0f Ctf0. 
 
 AN 
 
 ORATION, 
 
 BEFORE THE 
 
 f — ^ ^rxNTTTN 
 
 V 
 
 'I 
 
 BY GEORGE W. EATON, D.D; 
 
 Professor of Ecclesiastical History in Madison University^ 
 
 gcljetiectabs; 
 
 G. Y. VAN DEBOGERT, 89 STATE-STREET. 
 1850 . 
 
 /i 
 
 
ERRATA. 
 
 Page- 8, 2(1 & 3d lines from bottom, for “ are” read our ; for 
 “ higher” read highest. 
 
 12, 13th line from bottom, for “ solicitudes” read solitudes. 
 14, 3d line from bottom, for “matured” read nurtured. 
 16, 1st Hue at top, a comma after “upon.” 
 
 21, 6th line from quotation, for “ adopting” read adopt. 
 
 22, 8th line from bottom, for “ sociaUty” read sodality. 
 24, 5th line from top, for “ invests” read inverts. 
 
 35, 7th line from bottom, for “ the throne” read n throne. 
 38, 9th line from bottom, for “ train” -read trains. 
 
 40, 4th line from top, for “ mellenium” read millenium. 
 
ICm 0f i\f(> 
 
 AN 
 
 ORATION, 
 
 BEFORE THE 
 
 LITERARY SOCIETIES 
 
 OF 
 
 UNION COLLEGE. 
 
 JULY 24, 1849. 
 
 BY GEORGE W. EATON, D.D. 
 
 Professor of Ecclesiastical History in Madison University. 
 
 0 c 1) e n e c t a b 2 ^ 
 
 G. Y. VAN DEBOGERT, 89 STATE-STREET. 
 
KIGGS, PKnNTEK 
 
' 2,3 moc\uwht«*j^ 
 
 Union College, Oct. 15, 1849. 
 
 Kev. George W. Eaton, D.D. 
 
 Dear Sir — The undersigned, in behalf of the several Literary Societfes of this 
 Institution, would tender to you their thanks for the much admired Oration deliv- 
 ered before them at their late anniversary ; and request the same for publication. 
 Hoping you may grant this favor. 
 
 We are, with high esteem. 
 
 Truly yours, 
 
 LEMON THOMSON, ) 
 
 HENRY GARDINER, v Pldlomathean Society. 
 LEWIS E. GURLEY,) 
 
 H. W. FULTON, 
 
 D. AVATSON AVATROUS, 
 
 S. V. R. COOPER, 
 
 CHAS. J. SMITH, ) 
 
 AVAI. E. McCORAIICK, > Delphian Institute. 
 
 JAS. AY. McCOY, ) 
 
 Adelphic Society. 
 
 Madison University, Nov. 24, 1849. 
 
 Gentlemen — I have delayed to reply to your favor of the 15th ultimo, in hope 
 that I should have been able, ere this, to send with the reply the manuscript of the 
 Address whose publication you request; but pressing engagements have disap- 
 pointed this hope, and I now drop this note, (that I may not even seem to be inat- 
 tentive to a request from a source for which I feel the most unqualified respect.) 
 simply to inform you, that so soon as it is practicable to make out a fair copy of the 
 manuscript, I will place it at your disposal. 
 
 With great respect, 
 
 I am, gentlemen, 
 
 0 Your ob’t. serv’t. 
 
 £ GEO. AV. EATON. 
 
 f essrs. Thomson, Gardiner, Gurley, 
 
 Fulton, Watrous, Cooper, 
 
 Smith, McCormick, McCoy, 
 
 Committees of Lit. Soc. U. C. 
 
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ORATION. 
 
 Gentlemen of the Literary Societies : 
 
 The endowments conferred upon man by his Creator, which 
 give him his chief value in the scale of being, are his immortality 
 and his capacity of perpetual progress towards infinite perfec- 
 tion. The true value of any thing, animate or inanimate, is 
 estimated, not so much by what it is, at the present moment, as by 
 what it is capable of becoming. The extravagant price paid by the 
 enthusiastic horticulturist for the rare seed or bulb, he pays, not 
 for a little mass of organized matter, but for the future growth 
 which he foresees will be the beauty and pride of his garden. The 
 little spark whose sudden flash is alike its beginning and its end — 
 what more insignificant? But endow that atom-spark with the 
 attributes of endless duration, and of ever widening expansion and 
 of ever increasing intensity, and you make it at once, without alter- 
 ing its substance or present appearance, a sublime and awful thing ; 
 for with these attributes, under the direction of an Almighty Provi- 
 dence, it may become a sun in God’s universe, pouring from its 
 exhaustless centre a flood of brighter effulgence over a wider sys- 
 tem of worlds, than the radiant centre even of our own system. 
 
 Man, with his curious physical mechanism, his wonderful pow- 
 ers of intellect and his spiritual nature, is incomputably a more 
 valuable being, intrinsically, than any mass or modification of mere 
 matter ; but were he to be annihilated after the few fitful and pain- 
 ful sighs of his present existence, what would that existence be to 
 
0 
 
 be accounted of, more tlian tliat of a passing meteor whose momen. 
 tary blaze is lost in the “ blackness of darkness for ever ?” How 
 pertinent then the inquiry addressed to his Maker, “What is man 
 that tliou^art mindful of liim?” But when we recognize him as 
 our immortal cmhryoriy which may be perpetually unfolding higher, 
 and higher, and still higher degrees of manifested excellence ; — 
 when we follow him in his onward career, and descry him climb- 
 ing with angels to the loftiest height of the “ eternal hills of God,” 
 and sweeping with his clear and unclouded vision the horizon of 
 the universe, we instinctively exclaim, with adoring wonder, 
 “ Thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and crowned 
 him with glory and honor.” In this view, the meanest of the race 
 assumes an importance and a grandeur beyond all finite compre- 
 hension. 
 
 That such is the true nature of man ; — that God has made him 
 an immortal and a progressive being, needs no argument in this 
 place and before this assembly. This is the house of God, and this 
 kS a Christian assembly, whose minds have been illumined by the 
 light, and instructed in the doctrines of a dispensation which has 
 pre-eminently “ brought immortal life to light,” and disclosed a 
 perfection, as a goal to be aimed at, which will require eternal ages 
 in approximating. But without this Heavenly light, the natural 
 proofs furnished by the very principles and laws of his being, 
 bring conviction to a thoughtful mind, that man is distined to live 
 for ever, and has capacities to accomplish an amazing destiny. — 
 Why does Hope, whose peculiar domain is the future, “spring 
 eternal in the human breast ?” Why are the soul’s faculties more 
 deeply stirred by the thought that it shall live hereafter, than by all 
 the recollections of the past or the scenes of the present ? Why 
 recoils it from the abyss of annihilation with scarcely less horror 
 than from the abyss of eternal woe ? Who is content to be anni- 
 hilated, except him whose ripened crimes have awakened “ a fear- 
 ful looking for of judgment,” and an eternity of shame and con- 
 tempt beyond that tremendous ordeal ? He chooses between two 
 evils, and scarcely knows which to choose. The language ascrib- 
 
7 
 
 ed by the poet to Belial, may be accepted as the voice of human 
 nature : 
 
 ‘‘ Wtio would lose 
 
 Though full of pain, this intellectual being, 
 
 Those thoughts that wander through eternity, 
 
 To perish, rather swallowed up and lost * 
 
 In the wide womb of uncreated night, 
 
 Devoid of sense and motion ?” 
 
 And further, why are we so made as to conceive of a perfection, 
 and aspire after it imeasurably beyond any thing of present reali- 
 zation ? Why, oppressed with the imperfections of our best achieve- 
 ments and most precious treasures, are we incessantly sighing after 
 the “ more perfect ?” Why, in short, does the “ aliquid hmnensum 
 infinitumquey’ mysteriously but most palpably affect and draw up- 
 wards the soul, even as the influence of the far-off queen of night 
 heaves the bosom of the ocean ? These intimations, coming up from 
 the depths of the soul’s being, as clearly indicate a perpetuated life, 
 and a coming glory to be revealed, as the crimson flush of the 
 orient does the approach of the “ powerful king of day,” long be- 
 fore his visible front flames in the eastern horizon. 
 
 These general remarks on the nature and destination of man, 
 are deemed appropriately introductory to a few suggestions as to 
 the true aim of life^ and the means by which it may be best sub- 
 served. 
 
 There is probably no one in the least given to seriousness, who 
 has not frequently inquired with himself, — ‘What is the end of my 
 existence, and whither am I tending V And without doubt an habit- 
 ual recognition and consciousness of the two great facts in our 
 nature just stated, namely, our immortality, and the progressive 
 nature of our capacities, are essential elements in any proper con- 
 ception of the right answer to this solemn and important inquiry ; 
 and I beg you, gentlemen, to take along with you these elements 
 as you follow me in the train of reflection which I shall pursue. 
 
 A thorough discussion of the theme chosen cannot be reasonably 
 expected in the space allotted to the present discourse. I shall 
 deem myself happily successful in my effort, if my remarks shall 
 prove suggestive, merely, of profitable and elevating meditations in 
 
8 
 
 the minds of those whom 1 have tiie honor to address. And here 
 permit me to premise, that this discourse has been prepared with 
 special reference to those who have honored me with an invitation 
 to speak to them on this occasion. I have not aspired to entertain 
 and instruct my coevals, much less my superiors in age. But I 
 have lived to little purpose, if, during the period since I received 
 the parting benediction of my venerable Alma Mater, and of that 
 still more venerable man, who has been her crowning glory for 
 nearly half a century, and veneration and love of whom have been 
 among the most cherished emotions of my life, I have gathered no 
 lessons of experience and of practical wisdom, which may not sug- 
 gest some useful hints to those of whom I am thus far in advance 
 in the race of life. Waiving all attempts, therefore, at the discus- 
 sion of questions of high science, or of profound philosophy, I shall 
 come home at once to your “ business and bosoms,’’ and run the 
 risk of being regarded as common-place by a portion of my audi- 
 tory, that I may utter words of monition and encouragement to the 
 interesting class of young men for whose benefit, on this occasion, 
 I feel myself especially responsible. 
 
