Address delivered before the American Whig and Cliosophic societies of the College of New Jersey

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ADDRESS

DELIVERED BEFORE THE

MERICAN WHIG AND CLIOSOPHIC SOCIETIES

OF THE

COLLEGE OF NEW JERSEY.

JUNE 24th, 1849.

By the Hon. JOHN THOMSON MASON.

PRINCETON :

PUI55TID BY JOHN T. ROBINSON.

1850.

Extract from the Minutes of the Cliosophic Society.

Resolved, That a Committee be appointed to request of J. Thomson

Mason, Esq., for publication, a copy of the address delivered by him before

the American Whig and Cliosophic Societies, upon Tuesday, June 26, 1849.

By order of the Society.

Extract from the Minutes of the American Whig Society.
Resolved, That a committee be appointed to return suitable thanks to the
Hon. J. Thomson Mason, for ihe able and eloquent address delivered by
him before the Cliosophic and American Whig Societies, on Tuesday, June
26, 1840 ; and also to request a copy for publication.

R. S. FIELD, Esq., )

T. GEORGE WALL. ( Committee.

JOHN JOHNS, Jr. $

ADDRESS.

But a few years have elapsed since my connection as
a student with this institution ; yet when my mind re-
verts from the present scene to the period when I first
entered College, a timid inexperienced youth, an exile
from home and all its joys; when I remember how I
shrank from a participation in the new scenes which
were about to surround me, and from an intercourse
with my future unknown companions; while on the
other hand, I am now enjoying the thrill of pleasure
which the memory of those very scenes and those very
companions inspires ; — I can hardly realize that the boy
whose happiness was to be seen only in the future, in a
restoration to the pleasures of his home, is identical with
the man whose chief joys are to be found in the memory
of the past, iu the recollection of college days, and all
the delightful associations that cluster around that period
of his life.

It will prove, my young friends, I fear, a fruitless under-
taking, to attempt to impress your minds in any adequate
degree with the true character of the results which
follow the transition from the state of youth and tutelage
to that of manhood and independence. During our
connection with college, we are taught by others, and
can rely with confidence upon the skill and wisdom of
our preceptors in the instructions they impart. When
we enter upon the world as men, wTe become our own

teachers, and must depend upon ourselves for the course
we are to pursue. Indeed, at this period, self-reliance
is regarded not only as a duty, but also as a privilege,
and we view with impatience and displeasure any
attempt to continue a system of restraint. Experience
becomes the fountain from which we draw our lessons
of wisdom.

Whatever may have been our previous advantages,
and however assiduously and successfully we may have
employed them, a knowledge of the world, of the
motives which influence mankind in their intercourse
with each other, the proper appreciation of human
character, must mainly, if not exclusively, be acquired
by experience.

When the young man commences life and finds
himself, for the first time, thrown upon his own re-
sources, amid the dangers, temptations and tempests,
.vhich all have to encounter to a greater or less degree,
if he can realize that he is supported by sound moral
and Christian principles, and that he has acquired the
power of thought, of mental concentration, of drawing
correct conclusions from ascertained facts, he has
secured all the benefits, all the assistance, that education
can bestow upon him. The soil is then fertilized and
tilled, ready to receive the seeds of experience. The
canvass is prepared to retain the touches from the pencil
of nature's great artist.

You are, my young friends, about to take this impor-
tant step ; about to end your academic career, and at
once to enter, as men and citizens, upon the great drama
of human life ; and you may regard yourselves happy
indeed, if you are sensible of the true and profound
nature of the change which must and will immediately
take place in all your habits, pursuits and feelings.

Although the very general opinion, that boyhood and
youth are almost the only seasons of happiness in this
life, is erroneous, yet there are joys and pleasures of the
most exquisite and refined nature, which are peculiar to
those periods, and which we part with forever when we
assume the more dignified offices of manhood. You
will hardly have left this peaceful abode before you will
fully discover, that in addition to the other ties which
bin 1 you to your Alma Mater, you will be attached to it
by the recollection, that many a departed hope and joy
of your youthful hours lies buried there; and as fond
parents revisit the tomb of their offspring, and bathe the
cold marble with their tears, so, my young friends, in
after life, when disappointment has been experienced,
when ambition has seduced you, when friends have
proved false, and when even the sweet consolations of
hope are gone, your heart will turn back to your college
life, to the play days of your early years, to the bright-
visions and romantic dreams when life was new and
hope was high, to find a refuge for a stricken heart in
the memory of bygone days and cherished companions:

"To view the fairy haunts of long lost hours,
Blest with far greener shades, tar fresher flowers."

