,«a.i""w 'j 
 
 ^■m ■! ■■ran* 
 
 HOW TO LEARN: 
 
 AN ADDRESS, 
 
 DELIVERED BEFORE THE STUDENTS OF 
 
 HOLLY SPEINGS ACADEMY 
 WAKE COUNTY, N. €. 
 
 THIRD OP JUNE, 1859. 
 
 BY 
 
 EDWAED CANT WELL. 
 
 EALEIGH. 
 Printed by E. EL Whitaker, " Democratic Press/' 
 
 1859. 
 
 gM Uk-jumc 
 
 553©; 
 
HOW TO LEARN 
 
 AN ADDRESS, 
 
 DELIVERED BEFORE THE STUDENTS OF 
 
 HOLLY SPRINGS ACADEMY, 
 
 WAKE COUNTY, N. C. 
 
 THIRD OF JUNE, 1859. 
 
 EDWARD CANTWELL 
 
 RALEIGH. 
 Printed by R. H. Whitaker, " Democratic Press. 3 ' 
 
 1859. 
 
cyan g 
 
 ADDRESS. 
 
 Fellow-Citizens of Holly Springs, 
 
 And Young Gentlemen op the 'Academy : 
 
 It is not often that we enjoy the pleasure of seeing 
 so many citizens of this part of our county together. 
 You live here, nearly twenty miles from the Capitol 
 and about an equal distance from any railway. I did 
 not find the road this morning, quite so smooth as 
 that which the ancient poets represent to have led to 
 the lower regions — it rather partook of the opposite 
 character, and justifies therefore the pleasing antici- 
 pations of this visit which I do now realize. I am 
 glad to see many other citizens of Ealeigh present. 
 I am glad that these opportunities are occasionally 
 presented, for a pleasant social intercourse between 
 the town and the country. I am sure, that they will 
 contribute to the mutual benefit — dissipate prejudice 
 — encourage a better acquaintance, and promote 
 good feeling. 
 
 This school house before which we are now on this 
 pleasant day assembled, my presence here, and this 
 attentive and respectable audience, composed of the 
 young gentlemen who have honored me with the in- 
 vitation to address them, and, for the most part, of 
 the fathers and mothers of the village and surround- 
 ing country, indicate very clearly, that the people of 
 this part of Wake county — known abroad as the 
 Dark Corner — and especially those of them whose 
 children are large enough to go to school, are alive 
 to the duties of their position. 
 
 We feel, ladies and gentlemen, that it is incum- 
 bent upon us to provide for the future wants of the 
 community to which we belong — that we are bound 
 to supply them at a con venient distance from home the 
 opportunities and facilities for acquiring at least the 
 elements of common information and knowledge ; 
 
 9 
 00 
 
 to 
 
because, deprived of them, we feel, that these boys 
 and young men, when they go into the world, would 
 hardly be thought much more of, than the perishing 
 brutes by which we are surrounded. 
 
 History sacred and profane, and nature in its dai- 
 ly manifestations conspire to impress us, very strik- 
 ingly, with the strength and the universality of that 
 sentiment of parental tenderness these things in- 
 dicate. Speculating upon it, Solomon acquired the 
 reputation for wisdom which has survived even his 
 temple and kingdom. There was a child, you recol- 
 lect, in dispute between two women. He directed 
 the infant to be cut in two, and one half given to each 
 of the contestants. The pretended mother at once 
 accepted the proposition, but the true author of the 
 little innocent's being spoke, when she said: 'The 
 child is mine, but save its life, my lord, and give it 
 all to her !' Speculating upon it, Palamedes took 
 the infant Telemachus to the sea-shore, where the 
 king of Ithaca, refusing to embark, insanely plowed 
 the sand with a yoke of horses and bulls, and cast the 
 babe into the furrow. Parental love, more strong 
 than the allurements of ease, subdued the crafty 
 hero. He turned the plow away from the body of 
 his- boy, and putting on his sword and shield, pro- 
 ceeded upon that campaign from which he did not 
 return for twenty years. This love for offspring — this 
 desire for its safety and appropriate education is an 
 instinct of nature, and stronger even than self-preser- 
 vation pervades every form of created life. The same 
 matchless tenderness which fills the mother's breast, 
 when the eyes of her first born, for the first time 
 gleam with the sunshine of an awakening intelli- 
 gence and affection, is also discovered in the agoniz- 
 ing cry of the hunted beast, which, careless of her 
 own life, interposes her bleeding form between the 
 pursuers and her progeny — prolonging even mortal 
 agonies with the hope of their preservation; it speaks in 
 the whispering leaves that canopy the trees of earth ; up- 
 
