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REGISTER OF PENNSYLVANIA.

DEVOTED TO THE PRESERVATION OF EVERY KIND OF USEFUL INFORMATION RESPECTING THE STATE.

VOL. XII.-NO. 7.

ton.

EDITED BY SAMUEL HAZARD.

PHILADELPHIA, AUGUST 17, 1833. NO. 294.

LA FAYETTE COLLEGE.

to us by a sort of communication more impressive than history and more vivid than mere tradition; and passing from generation to generation in a frequent and indelibly on the hearts and reflected from the conduct familiar intercourse, their influence is at length stamped of those who thus at stated periods and at short inter

EASTON, Pa. July 4. The recent anniversary of our independence was celebrated with more than its usual interest to us of EasThe procession for laying the corner stone of La Fay-vals recur to them. ette College, was formed at the court house square, at half past nine o'clock, under the direction of Col. J. M. Porter, Chief Marshall.

On settling the stone to its place, Colonel Porter said: "Here on the anniversary of our independence, we dedicate this building to the cause of science and edu cation. May it long be the seat of virtue and learning. May the example of him whose name it bears, and who is well described as the model of republican chivalry, the hero of three revolutions, of two centuries, and of both hemispheres, inspire the youth who shall be here educated, with the proper spirit of patriotim and phi-perties belong indeed to an event among the most relanthropy. And may the all bounteous Author of nature bless this undertaking, protect those engaged in completing this structure from accident and harm, and long preserve it from decay."

The Rev. B. C. Wolf, of the German Reformed Church, delivered a neat, beautiful, and appropriate ad

dress.

And the ceremonies were concluded by prayer by the Rev. Mr. Vandever, of the Reformed Dutch Church.

The procession was again formed, and proceeded to the German Reformed Chuch, where an address was delivered by Joseph R. Ingersoll, Esq. of Philadelphia, to, and in pursuance of the appointment of, the Franklin and Washington Literary Societies of La Fayette College.

ADDRESS

EY JOSEPH R. INGERSOLL, ESQ.

Delivered before the Literary Societies of La Fayette
College, at Easton, Pennsylvania, July 4, 1833.
Published at the request of the Societies.

A whole nation is at this moment celebrating the birth day of its independence. From the wide extremes of this extended land the din of arms announces, not the conflict of hostile legions, but the rejoicings of patriot freemen. The thunder of cannon is every where proclaiming a people's gratitude to those who first erected the temple of liberty, and first sacrificed upon her altars; and millions of swelling hearts beat in respon sive unison. Let us withdraw for a moment from these animating scenes of joy and gratitude, and indulge in noiseless contemplation our no less fervent sensibility for the blessings we have inherited, and exchange our mutual pledges to cherish and preserve them.

The American revolution cannot properly be estimated, independently of its consequences. Sublime be considered merely as a glorious display of devoted as were the sacrifices which it called forth, it is not to patriotism, untiring fortitude and determined valouras a bright example of virtuous efforts conducted by a gracious providence to happy results-as a triumphant relief of suffering worth from proud oppression or as the auspicious establishment of a mighty empire on the broadest basis of popular representation. These pro. otherwise distinguished, history would have inscribed markable in the story of mankind. Had it been no it upon her brightest page; philosophy would have pointed to it as confirming many of her favourite theories; and the shades of those who bled for its accomplishment would have continued to walk amid the conflicts and animate the exertions of struggling freedom until the end of time. It would have taught lessons profitable to the world at large. Its speculative results would have been the property of mankind. But a long train of benefits and blessings was laid for the descendthemselves unconscious of the extent which they would ants of those who braved the storm, and who were one day reach. These benefits and blessings have conabundance and diffusing themselves in lavish bounty in tinued to pass along the course of time, increasing in their progress. They resemble a stream which, spring. ing from a pure but unpretending source in the depths of the forest or on the summit of the mountain, gathers as it flows its tributary waters, and gliding through boundless plains which it fertilizes, swells at length into a mighty and majestic river, which reflects from its bright surface populous cities, and bears upon its buoyant waves the productions of a world.