These pleasures of your youth are hereafter to be enjoy-
ed only in memory. The hour has arrived for many to
take their final leave of each other. The ties which
have so long encircled you, are perhaps to be severed
forever. The voices which have so often enlivened
these halls with shouts of youthful merriment, will be
heard no more. The warm, cordial, unaffected grasp of
friendship has been felt for the last time. Gone, forever
gone, are the companions and scenes of your college life.
It is a lesson of religion, in the truth of which we all
acquiesce, that man's life upon this earth is designed by

his Creator as a mere state of preparation for an existence
beyond the grave : and thus, in this elevated point of
view, it may properly be said that our course of educa-
tion commences with our birth, and ends only with our
death; the acquisition of wisdom being the great object
of human life. But the term education, as we propose
to employ it on the present occasion, is designed to be
understood in its popular sense, and to have reference
exclusively to the period of our academic and collegiate
course.

The great and leading design of education, as has
already been intimated, is but a preparation of the mind
for the reception and synthesis of facts drawn from
reading and experience, out of which stores of wisd.un
are to be accumulated. Every youthful student re-
members the feelings of impatience with which he
entered upon the study of the dry, abstruse principles of
a science to which he never in after life expected to
refer. He could not comprehend why the acquisition of
what he termed useful information was to be postponed
for the theories of some dull and useless art ; why he
should plod over a conic section, or a satire of Juvenal,
when his time could be so much more profitably em-
ployed in immediate preparation for the pulpit, the bar,
the counting house, or whatever other pursuit he might
intend to follow. Nor is this error confined to the youth
and the student. Parents, impatient to see the early
fruits of education developed in their children, hurry
them on in their studies, regardless whether they have
laid any enduring foundation upon which to rest their
future acquisitions. As well might the husbandman
ask, Why am I to spend my time and exhaust my
strength in laborious efforts to furrow the soil and prep ire
it for the seed ? While I am thus engaged, would not

the seed sown upon the ungenial surface be germinating
and maturing ? It is one of the greatest popular errors
of the age, that we are to measure the fruits of a colle-
giate education by the amount of crude facts which a
student is able to collect during his academic career.
No inquiry is made as to what disposition the mind can
make of these facts, after they have been thus acquired.
Is it capable of analyzing or systematizing them ? has it
the power of building intellectual edifices out of this
unshapen material ? I have known young men to
graduate from this and other institutions, carrying with
them the highest honours of their class, yet liable to the
taunts of those who sneer at this system of mental
discipline, because, perhaps, they were ignorant of that
shallow historical and literary gossip which a month's
intercourse with the frivolous circles of fashion would
enable any one easily to attain. During our passage
through college we observe, that while some of our
associates are toiling over the dull and severe studies of
their class, others are devoting their time and attention
to the pages of fascinating history, and the works of light
literature, romance and poetry. At the end of their
collegiate course, the latter are denominated gentlemen
of accomplished education, while the former are re-
garded as mere plodders, who have passed their time in
unprofitable labor. We do not by any means condemn
the study of history or of lighter literature at proper
times and on fit occasions ; nor do we contend that the
ends of education have been wholly accomplished by a
thorough disciplining of the mind. " This ought you
to have done, and not to leave the other undone." The
expressive language of scripture, a part of which I have
just cited, is as applicable to the obligations of the
student, as it is to those of the Christian. Severn

10

mental discipline is to the student what "the law,
judgment, mercy and faith" are to the Christian, while
we may well class the practice of cursory reading in the
one with what "mint, anise and cummin" are to the
other. This system of mental training in a high degree
invigorates the power of concentration, of fixing the
attention, which is a noble faculty of the mind ; it excites
the power of discrimination, ripens the judgment,
quickens the apprehension, gives activity and acuteness
to the understanding, while at the same time it brings
all its powers into complete discipline. Without this
solid foundation, how slender are all our future super-
structures ; without this mental culture, how meager
are our future intellectual products ! We may justly
compare the mind of a youth thus well trained, to the
fertile, well prepared fallow field, which presents to the
eye of the casual observer an unseemly appearance of
barrenness and desolation. On the other hand, the
intellect which has been decked and ornamented by the
flowers of light reading, is like the untilled field, which,
undisturbed by the coulter and the share, under the
influences of the genial sun and refreshing showers of
early spring, is covered with verdure and adorned with
bright but short-lived flowers. Seed sown upon the one,
which by culture has within its bosom the elements of
fertility and life, germinate, shoot and mature, and in
the autumnal season yield an abundant harvest. The
other soon surrenders its rich dress to the influences of
a burning; sun, and long: ere the summer months have
passed, its early promise of fruit has faded. Seed, thus
sown, " when the sun is up are scorched, and because
they had not root they wither away." The effect of
time, that great and severe test of all things, is the same
upon the human mind ; and unless we stand firm upon

11

this vantage ground, the difficulties with which we
shall have to contend in our future intellectual pursuits
will be incalculable. Without this buckler we must at
some time falter, if we do not fall. How many naturally
brilliant intellects have been ruined, through a disregard
of this principle of education, and by vicious early
instruction ! How ea>ily does this error lead the young
mind into careless habits of thought, whioh cannot be
laid aside, and which utterly incapacitate it forever
afterwards for mental labour.