 I ask, then, the eminently practical question, — What is the True 
 Aim of Man’s Life ? Religiously, this question admits of a brief 
 and comprehensive answer. It is, intelligently and willingly to 
 serve, glorify, and enjoy his Creator. But this general answer, 
 though comprehending the whole range of man’s duties, and every 
 object claiming his serious regards, does not, it is feared, convey a 
 very definite meaning to the great majority of minds ; and for the 
 special purposes of this discourse, we propose a somewhat different 
 answer, though of course involving a subordinate and subsidiary 
 element of the higher and more comprehensive formula. We shall 
 take our course mainly upon the earth and within the bounds of 
 time, and only occasionally glance towards the region beyond 
 whose dread realities are objects of faith and not of sense. All we 
 say, however, will lose its higher significancy, if not regarded in 
 its relation to an ultimate destiny. 
 
 We would then define the proper aim of man’s life to be, the 
 
9 
 
 progressive improvement and steady advancement along the never' 
 ending line of ascending excellence, of himself and of his race . 
 The gist of this definition is not in the words “ improvement” and 
 advancement” alone. The characteristic elements of the idea 
 designed to be expressed and illustrated, are an improvement ever 
 going on, and an advancement nearer and nearer to a condition of 
 perfection : and the propriety and importance of making this pro- 
 gress a living, an ever-active motive to the soul. The aim is, 
 then, two-fold, and we shall proceed to consider separately its two 
 aspects. 
 
 Every responsible individual coming upon the stage of human 
 action, along with the capacities and opportunities given him by 
 his beneficent Creator, receives the special injunction — ‘Improve 
 these talents, accumulate, grow, enlarge, move onwards and up- 
 wards.’ It is, therefore, both his duty and his privilege to be con- 
 stantly improving his nature and condition, and rising towards the 
 ultimate perfection of his being. 
 
 This law of improvement and progress belongs to every depart- 
 ment of his composite nature ; though in respect to the material 
 part, it is soon overcome by a stronger law which controls all mo- 
 difications of matter, namely, the law of decay and dissolution. 
 
 There is, notwithstanding, a degree of bodily perfection to be 
 attained not wholly unworthy to be the object of special effort. 
 Physiologists tell us that our corporeal natures are susceptible of 
 almost inconceivable ameliorations ; that were the laws of physical 
 life, and health, and development, well understood and obeyed, 
 we might secure — not, indeed, an earthly immortality — for that 
 were a reversal of the irresistible fiat of the omnipotent Creator, 
 “ Dust thou art and to dust shalt thou return,” — but a distant 
 postponement of the mortal hour in a condition of soundness and 
 strength, and despatch, and joyous elasticity, with a power of 
 resistance to the enfeebling, morbific and death-charged elements 
 within and without us, and a permanence of youthful freshness, of 
 which we have little conception in our present state of infirmity. 
 We see sometimes an imperfect illustration of such a condition, in 
 
 2 
 
10 
 
 what we call a green old age, in which years liave brought no 
 dimness to the eye, and no abatement to the natural force. And a 
 goodly sight it is, to see the elastic spring of youth and the com- 
 pact energy of manhood, surmounted by the hoary head. We 
 are now so encompassed with physical infirmities, and they do 
 prove such formidable obstructions to the prompt and full accom- 
 plishment of our mental and moral purposes, that, if the law of im- 
 provement holds here ; if a comparative physical perfection can 
 be realized, then a specific aim at such a realization comes within 
 the scope cf our subject. 
 
 Whose body does not need to be improved ? Of whom can it 
 be said, ‘ he is well;’’ who of us has e.xperienced the exquisite sen- 
 sations of perfect health ; when all the tissues of the mortal frame 
 perfectly discharged their functions, and the blood danced with 
 exulting gladness through the veins, and thrilled every nerve with 
 undefinable pleasure? Who feeds upon the bounties of a benefi- 
 cent Providence with a keen, unsophisticated relish, and receives 
 no intimation of the curious processes by which they are wrought 
 into the elements of nourishment and life, except an all-diffused, 
 satisfied and complacent feeling, and who would never know that he 
 had a stomach, liver or lungs, or any viscera at all, unless inform- 
 ed so by science ? Who has ever attained to the last desirable 
 degree of development, vigor, facility and promptitude of execution, 
 which prepares the body to be the suitable servitor of the ethereal 
 mind ? On the other hand, we are dyspeptic, and queasy, and 
 consumptive, and rheumatic, and gouty, and constantly annoyed 
 by various other “ ills which flesh is heir to,” in consequence of a 
 disregard of the laws which govern animal life and health. The 
 point and importance of these remarks are seen in the relation of 
 the body to the mind. The body is not only the tenement of the 
 mind, but the medium of its manifestation — the instrument, or 
 rather the complicated machinery which it uses to accomplish its 
 various purposes while it tabernacles in flesh. For the sake, 
 then, of the higher or principal part, we should take care of and 
 improve, as best we may, the lower and the subservient. But our 
 
11 
 
 principal regard must be paid to that which is principal in our na- 
 ture — the spiritual and immortal part. And here the law of im- 
 provemement and expansion has no exceptions ; but is designed to 
 be perpetually operative. The immortality of the intellectual and 
 moral powers secures their eternal progress in knowledge and 
 virtue, when restored through the efficacy of redeeming grace, to 
 pristine soundness and purity. They will never reach a state, 
 when, arrested in this progress, they shall be crystalized into a sta- 
 tionary and immobile perfection ; but “ vital in every part,” their 
 renascent and ever-springing energies and their immortal and 
 ever-blooming youth guarantee a never-ceasing growth and ex- 
 pansion. 
 
 It is, gentlemen, allow me to repeat the thought, your high pre- 
 rogative, as intellectual and moral beings, to be ‘‘ ever going on 
 to perfection” Among the most distinct and vivid recollections of 
 my undergrad uateship, is the utterance, in the comprehensive and 
 impressive petitions offered up at Evening Chapel, for the ‘‘ assem- 
 blage of young men, that they might be enabled to make the most 
 of their intellectual and moral being.” I formed then some im- 
 perfect conception of the import of this utterance, but it has been 
 expanding and gathering vividness ever since, and I never felt 
 more profoundly than I do to night, the utter inadequacy of my 
 conception to what must be its true import. 
 
 What shall any one of us be when the most has been made of 
 his intellectual and moral being ? When all the powers and sus- 
 ceptibilities of his soul shall have reached a condition of perfect 
 soundness, and vigor, and sensibility, and be moved by appropriate 
 and adequate motives to- legitimate and fully expanded action, in 
 the direction of their proper ends ; and so by a harmonious de- 
 velopment and progress of the whole, marching steadily on to an 
 inconceivably grand destiny. 
 
 There is a degree of intellectual perfection within our reach, in 
 comparison with which all our present attainments, in the aggre- 
 gate, are but as the sprouting acorn to the majestic oak. We may 
 form some idea of this perfection, by attentively considering the 
 
12 
 
 functions of vvliat are commonly called the intellectual powers. 
 Tlie office of the perceptive power through the senses, is to make 
 the intellect acquainted with external objects. VVe may suppose, 
 this power so improved as to make the intellect a perfoct mirror of 
 the wliole of God’s external creation, which comes within the range 
 of its sensual organs. All outward things, once sensibly recog- 
 nized, would be transferred and appropriated to it, as an inalienable 
 part of its possessions. The eye \vould catch and pencil in unef- 
 faceable lines upon the intellectual tablet, every object and every 
 shade of light wdiich diversifies and beautifies the enchanting land- 
 .scape. The ear would faithfully transmit to the seat of sensation, 
 to ring and thrill for ever there, every tone in the wilderness of 
 sweet sounds, which nature’s harmonious voices are ceaselessly 
 pouring forth. And so in their mode, of the other senses. ‘ To 
 external things the organs of the mind’ being thus attuned, ‘ the 
 glad impulse of congenial powers 
 
 “ Thrills through the intellertual frame 
 From nerve to nerve; all naked and alive 
 I’hey catch the spreading rays; till now the soul 
 At length discloses every tuneful spring, 
 
 To that harmonious movement from witliout 
 Responsive.’^ 
 
 And then the conceptive power improved in like manner, would 
 enable the intellect, in its deepest solicitudes, to evoke at will into 
 clear and distinct viewq in all their original life and freshness, the 
 treasured images of external things ; nay, to impart to these images 
 a distictness and vividness, and to give to combinations of them, a 
 unity, beauty and power beyond the effect of the original impres- 
 sions themselves. The intellect would thus become quite indepen- 
 dent of the external world for the materials of its thought and 
 enjoyment, and could project outwardly from itself over the most 
 barren and cheerless desert, smiling scenes of moving life and 
 ravishing beauty. 
 
 We can easily understand how the memory may be so improved 
 as to make the intellect capacious and retentive of all its past ac- 
 quisitions and experiences, and ready and prompt to avail itself of 
 
13 
 
 these hoarded treasures, at a moment’s warning, for any emergency 
 for which they may be needed. 
 
 And so of the imagination, the wondrous creative power of the 
 intellect, which, moving its magic wand over the world of its con- 
 ceptions, bids new scenes of more awful sublimity and intense 
 beauty, and clearer radiance and more picturesque variety pass, 
 in endless succession, before its kindling and enraptured gaze ; — 
 a power which, in a high state of perfection, seems almost unlimit- 
 ed in its range, and exhaustless in its creative energies ; which, 
 not content with the dominion of earth, and this diurnal scene, in- 
 vades heaven and the ‘‘deep tract of hell.” Contemplate the won- 
 ders of this power, as it existed in the mind of the author of Para- 
 dise Lost : 
 
 “ Who rode sublime 
 
 Upon the seraph- wings of ecstacy, 
 
 The secrets of the abyss to spy. 
 