 
3 
 
 on every one of which countless colonies crowd a micro- 
 scopic home ; it is written upon the nebulous depths 
 of ether, where sweeping the skies with his wondrous 
 telescope, the awed observer starts from the star dust, 
 a wilderness of spheres . It is found in the cham- 
 bers of the deep, down in that dark abyss, where the 
 plummet of all man's works, alone invades the silent 
 floors of the sea, and returns a conqueror, laden with 
 the spoils of triumph. Everywhere present through- 
 out the universe of being, the same parental love 
 thrills the heart of the civilized man and the savage, 
 moistens the eye of the untamed king of the forests ; 
 smiles in the oak whose protecting arms surround its 
 leafy young ; crawls with the worm, and creeps in 
 showers of green and gold, among the flowers and 
 buds, that gem the circling vine. No sooner does each 
 arrive at maturity than evolving from its own bosom 
 the germ of its race, it nurses that germ with its life- 
 blood and substance, devotes its own life to the busi- 
 ness of its preservation, yields up without a murmur 
 its own freshness and youth, its beauty and bloom, and 
 even in a death occasioned by its cares, finds a com- 
 pensating glory in the preservation of the species. 
 
 The animal man is distinguished from all life-bear- 
 ing and producing creatures by the faculty of Rea- 
 son. Each of them is endowed with a certain indi- 
 vidual intelligence, the cultivation oi which is the 
 proper business of the race. This is Education. The 
 parent's duty is founded on the fact, that this facul- 
 ty of Reason is susceptible of cultivation only in 
 youth. ' Unless,' says the philosophic Rousseau, c a 
 man learns to think while he is yet young, he will 
 never think at all.' The development of a power to 
 think, and the cultivation of the memory, are there- 
 fore the objects of all the various systems of teaching 
 youth, which have been or may yet be introduced. — 
 These elementary faculties are to be excited to vitali- 
 ty and action by the application of systematic study 
 and discipline, or the mind of the pupil remains dor- 
 
6 
 
 mant, undeveloped ; like the coal and iron upon Deep 
 River, which, left there in the howels of the earth, 
 add nothing to the resources of the State, hut mined 
 and carried to market, might even enable us to re- 
 sume and to maintain the independence we surren- 
 dered in '89. Alluding to the analogy which exists 
 between the human mind left to itself and the neg- 
 lected farm, Lord Bacon remarks, l you have to choose 
 between herbs and weeds, the germs of both are there, 
 but the one must be watered and the other destroyed 
 by the hand of labor.' 
 
 To accomplish these purposes, the first thing a boy 
 has to learn at school is a habit of attention. Atten- 
 tion is to science, what the alphabet is to language, 
 and I think it more generally capable of cultivation 
 and improvement, than seems to be supposed by most 
 writers. I think besides, that it is a more universal 
 faculty. The ability to summon the assistance of all 
 the mental powers at any moment they are required, 
 is the highest evidence of genius. The ability to con- 
 fine them to a single subject of investigation at one 
 time, is an evidence of talent. The latter may be 
 acquired, if the former cannot, and it is indispensa- 
 ble not only to any progress in learning, but 
 even to a beginning to learn. You may with most 
 boys measure and predict the exact amount of success 
 they will meet in life, by t le extent to which the fa- 
 culty of Attention is enjoyed, or is capable of being 
 cultivated. Once the self-control it requires becomes 
 habitual, the operations of an educated mind, sway- 
 ed by its influence, seem to the bewildered and ad- 
 miring observer, like the effects of inspiration. The 
 man is transformed and transfigured. The soul 
 shakes off the body, and is itself visible. We think 
 of the splendid description of Hamlet : 
 
 ' What a piece of work is a man ! How noble in 
 reason ; how infinite in faculties ; in form and mov- 
 ing how express and admirable ; in action how like 
 an Angel ; in apprehension how like a God !' 
 
Long after the beauties of the Greek and Latin 
 shall have been so completely naturalized in English, 
 as that we will cease to regard them as the only true 
 standards of literary excellence, and may one day 
 even exclude them from the curriculum of practical 
 study, they will be recommended to the student as a 
 means of acquiring and retaining this control over 
 the operations and powers of his mind; and this, too, 
 is the object proposed by the study of the pure math- 
 ematics. Observation convinces me, however, that 
 too exclusive a study of Law, Mathematics, Langua- 
 ges, or any other science, deprives the mind of com- 
 mon sense, and begets habits of intolerance. Madame 
 DeStael used to account for the ill-temper of some of 
 her cotemporaries, by the suggestion that they were 
 Mathematicians. I can conceive of few beings more 
 completely isolated, than a mere lawyer, especially 
 if he be a first-rate one. With him everything is ' a 
 case/ and every incident of the day involves 'points' 
 of more or less obscurity and importance. He sees 
 no joke unless through the quaint media of trespass 
 assumpsit or replevin. Show him a fine prospect, 
 he thinks of the action of Ejectment. Take him to 
 a wedding, he remembers the settlements of a hun- 
 dred generations, and going to a funeral will perplex 
 and worry himself with the doctrine of Wills and 
 Executors, while a dear friend is being lowered into 
 the common receptacle of decaying. humanity. Some 
 great lawyers have been wits, but not many, and 
 their wit was always of that quaint and musty sort, 
 that could not be appreciated beyond the bar. I hap- 
 pened once to be present in a party of gentlemen, all 
 lawyers, one of whom wasa wit ; one a great lawyer 
 then and now upon the State Bench, then and 
 now remarkable for the force and beauty of his rea- 
 son upon purely legal questions, then and now sus- 
 pected of being insensible to a joke or pleasantry, un- 
 less connected in some way near or remote with a 
 question of law. An eminent practitioner, whom I 
 