When the mind has thus been brought into complete
subjection, the recitation rooms and lecture halls have
performed their high functions. All has been done for
the youthful mind that parental solicitude or exorbitant
public sentiment could demand. At this epoch, your
destiny must be committed to your own keeping.
Unavailing, however, indeed will the efforts of your
instructors prove, if you place your main reliance for
success in after life upon what they have done for you,
regardless of the obligations which society and religion
impose, to redouble your exertions to reach the heights
of fame and usefulness. The work of endeavouring to
attain human perfection, which should be the great end
and aim of man's existence, must be resumed by your-
selves where your preceptors have left off; and unaided
by their assiduous attentions, wise counsels, and erudite
instructions, you must go on in this noble and upward
enterprise.

The simile which I have already employed to illustrate
my view of the subject may be carried still further. It
is not enough that you prepare the soil for the seed.
Although the most diligent and laborious efforts may
have been used for that purpose, and although the earth
may invite by its richness the husbandman's notice, yet

12

all this will be unavailing unless the seed be afterwards
actually sown and assiduously cultivated. It is one
thing to train the budding faculties of the mind for severe
exertion, and another to store it with useful information.
For the one we mainly depend upon tutors and schools,
for the other we must rely exclusively upon ourselves.
Education in our schools and colleges is but the means
for -acquiring knowledge ; the information, which we
subsequently gather, when stored in a well arranged
mind, is knowledge itself:

" He cannot be a perfect man,
Not being tried and tutor'd in the world.
E\p?rience is by industry achieved
Aud perfected by the swift course of time."

While education is thus expending its energies upon
the mind, another and a more delicate and important
field is opened for its operations, in the moral and
religions culture of the student. And here we may
remark is a duty imposed upon education which at once
involves all the most sacred responsibilities which attach
to the parent, the teacher and the pastor, on the one
hand, and the son, the student and the Christian, on the
other. All the illustrations, all the figures which could
be invoked, for the purpose of representing conditions of
weakness, of helplessness, of destitution, of insufficiency
for accomplishing any noble enterprise, would prove
inadequate to give an idea of the futility of man
without morality and religion. A vessel at sea without
a rudder; a house built upon the sand ; a tree without
a root; the trembling dew drop, glittering in the rays of
the rising sun ; the fleeting glories of the butterfly, are
common- place but strong illustrations; they are too
feeble, however, to convey the idea of a man " having no
hope, and without God in the world."

The first and great field, then, of education is the

13

heart, the second is the mind ; and these are so indisso-
lubly connected, that in cultivating the one, you almost
necessarily improve the other. Good moral training
strengthens the mind, and all truths in science, in
history, in nature and experience,when viewed in connec-
tion with the great Author from whom they emanate,
are eminently calculated to develope and to elevate the
religious and moral tendencies of our nature. An
opposite doctrine, I am aware, has been impiously
advocated. But would it not be deemed out of place and
supererogatory at this enlightened period of the world,
and upon this hallowed spot, so often sanctified by the
embrace of Science and Religion, to attempt an argument
against the opinion that there is often to be found a
conflict between the doctrines revealed in the word of
God, and the discoveries of science? What would be
thought of the bold and reckless adventurer against
truth, who would attempt at this day to array the
discoveries of Copernicus, or Newton, or La Place, or
Davy, or Franklin, or Fulton, or Morse, or Henry, in an
attitude hostile to the great truths of revelation? Who
are these men whose intellects have thrown such a flood
of light upon subjects which hitherto had remained in
impenetrable darkness, and revealed to common minds
principles which before were wrapped in mystery?
They are the creatures of Him, whose great and sublime
code of moral law is said to be shaken and often dis-
membered by their discoveries and expositions of the
laws and principles of that nature, which like themselves
emanates from the one Great Source of power and
harmony. Every flash of their genius, every effort of
their mind, every scintillation of their brain, is but
the pulsation of the Great Heart of Nature, which is
God himself, the mere result of his will. And yet we

14

are called upon to believe either that the Bible is a
fiction, the work of man's invention ; or the absurdity
that God has endowed certain created beings with
transcendent intellects, as compared with their fellow-
men, merely for the purpose of exposing his own folly
and weakness, and that he was capable of creating men
with minds sufficiently powerful to discover discrepan-
cies between revelation and the works of nature which
He himself was not wise enough to detect or able to
remedy.