 He pass’d the flaming bounds of space and time : 
 
 The living throne, the sapphire-blaze, 
 
 Where angels tremble, while they gaze ! 
 
 He saw ; but, blasted with excess of light, 
 
 Clos’d his eyes in endless night.” 
 
 And what shall we say of reason, the regal power of the intel- 
 lect ? Who can measure its prodigious powers when nurtured up 
 to high perfection ? It can extend its survey over all the fields of 
 knowledge, and comprehend all the elements and combinations of 
 all the sciences ; can perceive and mark their connexions, and 
 trace them up to a sublime unity in the infinite intelligence that 
 pervades, animates and governs all. All truths, with their infinite 
 relations, which can be grasped by created intelligences, it can ap- 
 prehend by direct intuition, or by an easy and uninterrupted march 
 of ratiocination from premises to conclusions. It can drive its 
 analysis right through the most complicated, intricate and laby- 
 rinthine problems, and lay their ultimate elements open to the clear 
 light of day ; and then with the same ease re-combine these elements 
 into their original wholes. It can pierce through the thickest and 
 most ingenious disguises of error, and scatter its fallacies and so- 
 phistries like mists before the beams of morning. In short, all 
 realities, in their true relations, it sees as they are, and can ab- 
 
 
14 
 
 stract, analyse, compare, judge, ratiocinate and demonstrate, witli 
 playful ease and unerring precision. 
 
 But there is still a higher perfection than that of the intellect. 
 The moral nature is the seat of tlie Divine Image in man, and in 
 perfection, as an unsoiled mirror, gives back this image with over- 
 powering effulgence. What are the elements of this perfection ? 
 An unclouded sense of right and of obligation ; a sincere love of 
 truth, justice, purity and goodness, and a corresponding hatred of 
 their opposites ; sensibilities all alive to the peerless beauties of 
 virtue and moral order; affections and sympathies all pure and 
 healthful, and spontaneously and gladly flowing out to their ap- 
 propriate objects ; an integrity which no temptation has power to 
 draw from the line of perfect rectitude, but blended with a candor 
 and magnanimity which divests it of all repulsive sternness. 
 
 Now combine all these elements of intellectual and moral per- 
 fection in their just proportions and subordination in one single 
 individual, actuated and controlled in their exercise by the voli- 
 tions of a will in perfect union with the will of the great Supreme, 
 and give him a fitting organization, which shall circumscribe, 
 individualize and relieve him amid God’s creation. Contemplate 
 him ! Is he not a glorious being, of whom we may say, not pro- 
 fanely, that on him “ every god hath set his seal to give the world 
 the assurance of a man but that on him the eternal God hath 
 placed His signet, and challenged men and devils to behold and 
 “ consider his servant, the upright and perfect man !” The perfec- 
 tion of human character consists not in the mere aggregation of 
 excellent qualities, but in a living union which combines and 
 blends them in just proportions, and admirably adjusts and equili- 
 brates contrasted qualities ; and the general effect is produced by 
 the breadth and fulness, and the symmetrical proportions and im- 
 pressive grandeur of the whole. What a sublime spectacle will 
 man exhibit when all the wonderful powers of his intellect are 
 brought out and matured up to the full vigor of their immortal na- 
 ture, and exercised in grappling with the great truths evolved from 
 the unfathomable depths of the eternal mind. And sublimer still, 
 
15 
 
 when all the emotions and sympathies of his moral nature are res- 
 ponsive to the influences of heaven, and in sweet accord with the 
 infinite heart of his Creator. ’ 
 
 Now, gentlemen, though this degree of individual perfection 
 may not be within the scope of your actual attainment in the pre- 
 sent life, it is not the less suitable to be the glowing ideal of your 
 conceptions and the cynosure of your aspirations ; for high as it is 
 you may indefinitely approximate it, and if faithful to yourselves 
 your approach will be constant. You are familiar with the some- 
 what trite, but ever grand and impressive figure of the eagle fixing 
 his flashing eye upon the sun, and rising towards it as the goal of 
 its upward flight. The imperial bird never can reach his flaming 
 goal, but he mounts the higher because its full-orbed image blazes 
 in his eye. This exalted standard fixed in your minds, is one of 
 the necessary conditions of your steady progress along the line of 
 ascending excellence, of which we have spoken. We must have, 
 as our grand and ultimate aim, an object in some sort commensu- 
 rate with our powers, or they will not be drawn forth in the strength 
 and majesty of their real capability. The law of correspondence 
 is universal in the constitution of things. There is every where 
 a conformity of destiny of character, of result to agency, an adap- 
 tion of means to ends, and an adjustment of forces to the powers 
 of resistance. He who should direct the whole force of his immor- , 
 tal capacities to the achievement of some temporary and trivial 
 object, would act more irrationally and contrary to the nature of 
 things, than the engineer who should apply the most powerful 
 locomotive to the propulsion of a baby’s cart. 
 
 Another necessary condition of all real progress is strenuous and 
 continuous self -effort, directed specifically to the attainment of the 
 great end in view. The forces which move us onward are within, 
 not without us; they are generated by ourselves. You cannot, 
 gentlemen, be too deeply impressed, in the early part of your ca- 
 reer, with this necessity. There is no succedaneum for the nisus 
 of our own faculties in the work of self-improvement. All devel- 
 opment and growth in mind as well as in nature, is from a living 
 
IG 
 
 energy which acts from a centre outwardly, and seizes upon sub- 
 ordinates and makes subservient extraneous influences. All ad- 
 vantages, opportunities and facilities are wasted upon us, if this 
 condition be disregarded. The longer I live and have the training 
 of youthful minds, the more deeply do I feel that our young men 
 need “ line upon line and precept upon precept” on this subject. 
 When I look abroad on human society, and mark how few are the 
 minds, even among the professedly educated class, evincing origi- 
 nal force and spontaniety ; how few do the thinking and planning 
 for the whole, and can in any sense be regarded as self-sustained 
 centres of living power, (while every one ought to be such,) I feel 
 ashamed of my species, and cannot but deplore the sad waste of 
 mind which might be worked up into glorious forms of matchless 
 power and graceful beauty. Where in creation is there any phe- 
 nominal development and impressive manifestation, except as the 
 result of spontaneous, active energy, concealed and silent often, but 
 not the less potent on that account? How much of this energy may 
 be detected in the development and growth of a single plant ! It 
 is said that a potatoe sprout has been known to lift a rock that 
 pressed upon it. All the forms of grandeur and grace, which 
 variegate the pleasing landscape, have been elaborated by the silent 
 operations of nature’s living energies, and can we expect any gran- 
 deur, and grace, and might in mind, by any other law ? No, a 
 higher law, a higher necessity obtains here ; and this effort on the 
 part of man is made the more necessary by the fact, that we have 
 to meet and overcome the most powerful antagonist forces. Man is 
 not now as he originally came from the hand of his Creator. Ef- 
 fort was necessary then to mature and perfect his embryo powers, 
 when his aspirations were all upward to his God, and every thing 
 favored his onward progress in the eternal march of his destiny. 
 But alas ! now there is in our natures a tendency downwards as 
 well as aspirations upwards. We should commit a fatal error in 
 any view of human nature, if we should leave out the considera- 
 tion of its present humiliations and disparagements. We cannot 
 accept the doctrine of man’s natural goodness as an article of 
 
17 - 
 
 our creed. We are sick ad nauseam, of a certain kind of senti- 
 mental optimism, which is ever prating of man’s natural dignity 
 and purity, and angelic kindredship. Our own experience com- 
 pels us to receive in all its literality the declaration of Holy Writ, 
 that he “ was conceived in sin and brought forth in iniquity.” To 
 vindicate the true dignity of man, we hold it not at all necessary to 
 maintain, that he is an ‘‘ infant seraph with embryo wings protrud- 
 ing from his shoulders,” and only waiting for their expansion to 
 rise and soar away to his pure and bright home in Heaven. It is 
 enough that we can distinctly recognize, amid the fearful wreck 
 he now presents, the principle of an endless life, and to be assured 
 by a voice from Heaven that the scathed and blackened fragments, 
 still grand and awful in their ruin, may be brought together and 
 moulded, in the exquisite language of the poet, into an “ immortal 
 feature of loveliness and perfection.” Man, as he now is, exhibits 
 an astonishing phenomenon. He stands forth, amid the works of 
 God, the anomaly of creation, the paradox of the universe. In him 
 what extremes, opposites and contradictions meet. The godlike en- 
 ergies of mind blended with the feebleness of dust ; the embers of 
 eternal life glowing amid the blackened ashes of fleshly corruption ; 
 the crystal column of a spiritual nature besmeared with, the filthy 
 slime of a bestial sensuality ; the aspirations of an angel in con- 
 flict with the tastes of the brute ; the emotions of a seraph strug- 
 gling with the passions of a demon ; the amaranthine flowers of 
 virtue exhaling the fragrance of Heaven, close beside the deadly 
 nightshade of sin distilling the poison of hell ; the rainbow glories 
 of the upper sanctuary fringing and darting athwart the pitchy 
 darkness of the nether pit. The elements of the three worlds, 
 heaven, earth and hell, are mixed together in our mysterious be- 
 ing ; — the last two in league against the first. We are weighed 
 down by the infirmities of earthliness, we are drawn down by the 
 powers of evil. We must needs then summon to their noblest ex- 
 ertion all our better powers, and direct their exertion most earnestly 
 to the acquisition of knowledge, truth and virtue. These are the 
 three great elements of intellectual and moral perfection. To 
 
 3 
 
18 
 
 know all truth important for us to know, and to love and practise 
 all virtue, is to “ make the most of our intellectual and moral be- 
 ing.” This strenuous conflict with ignorance, falsehood and vice, 
 is full of joyful ho[)e, and the issue to the earnest, persevering seeker 
 “after glory, and honor, and immortality,” ultimately certain ; for 
 (jlod looks with con)j)lacency upon the aspiring combatant, and will 
 gird him with a courage and energy requisite to secure the victo- 
 ry ; and the glories of all earthly victories fade into imperceptible 
 dimness before the splendors of the soul’s conquests in this noble 
 strife. 
 