The practical effects of the American revolution are peculiarly ours. National honour and individual prosperity; an attainment of all the comforts and conveniences of life; science adopted, learning cultivated, and knowledge every where diffused; a spirit of enterprise without a parallel; activity the most intense, and success in almost every undertaking within the reach of human strength-all are results, the deep foundations of which were laid on the day and by the deed, which we are now commemorating. But for that day and that deed, they would have been unknown, and this now united and powerful republic would have continuThese periodical revolutions of time are happily cal-ed to be a collection of loosely combined and dependculated to keep alive the recollection of past events. Feelings which are inspired even by the great occurrence of the 4th of July, 1776, would become languid if they were not occasionally renewed. Remarkable events are rooted in the memory only when it dwells upon them from time to time, and recalls the periods which gave them existence. They are thus, as it were, acted over again in fancy, with all their attractions, and none of their toils and dangers. They become known

VOL. XII.

13

ent colonies. They would have languished in feeble
existence, subject to the caprice of foreign power;
the perpetual prey, and the bloody arena of a warfare
not their own; starved perhaps by the neglect, or, what
would have been scarcely better, fed by the conde-
Where are the
scending bounty of a distant master.
colonies that have really assumed the dignity or enjoy.
ed the advantages of a nation? Shall we turn to the
West India Islands? Different governments of Europe

have there tried the effect of their respective systems; and have left their dependencies almost motionless in moral and intellectual improvement, effectually moving only in a career of monied advantages, where it is difficult to say which is the more intolerable, the insecurity and perpetual alarm of the master, or the hopeless, yet unsubdued and reluctant submission of the slave. Spain has gone on adding to the load of oppression under which her American colonists had groaned, for ages, until at length the chains were broken which had become too galling to be borne. But what has the boasted colonial policy of Great Britain done to benefit its subjects? how little has it attempted except to enrich herself! Human sacrifices still kindle the fires which burn upon the funeral piles of Hindoo superstition. The idol Juggernaut still dyes his chariot wheels with human blood. These sad remains of native ignorance darken the sky of European supremacy, while the once splendid fabrics of Asiatic taste and elegance are mould ering into dust. What has the country, peopled with eighty-nine millions of inhabitants, gained by the exchange of rulers? Ignorance and a false religion, with its impure and impious rites, maintain their power; not even as formerly, at least the companions of national independence; but shorn of the consolations which the elevation and grandeur of selfgovernment might have continued to inspire. Shall we compare the advancement of the Canadas, much favored as they have been by their distant rulers, with that of their republican neighbours? A single illustration may suffice. The happiest invention of modern times for the diffusion of useful and universal information, in the cheapest form, the freshest in production, the most various in matter, and the most practical for the purpo ses of life, is the establishment of gazettes. The art of printing was imperfect without them. Books are the preceptors of the scholar and the philosopher, but the daily press is the friend and the companion of the No station is so exalted as to be out of the sphere of its influence, none so humble that it does not reach it. It is alike welcome in the populous city and the sequestered vale. It goes forth with the sun himself, and diffuses universal light. Political knowledge and individual instruction are alike disseminated by it. It penetrates the workshop and the counting room, the cottage and the cabin: it flies to the traveller, however remote, on wings as swift almost as light, and overtakes and cheers him with the intelligence of his home. The chamber of the sick is relieved by its consolations; even the dungeon of the prisoner is rendered less dark by its sympathy. We are told by Sir James Mackintosh, in his celebrated defence of Peltier for an alleged libel on Napoleon, that in the year of the Armada, Queen Elizabeth caused to be printed the first gazette that ever appeared in England. "This," he adds, "was one of the most sagacious experiments, one of the greatest discoveries of political genius, one of the most striking anticipations of future experience that we find in history." More than sixty gazettes are daily issued from the presses of these United States, besides the numbers which less frequently appear. In England, too, they multiplied and magnified to the best of purposes under the patronage of the successors of Elizabeth, their ministers and people. Yet the Canadas have, it seems, within the last few weeks, (if it has been done at all) made their very first attempt thus with every rising sun to enlighten the public mind-to penetrate like his beams the deepest caverns, and dispel the shades of ignorance-to establish a watchtower, which to a people boasting of freedom and meaning to maintain it, is indispensable-a lighthouse, which to a people desirous of general knowledge, is inestimable.