a 
 
 will not name or describe, approaching him familiar- 
 ly, said, * Well Judge, what do you think of my 
 great Equity speech to-day ? I give up, that the 
 law argument was not worth much, hut I insist that, 
 (and here he looked jocular) my Equity speech was 
 good/ 'Well' said His Honor, with deliberation, 
 * as you say, the law speech was a failure ; but I 
 rather doubt, whether under all the circumstances 
 the Equity argument was not the worst of the two V — 
 The gentleman already alluded to, thinking such 
 frankness on the part of the Judge rather more hon- 
 est than agreeable, and that he might as well inter- 
 pose to explain the misunderstanding, here observed, 
 that the lawyers quere and the result, reminded him 
 of a story he had once heard of a dog, that one neigh- 
 bour sold to another and warranted to be a good pos- 
 sum dog. The dog having turned out to be worth- 
 less in that particular, the purchaser enquired why 
 he was supposed to be a good possum dog. c Oh 
 that/ said the first owner, is very easily explained, 
 c you see, that I know he is a good dog, and I tried 
 him with coons ; I tried him with partridges, and I 
 tried him with wild duck and with deer ; in fact I 
 tried him with every thing but possum, and he failed 
 in all, except that ; but he was a good dog, and so I 
 thought he must be a good possum dog, because he 
 had not been tried with possum/ 
 
 The judge who had listened to this anecdote with 
 much attention, was evidently puzzled to see the 
 point. At last after several explanations had been 
 made, an idea seemed to strike him, and to make 
 the story intelligible. 
 
 'Your notion is perhaps this, said he, 'thatthe dog is 
 like that estate of freehold which Blackstone and other 
 writers describe by the long periphrase of a f tenant- 
 in-tail-after-possibility-of-issue-extinct/ simply be- 
 cause it cannot be described hy any shorter title, or 
 in fewer words. This happens, he says, where one 
 is tenant in special tail, and a person from whos«^ 
 
body the issue was to spring dies without issue, or 
 having left issue, that issue becomes extinct. Here 
 the tenant surviving the special tail, becomes tenant 
 in tail after the possibility of issue is extinct, and 
 without that long periphrase, you can form, says the 
 law, no adequate idea of his estate. For, if you call 
 him { tenant-in-fee-tail-special/ that would not have 
 distinguished him from others, and besides, would 
 not be correct, for he has now no inheritance. If 
 you call him c tenant-in-tail-without-issue,' that would 
 only have described the present state of facts, and 
 would not exclude a future possibility. Call him 
 ' tenant- in- tail-without-possibility-of-issue,' and you 
 exclude the idea of a succession that was at one time 
 possible. No definition can, therefore, so appropri- 
 ately and exactly describe the estate as one which, 
 with a precision peculiar to our law, not only takes 
 in all these possibilities, but states that they are now 
 extinguished and gone. I think that I can now 
 see,' continued His Honor, < the point you wish to 
 make. The dog in our case, can neither be called 
 a coon dog, a partridge dog, or a wild duck or deer 
 dog, but being a good dog — good for something — it 
 followed he was a good possum dog. He was either 
 that, or he was no dog at all; and the application is 
 this, that for that whereas, our friend admits, that 
 he does not know the common law, and we know he 
 is a good lawyer, why he must be a good Equity law- 
 yer, because he must either be that or nothing. All 
 of which/ concluded His Honor gravely, 'is perfectly 
 clear, and as was at first remarked, somewhat funny/ 
 
 I believe we all laughed more at this learned expo- 
 sition, than we did at any other part of the whole in- 
 cident. It illustrates the point I make, that no one 
 faculty of the mind ought to be cultivated to the ex- 
 clusion of others. 
 