 Another condition of progress, less obvious, but hardly less im- 
 portant, is the habit of considering every thing gained, as but a 
 means to something still beyond and higher. The constitution of 
 things, with which we are connected, is a vast scheme, whose con- 
 summation in the distant ages to come, is to illustrate to an intelli- 
 gent and adoring universe, some amazing plan of Omnipotent wis- 
 dom and goodness. In this scheme, each successive disclosure 
 prepares the way for the next, and is subsidiary to it. “ All are 
 but parts of one stupendous whole.” Now we are inextricably 
 involved in, and moving on with this scheme, which is to complete 
 one of the long, slow-moving cycles of eternity, and we must live 
 to see the final and crowning disclosure, and the new* and surpass- 
 ing glories of the infinite and beneficent Mind, which will then 
 burst upon creation. For man, then, in his present brief exist- 
 ence, there are no ultimate ends. The beasts that perish have 
 their ends here. They fulfil their course, finish their destiny, and 
 are no more ; but man’s life is designed to be a continued series 
 of means, looking on, and still on, to some distant goal. Or, rather, 
 we may say, every achievement has both the nature of an end and 
 a means ; an end to what has gone before, a means to what is to 
 come after. One of the characteristic errors of fallen man, is, ever 
 to be making what w^as designed as a means, an ultimate end, and 
 thus foregoing the exercise of his high prerogative, as a rational 
 being, of reviewing and gathering up the experiences of the past, 
 and of penetrating and anticipating the future, and dropping into 
 
19 
 
 the class of irrational natures. The past, present, and future, can- 
 not be separated in any just view of human relations and responsi- 
 bilities. The present is the aggregate result of all the past, and 
 will give complexion to all the future. This brutish error is one of 
 the most serious hindrances to the mind’s progress ; for though the 
 faculties may be never so busily and energetically at work, there 
 is no enlargement and stretching onward. All movement is not 
 progress. The most lively motion is often seen in the most con- 
 tracted circle. There is no more important habit than that of con- 
 templating things and events in their relations, and especially their 
 relations as causes and occasions of other things. The relations of 
 a thing are what give it its true value and significancy. They 
 often invest seeming trifles with transcendent importance. The 
 apprehension of relations is one of the highest of the mind’s prero- 
 gatives, and he has the best, and largest, and most powerful mind, 
 who most justly apprehends, and can the farthest trace, and take 
 in the widest survey of the real relations of things presented to his 
 contemplation. The difference in the capacities of men to per- 
 ceive, comprehend, and appreciate relations, is the true standard of 
 the comparative estimate of their intellectual calibres, and of the 
 elevation, breadth and moral dignity of their respective characters. 
 Take an illu*stration. Here are two men, of equal philological 
 ability, engaged in ascertaining the meaning of a small particle in 
 a dead language. The meaning may turn upon a single letter or 
 accent, no matter how small the point, on which the doubt hangs. 
 They both succeed, and rejoice in the triumph. But penetrate the 
 interior of their minds and mark their respective states. One is 
 rejoicing in a mere philological triumph, and reposes complacently 
 upon his laurels, and looks no farther. The other, because he has 
 ' found a golden key that will throw open dark doors which have 
 arrested him in his earnest investigations, and let in a flood of light 
 upon vital truths whose clear illustration he perceives must have 
 the most important practical bearings upon the present and eternal 
 welfare of his fellow-men. What an immense intellectual and 
 moral difference between these two individuals ! One is the mere 
 
 3 
 
20 
 
 phihlogistj and as 7)ian, may be almost as small as the point on 
 which his acuminated faculties had been concentrated. lie has 
 received no impulse, no enlargement from his achievement. The 
 other was growing all the time while engaged in his critical inves- 
 tigation, and the result unveiled a new world of inspiring thought 
 to him, and exalted and expanded his whole intellectual and moral 
 nature, and he stands before us, not the mole-eyed critic and the 
 shrivelled 7uan, but the philosophical scholar, the enlightened, large- 
 souled Christian philanthropist, the sublime teacher of his race. 
 Who can mistake one great point of this wide difference between 
 two men engaged in the same employment, and with equal suc- 
 cess ? The one has made his success an ultimate end, and has 
 never raised and extended his view to its relations to higher and 
 nobler objects. The other valued his success mily for its relations. 
 We see, clearly, from this illustration, how the relations of a thing 
 give it value and importance. Nothing is insignificant, nothing 
 mean, in view of its relations. Every kind of effort and labor be- 
 comes ennobling and tributary to improvement and progress, when 
 pursued with special reference to the realization of a worthy and 
 noble purpose. To give a cup of cold water to a fellow creature, 
 is a very small, and may be, a very unraeritorious thing ; but when 
 it is done because he is a disciple of the blessed Saviour, and to do 
 honor to that Saviour, the praise of the deed shall be rung upon 
 angels’ harps, and make the doer a nobler and purer being. Cul- 
 tivate, then, gentlemen, the habit of considering and tracing the 
 relations between all you do, and its results in the future upon the 
 cause of truth and human welfare, as well as upon your own des- 
 tiny, and you cannot but be rising in the real worth of your being. 
 The illustration of the above topic suggests the admonition, that 
 you habitually entertain a very modest estimate of your actual at- 
 tainments. Such an estimate is forced upon a reflecting mind, by 
 a due consideration of the suggestions, imperfect as they are, 
 which have been already thrown out. An intelligent and sober 
 comparison of what we actually are, even the best of us, with 
 what we may become, by a wise and diligent improvement of our 
 
21 
 
 resources and opportunities, cannot fail to check our vanity, and 
 dash our complacency, in I'espect to any triumphs achieved, or 
 progress gained. Nothing is more unworthy of us than to be sa- 
 tisfied and vain of what we are, or of what we have done, and 
 nothing, I may add, which lies more directly in our way in our 
 progressive improvement. He who thinks he has attained, or, in 
 the somewhat low, but sententious phrase, “ knows it knows 
 nothing yet as he ought to know. Bethink you, gentlemen, of the 
 arduous and immortal task assigned you. Out of the intellectual 
 and moral chaos which your being now presents, to bring order 
 and beauty, and a perfection which shall mirror the image of the 
 all-perfect One. The sculptor, with a vivid conception of a fault- 
 less model, sits down to his rude and amorphous material, and 
 begins a work whose completion is to entrance the world by a 
 visible embodiment of his ideal conception, and secure to himself 
 an immortality of fame. What should we think of him, if, after 
 knocking a few chips from the solid block, he should fold his arms 
 and felicitate himself upon his admirable achievement ? He com- 
 mits no such folly as this. That conception continues to glow 
 more brightly, while, under its inspiring influence, he patiently 
 and enthusiastically toils, days, and months, and years, and never 
 remits, until the last stroke is struck which leaves the solid marble 
 a breathing, heaving, intelligent, and majestic form, and the glory 
 of his triumph complete and unfading. And so, gentlemen, should 
 you persevere in your efforts to realize a conception of a self- 
 perfection, and adopting, as your motto, the language of the great 
 Apostle, “ Not as though I had attained, either were already per- 
 fect, but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind 
 and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press to- 
 wards the mark of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.” Raise 
 your conception high, and sustain it by frequent meditations, on 
 
 “ What high capacious powers 
 Lie folded up in man ; how far beyond 
 The praise of mortals, may the eternal growth 
 Of nature to perfection half divine 
 Expand the blooming soul.” 
 
22 
 
 But our own individual improvement is itself to be regarded as 
 a means to something still higher and nobler. We have done 
 much in accomplishing the aim of life, in respect to ourselves, 
 when we have prepared our minds to be powerful and efficient 
 instruments in effectuating good to others. Our onward progress 
 will be best promoted by such employment. To confine our re- 
 gards and assiduities to ourselves, though it were for the purpose 
 of carrying up our nature to the perfection of Gabriel, would not 
 be to fulfil the mission for which we have been sent into a world of 
 intelligent and accountable beings. No man is ‘to live to himself.’ 
 The social principle implanted in his nature, teaches this truth, as 
 well as the precepts and spirit of our holy religion. He is formed 
 for society, to dwell in union with his fellows, to be a member^ a 
 constituent part of a community. The path of his true destiny lies 
 right through the domain of a living, breathing, conscious, acting 
 humanity. It is intimately blended with, nay, is an inseparable 
 part of the common destiny of his race. Pure selfishness is a total 
 inversion of our original nature. Self-isolation from our kind, is 
 an abnormal and monstrous state of being. God has made nothing 
 to be alone. The principle of community, of mutual relation of 
 parts, of reciprocal action, of inter-dependence of interest, of multi- 
 plicity in unity, runs through all his works. It pervades his ma- 
 terial creation. Worlds are formed into systems, systems are 
 arranged in constellations, constellations are grouped in masses, 
 and so on, beyond the utmost stretch of imagination. It is the 
 same in the living world, and pre-eminently so of intellectual and 
 moral beings. No one can answer the purpose of his being, save 
 in a state of sociality. The noblest and most genial portion of his 
 nature withers and shrinks away, unless permitted to pour abroad 
 its gushing sympathies over concentric circles of nearer and re- 
 moter fellowship. The divine constitution sets human beings in 
 families, societies, nations ; and nations, “ like kindred drops, should 
 mingle into one,” and constitute a general brotherhood of the race. 
 The consummation of the redemptive scheme presents us a glo- 
 rious community of bright spirits, bound together by the golden 
 
23 
 
 chain of mutual love, each imparting his share of light to the in- 
 tense splendors, and his peculiar melody to the ravishing har- 
 monies which hold in amaze and ecstacy the universal soul of 
 heaven. 
 