man.

A debt of gratitude which can never be effectually cancelled, is due to the founders of our republic, from all who enjoy the rich inheritance; an inheritance which their valour won and their wisdom has, we devoutly trust, secured. It may be partially repaid only by ne

ver ceasing efforts, to dishonour not the authors of our blood-" to attest that those whom we call fathers did beget us" The devout Mahometan in his daily prayers, is said to turn from every corner of the remotest lands towards the temple of Mecca. So should the grateful American fix his steady eye and constant heart upon the event which rendered this day the brightest of the political year; animated by the spirit, instructed by the precepts, led by the example and faithful to the principles which shone forth on that trying occasion, when the garb of patriotism was to all appearance of the same texture and the same hue with the robe of rebellion-when clouds and darkness bung upon the same narrow steep and thorny path which led to immortal fame or to an ignominious grave-to honour or the scaffold-to liberty or death. During the whole voyage of life, in all its varying latitudes from early infancy to extremest age, this same bright star should guide us, these same ennobling feelings should inspire and animate and purify us. Neither the young nor the old are exempt from the obligation. It calls alike for the exertions of all. While the active performers on the stage devote the best energies of manly maturity to ennoble and exalt their country, they are cheered by the smiles and guided by the instructions of the venerable fathers of the nation. Youth, too, has its no less appropriate office. The young Hannibal before the assembled wisdom of Carthage offered up his vow of unrelenting hatred to the Romans. Let the young American, in better spirit but with the same undoubting zeal, devote himself to the love and service of his native land. In the discharge of this his sacred vow, his earliest and his unceasing efforts must be directed to the promotion of science, without which even freedom itself would be an empty name. It is the best-under the sacred guardianship of heaven, it is the only safe protection of the dignity, the power, the glory, the happiness, the vir tue, and even the existence of the republic. Without it, her institutions are erected on the sand; defenceless from the shocks of ignorance, caprice and passion; with it, they are grounded on the solid rock, and will defy the storms of foreign and domestic strife.

The maxim has grown to be as familiar as it is true, that knowledge is power. The very terms are almost synonymous. Our language derives from the same root the words which imply the strength to execute and the intellect to perceive and learn. Glossarists trace the term king, now serving the title of the possessor of the proudest human rank, to an origin which signifies knowledge, that being the first and surest fountain of authori ty. But the cause we advocate and are endeavouring to sustain, would deserve only half our homage were it the source or the instrument of merely power. Mere power, unenlightened, unrefined, with the strength of angels, may be tainted with the wickedness of demons Science is the companion and the parent of virtue-the antidote and foe of vice. Power, enlightened, purified, refined, is the attribute of God himself. It is in a state of ignorance, that the imagination of man's heart is desperately wicked. Religion and virtue find their way to it when the path is lighted by the lamp of knowledge.

