dation of the Christian moral system-as supernatural, sublime, and glorious as the miracles by which it was attested and established.

While, then, we are to love ourselves, our relatives, and our countrymen, and to seek our own good and theirs, we must cultivate a higher, nobler, and more divine virtue—the godlike virtue of philanthropy. With one of the best of Roman philosophers we will say, Homo sum et nihil alienum puto quod humanum est; or, rather, with Paul, "Do good to all men as we have opportunity, especially to the household of faith."

But to give a proper direction to our minds and efforts in the cause of humanity, we must ask ourselves, What is man, and what the love of man? And what is man? A vegetative being? An animal? A soulless, spiritless, perishable entity? Or an intellectual, moral, spiritual being? An emanation, an impress, an image of Divinity,desiring, longing, panting for immortality and his native heaven? Look at the heavens and their shining hosts; the earth, the sea, and their countless tenantry. They will all pass away. The sun will grow old-the moon will wane to wax no more-the starry hosts will grow dim with years—all we see, but man himself, must pass away. He alone, of all things visible, shall live forever

"He will flourish in immortal youth

Uunhurt amidst the wreck of matter
And the crush of worlds."

In all this there is no freak of imagination-no poetic exaggeration. It does not equal, much less transcend, the theme. Mair now, even in his ruins, is yet the noblest work of God-certainly by far the noblest work of God that he either knows or can now know. To redeem, to enlighten, raise, and ennoble him, is only to make him what he was-a bright image of Divinity—the brightest and the best of created beings within the cognizance of time and sense. The best material to work upon for the moral artist, to promote his own glory, God's honor, and man's felicity, is to take out of the dilapidated quarry of human nature a block of this immortal marble, and to form, beautify, and adorn it, by developing its own inherent excellencies, and polishing it by the intellectual, moral, and spiritual instruments and means furnished us from the cabinet of heaven under the direction and aid of the Spirit of wisdom and revelation.

The earth, indeed, and the appurtenances thereunto belonging, is but one grand human manufactory. To create, develope, mature, and perfect man, is but the ultimate end-the final cause of this mundane system.

The hosts of heaven that irradiate and beautify the earth, are but the lamps that cheer and the fire that warms this portico of life, and makes comfortable and joyful the nursery of man. The ocean, with all its seas, and lakes, and rivers, are but the basons and reservoirs that supply the chambers and baths of the great house that God himself built for man's minority. The rugged and lofty mountains, the verdant and fruitful hills, with the deep, and wide, and luxuriant vallies, are but the treasure-houses, pleasure grounds, and gardens allotted to man for exercise, healthful labor, ingenious, useful, and tasteful toil, during his boyhood and scholastic days; but all these for the intellectual, and moral, and spiritual development of man as a being predestined to live forever.

Whosoever, then, would fill up the grand outlines of his glorious destiny in such a universe as this, under its present remedial administration, in the hands of its liege Heir and Lord, must contemplate himself in the broad, and lofty, and magnificent dimensions of his eternal well-being as a son of God and an heir of immortality.

Such, however, is the present constitution of society, and such the conditions of human existence, that, in the number, variety, and complexity of our relations, our wants and dependencies on one another, there is enough healthfully and happily to busy and employ the whole human race, without a single drone in the hive of humanity, in supporting and protecting the weak, in raising the fallen, in alleviating and consoling the afflicted, in educating the ignorant, in ministering to the innumerable wants of the great family of man, scattered as they are, and alienated withal, by the very causes of their dispersion, over all the varieties of soil, climate, and habitation, which continents and oceans, islands and seas, mountains and valleys, latitude and longitude could create and continue.

To be wise in purpose, successful in enterprize, and happy in execution, we must then, young gentlemen, take the world as we find it; and wherever in time, place, or circumstance, we happen to find ourselves, by the disposal of Him who gave us being, employ ourselves in the highest scale of usefulness which our birth, education, and circumstances will allow, and an enlightened and well educated conscience will both enforce and approve.

We must ever keep our whole existence and the whole universe in our moral horizon. If we fix our minds on any fraction of it we will mistake the whole. We would laugh or weep, as the case might be, at him who would build a palace on the ice, or found a city on the crater of a burning mountain. We might ridicule him who launches out into wild and fantastic schemes which a millena

rian's years would not have leisure for. Yet, perhaps, as foolish and as inconsistent ourselves-nay, certainly as much at fault, should we act like one whose enterprize and hopes are bounded by his paternal fields, amidst his native hills or plains, and whose sole philosophy of life is summarily comprehended in three grand categories "What shall I eat, what shall I drink, and wherewithal shall I be clothed?" A bat, a bee, or a butterfly acts much more in harmony with its own philosophy and destiny than such an educated clown, though covered with parchments inscribed with collegiate honors from neck to heel.