 This relation to a whole, or to a community, gives the parts 
 themselves their highest value. For, however beautiful and per- 
 fect in themselves, they are less so for any intrinsic excellence, 
 than for the association. Each part contributes something to the 
 perfection of the whole, but receives in turn, from the combined 
 effect, much more than it gives. It is a universal principle to 
 value a thing according to its place and fitness in relation to other 
 things with which it is associated in a general effect. The dia- 
 mond is beautiful in its matrix, but place it upon the brow of beauty 
 and it blazes with new and higher lustre. And so individual man 
 receives a peculiar enhancement of value from his connexion 
 with a community. The community is far more to him, than he 
 is to it. The application of these observations to our subject, is 
 obvious. The good of the individual cannot be separated from the 
 good of the whole, and the latter is a higher and more excellent 
 object than the former. The true idea of a community of rational 
 and responsible beings, is, that while each is a living centre in him- 
 self, he moves in a sphere around a common centre with his fellow 
 men. He is not to lose his identity — his own peculiar individuality 
 is to be brought out, and defined in all its completeness ; but the 
 interest of his common connexion embraces all his own interests. 
 He should hence consider his own interest identified with the 
 interests of the whole, and subordinate. And no one can pro- 
 perly conceive of the purpose of his life, until he rises to a clear 
 view of a general good, involving his own individual good. — 
 The sage Johnson characteristically remarked, while meditating 
 upon the ruins of Iona, that “ whatever detached man from the 
 present and carried him back into the past, or forward into the 
 future, elevated him in the true dignity of his being.” We would 
 give a modified and nobler form to the thought, and say, that what- 
 ever carries a man out of himself, and engages his thoughts upon 
 
 
 
24 
 
 the interests and wellare of liis fellow-beings, elevates and ennobles 
 liini. There is a principle in every well-conditioned mind, which 
 instinctively meets out respect to an individual in proportion as the 
 circle of his sympathies is seen to widen. The man who is in- 
 tensely selfish, who invests and concentrates upon himself all Ids 
 nlfections and solicitudes, asks our respect in vain. We cannot help 
 despising him. The poet says, “ ’tis not in folly not to scorn a fool 
 we add, ’tis not in selfishness itself not to despise a selfish soul. 
 When we see him, however, extending his affectionate regards to 
 his family, and acting the part of a kind husband and father, a feel- 
 ing of genuine respect is awakened towards him, though this out- 
 going of his nature be but an expansion of his self-love. But when 
 he manifests a lively concern for the welfare of his neighborhood 
 and community, we warm into a feeling of high esteem. Still 
 more does he call forth our admiring approval when we see him 
 rising to a comprehension and solicitude for the highest good of his 
 country. True patriotism challenges our reverence. And, finally, 
 when he takes into his views the whole race, without distinction of 
 nations, classes or conditions, and addresses himself in the spirit of 
 an all-embracing, self-sacrificing philanthropy, to its amelioration, 
 we are smitten with the moral sublimity of the spectacle. We 
 feel that he is coming up to the full measure and dignity of his true 
 nature. Allow me, then, gentlemen, earnestly to urge upon your 
 consideration as an appropriate part, and, I would add, the chief 
 part, of the great aim of your lives, — the improvement and advance- 
 ment towards perfection of your race. Expand your conception to 
 take in the excellence and grandeur of this aim. Where shall we 
 find a fitting illustration to assist your minds in reaching the con- 
 ception of a restored and perfected humanity ? Having already 
 formed some idea of the perfection of a single individual, multiply 
 the glorious unit by the myriads which compose the human family, 
 each one of whom has the same elements out of which by the same 
 means to work a like perfection. We are assured by God himself, 
 that one perfected human being shall be invested with a glory be- 
 fore which the sun himself shall “pale his ineffectual fires.” He 
 
dor ! How poorly this material image represents the intellectual 
 and moral glory which shall invest the perfected race of man* 
 Indeed, all material images in this case, however magnificent, 
 come infinitely short of an adequate representation of the reality, 
 because one immortal mind in real worth of being outweighs mill- 
 ions of suns. Now it is the high privilege of every one to contri- 
 bute something towards this glorious consummation. The living 
 exemplification of a single virtue, by the humblest individual, may 
 be the centre of a beneficent influence expanding in concentric 
 waves over a surface of unknown extent. The close net-work of 
 relations which pervades, like the nervous tissue, the great mass of 
 human kind, gives unlimited action to the law of influence ; and 
 such now are the increasing facilities for rapid and extended com- 
 munication in every direction over the earth, that in a short time 
 there will not be a spot on the habitable globe that will not be ac- 
 cessible to the influence of any individual who may choose to exert 
 it. He may put in motion agencies, originate and send abroad in- 
 fluences, which, separating to the east and the west, shall hasten to 
 meet upon the other side of the globe. But it is the peculiar pre- 
 rogative of educated mind to do good upon the largest scale ; to 
 grasp and comprehend in their various relations and bearings, and 
 apply to the practical purposes of human improvement, great and 
 permanent principles which are themselves the sources of never- 
 failing streams of beneficence ; to seize upon those master-influen- 
 ces which are the most effective in moulding and directing the des- 
 tinies of a people, energizing and enforcing them with the elements 
 of intellectual and moral life, and giving them the broadest scope 
 for their appropriate action. Now, gentlemen, what are these in- 
 fluences at the present time? — (for there are certain dominant 
 influences which give character to every period.) What are the 
 most effective means of doing good to the race upon the largest 
 
 4 
 
26 
 
 scale in tliis country, and to which it should be your laudable am- 
 bition to prepare yourselves to give the highest clFiciency ? I should 
 compromise my charaeter as the minister of the religion of Christ, 
 if I did not at all times and in all places recognize this religion in its 
 evangelical purity, as above all, and embracing all the influences 
 which are really and permanently beneficent upon the character 
 and prospects of man. But I come not here to preach a sermon, 
 or to vindicate tlie claims of any religious creed. My answer to 
 the question will invite your attention to certain subordinate means 
 of a moral kind, and these are. Literature^ Politics^ and Moral Re- 
 forms. I greatly misapprehend the character of the age, if the 
 sources of the mightiest streams of influence which are playing 
 upon the vast and complicated machinery of human society, are 
 not found in these ; and hence I maintain that they have the 
 strongest claims upon the enlightened philanthropist, as means of 
 which he should avail himself, in carrying forward the sublime 
 work of human improvement and progress. I invite your serious 
 attention to a few suggestions under each head. 
 
 And, first, of Literature. This exerts the widest sway of the 
 three, for the reason that its influence is the most diffusive, subtle, 
 and penetrating. It enters and pervades the interior of the soul, 
 and touches all the springs of intellectual and moral life. I need 
 not be particular to define literature here. Your own reading and 
 reflection have given you sufficiently definite ideas as to its nature, 
 to appreciate my remarks under this head. .In its largest sense, 
 you are aware, the literature of a people is the embodied ex- 
 pression of its mind and character ; of its thoughts, opinions, senti- 
 ments and feelings, in all their infinite variety; and thus is a 
 faithful reflection of its mental, moral, and social characteristics. 
 In this sense, it comprises all the achievements of the aggregate 
 intellect of a people in all the departments of knowledge. There 
 is a restricted sense of the term, which limits it to the productions 
 addressed more particularly to the imagination and taste, the sen- 
 timents and feelings, or what is comprehensively termed, in mo- 
 dern phrase, the esthetic part of our nature. Now, in this reading 
 
/ 
 
 27 
 
 age, when the child, just emerging from infancy, and the grey* 
 haired grandsire, on the eve of his centenary, are alike pouring 
 over the printed page, and the vast enginery of the press is cease- 
 lessly plying day and night, scattering the leaves of every species 
 of literature far and wide over the land, like snow flakes in a win- 
 ter’s storm, the influence from this source can no more be estimated 
 than that of the atmosphere in which we live and breathe, and it 
 bears very much the same relation to the intellectual and moral, 
 as the latter does' to physical life. For the character and influence 
 of a literature, educated men are peculiarly responsible. They 
 create it, and give to it its elements of power. Now, two kinds of 
 service are demanded of educated men in respect to a living litera- 
 ture, consisting as it must, of two parts, viz., the accumulations of 
 the past and the accessions of the present. These are, criticism 
 and original contributions. The province of criticism, is to ana- 
 lyze, discriminate and adjudge the merits of literary productions, 
 whether of dead or of living authors ; to detect, condemn, and elim- 
 inate, whatever in them is vicious in morals or taste, and nullify, 
 as far as possible, its influence upon the present generation, and 
 prevent its transmission to the future ; and on the other hand, to 
 set forth, commend and give the greatest possible effect to what- 
 ever is true, and pure, and beneficial to the mental and moral health 
 of the reader. The other service is, positively to add, by original 
 thought, and spontaneous excogitation, to the substantial and per- 
 manent material of. the literature itself ; to enrich and adorn it by 
 new and important truths, or by novel and felicitous illustrations 
 of old truths, detecting and setting forth elements of power in them 
 before unnoticed, and placing them in new and more impressive 
 lights, and thus giving them a more direct, effective and control- 
 ling sway over men’s minds. These two kinds of service should 
 never be intermitted, and should always go together. When criti- 
 cism absorbs the talents and learning of an age, it is a sure indica- 
 tion of the exhaustion of the springs of original power, and tame 
 and unimpressive correctness succeeds to the vigor and freshness 
 of spontaneous life. But when its office is pretermitted, then “ all 
 