The progress of science may be traced and its charms discerned in a gradual extinction of the evil dispositions, and a corresponding improvement in the finer feelings of our nature, as the understanding is enlightened and the manners are refined. Barbarous nations are without definite notions of property or solicitude for the acquisition of it, and they are thus strangers to a preg nant source of crimes among those which are civilized. Yet they are the victims of internal discord more savage and relentless than that of beast of prey; and of external warfare, fierce, cruel and insatiable. The ancient Saxons and their neighbouring Danes were perpetually involved in ferocious and brutal conflicts. Scarcely less ferocity at one time mingled with the border wars of the English and the Scots. Yet the same blood which, un

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checked in its tumultuous fury, became inflamed to more than madness among them, plunged in ignorance as they were, now flows in gentle currents through the veins of their educated descendants. Conquests of a no bler nature are now the objects of ambition-the brillant and bloodless conquests of mind over matter, and the corresponding triumphs of reason and philosophy over passion, ignorance and vice. Every student should be familiar with the delightful work of Professor Herschel, written not long since expressly to show the advantages of science. Astronomy, chemistry, magnetism, the use of steam, navigation-have all during the present age and at a recent period of it developed resources, and been made productive of results, which at any time heretofore, would have been deemed impracticable or supernatural. Wisdom once employed itself in fruitless searches for the art of divination among conjunctions of the planets, or hoped to manufacture gold by the discovery of the philosopher's stone. That is the true astrology which opens the book of science, and foretels to the fearless mariner his safety on the trackless ocean; which bids him securely leave every fandmark and trust to the unerring guardianship of an Occasionally cloudless sky, and conducts him after months of absence precisely to his wished for home. That is the only alchemy which finds a philosopher's stone in the commonest productions of nature, and with known and simple elements forces matter into changes which Ovid never dreamt of and the fabled Proteus never underwent. What would the wisest of the philosophers of former times have said had he been told that sawdust can be converted into wholesome digestible and nutritious food? that linen rags can produce more than their own weight of sugar? or that a bushel of coal properly consumed can be made to raise a weight of seventy millions of pounds?

that is practically beneficial in the business of lifewhich is to secure to you the companionship and the clegance of Virgil among flock and herds and implements of husbandry-which teaches you to soar with Newton among the stars, or to meditate with the patriarch Isaac at eventide-to unite the learning of the closet with the labours of the field.