Education is development, mental expansion, mental culture, and mental direction. It expands the mind over worlds various, and vast, and innumerable; but directs it only and supremely in the proper path of its own destiny. We must again repeat our favorite motto: No man can rationally, virtuously, or religiously live for himself. The universe has need of him-has full as much interest in him as he has in the universe. It follows, then, that just as certain as he fails in his duties to that universe, it will fail in every branch and department of its revenues to him. As in the heavens planets serve their suns, if not in the same way, as much in another way as suns serve them; so man imparts to man and to kindred spirits every where what they impart to him; but in this case the necessity is moral, while in the other it is purely and wholly physical and conservative. All rational happiness consists full as much in imparting as in receiving benefits; nay, indeed, much more. So true it is that "it is much more blessed to give than to receive.”— Hence God is supremely, infinitely, and eternally happy, because he imparts to all; and, in the sense in which he gives, receives from

none.

I am not, young gentlemen, on this occasion, disposed, nor would it be expedient, to direct you in the choice of a particular profession. The world needs many offices, and therefore there are great diversities of talents, tastes, and education. But to whatever calling you devote your lives, your education not merely qualifies you less or more for that particular pursuit, but also gives you a general power and privilege of promoting human happiness to a degree to which, without it, whatever other means you might possess, you could never aspire. Your greatest and best fortune, I care not what else yon may possess, is your education. It imparts to you a power which wealth cannot give, and of which poverty can never divest you. It gives you an influence, an authority, a power which neither family nor fortune could bestow.

But do you ask, what are you to do with your learning-what use are you to make of your education? I presume you are not to lay it upon the shelf with your Greek and Roman classics, and there to let it mould, or rust, or evaporate in the inverse ratio of the number of the years which you have spent in acquiring it. None of you dream of doing this-none of you think of such an ignoble prodigality; yet remember that many have dɔne so who no more intended it than any one of you. To avoid a temptation to do this, you must think of what the world expects from you-what you could do to serve it—and immediately set about doing it.

Do not think that there is not room for you-a work or a reward for you. The world needs all the service you can render it, and will, more or less, reward you for all you do worthy of yourself and of it. You often hear young men complain that every place is full; that while offices are units, applicants are tens and aspirants are hundreds. True, indeed, we are not likely soon to have to complain that we cannot find a candidate for the Presidency, the Senate, or the Legislative Halls of the nation. But these are not the only offices or places of public service, of trust, or of honor. They are more than can be numbered. We yet need an immense multitude of educated men. The candidates are not here as ters to units, but as units to hundreds, or thousands compared with the wants of society. We need a hundred truly educated men for one. There are but very few upon the shelf at present; and those few that are there had, for the most part, better be placed under the hammer and knocked off to the highest bidder. Then we should endeavor to

get up a better article.

You understand me, no doubt, to indicate the idea that we must have self-educated men, and that you are now only prepared to become your own tutors. You can now act, and you must act, both preceptor and pupil. Collegiate education can go no farthernever yet went farther than to qualify a man to teach himself. Like an apprenticed youth when he lifts his indentures, you have merely acquired the use of the tools of literature, science, and art. To-day you are enrolled amongst the Bachelors of Arts. Before your espousals with literature and science you may have a courtship of several years, and even then you will not be old bachelors. Still I confess I am in favor of early marriages, provided only they are equally and suitably consummated.

Be not alarmed, gentlemen, about places. Say not that electricity and steam will rule the world and vacate the wants of society; or that no new discoveries are yet wanting to raise man to the

highest niche he was ordained to fill. In my opinion, neither Galvanism nor Mesmerism, neither Owenism nor Fourierism, neither Homopathy nor Alliopathy, neither rail roads nor electric telegraphs, will regenerate the world or save mankind from ignorance and crime, from disease and poverty. The terra incognita is yet very large. This may yet be regarded comparatively as a dark age; compared not with the past, but with the future. For my own part, though so much enlightened compared with past ages, I must regard the present age as dark in my anticipations of the future.

The proportion between educated and uneducated mind is yet really alarming. I fear the responsibility of taking upon me either to estimate it to express an opinion on the subject. I will, therefore, shield myself, at least in part, from all unfavorable suspicions, by selecting, next to our own, of course, the most enlightened nation in the world, and give you the opinion of her attainments, expressed by one of her most popular, useful, and laborious sons, very generally known to our fellow-citizens; with whom in my late tour I formed a very favorable acquaintance, and of whom I have long cherished a very high opinion. Let us, have what Dr. Dick says of his own Scotland; and, if you please, what the late Frederick, king of Prussia, said of any of the most enlightened nations on the European continent:—

"There is, perhaps, no country in the world where the body of the people are better educated and more intelligent than in North Britain; yet we need not go far, either in the city or in the country, to be convinced that the most absurd and superstitious notions, and the grossest ignorance respecting many important subjects intimately connected with human happiness, still prevail among the great majority of the population. Of two millions of inhabitants which constitute the population of the northern part of our island, there are not, perhaps, twenty thousand, or the hundredth part of the whole, whose knowledge extends to any subject of importance beyond the range of their daily avocations. With respect to the remaining 1,800,000, it may, perhaps, be said with propriety, that, of the figure and magnitude of the world they live in-of the seas. and rivers, continents and islands, which diversify its surface, and of the various tribes of men and animals by which it is inhabited—of the nature and properties of the atmosphere which surrounds it—of the discoveries which have been made respecting, light, heat, elec-. tricity, and magnetism—of the general laws which regulate the economy of nature of the various combinations and effects of chemical and mechanical powers of the motions and magnitudes.