28 
 
 monstrous, all prodigious things” are generated hy minds of na- 
 tive strength, but of crude and untrained tastes, with no standard 
 and no guide to restrain and circumscribe their lawless and way- 
 ward course. But when these services are conjoinlly and success- 
 fully performed, the noblest work is done for the age and for ages 
 to come. A disinfecting and healthful element is deposited in the 
 great fountain itself, which is sending its streams wide over the 
 earth, to run through all coming time, at which millions on mill- 
 ions, living and yet unborn, are to drink. It is not my purpose to 
 lake up so vast a theme as the character of the extant literature of 
 the age ; but I must say at this, its so great flood-time, when such 
 accumulations of the vile are mixed in with the precious, there is 
 an imperious demand for the two-fold service of which we have 
 spoken, and for the rarest talent and accomplishments in those who 
 address themselves to its performance. A calm and discriminat- 
 ing survey of the practical influences of the literature at this time, 
 while it brings to view much that is hopeful and cheering, saddens 
 us by much of a contrary character. It is cheering to mark the 
 expansion of mental energy and growing thirst for knowledge, 
 which are every where discovered. There has been a general 
 awakening of intellectual life, extending to the obscurest corners of 
 the land. Where shall we find any considerable collection of 
 human beings, even in the remotest villages and neighborhoods, 
 which does not embrace a fair proportion of reading, intelligent 
 and active minds, abundantly capable of appreciating high mental 
 excellence ? What an animating prospect for the play of the 
 genial influences of a pure and elevating literature, upon so many 
 expanding and receptive minds ; and many of them are receiving 
 and enjoying these inspiring influenees. But many more are feed- 
 ing upon a very different kind of mental element. How many 
 thousands of our youth, of both sexes, to say nothing of those in 
 more advanced life, who at home or travelling, in the silent room 
 or secluded bower, v are absorbed in the fascinating pages of a spe- 
 cies of literature charaeterized by uneommon vigor and beauty of 
 conception, and by great brilliancy and graee of style, but pervad- 
 
/ 
 
 j 
 
 29 
 
 ed and informed by extremely vicious moral sentiments, whose 
 gross impurity is, indeed, concealed by the elegant and tasteful 
 attire, but not the less concentrated and deadly for that reason.. 
 To refine and sweeten poison, is but to add intenseness to its fatal 
 energy. It seems discouraging, when we contemplate the wide 
 difiusion of this literature, and the deep hold which it has taken 
 upon the expanding minds of the young, in the course of mental 
 training. The kind of reading to which we are addicted, has more 
 to do, than any other cause, with the formation of our character, 
 the fixing of our tastes, and the determination of our destinies. 
 What hope is there for our country, when its talented and educated 
 youth are morally poisoned ? How is this evil to be counteracted ? 
 The grave censures of the moralist, and the solemn rebukes of the 
 preacher, have proved unavailing. I fear we must confess that 
 the evil is on the increase. One of the worst aspects of this litera- 
 ture, is seen in its lending all its fascinations to increase a ten- 
 dency, alas, but too rife in the prosperous condition of our country. 
 The history of the world has shown that one of the unfailing fruits 
 of a high state of civilization, is a refined sensualism. We use the 
 term in its largest sense, as including all that ministers to the “lust 
 of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.” The 
 inexhaustible material resources of our country, and'our multiplied 
 and still multiplying means of rapid and gainful traffic, and the 
 benign and fostering care of our institutions over the varied in- 
 terests of society, furnish unprecedented facilities for the accumu- 
 lation of wealth, and the multiplication of all ihe comforts and 
 luxuries of life. The agencies of modern civilization, so nume- 
 rous and various, so practical and difiusive, so potent and effective, 
 in improving man’s individual and social condition, are constantly 
 moulding our rich and abundant resources into forms curiously 
 adapted to gratify the appetite, to please the sense, and charm the 
 taste. An ample competence, large wealth even, is within the 
 reach of almost every industrious, enterprizing citizen. He may 
 surround himself with all the enriching and refining elements of 
 the most wonderful civilization which the world, in its long history. 
 
30 
 
 lias ever seen. Amid this profusion of temporal conveniences, 
 comforts and elegancies, there is, alas, from the nature of the case, 
 a facile proclivity to earthliness and sensuality. This beautiful 
 earth, whose charms may be so easily heightened and variegated 
 by the appliances of tasteful industry, is thought to be a good 
 enough place for man ; and a spiritual heaven, as his congenial and 
 eternal home, ceases to be conceived of, much less desired. The 
 ripened result of all this, will be the recurrence of what marked 
 the reign of ancient civilization-^a dominant and all-pervading 
 sensualism, an entire and unrelieved earthliness, refined it may be, 
 in many instances, and adorned and beautified with the exquisite 
 elaborations of genius and art, and its grosser and more disgusting 
 features all concealed from view. O, how this earthly matter can 
 be refined, etherealized and subtilized, apparently into spirit itself. 
 But after all, it is not spirit, but incorrigibly of the earth, earthly, 
 and so, irredeemably perishable. And sensualism, in whatever 
 form it reigns over a people, will be their inevitable ruin. — “ They 
 that sow to the flesh shall reap corruption, nations as well as indi- 
 viduals whether its influence be of the softer kind, enfeebling 
 and debasing the powers of the body and soul, and producing a 
 nation of Sybarites ; thus preparing them for an easy conquest to 
 an invading foe, however disproportioned in numbers ; or of the 
 fiercer sort, fostering and inflaming the dark and malignant pas- 
 sions, thus kindling up a volcano in the very midst of the social 
 fabric, to heave it from its base, and scatter its fragments in wild 
 confusion over the land. When a pampered sensualism takes 
 full possession of a man, he becomes almost hopeless as to any 
 salutary impressions from moral and spiritual considerations. So 
 when it erects its throne upon the gross hearts of a nation, and 
 sways its Belial sceptre over all the departments of social life, the 
 strongest barriers are thrown up against the nation’s progress in 
 whatever ministers to the real elevation and true glory of human 
 nature. It behooves educated men, who love their country and 
 their race, to hasten to anticipate the advancing reign of this sen- 
 sual spirit, by preparing and diffusing every where a literature 
 
; 
 
 31 
 
 which shall sternly rebuke and check it by clear and impressive 
 recognitions of man’s immortality and spiritual destiny ; a litera- 
 ture imbued and redolent with the things of faith, and acting di- 
 rectly upon the immortal and spiritual instincts of the soul. This 
 vicious literature of which we speak, can only be robbed of its 
 power to harm by a criticism clothed with the awful majesty of 
 a moral, as well as a literary censorship, which shall, in a masterly 
 way expose its sensualizing and vitiating elements, and demon- 
 strate to the moral sense of the community, that it is not only 
 “ earthly and sensual,” but “ devilish,” too ; and by the suhsti- 
 tution, in its stead, of a literature which shall satisfy the de- 
 mands of the intellectual taste, by a still higher energy of thought, 
 more vivid and beautiful illustrations, and a more forcible, elegant 
 and attractive style, and which shall elicit and cultivate the moral 
 taste and sensibilities, by its pure and elevated moral sentiments. 
 He who would aspire, then, gentlemen, to do the largest good to 
 his race, must avail himself of the amazing power of the press, in 
 the creation of a current literature, whose intellectual and moral 
 qualities shall command the interested attention and devotion of the 
 mind and heart of the rising youth. It is a trite remark that the 
 pen, through the aid of the press, has come to be the great lever of 
 moral power ; but the triteness of the remark should not make us 
 feel less its truth, and the fearful responsibility it imposes upon 
 educated men, in whose hands this great lever is. No limits can 
 be set to the power of a vigorous pen, in this age of reading and 
 thought. Here allow me to quote a single sentence from a pub- 
 lished production of my own : “ Who can estimate the value, or 
 
 measure the achievements of this little instrument, by which an 
 individual, in the retirement of his closet, can speak to the living 
 millions of earth, and to generations yet unborn ; by which he can 
 promulge a principle, or give utterance to a sentiment, which shall 
 produce moral revolutions in kingdoms and empires, and thrill 
 upon the heart of the world, and continue a living, breathing thing, 
 speaking with a voice of power and authority, ages after its author 
 is silent in the grave.” O, there is life and immortality, and a sort 
 
32 
 
 of omnipotence in thought ! A great idea, rising on an earnest 
 mind that can give it fitting utterance, is often the beginning of a 
 world and an age of good to the liuman race. This is the true 
 Minerva, springing ‘ perfect and full armed,’ from the head of 
 Jupiter, to go forth to do battle against the legions of ignorance 
 and error, and to emancipate and bring mankind ‘ into the glorious 
 liberty of the sons of’ light. It is profoundly interesting to follow 
 the history and note the victories of a single truth in the world. 
 The poet speaks of 
 
 ‘‘ Truths that awake to perish never.*’ « 
 
 This is characteristic of all truths, — they are immortal. And 
 when conceived or discovered, or however brought into existence, 
 and thrown distinctly into view upon the field of the intellectual 
 vision, they continue with various fortunes to travel along down 
 with successive generations of mankind, sometimes their blessed 
 light almost extinguished and their tones of power hushed into a 
 still small voice, whispering words of hope and comfort to a few 
 chosen spirits, and then again blazing out and pealing forth their 
 thunders, and startling from their slumbers whole communities. 
 Sometimes a great truth, after being long hidden from view by 
 dark clouds of error, thickly enshrouding the souls of men, dis- 
 closes itself to some single mind, and pours its illuminations and 
 inspiring influence into its ample capacity ; and that mind comes 
 forth upon the great theatre of humanity invested with the light, 
 and strong with the power of that truth, to radiate its beams, and 
 utter its triumphant peal over sleeping nations ; and a new era 
 opens upon the world, and that truth continues to blaze and boom 
 on down the track of successive generations, giving life and cha- 
 racter to an epoch in human history. 
 