Infidelity may yet furnish some advocates of a doc-
trine so monstrous, absurd, and impious; but whoever
sets out with the view of investigating truth, and calls
to his aid the lights of revealed religion for that purpose,
cannot fail to discover the most harmonious connection
between scriptural Christianity and the principles of
natural science. Indeed one of the most ennobling and
improving pursuits that can occupy the attention of an
intellectual being is that of tracing the analogy and
harmony between nature and Revelation. Instead of
promoting infidelity, nothing is so well adapted to the
expansion and elevation of our moral and religious
faculties. And besides the religious improvement which
is wrought through the agency of this exercise, it is a
study, when viewed as a mere means of mental im-
provement, as a mere sharpener of the intellect, which
has not, perhaps its equal in the whole catalogue of
sciences. For example, what a mental gymnasium is
afforded by reading the works of Augustine, Chilling-
worth, Locke, Tillotson, Jeremy Taylor, Butler, Ed-
wards, and other like towering spirits. When you have
done with such a study, you will not only experience a
great moral and religious improvement, and find that
you have been drawn nearer to your God, and are already

15

in a condition to taste and appreciate the joys which
only begin where this life ends; but you will find also
that all the faculties of the mind, many of them hereto-
fore dormant or torpid, have been expanded, strengthened
and drawn into full action. If I might be permitted to
degrade this subject, by invoking for it the base and
selfish motives of personal interest, I could with truth
rest an argument in favour of moral culture upon this
ground alone. In addition to the general elevation of
our nature, a man finds a reward for a moral and religious
life, in the success which generally attends all his
worldly occupations. Success in life mostly depends
upon confidence, and confidence is mainly the result of
virtue, probity and consistency. Commanding talents
and profound learning can never supply their place.
Confidence is a plant of slow growth, and of the most
delicate texture ; its tender fibres cannot bear even the
touch of slander, while under the blighting- influence of
suspicion they sicken and die. Virtue is the soil in
which it flourishes. Vice itself respects virtue. Those
who are lost to moral influences, pay deference to men
who are governed by them.

Some of the incidental advantages of a public training
may with propriety be enumerated on the present
occasion, and considered in connection with the two
great, main ends of education which I have feeblj
attempted to elucidate. One of the most important
duties enjoined upon us as creatures of God, and as
members of society, is the cultivation of social intercourse,
or of loving our neighbours as ourselves ; and pre-emi-
nently opposed to this high and sacred duty is the
ignoble principle of selfishness. Any pursuit or situa-
tion in hfe, therefore, which tends to promote the one
and to suppress the other ought to commend itself to our

16

special approbation. This result is in no way more
effectually accomplished than by the cultivation of noble
and generous friendships; and no season or circum-
stances are better adapted to this purpose than the
season of our youth and the circumstances connected
with a college life. Here, in early youth, before we have
commenced our struggles with the world, or learned the
necessity of assiduous attention to our own peculiar
interests, friendship, planted in such a soil and fostered
by such a season, cannot but prosper and ripen into an
abiding, permanent love, which neither length of time
nor revolving circumstances can ever change. In after
life neither prosperity nor misfortunes, neither honour nor
obscurity, neither age nor infirmities, can tear us from
the friendships which have been here formed anc
matured, nor interrupt the calm, smooth current of social
intercourse which springs from the youthful heart. As
the affectionate child cherishes the tender recollection?
of its parents and the early joys of home, so do our
affections cluster around this endeared spot, and arounc
the memory of those youthful friends who are so indis-
solubly connected with it. And as a new asterisk is
affixed to the name of some college companion, among
those that appear upon each returning catalogue, we fee
that another star has fallen from the bright galaxy oif
youthful friendship, and that each of these returning
events but tends to increase the gloom and desolation
which continue to thicken around us as life advances,
and cares multiply. Friendship is more than an emptj
name. It is a feeling that certifies our divine nature
It is allied to love, which is the law of Heaven ; and he.
who fosters the noble emotion is but fulfilling God'},
commandment. It is then a high and sacred duty tha
we should endeavour to enlarge the circle of our friends

17

and to increase our love for them. No situation in life
is more favourable to the attainment of both these ends,
than the one to which many of you are about to bid a
last farewell. The ties of friendship are generally strong
in proportion to the trials and difficulties under which
they are formed ; and hence friendships originating here
are most enduring. For it cannot be denied that our
first entrance upon college life involves some of the
severest and bitterest sacrifices which we are capable of
making, either then or in after life; and thus the affec-
tions here formed, is "sub sole, sub umbra virens."

Again, we learn, by mingling with youthful com-
panions, lessons in human nature of incalculable benefit,
and which are as enduring as life itself. The guileless*
ness of youth, when acts are not carefully guarded by
the keen eye of experience or restrained by the dictates
of selfishness, is peculiarly adapted to the development
of the true springs of human action, by which we learn
to detect tiie difference between real and pretended
motives, between nature and affectation. The great
study of man should be man himself; for, in the study
rf human nature, we at once find the field in winch the
mind is mainly to be employed in its future wide and
liversified action. But while this is an important study,
it is also a dangerous one; for in our efforts to become
familiar with human nature we are often led into a great
Hid disastrous error, both here and in after life. JViany
& us suppose that the haunts of felly and wickedness are
;he only places where the study of human nature can
successfully be pursued, and that if we can make our-
'.elves acquainted with the vices of men we have learned
-heir entire nature. In this way we form not only an
ncorrect and onesided view of the great subject we are
investigating, but we become first familiar, then fascina-

18

ted with vice, and almost unconsciously fall into habits
of wickedness, and thus turn the very study which
should have been a great instrument in our moral and
mental improvement, into the means of accomplishing
our ruin. The study of human nature is made the
pretext, with some of our boys and young men, for their
visits to the gaming table, the race field, the brothel, and
such other scenes of iniquity. Here, they say, is to be
seen man in all his undisguised deformities; here are to
be discovered the sources and origin of human motives.
But nothing could be further from the truth. Such
scenes are the very hot-beds of deceit and selfishness;
and the intemperance and riots, which so often attend
them, are but methodized systems of deception.