Vice

Constant activity and exertion of mind and body are necessary to the wholesome condition and successful employment of each. Man was not born to be idle. Mark the bloated frame of the sluggard, his nerveless arm, his beamless eye. His decrepitude is less pitiable than his vicious appetites are loathsome, which he has still the passion without the power to indulge. Has sloth made less disastrous inroads upon his moral nature? No. Mental idleness is immeasurably more disastrous. The mind cannot be motionless or unproductive if it would. It is insusceptible of a vacuum. and crime grow up in rich and rank luxuriance, if their place be not thickly sown with plants of better growth. All the lessons of nature, of philosophy, and of religion, are opposed to idleness, which according to Spencer, is the nurse of sin, the companion and the fellow slave of gluttony and lust, of envy, avarice and wrath. The earth is fitted to call forth the energies of fallen man. In his first estate he was "to dress it and keep it." But when he lost h's innocence, nature herself was changed. The ground became reluctant, though not rebellious, and he was to till it with labour and moisten its productions with the sweat of his brow. Some of the plants of Paradise still here and there diffuse their fragrance over the bosom of nature, but they are happily no longer of spontaneous growth. Constituted as we are, toil sweetens the perfumes of the fairest flowers and adds flavour to the richest fruit. Sloth has not even present comfort and enjoy ment to recommend it. Natural philosophy is the root of science. Most of It is as odious as it is pernicious; as burdensome and the discoveries useful to mankind are drawn directly oppressive at the moment, as it is disastrous in its refrom it, and all may be regarded as more or less consults. Paradox as it may appear, idleness is the hardest nected with it. The various departments of knowledge work. Every hour of the indefatigable student flies are more nearly allied to each other than a superficial on eagle's wings, while the leaden moments of the idler observer would suppose. A very skilful and sagacious linger in reluctant and oppressive tediousness. Forwriter advises the youthful 1. wyer to prepare himself foreigners sometimes reproach us as incompetent to literthe cross examination of witnesses by a careful study of ary exertion for the want of leisure. There is neither the mathematics. Intellect is necessarily affected and philosophy nor truth in the assertion. We have men of perhaps controlled by the matter which surrounds it. leisure; but they are for the most part like the corresNatural science therefore, which teaches the phenome-ponding class abroad, neither disposed nor habituated na of all that the senses can perceive, and all that can to efforts either of literature or business. A literary be accurately known, leads to an acquain'ance with the lord is a rare production; and when he is to be found operations of the mind itself. How can we direct the he often owes his title to his literature, and not his literhuman will, without a knowledge of the fibres of the ature to his title. Lord Byron indeed, whose literature body by which it acts, without analyzing the air which is not lofty enough to sanctify his bad feelings or bad its possessor breathes, without penetrating into the earth morals, was unexpectedly a lord, and he laid the founhe cultivates, and from which he draws his subsistence dation for his literature before he became one. and his enjoyments; without ascertaining the opportu- the few noble writers of Great Britain, from Lord Banities which he has for the exercise and improvement of con, who was unworthy only in his dignities, to Lord the faculties which we should for ever seek to direct to Brougham, who condescended to accept a title, wear a some useful and efficient end? Grecian learning, with wreath fairer than princely crowns. On the other hand, all its brilliancy, wanted the basis of precision and ac- Sir William Jones and Sir Humphrey Davy, and the curacy, because Grecian scholars were ignorant of the most abundant and delightful writer of the age, Sir philosophy of nature. One wise man thought he had Walter Scott, were all men of business, and attentive settled every thing in science; another believed that in the midst of varied study to their professional and nothing could be settled. Both were wrong, and their official pursuits. The discipline which the mind acmistake arose from the want of an unerring standard to quires in a course of industry qualifies it for the occususpend the premature conclusions of the one and re- pations of science, if it has the taste to enjoy them. All solve the discontented misgivings of the other. Modern the leisure of a hermit will not have the effect, if it has times claim a superiority in discarding most of what is not. Cultivate then this taste which may be properly merely speculative, and holding fast to the useful and directed and chastened and elevated, where it is naturthe true. No period of the wold has been, and no por- al, and may even be acquired where it is not. tion of it can be more propitious than ours to the culti Youth is the season for acquirement-not merely for vation of what is thus peculiarly valuable and instruc- the acquisition of habits of taste, study, reflection, ge tive. It suits the simplicity of our manners, and harmo-nerosity of sentiment, energy in action, kindness of mizes with our tastes and favourite pursuits, and with the circumstances in which we are placed. You are especially in possession of the advantages, connected as you are with an institution which combines instruction in all that is lofty and sublime in the theory, with all

But

feeling, and all that is calculated to ennoble and purify
the moral character; but of solid and beneficial know-
ledge. I do not mean to urge this position, because of
the importance of fixing early habits of industry and
application; or of the more numerous and co dicting