 My young friends, in the formation of character 
 and the building up of a great name, the possession 
 of the most splendid abilities, can never be adequate- 
 
10 
 
 ly displayed until the moment of an adverse encoun- 
 ter. Like a bird of paradise flying against the 
 wind, the mind gains grace and vigor by the storm it 
 encounters, and in adverse currents shows its bright- 
 est plumage. So too in the acquirement of knowledge 
 and the development of the intellectual or teachable 
 faculty, nothing truly great or admirable was ever 
 yet done or acquired without labor. The cultivation 
 of the Attention in particular, requires at first a se- 
 vere struggle. It is essentially a painful operation, 
 but let the student be not discouraged. Tell him to 
 summon all his resolution, and a triumph great and 
 permanent, bearing results equivalent to the strug- 
 gle, awaits him. 
 
 When I began the study of law at Charleston in 
 1841, among the young gentlemen I met in the office 
 of my instructor, was one who has since reached the 
 highest rank in his profession as an advocate, and 
 who was willingly locked up before he could sum- 
 mon the resolution to submit to a three hours sitting. 
 Depend upon it, no man who cannot study three 
 hours at a sitting with ease and profit, will ever rise 
 above mediocrity, and those who have most filled the 
 world with their writings and fame, have most usu- 
 ally confined themselves to no more extended exer- 
 tion. The mind needs recreation as well as repose, 
 an interval of study should be followed by one of 
 amusement, exertion by rest, and application to one 
 brauch relieved by application to another, the memo- 
 ry all the while being taught to recal and to record 
 the st ps of this intellectual progress. 
 
 In a little while after habits of study are acquired, 
 the student will learn to prefer some branches of 
 study to others, and in each branch particular wri- 
 ters and styles of thought. Now, the moment he 
 perceives the dawn of this like and dislike, if he will 
 apply himself to ascertain and classify the causes of 
 the preference, he will begin the study and cultiva- 
 tion of the most delightful exercise of the human 
 
11 
 
 mind. I mean the art of criticism. By close obser- 
 vation the student will discover that every sensation 
 of pleasure or disappointment which he realizes in 
 any literary performance whatever, is the result of 
 certain known causes, and is not always the effect 
 of accident, or indicative merely of the possession or 
 the want of rare intellectual endowments. In other 
 words, from the art of Rhetoric we learn that it is as 
 easy to construct a good poem or oration, as it is to 
 build a wagon, or to hammer out with brain and sweat 
 and muscle the curves of the horse-shoe. 
 
 Young gentlemen, be not discouraged, but by all 
 means be not deceived. You must not suffer your- 
 selves to dream that those great master works of 
 human genius which survive the flight of ages and 
 resisting time with more success than if built of 
 brass or marble, indicate a geology in the language 
 they preserve as well as adorn — you must not dream, 
 I say, that these splendid works were the results of 
 inspiration, or of any other process than earnest ed- 
 ucated labor. Many of you have doubtless read and 
 admired the splendid peroration to Mr. Webster's 
 reply to Hayne in the debate upon Foot's Resolution. 
 
 ' When my eyes,' says the speaker ' shall be turn- 
 ed to behold for the last time the sun in the heavens, 
 may I not see him shining on the broken and dis- 
 honored fragments of a once glorious union ; on 
 States dissevered, discordant, belligerent ; on a land 
 rent with civil feuds, and drenched, it may be, in 
 fraternal blood ! Let their last feeble and lingering 
 glance rather behold the gorgeous ensign of the Re- 
 public, now known and honored throughout the 
 earth, still full high advanced, its arms and trophies 
 streaming in their original lustre ; not a stripe 
 erased or polluted, nor a single star obscured ; its 
 ample folds blazing in characters of living light as 
 they float over the sea and over the land, and in 
 every wind under the whole heavens, with the senti- 
 ment dear to every American heart — Liberty and 
 
12 
 
 Union, now and forever, one and inseparable!' 
 
 I have seen it stated some where, that this fine 
 composition, like all others of which any honest ac- 
 count has reached us, cost the labor of many an 
 hour. The liberty which I have taken with it, shows 
 that it is not yet perfect, but in any form in which 
 it can be presented to an audience, it will live as long 
 as the language itself. 
 
 The last consideration by which I will invite you, 
 to cultivate habits of attention and labor is, that you 
 will thereby as a speaker or writer always secure the 
 attention of others. The chief cause of the failure 
 of professional men is indolence, and not incapaci- 
 ty, — that indolence which despises order and arrange- 
 ment in public discourses, and which inevitably leads 
 to the vice of prolixity and elaborate dullness. 
 
 Attention and Memory being thus acquired and 
 cultivated, nothing remains to enable any student of 
 reasonable industry and intelligence to master some 
 one department of human knowledge, and to attain 
 in it a qualified degree of eminence, but application. 
 The little amount of diligence and labor required for 
 success in the practice of those professions, — by way 
 of pleasantry still called ' learned' is amazing. ^- 
 Books upon all subjects have multiplied so fast, that 
 it is no longer tedious or difficult to become even 
 learned in any subject under investigation. 
 