Lessons of wisdom acquired in such schools, and from
such teachers, are purchased at a high price and at a
great risk, to say the least. There are persons whc
suppose they are familiar with the worid because they
know its vicious propensities. But this knowledge
embraces but one and that a dark view of human
character; and if we go no further in the investigation
we shall find that instead of reaping improvement from
the study, we shall have sustained a positive injury, wc
shall have acquired a little learning, which will provt
a dangerous thing.

An eminent philosophic writer observes : " We
generally find indeed, that men are governed by theii
weaknesses, not their vices ; and those weaknesses art
often the most amiable part about them. It is a know-
ledge of these weaknesses, as if by a glance, that serve*
a man better in the understanding and conquest of his
species, than a knowledge of the vices to which the}
lead ; it is better to seize the one cause, than to ponde
over the thousand effects." It is the former knowledge

19

which I chiefly call the knowledge of the world It is
this peculiar insight into human character that should
7 °ur farnef atte«<i°»- It is tins weakness of
character which leads us into every species of excess,
and it as the cause, should be studied, in order that
vice, which is its effect, should be avoided ; and to com-
mence with the study of human depravity is to begin
A.s great pursuit where we should have left it off.
Hence we often find that some of the best delineators of
human character, the most astute observers of the
motives of men, the best analyzers of the heart, are
those who know least by practical observation of the
vices and depravity of their fellow-men; while on the
other hand those who are most familiar with depraved
human nature, by actual participation in ,,, are generally
the most ignorant of the causes which lead to such over-
whelming and ruinous consequences, of the means of
avoiding them, and of themode of reclaiming fallen man
from his evil ways. The acquisition of a knowledge of
human character is the precious fruit of this peculiar
study, and a young man has not passed through a
collegiate course in vain, if he can but realize that he
has made material progress in the study of man

In future life, much, if not the chief part' of his
success, his happiness and his usefulness, will depend
upon he amount which he may possess of this species of
knowledge By it what mastery we possess over our
fellow men What a pre-eminent position we occupy
in a 1 the relations of life ! How we triumph in all the
conflicts m which human passions are involved ! Bu
above al this, while it enables us to discover and guard
against the weaknesses of others, to triumph over ex-
ternal difficulties, we are at the same time enabled to
enjoy the victory, by bringing our own passions, our

20

own heart, into perfect subjection, and thus we may
tread with confidence the long and bright career that
now for the first time is opened to youthful ambition,
sustained by an abiding ever-present assurance that we
possess the means within ourselves, if we but employ
them, of passing safely and triumphantly through life.

As a general rule, it may here be remarked, that
the study of the world must of necessity be only com-
menced during the period of our youth ; that perfection
in this study can never be attained in this life, however
great our progress in it may have been, and that the
best teacher we can employ for the purpose is experience.
But this knowledge of human nature, as possessed by
particular individuals, is often boyond explanation, and
cannot be reduced to any rules or system. In some it
seems to be a gift of nature, which is not strengthened
by after study or experience. Its first developments in
early life are as mature as they are in riper years. In
vindication of the truth of these remarks, there are many
instances on record of this species of intuitive knowledge
of human character to wrhich we might refer. For
instance, the best anecdotes of the sagacity of Cyrus
are those of his boyhood. Talleyrand's childhood was
characterized by the same shrewdness which marked his
riper years. Congreve had written his comedies at
twenty-five. Napoleon was master of the human heart
long before he had attained the age of manhood. The
unsurpassed poetry of Kirke White, which discovered
the deepest knowledge of human motives, was the fruit
of his youth.

Having briefly, and I fear with ill success, attempted
to enumerate some of the main and incidental designs of
education, I might with propriety at this point conclude
my address and take my leave of you. But. to those who

21

have already terminated their collegiate career, and to
whom my previous remarks may not be specially appli-
cable, I must be permitted to make a few additional
observations upon this most important and interesting
epoch of their lives.

