. "Obsta principiis." For- 
 tify yourselves against the first temptations, the first allure- 
 ments of vice. Shun them as you would a quicksand or a 
 plague. Like Ulysses, bind yourselves with the chords of 
 virtue to the mast of conscious rectitude, and stop your ears 
 to the wooing voice of Calypso and her nymphs. It is the 
 first false step in the paths of vice which makes the return 
 to virtue's ways difficult to all and impossible to many. 
 Clothed with the power of knowledge, and guided by that 
 virtuous principle which knows no indirection, which heeds 
 not the suggestions of expediency at the expense of right, 
 a future radiant with hope and a glorious destiny awaits 
 you. Take courage, then, and press on to the attainment 
 of true greatness and true nobility, for the 
 
 " Lives of great men all remind us 
 We can make our lives sublime. 
 And departing, leave behind us 
 Footprints on the sands of time; 
 Footprints, that perchance another 
 Sailing o'er life's troubled main, 
 A forlorn and shipwrecked brother 
 Seeing, shall take heart again." 
 
 We should be guilty of a breach of courtesy, were we to 
 pass by the young ladies of this place, who are engaged in 
 similar pursuits, without a word of admonition and coun- 
 
1 
 
 scl. If the time and occasion permitted, we would gladly 
 trace for you, young ladies, the influences which appear to 
 us to have been most efficient in elevating, adorning and 
 dignifying female character. We would gladly go back 
 with you to the feudal halls and moated castles of the " mid- 
 dle ages," in which woman received her first upward im- 
 pulse in the scale of social existence, and show you how, 
 by the gentleness of her disposition and the serenity of her 
 manners, she softened, refined and humanized the rough 
 nature of the sterner sex. How by the attractions and 
 endearments of the home circle, man was won over from 
 his migratory life, the pursuits of war and the chase, to the 
 more peaceful and profitable employments of husbandry, 
 of art and of industry. We would gladly attend you at the 
 tournament of knight-errantry and of chivalry, where you 
 presided a " queen of love and beauty," dispensing the 
 honors of skill and bravery to the victorious and gallant 
 knight, where triumph was little less glorious, and at the 
 time more exquisitely felt, since no battlefield could assem- 
 ble such witnesses of valor. Honor to the brave resounded 
 amid the din of martial music from the lips of minstrels, as 
 the gallant knight advanced to receive the prize from the 
 fair hand of woman, the surrounding multitude acknowl- 
 edging in the prowess of that day an augury of nobler 
 deeds yet to be performed in his country's defence. At 
 this stage of civilization, when society was casting off" its 
 barbarous nature, and merging into a more refined state of 
 existence, woman reigned supreme — the extravagant ado- 
 ration man paid her was only equalled by the low depths 
 of social degradation from which she had risen. The 
 wild follies, however, into which knight-errantry led its 
 votaries, when real adventure was no more furnished, 
 met a happy corrective in that fine specimen of ridi- 
 cule and satire administered by Cervantes to the errant 
 knight, Don Quixote — lopping off with exquisite touch the 
 unnatural excesses of the over-gallant, and presenting, in 
 bold relief, the virtues of that true chivalry on which rest 
 woman's claims upon society—whence springs that true 
 2 
 
18 
 
 civility unrestrained by the stiffness of ceremony, that 
 amenity of manner, that geuuine politeness which seeks to 
 heighten the happiness of companions, those ornaments and 
 graces which invest social intercourse with its most elegant 
 and attractive charms. 
 
 If, young ladies, your sex exerted the influence over so- 
 ciety we have ascribed to it-, by the native unadorned ele- 
 ments of character which are peculiarly feminine, by her 
 beauty, her grace,. her devotion and constancy, her gentle- 
 ness of disposition and tenderness of sympathy, ever alive 
 to the cries of wo ! — if in castle hall, she could sa}^ to 
 man's tumultuous passions " peace be still" — if in those 
 mimic scenes of war over which she presided the arbitress 
 of skill and valor, by an approving smile or a gentle wave 
 of the hand she could nerve the arm of the gallant knight 
 for feats of courage — if by communion with her she could 
 soften his rough nature, humanize his heart, and restrain 
 his lawless spirit — what, allow me to ask, will be the influ- 
 ence you must exert upon society, when by intellectual 
 culture you shall adorn these native elements of character 
 with the accomplishments of art, of science, of a purer 
 taste and a holier Christianity? Like the circling wave 
 from the stone cast into the bosom of the placid lake, it 
 will widen, silently diffusing itself, until it breaks upon the 
 farthest shore of civilization. 
 