 I am not contending that without extraordinary 
 gifts, joined to such opportunities as are not furnish- 
 ed except in Europe, you can excel in all the sciences; 
 but only this, that in this State, and upon this con- 
 tinent, any man of ordinary intelligence and resolu- 
 tion, who will devote himself sedulously and exclu- 
 sively to a single branch of science, will in due time 
 attain respectability and even eminence therein, ir- 
 respective of what is fancifully called c natural abili- 
 ty/ And further ; that (as a law writer has also re- 
 marked) the sciences being sociable — flourishing best 
 in the neighborhood of each other, success in one in- 
 
13 
 
 dicates a capacity for all others which are inferior or 
 collateral, nothing being required to secure it but 
 ordinary sense, extraordinary industry and the un- 
 conquerable will to succeed. , , 
 
 Besides the development of the thinking faculty 
 which is the result of Attention and Memory com- 
 bined with application, the student in a school of 
 this character, should be able to acquire some little 
 acquaintance with the names and characteristic styles 
 of the living and dead authors. Each of these styles 
 or modes of handling a subject contain as much in- 
 dividuality as the hand-writing in which they are 
 reduced ; and a thoroughly educated man can as 
 readily and confidently declare a passage to be from 
 Shakspere or Dante, or if in Latin from Virgil or 
 Lucretius, as a hatter or boot-maker will distinguish 
 a Genin or a Didot a Paris,from the ordinary manu- 
 facture. Nay, I have known men so skilled in bibli- 
 ography that they could tell by one glance at the type 
 and paper, whether any given book was published in 
 London, Paris, Boston or Philadelphia, and by whom. 
 The faculty of distinguishing the peculiarities of style 
 is of the most importance, because it will enable you 
 to improve your own by comparison and observation . 
 
 In the course of his remarkable wanderings after 
 the destruction of Troy, it is said that Ulysses enter- 
 ed at night the land of perpetual gloom, and, accord- 
 ing to the custom of those days, having offered a pro- 
 pitiatory sacrifice, he stood in the presence of the 
 mighty dead : he saw the heros and heroines of for- 
 mer days, and even talked with their shades ; but 
 overcome at last by fright ; their numbers, and the 
 natural excitement of such a scene, the hero hastily 
 retired, and thus lost the entire fruits of his journey. 
 
 Young gentlemen , you have no occasion to expose 
 yourselves to any such terrors. The art of printing 
 has placed within your reach all that is great or worth 
 knowing or remembering in the past or the passing 
 time. Stretch forth your hand, and you may meet in 
 
14 
 
 welcome embrace, Homer, Cicero, Bacon, Goethe, 
 Schiller, Shakespere, Dante, Milton, or Lord Byron. 
 Dead though they be— like the prophet Samuel at the 
 call of the despairing prince of Israel — they will ap- 
 pear at the moment of your bidding. No further 
 sacrifice is necessary than the price of the last edition 
 and neither at Mr. Pomeroy's or at Mr. Turner's will 
 you hazard a rencontre with the witch of Endor. The 
 departed Gods of earth, no longer hide in remote cav- 
 ens, guarded by obscene and hideous spectres. Their 
 spirits walk abroad, and in the grand and polished 
 tones of modern language, resume the habiliment 
 of life. Stretched at lull length, beneath these 
 cool and spreading oaks, upon the grassy lawn, the 
 bright sunshine sparkling in the waters at your feet, 
 and the humming bee and the perfume of flowers, 
 disipating the fantasy of a ghost, you may here or 
 anywhere, now or hereafter, place yourself in Hade's 
 and commune at ease with the shades of Aga- 
 memnon and Achilles. Instead of Mentor, let our 
 Telemachus take with him on each journey an Anthon 
 and an Ainsworth or a Webster, and whether the 
 oracle speaks English, Latin or Greek , never let 
 him go until by a free consultation with his dic- 
 tionary, he finds every word he utters intelligible. — 
 Proceeding slowly at first, your future progress will 
 assuredly be more easy and delightful. 
 