It seems to me that the present is a period peculiarly
interesting and solemn to all those who are for the first
time about to enter upon the scenes of life, and who are
possessed of reflective and well organized minds, capable
of surveying and comprehending the great objects of
human existence. It is an elevated spot in the journey,
from which you can look back upon the road you have
passed ; and forward, and indistinctly discern in the
hazy future the roa 1 which lies before you. On the
one hand you behold bright paths and fairy fields,
strewed with the flowers of childhood's days, over which
you have just passed, but which you shall never traverse
again. On the other hand you behold the rugged steeps
which are before you in your future career. Oh ! what
revolutions in feelings, in motives, in purposes, in sym-
pathies await you ! Now you are gay and happy ; with
bosoms urimoistened by the tears of sorrow, unclouded
by misfortune. But in a few years more how will it be
with you ? Where will the vicissitudes of life have led
you ? To honour, to disgrace, or to sorrow ? If friend-
ship, or the cause of literature, in after years, shall
summon you once more to meet in affectionate commu-
nion upon this hallowed spot, what response will be
made to the call, and where shall you be found? The
voice of Fame would answer, and echoing back would
direct us to the summit of distinction and power, where
many of you would be in the full exercise of those
virtues which adorn the head and heart ! The voice of
inexorable Death would thunder beneath our feet, and

2

glory in the number and richness of his spoil ! Nor
would Misfortune be silent, but with eyes bedewed with
tears, and cheeks furrowed by the share of sorrow, would
number many in her weeping- train. But rather far let
Death and Misfortune claim you, than that you should
be numbered on the catalogue of crime ! Before you
advance far upon your future journey, disappointment,
sorrow, bereavement, care, infirmity, ill-health, will one
by one unite themselves to your train, and as insepara-
ble companions sorne of them will attend you through
life ; and, unless banished by the aid of religion and
philosophy, will certainly surround you, and add new
terrors to your bed of death. Has Education armed you
with the weapons by which to resist and finally to con-
quer these enemies I Are your head and your heart
well stored for the journey upon which you are about to
enter? Have you consented to receive the good things
which your Alma Mater is always ready so abundantly
to lavish upon her sons ?

A young man then who is about to enter upon the
troubled sea of life, richly freighted with the golden
fruits of education, is transccndently blessed. But let
him not fall into the error of a false reliance upon his
honourable and noble acquirements, as supposing that
in these are to be found a safeguard against every dan-
ger, or a means for surmounting every difficulty. It
cannot be questioned that they will prove the most
valuable aid that human ingenuity could devise, in
every trial or difficulty; but that they will be an
antidote for all the ills of life, or render labour of mind
or body unnecessary or unavailing in his future pursuits,
is not for one moment contended.

The first and by far the most important step which
you are to take is to make choice of a pursuit or profes-

23

sion. It is lamentable that this step is often taken
without due consideration of the true character of the
profession you may have selected, or your intellectual or
physical adaptation for pursuing it successfully. This
error is often attended by the saddest consequences. It
dooms many to obscurity and want who otherwise might
have been eminently successful. There are two pre-
vailing errors upon this subject, which are the very
opposite of each other. By some it is supposed that a
brilliant intellect and an accomplished education have
no field suited to them, other than the pursuit of one of
the learned professions ; while, on the other hand, many
believe, that distinction in these professions is alike
accessible to all, and that no previous mental cultivation
is specially necessary for attaining their highest positions.
Law, medicine, and divinity have been termed the
learned professions. When we look around and see who
compose these professions ; when we observe the igno-
rance, the stupidity, and the narrow-minded prejudice,
which prevail in each one of them, we must admit that
it is a great perversion of terms to call them " learned
professions." The epithet, learned, as applied to those
professions, had its origin in times long since past, when
doubtless there was some fitness in its application. But
now, among certain classes, no peculiar excellence is
necessary to make a lawyer, a physician, or a clergyman.
Many gentlemen of the li learned" professions of the
present day, have never received the benefits of an ordi-
nary education, are neither self-taught (as are many of
our greatest men), nor trained by the teachings of others.
The knowledge which they arrogate to themselves they
claim as if by inspiration from Heaven. Some are in
:he full possession, they suppose, of all the elements of

24

distinction for their future profession from their birth,
and it is very often the case that neither time, nor their
future acquirements tend, in the slightest degree, to
increase their claims to eminence. Others, finding
themselves unfit for other pursuits, or too indolent to live
by labour, seek a refuge for imbecility, idleness and igno-
rance under the cloak of one of the ''learned professions."
If the son of a man in the humbler walks of life evinces
any signs of genius before he is five years old ; whether
it be the result of accident or not, his name is at once
enrolled for one of the learned professions, and the labour,
economy and self-denial of his parents are from that
moment dedicated to the preparation of their son for his
entrance upon the new sphere of action. On the other
hand, the sons of all men, with few exceptions, in the
higher circles of life, as they are termed, are, long be-
fore they are born, designated for the same honourable
distinction ; as being the only proper pursuit for men
in their exalted position in society; and this deter-
mination is afterwards obstinately persisted in, without
any reference to their future intellectual developments.
In this way these dignified and honourable professions
are converted into a sort of Alms House, for the reception
of the blind, halt, and pauper intellects of our country.
When we reflect how delicate, how important, how vital
are the interests, whether they relate to time or eternity,
which are committed to the keeping of the men who
compose these professions, and how inadequate they
often are to discharge the high and sacred duty, we are
led to exclaim in bitterness, that such a condition of
things should not exist. The choicest intellect, the
purest moral character, the most vigorous constitution,
united with the highest condition of culture in ea@h, will

25

find in the study of any one of the learned professions
a field amply larg* and fertile to call forth the best efforts
which they maybe capable of invoking.