 It does not follow, as a necessary consequence, that you 
 will exert an influence so great, or for good. You may. 
 But it will depend upon the cultivation and proper exercise 
 of the powers with which you have been blest. 
 
 You live in an age remarkable for intelligent and liberal 
 sentiment. You enjoy greater privileges and advantages 
 than have been vouchsafed to woman at any previous pe- 
 riod of the world's existence. A deeper and livelier in- 
 terest is felt in the cause of female education and the gen- 
 eral diffusion of knowledge than ever heretofore, and in 
 like degree is expectation aroused and your responsibilities 
 increased. It will not be sufficient that you skim, as on 
 swallow's wing, the surface of knowledge, delighted with 
 
19 
 
 the babbles- of fancy that float and vanish at the touch — you 
 must seek the gems of " purest ray " that lie in the deeper 
 waters. Be not content to flit from flower to flower gath- 
 ering nectared sweets, unconscious of their nature, or the 
 source from whence they spring. 
 
 Think not that it is the end of your being, or the excel- 
 lence of female character, to adorn the person ,with the or- 
 namental charms of flashing silk, fine gauze and tinsel, to 
 follow with obsequious devotion the ever-varying phases of 
 capricious fashion, or with French belles to radiate the fea- 
 tures with the powdered dust of the diamond ; but strive 
 rather to obtain the richer ornament, the brighter radiance 
 and more substantial charm which intellectual culture be- 
 stows. 
 
 The proper training and development of the mind does 
 not consist in accumulating and storing away in memory 
 the facts which history discloses, or the truths science re- 
 veals ; but in a correct understanding and just apprehen- 
 sion of the relatioi? and bearing of one fact, one truth upon 
 other facts and other truths. There does not exist in phy- 
 sics or morals a single fact or truth, standing solitary and 
 alone, without its relations to antecedents and results. An 
 unbroken chain links each fact in the Universe from the 
 original fiat of the Almighty to the latest moment of time. 
 To trace the connexion between cause and effect, to com- 
 prehend the fitness and propriety of things, the purpose 
 and design of the Creator which everywhere exist, though 
 often misunderstood, to know our duty to ourselves, to so- 
 ciety, and to God, and fit ourselves for its faithful discharge, 
 is the end of knowledge and of reason. 
 
 True, you have not the same length of time alotted, nor 
 the same facilities furnished to pursue an uninterrupted 
 course of study, with the opposite sex. Our universities 
 teem with a greater number of volumes ; a more numerous 
 corps of learned professors are employed, as well as a great- 
 er variety of astronomical, philosophical and chemical ap- 
 paratus, to pry into the secrets of nature and demonstrate 
 the truths of scientific discovery. It is not expected that you 
 
20 
 
 will acquire a deeper or more varied learning than the 
 other sex; but you may and you ought to ]3i*ess closely up-' 
 on the footsteps of the boldest adventurer in the regions of 
 thought. You may not, with Herschell, point the telescope 
 to the bright orbs that move in silent majesty in the un- 
 fathomable depths of space; nor, with Humboldt and 
 Hugh Miller, ascend the rugged heights of the volcano, and 
 hang over its burning crater, or penetrate the strata of the 
 earth, and trace the "footprints of the creator" in its once 
 yielding crust ; nor, with Prescott, Bancroft and Hawks, 
 gather from musty volumes and obscure manuscripts the 
 facts and great events which make up the history and char- 
 acter of a people. But you ought and you may know the 
 result of their researches, in a much shorter time than they 
 were engaged in making them ; you can realize the full 
 benefits of their labors and discoveries. - No chilling penury 
 now clips the wings of youthful aspiration. Parents and 
 guardians have a lively appreciation of the real advantage 
 and priceless worth of solid learning and polite literature., 
 The time has been when the father looked with a miser's 
 eye upon his gold, and would have sooner excluded the 
 light of heaven from the soul of his child than have parted 
 with his treasure. That day of ignorance is fast closing — 
 its beclouded sun rapidly sinking beneath the horizon. All 
 over our lovely heritage, in town and sequestered retreat, 
 are established and springing up, as by magic, seminaries of 
 learning, devoted to female education, whence flow per- 
 ennial streams of intelligence and virtue that water and 
 gladden our country. 
 