 I alluded a few moments ago to the probability 
 that the study of the Greek and Latin poei s and ora- 
 tors would one day be abolished in our higher schools 
 and intimated that already they rather bridle than 
 assist the match horses of Application and Memory. 
 I would not of course, be understood as attempting 
 to depreciate the advantages of a classical education, 
 especially to such as intend to pursue the Mechanical 
 sciences, Architecture, Painting, Engineering — civil 
 and military, Sculpture and the like. In correct ap- 
 preciation and knowledge of the principles of these 
 arts, we are yet inferior to ithe ancients, and our best 
 
15 
 
 attempts in their imitation,- are elaborate failures. — 
 We stand under the splendid creations of their Me- 
 chanical genius like dwarfs or pigmies beside giants, 
 but looking at their authors and literary achievements, 
 I do not think we need be ashamed of the comparison. 
 Shakspere is not only the equal but in most respects 
 he is the superior to both Horace and Virgil. I think 
 Edmund Burke and John C. Calhoun more than equal 
 to Aristotle — and there are passages in the speech of 
 Daniel Webster in reply to Hayne, and in the oration 
 at the laying of the corner stone of the Bunker Hill 
 Monument which as far excel the florid egotisms of 
 Cicero and Demosthenes, as the "Code Napoleon " 
 surpasses the laws which Lycurgus gave to Sparta, 
 and wickedly and vainly supposing them perfect, ex- 
 acted an oath from the people, that they should nev- 
 er be altered or repealed. In the present condition 
 of the world, the study of American history, especial- 
 ly by you, would be I think of far more practicable 
 advantage than that ot any other State ancient or 
 modern, and in the present condition of language and 
 the increased facilities for intercourse with all parts 
 of the world, I question very much whether the study 
 of modern languages and literature, would not prove 
 of more substantial use than Greek or Latin. It is 
 not unlikely that the number of languages now spo- 
 ken in the world is less than formerly for obvious 
 reasons, and yet there are still three thousand, of 
 which twelve hundred and sixty six are in use upon 
 this continent alone, 587 in Europe, and 27G in Afri- 
 ca. 
 
 It is amazing to think how little the great mass of 
 even educated men in this country,know of Washing-, 
 ton and of Shakspere. On the continent of Europe,' 
 such ignorance of the chief characters of their history 
 and especially of their literature in a Frenchman or 
 German, would be deemed inexcusable. Try any 
 one of the hundreds of humble emigrants of the lat- 
 ter class, you meet daily in our larger towns, and 
 
16 
 
 you will find few or none, who have not read some 
 one or all of the works of Schiller and Goethe. The 
 educated classes can not only recite whole passages from 
 them, hut are familiar also with other of their poets, 
 and he who knows and estimates correctly that ap- 
 preciation for literature and especially their own lit- 
 erature which distinguishes a German, will need no 
 letter of introduction in " Fader land." 
 
 During the war of 184 7-' 8, I made the acquaint- 
 ance in Mexico of the Baron Von Groen, an officer of 
 the household troops "of the King of Prussia. We 
 had had several adventures together upon the cam- 
 paign known in history as Lally's march, and at the 
 conclusion of hostilities returned in the same ship to- 
 gether. The Baron spoke such good English that I 
 had never had an opportunity of letting him discover 
 how little I knew of his language, although we had 
 been somewhat intimate for many months, and had 
 served together in several engagements. It was on a 
 bright sunny afternoon that we both stood upon the 
 quarter deck of the old steamer Massachusetts, in the 
 harbour of Vera Cruz. My friend leaned over the 
 taffrail, and gazed in profound meditation upon the 
 frowning battlements of the Castle of San Juan D' 
 Ullua. The flitting shadows of that starred rainbow, 
 which eleven years ago rose above those towers, in 
 promise of a political salvation which has not yet 
 been realized, alone interrupted the steady glow which 
 at the moment bathed the flag and staff, the tower 
 and the glorious gulf beyond, in the joyous red and 
 golden hues of a tropical sunset. The Castle looked 
 up from the sea as though it wore a diadem, and re- 
 joiced in a royal robe, I approached my friend with- 
 out being able to disturb his reverie and alluding to 
 the splendid scene before us, recited the melancholy 
 verse of Uhland : 
 
 'Has du das Schloss gesehen, 
 Das hohe Schloss am Meer, 
 Golden und rosig weheD, 
 
IT 
 
 Die Wolken druber her." 
 
 Scarcely stopping to see who had thus addressed 
 him, and his mind occupied, no doubt, with a simi- 
 lar sentiment or dreaming of the glorious Rhine whose 
 every height is crowned by some old baronial hall, 
 and each has its story of love and chivalry ; he repli- 
 ed to me without a moments hesitation, using 
 the language of the same author, and in the stanza, 
 next but one of the same poem : 
 'Wohl hab Ich es gesekeu, 
 
 Das hohe Schloss am Meer, 
 Und den Moud daruber steheu, 
 Und Rebel weit umher !' 
 
 Poor fellow ! we parted soon after in the city of 
 New York, never to meet again. He reached Berlin 
 a day or two only before the rebellions of 1848 broke 
 out, and as I have since learned, perished in the de- 
 fence of his King. While I — I had almost forgotten it 
 am here young gentlemen addressing you upon 
 Education, in the interior of North Carolina. 
 