 In the study of history, I have been deeply interested in mark- 
 ing the birth and progress of a truth, how it lives and gathers 
 power from generation to generation, amid the changes and vicis- 
 ■ situde -that checker the earthly destiny of the race, until a crisis 
 arises - which disengages it from all embarrassments, and it comes 
 
Jr-”' • 
 
 33 
 
 forth with a kind of omnipotence, to rule for a while in the empire 
 of mind. Like the earthquake, whose distant rumblings are heard 
 long before the dreadful explosion, which heaves seas from their 
 beds and lays in ruins mighty cities, its rumblings are heard in 
 the distance and its heavings are felt along the surface of society, 
 giving rise to undefined but fearful expectations, long before the 
 final catastrophe which smites to the dust the thrones and monu- 
 ments, and colossal edifices of ignorance and error. What hope is 
 here for man ! — the power of truth endures from age to age ! O, 
 give me to enshrine a great truth in my country’s literature, and 
 I will say, not that kings may wear their crowns without envy, for 
 crowns are baubles in these days, but that others are welcome to 
 all the shining dust and glittering gems that bespangle the caves 
 of earth and ocean. 
 
 Next to a pure religion, we cannot transmit to coming genera- 
 tions a more precious inheritance than a literature radiant with the 
 illuminations of truth, and glowing with the spirit of purity and of 
 heaven. 
 
 I can touch but briefly upon the other two modes of doing good — 
 Politics and Moral Reform. I shall dismiss the first of these with 
 two or three general remarks, though I had written somewhat at 
 length upon the subject. I use the term politics in no narrow, par- 
 tizan sense. I mean that noble science which teaches us how to 
 govern men wisely and happily in communities and states, — the 
 science of constitutions, of legislation, and of the social relations of 
 communities, and of individuals in a community. If such be its 
 province and scope, it is seen at once to embrace some of the most 
 powerful influences which affect the social destiny of man. “ It is 
 a work good and prudent,” says Milton, “ to be able to guide one 
 man, of larger extended virtue, to order well one house, but to go- 
 vern a nation piously and justly, which only is to say happily, is 
 for a spirit of the greatest size and divinest mettle. And certainly 
 of no less mind, nor of less excellence in another way, were those 
 who by writing laid the solid and true foundations of this science, 
 which is of the greatest importance to the life of man.” And fur* 
 
 o 
 
ther : “ To govern well is to train up a nation to true wisdom and 
 virtue, and that which springs from them, magnanimity — (take 
 heed of that,) — and that which is our beginning, regeneration, and 
 happiest end, likeness to God, which, in one word, we call godli- 
 ness, and that this is the true flourishing of a land, other things 
 follow as the shadow does the substance.” — “ A commonwealth 
 ought to be but as one large Christian personage, one mighty 
 growth and stature of an honest man, as big and compact in virtue 
 as in body, for look what the grounds and causes are of single hap- 
 piness are to one man, the same ye shall find them to a whole 
 state.” Here is set forth most graphically the true object of politi- 
 cal science. It is to build up and perfect a commonwealth of in- 
 telligent and responsible beings, securing to all their personal 
 rights, and liberty, and property, and educing a beautiful social 
 order and harmony by the adjustment and balance of living forces. 
 To be familiar with its principles, and in a position to give them 
 practical effect, puts a power of doing extensive good in our hands. 
 Now, our civil institutions, it seems to me, are wonderful realiza- 
 tions of those principles. I cannot hesitate to believe that they 
 have been shaped by a superhuman wisdom to the noblest princi- 
 ples and impulses of our nature. They furnish the- opportunity 
 and incitement too, to every individual, for the full exercise of every 
 useful energy and the freest scope for his enlargement and pro- 
 gress, in every desirable improvement of his nature and circum- 
 stances. O, never upon the tide of time, was there launched by 
 human instrumentality “ a vessel freighted with such precious 
 hopes and bright destinies for the race, as our wise and happy 
 government.” This is not mere fourth of July declamation or the 
 effervescence of an unintelligent, over-wrought, patriotic zeal. 
 Whatever defects there may be in our political system, a sagacious 
 and comprehensive intelligence that understands the principles of 
 human nature, and can appreciate the social influences which act 
 most genially upon it, will not fail, in its most sober and candid 
 moods, to justify our eulogium. I may be permitted to say, in 
 passing, without intending any offence to sectional prejudice, that 
 
35 
 
 I do not include in my conception of our political system, the “ pe- 
 culiar domestic institution” of the southern portion of our common 
 country. I hold that this “ institution” is not an element in our 
 political system. It existed anterior to the establishment of the 
 latter, and was not incorporated with it. It was, indeed, inciden- 
 tally recognized, and w’as tolerated as a present evil which could 
 not be suddenly removed, but must be left to the ameliorating 
 influences flowing from the principles inherent in the system. 
 We fully believe that simple justice to the memory of the im- 
 mortal founders of our national compact, requires us to vindicate 
 them from the imputation of anticipating, much less of desiring the 
 perpetuity of human slavery in any portion of our country. They 
 had the conviction that it would necessarily die out, and that at no 
 distant day, under the action of those great principles of freedom 
 and equality, which constituted the essential elements of the political 
 system which they formed and established. 
 
 If, then, our political institutions are the embodiment of the true 
 principles of human freedom, they should be inexpressibly dear to 
 us, not only as patriots, who love our country, but as philanthro- 
 pists, who love mankind. We should earnestly and thoroughly 
 study their theory, spirit and practical operation, and honor and 
 magnify them before the world, by being ourselves living illustra- 
 tions of their peculiar and ennobling power. Every American 
 citizen should be moved by the worthy ambition of becoming him- 
 self the incarnation of American republicanism. This is a far 
 nobler ambition than that which would lead him to aspire to be 
 the most brilliant star in the saloons of the aristocracy, or the 
 most accomplished courtier in the palaces of royalty, or even, were 
 it possible, the august occupant of the throne itself. We would 
 fearlessly challenge the world to match, in the attributes of true 
 and noble manhood, a character formed and moulded by the legiti- 
 mate influences of our institutions, and embodying and expressing 
 their peculiar genius and spirit. Would that such characters were 
 multiplying more rapidly than they are thoughout all ranks of our 
 citizens. Their diminishing proportion to the increase of the general 
 
36 
 
 aggregate of our numbers, is a portentous sign in the horizon of our 
 destiny as a mighty Republic. Are there not grounds to fear, in the 
 rapid increase of wealth and luxury, that the aristocratic and ex- 
 clusive element is gaining upon the democratic and comprehensive, 
 in the arrangements, tone and temper of society in this boastful 
 republic of ours ? How poorly an American citizen appreciates the 
 noble position in which Providence has placed him, — how misera- 
 bly he mistakes his “ mission,” when his ambition is, not to under- 
 stand and carry out in practice the true principles and spirit of 
 those institutions to which he owes all his consequence, but to ape 
 the manners and airs of an imported and effete aristocracy ! O, 
 how my soul despises such traitorous meanness. Give me the true 
 democrat, I care not to what political party he belongs, who prizes 
 the privilege of being an American citizen above that of being the 
 greatest peer within the shadow of royalty, and who rejoices in 
 the “scope and verge” afforded him by our political system, to 
 give full development and free action to his democratic sentiments, 
 — whose large soul encircles in its comprehensive sympathies, all 
 classes of his fellow citizens, and feels a warm and living interest 
 in the welfare of each. There are two methods by which we can 
 benefit men in connection with our political institutions. 1st. We 
 can make them more practically effective upon the character and 
 interests of society at home. 2d. We can commend them more 
 impressively to the imitation of other nations. I had struck out 
 extended trains of reflections under each of these heads, but I must 
 exclude them all, as they would occupy, in extenso, too much space, 
 and any synopsis would be unsatisfactory. I dismiss the subject 
 with this general hint, that every American citizen has a twofold 
 “ mission” — To do what he can to carry out in all their practical 
 exemplifications, through the medium of state and national legisla- 
 tion, and the arrangements and institutions of society generally, 
 the peculiar principles and spirit of American republicanism, and 
 To guard, with sleepless vigilance, the integrity of that glorious 
 political system which enshrines these principles, and is all redolent 
 of this spirit, as a sacred trust for the coming generations in his 
 
37 ' 
 
 own happy land, and for the oppressed nations throughout the 
 earth. 
 