*

duties of after life; or of the solemn truth that the are, a comprehensive system of elementary education is hopes of the young like the disappointments of the old, calculated to bring them into obvious relief, and to afare not exempt from the ability which awaits every ford opportunities for a wise selection with a prospect thing human, of being terminated by the stroke of of honorable proficiency and ultimate success. Yet the death. All these are inducements of unquestionable time must come when the broad and beaten road of gestrength. But beyond them all as an argument from neral knowledge diverges into various narrow paths. expediency is the fact, that the capacity for learning is Among them a selection must be made of the one which the liveliest and the strongest and the most active is to lead to eminence. Happily all are honourable and among the young. Granting a superiority of judgment meritorious. A choice is to be influenced less by the to the mind that is matured by experience and enriched abstract nature of the duty which is to ensue, than by with knowledge, that which is fresh in years is the best the temper and qualities of the mind and body of him adapted to acquirement. I will not pause to consider who is about to choose. Each has its responsibilities; whether it proceed solely from the vivacity of youth, and where can the lot of man be cast without them? its ardour in the pursuit and unmingled delight in the Each has its enjoyments in possession or in prospect, enjoyment of the objects of its choice; or whether and each has its troubles and its cares. these qualities are materially aided by the absence of In a country where church and state are disconnect. other cares, and the means of giving a devotion without ed, nothing can be more free from every sordid and restraint to what it would learn. But it is the floodtide selfish consideration than the motives which lead the of opportunity which cannot without irreparable loss minister of the gospel to his holy calling. They are be permitted to pass away. The first word in the sol for the most part a pledge for the purity of his life and dier's vocabulary is attention; and it should be inscribed the fidelity of his exertions. Few and lowly are the on every page of the scholar's manual. It is the war- earthly honours that invite his choice or reward his rant of fidelity and exactitude in every pursuit. It is sacrifices. He needs no recorded vow of perpetual the surest aid to prompt as well as extensive acquisi-poverty. While a broad line separates him from power, tion, the secret spring of genius itself It is at least the political consequence, and worldly pleasure, an adegenerous and steady contributor to the memory, if it be not another word for the memory itself, which according to Cicero, is a universal treasury. Why do the old so frequently complain that they can remember events of distant occurrence while they readily forget those of recent date? Because the faculty for acquire ment slumbers, because the vigour for attention has passed away. Why does technical assistance, or the recurrence at the moment of study to analogous objects, fix the particular matter more deeply in the mind? Because the attention is thus rivetted to it by a double effort. Early impressions, made when the senses are acute and unimpaired, and when curiosity is wide awake without a prompter, are not effaced by the lapse of years. They sink deep into the mind, and like letters carved on marble, last until the substance which receives them is destroyed. Late impressions, if such they can be called, which are made through the imperfect attention of feeble and decaying faculties, are like marks upon the yielding sand which the succeeding wave washes away. Memory may remain to the last stage of life, but the agent that should thus minister to its supplies, having lost its energy, the treasure intended for preservation is consigned to instant and irremediable oblivion. Seize the propitious moment, which is always the present one. Procrastination is the thief of duty as well as time; and time, if not a friend, is the most unrelenting and inexorable foe. His rapid journey is delayed at no resting place; his eye never closes, his wing never droops, his arm never tires, his scythe is as insatiable as the grave

quate supply for temporal wants is all that his profes sion can afford him; subsistence is often earned by rigid self-denial, and sometimes his frugal meals are made upon the bread of tears. Sustained by the consciousness of doing good, and contented in the absence of all that glitters upon the mere surface of human existence, while others run the race of life for a corruptible crown, he literally seeks one that is incorruptible.

Scarcely less benevolent are the motives, although more productive of pecuniary benefit, are the exertions of the physician. A guardian angel of the sick, he is often able to pour the balm of consolation into the wounds of the afflicted. In his study and his practice nature unlocks to him her varied stores, and art becomes his willing tributary. All the best feelings of the mind and heart are called forth into active exercise. Is he a philosopher? there is no limit to the expanded field of speculation and discovery which is presented to him. Is he a philanthopist? there is no end of his power and opportunity of affording relief to suffering humanity. Crowns and mitres are of no value to the aching head, Swords and sceptres becomes impotent in the palsied hand. The minister of health removes from the brow the heaviest load of care, strengthens the arm of impotency, and makes

"The flinty and steel couch, A thrice driven bed of down."