 "We rejoice at the zeal and energy now manifested by the 
 Old North State in behalf of her daughters. It is fit that 
 she who first breathed the thought of liberty and indepen- 
 dence — who first unsheathed the sword and defied the ty- 
 rant's will — should be among the foremost in that race 
 whose goal and end is the rescue and redemption of mind 
 from the thraldom of ignorance and the gloom of super- 
 stition. 
 
 Napoleon Bonaparte once asked Madame DeStael, one of 
 
21 
 
 the brightest intellects of your sex, how he should best pro- 
 mote the happiness of the French people. Her reply was, 
 "Instruct the women of France." Woman is the kind and 
 affectionate teacher of the race. She watches with mater- 
 nal care and love the first budding of promise, and trains 
 with gentle hand the tender sprigs of thought. She toils 
 day and night to fit us for the fierce conflicts of life, for use- 
 fulness and distinction. When we quit the parental roof, 
 she gives us a shield and tells us to " come back with it or 
 upon it." If we shall succeed, if fortune shall favor, and 
 honor be our reward, we flee for a while the storm and 
 the strife of the world, to revisit the old homestead and lay 
 that honor at the feet of a mother who has watched with 
 joy our upward career. It is enough for woman that she 
 fashions the mind and gives tone to the character of him 
 who shall command fleets and lead armies to battle; whose 
 eloquence shall move and calm the excited masses of the 
 people. Let not, then, vaulting ambition, the pride of 
 learning and thirst for fame, usurp the throne in her heart, 
 where gentleness, submissiveness and patience ought to 
 reign. Let her not reach forth her tiny hand to grasp the 
 helm and guide the ship of State over the heaving sea of 
 political strife — it is beyond her sphere of action — a labor 
 too great and hazardous for her. Her throne is in the so- 
 cial circle ; the household altar is her place of worship and 
 service. Here the virtues and the graces of female char- 
 acter bloom and shed their sweetest fragrance. Behold the 
 ardor of her plighted love, and the strength of her devo- 
 tion, as exemplified in the classic story of " Penelope's web." 
 For ten long years Ulysses is in the camp and siege of 
 Troy, for ten years more he is detained by adverse winds 
 from the pleasures of home and the joys of the social circle ; 
 still, for a score of years, his faithful spouse deludes impor- 
 tunate suitors, weaves and unweaves her tapestried web, 
 anxiously awaiting and hoping for the joyous return of her 
 lord. Look upon the disconsolate and inconsolable widow 
 of the lamented Sir John Franklin! Her affectionate de- 
 votion has touched the chords of sympathy in all hearts 
 
99 
 
 throughout the civilized world ; when hope for the return 
 of Sir John has withered and died in all other minds ; when 
 voyage after voyage of exploration and discovery have re- 
 turned, with no satisfactory tidings of his own or the des- 
 tiny of his crew ; still faithful and hopeful, she is this day 
 gathering together the fragments of her fortune, to lit out 
 another expedition for his relief, if it be that he yet lives. 
 Still, for her, does hope plume its white wings to search 
 amid the thick gloom, the everlasting snows and icebergs of 
 the arctic region, for a lost husband. Woman alone is ca- 
 pable of such constancy and such devotion. 
 
 It has been well said "that as the vine which has long 
 twined its graceful foliage about the oak, and been lifted 
 by it into sunshine, will, when the hardy plant has been 
 rifled by the thunderbolt, cling round it with its caressing 
 tendrils, and bind up its shattered boughs; so is it beauti- 
 fully ordered by Providence, that woman, who is the de- 
 pendent and ornament of man in his happier hours, should 
 be his stay and solace when smitten with sudden calamity, 
 winding herself into the rugged recesses of his nature, ten- 
 derly supporting the drooping head, and binding up the 
 broken heart. This is her province, this the orbit in which 
 she ought to move, except when, like, the morning star, she 
 deigns to issue forth to the world in her beauty and grace, 
 scattering her approving smiles upon all that can appre- 
 ciate her worth ; then she retires to her home again, like 
 that star sinking in the west, and the refining influence 
 of her presence is as the soft twilight that lingers long be- 
 hind a bright and joyous day.