On the other hand, it is a great error to suppose that
there are no pursuits in life worthy of the high calling
of a scholar and a student, other than the learned pro-
fessions. Of necessity but a small portion of mankind
can find profitable employment as professional men;
and it certainly could never have been the design of the
Great Author of the universe that nine-tenths or more
of the human family should be endowed with intellec-
tual faculties for no other purpose than that they should
remain forever dormant, or discharge functions of the
brute. I am aware that there are some enemies of
human rights, who assert and maintain an opposite
doctrine, and who advocate the slavery and debasement
of the human mind, as better suited to the labouring
portion of society, or "the hewers of wood and drawers
of water." Thanks be to the Giver of all good, that we
live in a country in whose soil such doctrines can
never find root, and in an age that will chill and blight
the budding of such sentiments.

The mind of man can find something to employ it in
every pursuit of life however humble ; and every occu-
pation can be elevated and more successfully followed
by invoking the aid of the mental faculties. What
pursuit affords a better field for the study of science, and
for the general improvement of the mind, than an en-
lightened system of agriculture ? Of all the occupations
which can employ the attention of man, none affords
greater facilities for the development of the noblest
faculties of the mind and heart than agriculture. None
is so free from temptations ; none more honourable ; none
attended with more happiness ; none better adapted to

2*

26

the cultivation of social pleasures, or of an affection-
ate and reciprocal interchange of sentiment and opinion ;
none so well fitted to elevate and expand our ideas of
the Deity, or to promote a love for, and an obedience to
his great laws !

" Give mo, indulgent gods ! with mind serene,
And guiltless heart, to range the sylvan scene ;
No splendid poverty, no smiling care,
No well-bred hate, or servile grandeur there;
The pleasing objects useful thoughts suggest,
The sense is ravish'd and the soul is blest :
On eveiy thorn delightful wisdom glows,
In every rill a sweet instruction flows."

Yet there are some who would consign this ennobling
pursuit to serfs and vassals, and close up this bright
avenue which leads to refinement and wisdom, against
all but the most degraded of our species.

Agriculture and civilization have through all time
advanced hand in hand, and have ever been insepara-
ble companions ; and when the former is suffered by a
people to languish, it is a certain indication that they
are in danger of relapsing into a state of barbarism, and
that refinement, science and literature, and all the arts
of peace, have attained their acme, and have begun and
must thenceforward continue to recede. The condi-
tions of all the nations of the earth at present attest the
truth of these remarks, and they are equally applicable
to the nations of antiquity. The ancient Romans in
the days of their glory and power were so devoted to
agriculture that their most illustrious commanders were
sometimes called from the plough. Their refined and
enlightened senators commonly resided in the country,
and cultivated the ground with their own hands ; and,
among all classes of society, to be a good husbandman
was accounted the highest praise. A noble Roman was
overwhelmed with tears on being obliged to accept the

27

consulship because it would deprive him for one year of
the opportunity of cultivating his fields.

Shakspeare, with as much truth as beauty, says in
regard to a rational and rural solitude :

"Hath not old custom made this life more sweet
Than that of painted pomp ? Are not these woods
More free from peril than the envious court ?
And this our life, exemptfrom public haunt,
Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks.
Sermons in stones, and good in every thing."

The mechanic arts, every one of them to a greater or
less degree, are governed by scientific principles, and
cannot be successfully pursued without a certain amount
of mental cultivation. No limits can be assigned to the
improvements which might be made in every art, were
the lights of science and of education allowed to shine
upon them ; and that which is now but a process of dull
and painful imitation, might, by the application of a
cultivated mind, become a pleasing study, which would
be constantly developing some new principle in science,
and furnishing fresh food for the mind to feed upon.
Hence I assume the position, that education is designed
by Providence as a means for the elevation of the entire
human family, or of as many as can attain to it, and that
its blessings and honours are not to be confined to a fa-
voured few.