If activity and enterprise are better suited to the temper than a life of study and comparative retirement, commerce presents her never ceasing charms. No For beauty, wit, corner of the great globe is inaccessible to her visits. She gratifies the most ardent curiosity by an intercourse High birth, vigour of bone, desert in service, and immediate alliance with the remotest climes. To Love, friendship, charity, are subjects all the enterprising she affords the widest scope for un To envious and calumniating time. tiring activity; to the generous she furnishes the readiWere it necessary for the present purpose, it could est and most abundant means for the exercise of liber be demonstrated that youth is scarcely less qualfied ality. Stores of wealth are accumulated by the skill for bold exploits than for untiring study. Many are the and industry of the merchant. But he feels himself to examples from Alexander of Macedonia to Napoleon be rather the faithful steward who is to distribute them, Bonaparte of early greatness. There are not a few than the avaracious master who is to hoard them during where it has been succeeded by comparative feebleness life, or to commit them in a course of unnatural primo in middle life. But the instances are rare of capacity geniture to the perils of profligacy and vicious expenin age engrafted upon slothfulness and imbecility in ditures, when he can no longer dispense or enjoy them. earlier years. In a country like our own, where pomp has no paraIn pursuing a course of honorable and useful instruc- sites and riches alone cannot secure esteem, the virtues tion, a broad basis must be laid in attainments of univer- of the liberal merchant are especially conspicuous. Of sal value. The disposition and the talent for a particular pursuit may not soon be developed, and until they

* "Quid dicam de thesauro rerum omnium, memoria? Cic. de Orat. lib. 1, 19.

what avail are boundless treasures to himself, if they cannot purchase for him a coronet or seat him in a palace? How inestimable is their value when they are devoted to the embellishment and honour of his coun try! The munificence of the De Medici towards the

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city of Florence, has been emulated in a course of ge-
nerous rivalship among ourselves. In one city the ac-
quisitions of commerce are directed during the life of
their proprietor with judicious kindness to the cultiva
tion of literature, or to open the eyes of the blind. In
another they are poured forth in posthumus profusion
in various channels, to embellish, to instruct, and to
improve. Where shall we look for a parallel to the
prudence and care in the acquisition of wealth, or the
disinterested liberality in the distribution of it, which
have been exhibited in the recent instance of Stephen
Girard? His laborious life of never changing fidelity,
teaches a striking lesson how wealth the most extensive
may be acquired. His devotion of more than six millions
to the benefit of his fellow citizens, and of that a large
portion directly to the purposes of education, furnishes
a bright example how it should be bestowed.

tion is valuable, to some of them it is indispensable. Besides these, other occupations are presented to the ambitious scholar for which the course of instruction here adopted will eminently qualify him. Every part of this great continent seems destined to become the theatre of improvements, which in many places are already far advanced in their progress, and at periods more or less remote, will embrace the whole. Agriculture is promoted among us to the rank of a science. Roads and canals are intersecting various portions of the land; connecting distant waters, and penetrating the bosoms or ascending the summits of the proudest mountains. The rapid and universal advancement of an enlightened age requires that the prolific earth should be made to yield its rich resources, and that all the elements should be brought into contribution to facilitate and give effect to the labours of mankind. Already have stores been unlocked which preceding ages had not ventured to explore. Art has revoked the decrees of nature in annihilating distances which she had made extreme. In the furtherance of these gigantic objects, a large supply of talent and science will always be required throughout the land. But it is especially in this portion of it that the qualities referred to will find their home. A territory of more than twenty. seven millions of acres is to be compressed into the narrowest limits, as respects the ready interchange of productions and the mutual access and intercourse of its inhabitants; while its broad surface as to its productiveness under the effect of cultivation, and its capacious bosom as a rich, various and extensive repository, must be boundless as the firmament. Without detracting from the merits of her sister commonwealths, Pennsylvania claims to possess an unsurpassed combina tion of resources and advantages. Her noble rivers, luxuriant soil, unmeasured mines, and vigorous, hardy, practical and industrious population, may challenge as a whole the competition of the fairest of her sisterhood. Every material which is necessary to the moral greatness of man is found in abundance within her bowels. Gold and silver alone are rare. Nor will she lament their scarcity or envy the possession of them in greater extent by her neighbours. When Crasus, king of Lydia, had displayed to the Athenian lawgiver his shining horde of gold, and hoped that it had excited the admition of the philosopher, he was himself astonished at the suggestion that all of it might become the ready prey of those who had iron to conquer it. This is truly the precious metal, whose use contributes most to human happiness and strength-the material of the plough share and the pruning hook, of the ax, the anvil, and the steam engine.