 The last reason I shall urge for the preference of 
 modern history and modern .literature is, that the 
 text of the ancient writers has been now so often 
 translated, reviewed, and reprinted, that I under- 
 take to say that if Cicero and Demosthenes were to 
 rise from their graves, and attend this school, I fan- 
 cy they would find quite as much difficulty as you, 
 in reading and understanding their own orations.— 
 That the suggestion is not simply ridiculous, ask 
 any objector to compare the Lord's prayer as origi- 
 nally printed and used in England a hundred years 
 ago, with the present version of the same noble sup- 
 plication. 
 
 I have thus attempted, young gentlemen, to en- 
 numerate some of the leading facilities this school 
 will afford, if you are honestly disposed to learn, and 
 I have attempted too to suggest one or more of those 
 grand highways, in which your thoughts may safely 
 travel. My remarks have been of necessity general, 
 but you will do yourselves and me no in justice,, in 
 
18 
 
 taking whatever you feel to be applicable, as person- 
 ally addressed to you each. 
 
 I must repeat that you will accomplish nothing 
 hereor in the world beyond,without labour,diligence, 
 hardstudy and application. Your parents have put 
 themselves to no small expense in sending you here, 
 and maintaining you while occupied in your studies. 
 They have the right to expect that you will acquit 
 yourselves creditably in the pending examination, 
 and in your future progress. " I learned grammar," 
 says Wm. Cobbett, "when I was a private soldier on 
 the pay of a sixpence a day. The edge of my berth, 
 or that of my guard-bed > was my seat to study in ; 
 my knapsack my book case, and a bit of board lying 
 on my lap was my writing table. I had no money 
 to purchase a candle or oil ; in winter, it was rarely 
 that I could get any light but the fire, and only my 
 turn even at that. To buy a pen or piece of paper, I 
 was compelled to forego some portion of my food, 
 though in a state of half starvation ; I had not a mo- 
 ment to call my own ; had to read and write amid 
 the talking, laughing, singing, whistling,, and baw- 
 ling of at least a half a score of the most reckless 
 men — and that, too, in their hours of freedom from 
 all control.' ' And I say if under such circumstances as 
 these, a poor boy, the son of a tavern keeper and in- 
 debted to his father for the only teaching he ever re- 
 ceived, did rise to the highest rank as a writer and a 
 scholar,there is not a boy in this assembly who ought 
 not to feel himself qualified for at least an honorable 
 mention ! Remember there is not a boy in this as- 
 sembly who is not socially and politically the superi- 
 or of this illustrious man in the beginning of his ca- 
 reer ; because there is not a boy here who may not 
 aspire to, and win the highest professional or politi- 
 cal distinction this broad and favored land can con- 
 fer. Not one but may if he chooses be a lawyer, a 
 doctor, a clergyman, a teacher 3 an editor or a politi- 
 cian, and a highly meritorious one too, provided al- 
 
19 
 
 ways he will willingly undergo the drudgery and la- 
 bor either of these callings require. In point of 
 real dignity none of them compare however with 
 that of the farmer. A virtuous and educated farmer 
 is the true autocrat of our social system, and the day 
 is rapidly approaching when assuming their proper 
 
 Elace in the social scale, a place from which they 
 ave been excluded so long, by reason only of the 
 general inferiority of their attainments, men in other 
 occupations will, as in England, retire before them. 
 Every one who can afford it should become a farmer. 
 All other businesses in life should be regarded but as 
 means for acquiring the capital necessary to retire to 
 the country, There is no exercise so healthy and ex- 
 hilarating ; there is no occupation so independent ; 
 and whether a man's homestead be measured, like 
 mine, by the square yard, or include a thousand 
 acres, he should occasionally at least Water it with 
 the sweat of his brow. A certain amount of physical 
 labor is indispensable to physical and intellectual 
 health, and he who lives wholly on the sweat of other 
 men is a drone unfit for a civilized and progressive 
 community. Kead the fourth chapter of I'hessalo- 
 nians, and the multitudinous pages of society and 
 learn, that labor is obedience to law ; a blessing and 
 not a curse. 
 
 I sincerely trust, that avoiding the bar the pulpit 
 and the hospital, many of you will give to the busi- 
 ness of Agriculture, the talents and education you 
 will acquire at this school, and that you will not be 
 ashamed to add a dignity to labor by exhibiting in 
 your own persons the example of educated men, willing 
 according to the apostolic decree, to work with 
 your own hands. 
 
 ^he pathway to the highest social distinction is al- 
 so open to you all. Those inequalities of rank and 
 position which exist elsewhere, prevail also in the 
 world around us, and it is useless folly to pretend to 
 ignore or to despise them. As the poet saith, 
 
10 
 
 "Order is Heaven's first law, and this confessed, 
 Some are and must be greater than the rest." 
 