In this country the road to station, honour and fame
is alike open to all, and although it may appear at first
inaccessible, yet every obstacle which is encountered,
however formidable, must yield to the power of an
educated mind, when united with industry and perse-
verance. All the high places in our land may seem to
be filled, and their honours to be appropriated; thousands
of anxious expectants may be before you crowding
every avenue which leads to distinction and power ; but

28

let not honourable ambition falter in her efforts, nor
talents and virtue be dismayed. Keep before you the
result of the contest which iEneas invited among the
Trojan marksmen, which Virgil has made you familiar
with, and which so aptly illustrates the value of perse-
verance and resoluteness. A dove was suspended to
the mast of a ship, at which the competitors for the prize
were to direct their arrows. The son of Hyrtacus first
wins applause by planting his arrow in the trembling
mast, near the affrighted bird. Mnestheus next tries
his skill, and with well directed aim severs the cord,
and the liberated dove penetrates the clouds above.
Not daunted, Eurytion, in eager haste, lets fly his arrow,
as he beholds the joyful dove in the open sky, and
piercing her, brings her to the earth, " having left her
life," as Virgil beautifully expresses it, "among the
stars of Heaven." Acestes alone remained after the
prize was supposed to be lost ; but instead of yielding
the contest, or giving way to disappointment or mortifi-
cation, with a manner of confident superiority he dis-
charged his shaft into the heavens, wkich took fire, and
with a flame, marked its path, till being consumed it was
lost in air. The spectators were filled with astonish-
ment, and TEneas, appreciating the omen, embraces
Acestes, and in the presence of the applauding multi-
tude thus awards him the prize :

Nam te voluit Rex magnus Olympi

Talibus auspiciis exsortem ducere honorem.

And you, my young friends, when you terminate
your sojourn here, are to go into the world as apostles,
if not to preach the gospel, to fulfil a duty which in
importance is only second to it, namely, to shed upon
your fellow men the blessed influences of an educated
and enlightened mind.

29

Independently of the immediate and direct advan-
tages of education, its incidental benefits to an American
citizen are of the deepest importance. Every man in
every walk in life in a republican government like ours,
ought, if possible, to have the benefits of a liberal educa-
tion, to aid him as a weapon of defence, in maintaining
the institutions and liberties of his country. It is the
corner stone of our republican edifice that the people are
the source of all power in our land. From them flow the
liberty, the virtue, the honour, the law, the power, which
so elevate us among the nations of the earth. Let us
then by education keep that fountain pure and perpetual,
that streams may flow therefrom blessing and elevating
the whole race of mankind. When that source becomes
polluted or obstructed, then will our Tree of Liberty,
which has so long been nourished and sustained by its
waters, languish and die. Lie that would deny that
education in this country with its exhaustless fruits is
a national right, in which all our people have a common
interest, would question the very principles upon which
the government itself stands. The principles of our
government are as plain and simple as they are beauti-
ful and wise, and a knowledge of them is accessible to
almost every citizen. There are those however who
seek to veil these beautiful features in mystery, and rob
them of their original simplicity, by engrafting upon
them features that are foreign and hostile to their nature.
Our system of government is rather a negative than a
positive system. It is a government of protection, not
of privilege ; one established to guard rights, rather than
to bestow them. It is one of the high prerogatives of
education in our republican country to guard against
the inroads which are daily threatened, upon this har-
mony and simplicity in our institutions ; to keep the

government in its proper and legitimate channel, to see
that the rights of the governed are protected, and
that privileges are extended unjustly to none; to see that
the constitution, the Magna Charta of our liberties, is
preserved in all its original purity ; to prevent the
introduction of cunningly devised schemes, by which
one class of our community is to be advanced or enriched
at the expense of another ; guard and prevent the
government from so far leaving its proper sphere of
action as to attempt to diiect, or in any way to interfere
with the industry or private pursuits of the country; so
that all its -powers and ciiermes mav be directed to the
protection of the liberty, the laws, and the property of its
people.

Yes, my young friends, such are some of the delicate
and momentous interests which are committed to the
keeping of the educated youth of our land. In your
hands, not as politicians and partizans, but as citizens
and voters, is this sacred trust reposed; to 3*011 are
entrusted the principles of our government and the
rights of the people : and the high and responsible duty
will be discharged with entire success if education has
but performed its functions upon your youthful heads
and hearts.

The duties and designs of education are as varied and
as complex as they are honourable and ennobling. It
should be present and minister on every occasion, in
every scene, and in every enterprise having in view the
elevation of human nature or the promotion of happiness.
It fosters virtue, it develops science, it expands the heart,
it elevates our ideas of God and draws us nearer to him,
it benefits our fellow men, it destroys the reigning
prejudices and corrects the prevailing errors of our age
and country ; in short it is a fountain of blessed inrlu-

31

ences which flows directly from the mercy seal of the
Giver of every good and perfect gift. And, in takim
my leave of you, perhaps forever, what happiness
should I experience, could I but know that I had suc-
ceeded in awakening your hearts to a proper appre-
ciation of this momentous subject, in guarding you
against the fatal error of supposing that, at this period of
your life, you might discontinue the noble work you
have commenced, or of falling into an ignoble and
degrading mental inactivity, by which the budding fruits
of your early labours must wither and die, long before
the season for their ripening has arrived.

Oll^lb

w

05-12-05 32180 MS

LB2325.L77

Obituary addresses delivered on the

Princeton Theological Seminary-Speer Library

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