Who can feel the charms of nature, or that knows
the value and the bliss of domestic peace, is insensible
to the invitations of a country life? There, the ruder
passions are softened, and the more restless ones are
tranquilized and subdued. Labour gives flavour to
the frugal meal and secures repose to the toil worn
limbs. If the sphere of action be more limited, that of
contemplation is more extensive. If the opportunities
for shining actions are not so frequent and various, the
temptations to those of an opposite character are less
abundant. Yet a life of retirement would be altogether
uncongenial to him whose resources within himself are
not a substitute for society. A mind disciplined by
deep reflection, a body invigorated by toil, may qualify
their possessor for the most difficult and responsible
employments, and for stations the most dignified and
exalted. The ancients would have peopled with spirit-
ual instructors the shady grove. They would have im-
puted to an intercourse with its tutelar inhabitants,
the knowledge and wisdom which solitude and study
are competent to confer. They would have sought a
sovereign or a general at the door of his cottage, or at
the tail of the plough; and they would have justified
their choice in the wisdom of a Numa, and the valour of
a Cincinnatus.

At every period of civil society when the smallest in-
gredient of freedom has entered into the composition
of the government, the public interests have been close
ly united to the profession of the law. Judging by the
numbers that throng the path, it is the most attractive
to the young aspirant for fame. Little, however, do
they who regard at a distance, know the thorns with
which its steep ascent abounds. Labour and respon-
sibility attend its every footstep; and when at last its
giddiest heights are gained, few and fortunate are the
travellers who even there can find repose. Yet its la-
bours are not inelegant, nor its duties barren in results
grateful to the generous mind. Oppression may be
burdensome in the extreme, and tyranny may be com-
plicated beyond endurance, if the oppressed are left to
seek relief by their own unassisted appeals to justice.
Many are ignorant of their rights, more are unable to
command the time and the means which are required to
assert them. Poverty may be crushed by the "oppres-
sor's wrongs" suffering virtue may be unprotected
from "the proud man's contumely"-innocence may
sink under the rebuke and “insolence of office." To
wipe the tear from the widow's and the orphan's eye;
to shield the weak from the blow of proud oppression;
and to vindicate from all abuse the majesty and the pu
rity of justice, are the duty and the delight of the
virtuous lawyer. And oh! how awful, how almost more
than human are the powers committed to his charge,
if he assume the office of a judge or a seat in the coun-
cils of his country. The issues of life and death depend
upon his nod; a nation's fate may hang upon his lips.
If ignorance or indolence debase his mind, or caprice
or passion sway his judgment, the magnitude of his
power is equalled by the extremity of his crime.

To all these professions and pursuits a liberal educa

It is the pride and privilege of Pennsylvania that she can fasten the bonds of union which connect the different members of this great republic together, by pouring her inexhaustible resources into the lap of each, and by receiving in her turn the supplies of her adventurous and persevering fellow labourers of the north, and the generous products of the fertile south. In situation and in strength she will delight to continue the key stone of the vast political arch as long as it shall rest upon the foundations of freedom and virtue, and while each particular section remains true to its position and firm in its hold. And if, in an evil hour, the schemes of ill directed ambition shall prevail, and this fair frame of government shall be destroyed, she will rise in unassisted strength, and standing in reluctant though secure reliance upon her own resources, she will mourn over the glittering fragments that are scattered around her.

In a comprehensive scheme of education, every source of moral and intellectual culture must be resorted to. Were precept alone sufficient to regulate the conduct and inform the understanding, all would be good and wise. Writings under the influence of divine inspiration and human intelligence are full of lessons which, if carefully learned and faithfully applied to the actions of men, are sufficient to guard against error and pre

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