 'The only land/ it is truly said, 'in which perfect lib- 
 erty prevails is the land of dreams. The night cap, is 
 the cap of liberty." An 'aristocracy' of some sort, is a 
 social necessity. Whatever be the form of govern- 
 ment, the few will rule ; whatever be the form of so- 
 ciety, men will differ in point of talent, wealth, vir- 
 tue and cultivation. These give rise invariably and 
 inevitably to' differences of position. Let your efforts 
 be always directed to the elevation of the virtuous 
 and the capable whatever be their origin ; and of an 
 'aristocracy' so composed, you need never be ashamed, 
 nay, you owe it to yourselves to be members. Every 
 white man born in this part of the world, of honest 
 parents, is a gentleman, and can only descend from 
 that position by his own folly or viciousness, or the 
 neglect of his parents to qualify him to be agreeable. 
 We have no " masses of people/' as that term is un- 
 derstood and contemptuously applied in non-slave- 
 holding countries. Our professional men are not 
 usually altogether and exclusively doctors, lawyers 
 or clergymen ; they are also farmers ; they are engag- 
 ed in other businesses than these specialites. The far- 
 mers are rapidly rising into an educated and power- 
 ful class. The "masses of the people" are therefore 
 ©ur 'aristocracy/ or rather they are identical, since 
 nothing but the taint of negro blood, inherent vul- 
 garity and crime disqualify any man here from ap- 
 pearing in reputable society ; and, in every party of 
 gentlemen, however exclusive, you will meet persons 
 of almost every honorable occupation. 
 
 I trust you will all succeed in reaching whatever 
 is high and noble in the social scale, but failing to 
 reach the summit and forced to be content with a 
 subordinate place, may you never succeed if you 
 should meanly attempt to level that summit to the dust. 
 Whatever be the height which you shall attain, you 
 will find there duties as well as enjoyments. What- 
 
m 
 
 ever may be the obscurity which you may choose, of 
 to which you may be assigned,there too will be found 
 a sphere of happiness and of responsibility. 
 ' 'Honor and shame from no condition rise, 
 Act well your part — there all the honor lies." 
 Another remark and I have done. The preserva- 
 tion of popular institutions in this country de- 
 pends upon the intelligence and the independence of 
 the people. The educated are usually independent 
 and virtuous, and so long as the population is not 
 overcrowded there is no danger of public liberty ; but, 
 when the people of this land, abandoning the pure 
 air of these scented fields and the simple habits of ag- 
 ricultural life shall stimulate these villages to 
 towns, and these towfis into cities^ the days of the 
 Republic are numbered. But that day is far off yet. 
 Still are 
 
 " These rocks Freedom's towers, 
 
 These hills her home ; and when she stands 
 On Times far future shore, she still 
 Shall see her children o'er them roam, 
 And up the rolling clouds, her eagles soar !" 
 
 Young gentlemen, you will soon be called to ad- 
 minister the government and transmit the rights, 
 which the heros of the revolution established and ac- 
 quired by much blood and fearful sacrifice. This 
 great State with all its wealth and woe, its extensive 
 and various mines, its green and cloud capped moun- 
 tains, its silver rivers, steamers, ships, railways and 
 printing presses, will soon be yours. No thinking 
 man, whose children's fate is thus bound up with 
 yours together, but must feel interested in your pro- 
 gress here and hereafter. May God in his mercy 
 grant, that fully instructed in the responsibility 
 which is about to rest upon you before the %e and 
 to posterity, you will come up to the discharge of 
 these duties with a religious zeal, and avert the ca- 
 lamity which seems impending upon our country, 
 
 "Let the American youth," says Judge Story, 
 
•22 
 
 never forget that they possess a noble inheritance 
 bought by the toils and sufferings and blood of their 
 ancestors, and capable, if wisely improved and safely 
 guarded, of transmitting to their latest posterity all 
 the substantial blessings of life, the peaceful enjoy- 
 ment of liberty, property, religion and independence. 
 The structure has been erected by architects of consu- 
 mate skill and fidelity. Its foundations are solid. — 
 Its compartments are beautiful as well as useful. Its 
 arrangements are full of wisdom and order. Its de- 
 fences are impregnable from without. It has been 
 reared for immortality if the work of man may justly 
 aspire to such a title ! Nevertheless it may perish 
 in an hour by the negligence or the corruption of its 
 only true keepers^the people. Kepublics are founded in 
 the virtu >, public spirit and intelligence of their citi- 
 zens. They fall when the wise and the independent 
 are banished from the public councils because they 
 dare to be honest, and the profligate and the dema- 
 gogue are rewarded because they flatter the people, 
 and betray them V* 
 
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