 This has been called peculiarly the age of reforms. There is a 
 busy spirit examining and shaking existing institutions and cus- 
 toms, and attempting to overthrow or remodel, to change or rectify 
 them. New plans and enterprises for social improvement and pro- 
 gress are constantly proposed and earnestly urged. The cry has 
 gone forth and is ringing loud and clear, from every hilltop and 
 reverberating along every valley, “ Let old things pass away, and 
 let us make all things new.” We believe this spirit is, in the main, 
 a well-intentioned and philanthropic one. It has been turning the 
 attention of men in good earnest to the improvement of their own 
 condition, and that of their species at large, and has made plans 
 and means of social advancement and happiness popular topics, in 
 the discussion and prosecution of which the best minds and hearts 
 have been engaged. We have reason to thank a gracious Provi- 
 dence that our lot has been cast in this age of the world,, when a 
 benevolent and philanthropic spirit has gone abroad over the earth 
 breathing a strange influence upon the noblest powers of our na- 
 ture, and rousing them to the sublime effort of sundering the chains 
 of tyrannic rule and despotic custom, and struggling toward 
 the high perfection to which they are destined by their Creator. 
 This blessed spirit has already achieved wonders, and strewn 
 countless precious blessings in its path. I would earnestly recom- 
 mend to you gentlemen, to give your w'arm sympathy and your 
 personal and most hearty co-operation to the great reforming move- 
 ments of the age. Richly furnished, thoroughly disciplined and 
 pow'erful minds, which are to be found alone in the class of edu- 
 cated men, are especially needed to take the direction and guid- 
 ance of these movements. We have been pained by too much that 
 is misguided in aim, wrong in means, unhappy in spirit and futile 
 or capricious in result, not to be deeply impressed with the convic- 
 tion, that the reforming spirit of the times, needs to be informed and 
 guided by a profound and comprehensive knowledge of man, and 
 of the nature and influence of existing institutions, or however good 
 
 
38 
 
 its intentions, it will be likely, nay, certain to produce disaster 
 and ruin, rather than amelioration and beneficial change ; and 
 hence we hold that no period in the progress of man, so imperatively 
 demands the lights of enlarged experience and tlie practical know- 
 ledge wliich is gathered from a wide and careful survey of the 
 actual results of principles and institutiqns affecting human society, 
 as the present. Thus furnished, the individual will be prepared 
 to accomplish incalculable good through the reforms which have 
 already been put in motion, and are steadily advancing, we are 
 fain to hope, (whatever appearances, at any time, to the contrary,) 
 to the consummation of their philanthropic purposes. If a genu- 
 ine reform consists in the dislodgement from the public mind of 
 some pernicious error, and the consequent removal from society of 
 the practical evils growing out of it, and the substitution in its 
 stead, of a valuable truth, with its necessary blessings, then we 
 hold that the distinguishing reforms of the day are genuine, and 
 claim the earnest advocacy and zealous co-operation, both by pre- 
 cept and example, of those who are sincerely aiming at the ad- 
 vancement of the race in all that dignifies, exalts and makes happy 
 human beings. Their aim is the overthrow of giant and hoary 
 errors, which have long bestridden, like the nightmare, the breast 
 of prostrate humanity, paralyzing its immortal energies, and ‘ freez- 
 ing the genial current of its soul.’ Who can deny that when 
 these reforms shall have reached the consummation of their bene- 
 volent purposes, — when the relentless moloch of intemperance, and 
 the foul spirit of fleshly impurity, and the fierce demon of oppres- 
 sion shall have been driven, with all their direful train, from the 
 earth, which they have so long cursed, mankind shall not only be 
 immeasurably advanced on the shining way of ascending excel- 
 lence, but in a condition, with their accumulated and continually 
 accumulating resources, to move on at any inconcievably increas- 
 ed rate. We take it for granted, in this view, that the reforms 
 shall be so conducted to their ultimate triumph, as that no other 
 evils shall spring up in their track to take the place and sceptre of 
 those which have been dethroned and banished. One of the most 
 
39 
 
 important services to be rendered to these reforms, is such an en- 
 lightened and judicious direction of them as shall keep them to 
 their main purpose, and prevent them from destroying what is good 
 in the attempt to remove the evil interwoven with it ; and on the 
 other, from originating a positive mischief by the means used to ad- 
 vance them. A great work has been performed for mankind when 
 a false principle or custom has been disentangled from its associa- 
 tions, and held up to their view in its naked and essential ugliness, 
 to excite their disgust and abhorrence, and so effect its indignant 
 repudiation. The mission of a true reform is not to kill and de- 
 stroy aught save error and iniquity. It is not fearfully destructive, 
 but beneficially conservative, separating the precious from the vile, 
 carefully guarding and fostering the former while it deals deadly 
 blows upon the latter. A great truth is really the animating prin- 
 ciple 'of every true reform, and the overthrow of some great and 
 pernicious error its legitimate object ; and this fact suggests the 
 vital importance of using truth alone as the appropriate instrumen- 
 tality in carrying forward reforming enterprizes. He who avails 
 himself of a falsehood or an erroneous principle, to promote even 
 the best of enterprizes, will find in the end that he has taken hold 
 of a two-edged weapon, the rebound of whose stroke shall send the 
 backward edge through his own heart, and pierce the vitals of the 
 cause itself. 
 
 Let me admonish you, gentlemen, to honor the truth above all 
 things else in God’s universe, except the great Fountain of truth 
 itself. Indignantly repudiate, under all circumstances, the prof- 
 fered services of a lie, if it promise never so great results for good. 
 So deeply do I feel upon this subject, that I would not consciously 
 employ and honor a great lie, if I knew that by its instrumentality 
 I could break every chain, and dethrone every tyrant, and dash the 
 cup of dissipation from every lip, and make men as pure and chaste 
 as the angels of heaven. I should be sure that the expelled evil 
 would return again with seven spirits worse than itself, to take up 
 its abode and to dwell in the mind garnished alone with the trap- 
 pings of falsehood. No change will prove permanently beneficial 
 
40 
 
 to man that does not tend to the instauration of the reign of truth 
 in the world. The praise of the age, is that it is the age of benev- 
 olence, and many sanguine philanthropists think we are on the eve 
 of the mellenium, because then the reign of benevolence is to be 
 universal ; but inspiration represents this promised period as mark- 
 ing the triumph and reign of truth and righteousness ; not that there 
 is any real incompatability between truth and genuine benevolence. 
 There is not ; but the former is paramount and comprehensive of 
 the latter. It is the sun of the moral world, while benevolence is 
 the radiant emanation of his life-giving, health-infusing and joy- 
 inspiring beams. Coleridge has a strong remark pertinent to this 
 view : “ He who begins by loving Christianity better than truth, 
 will proceed by loving his own sect or church better than Christi- 
 anity, and end in loving himself better than all.” We would not 
 understand the Christian philosopher here as setting the truth in 
 opposition to Christianity. Christianity is the embodiment of the 
 highest and holiest truth ; but if we love it for other reasons than 
 that it is the truth, our love is not of the right kind, and will tend 
 to our moral degeneracy. No, gentlemen, you cannot hope to do 
 permanent good to your race, except through the instrumentality of 
 truth in some of its forms and modifications. 
 
 But the reforms alluded to are not the only means of improving 
 man’s condition. He whose earnest soul has conceived, and felt 
 the inspiration of, the sublime idea of great and permanent good to 
 his race, will find a thousand ways by which the end may be pro- 
 moted. “This is a day,” it has been remarked, “of wondrous 
 opportunities and awful advantages for promoting the highest inter- 
 ests and happiness of man;” and for the improvement of these ad- 
 vantages, no position is more favorable than that of a citizen of this 
 country. We are in little danger, in my opinion, of an over-esti- 
 mate of the advantages, material, civil and religious, which our 
 country possesses. They have never yet been fully comprehended 
 and adequately celebrated. The statesman in the widest scope of 
 his comprehension, the orator in the loftiest flights of his enthusiasm, 
 the poet in the extatic trance of his inspiration, never yet formed a 
 
41 
 
 suitable conception of what a munificent Heaven has done for this 
 goodly land, and the happy people who dwell therein. O, what a 
 broad, free, commanding theatre for the play of the mightiest ener- 
 gies of man in evolving the resources of nature and of himself, and 
 applying them to the purposes of progress and culture, is this na- 
 tion with her magnificent and inexhaustibly rich domain, her glori- 
 ous institutions, and her continental position ! 
 
 Every thing, too, is full of young life, mantling vigor, and daring 
 enterprise. Wonderful as are the discoveries, inventions, and im- 
 provements already made, there seems no exhaustion of capabili- 
 ties and resources, but countless bursting germs every where to be 
 seen, and new energies whose scope and sway in their full devel- 
 opement no mind can yet anticipate and grasp, just beginning to 
 stir and heave the great social mass at a thousand different points, 
 promise an expansion and growth of all the elements of social pros- 
 perity and happiness which will be to the present as the noon-tide 
 blaze to the grey streaks of the early dawn. Our country, with 
 all these advantages, if true to herself, will exert a controlling in- 
 fluence upon the destines of the whole race. Her territorial posi- 
 tion gives her access to the world in every direction. China will 
 soon be as much her neighbor on the west as Europe is on the 
 east, and she will then roll a tide of influences across the Pacific 
 to break upon the hoary institutions of the Celestial Empire, and 
 pour the renovating streams of Christian civilization through all the 
 crevices of her vast and decaying social fabric. She has long been 
 sending such a tide across the Atlantic, and we have beheld a part 
 of the result in the recent condition of European society, lashed 
 into a stormy sea on whose raging billows, thrones, and dynasties, 
 and antiquated institutions were tossing like the fragments of a 
 fearful wreck. 
 
 The probable universality of the English language, through the 
 spirit and agency of missions and of commerce, presents a vastly 
 extended system of means for benefitting the race. No language 
 
 6 
 
42 
 
 upon earth, dead or living, is so rich in the elements of a pure 
 religion and of rational liberty, and of progress in all that is en- 
 nobling to our nature. Through this agency we may deposit these 
 elements upon every shore, and in the bosom of every society. 
 
 O, gentlemen, what a privilege it is ta live in this age, and in 
 this country, and to be young men enjoying all the advantages of 
 high intellectual and moral culture. My soul swells with the 
 thought of the immense good which may be accomplished in their 
 generation, by those whom I am addressing, when they shall have 
 left the consecrated halls and shades of their Alma Mater, to min- 
 gle with the great realities and activities of this wonderful age. 
 God grant that they may go forth with their minds expanding with 
 just conceptions of the true purpose of their existence, and their 
 hearts swelling and throbbing with noble and generous impulses, 
 resolved that by God’s help they will be angels of mercy, and not 
 ministers of wrath to their suffering race, and leave the world 
 wiser and better when they shall be summoned away to give an 
 account of their stewardship. O, let them remember they have 
 immortal materials out of which to elaborate a perfection which 
 shall not only enrapture angels, but attract the complacency and 
 praise of the Eternal and All-perfect Mind.