THE PATH TO GLORY OPEN.

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and splendid names, constitute with us no claims to political distinction. The path to glory lies equally open to the nameless child of penury, as to the favored voluptuary of fortune. He has the same inducements, the same inspiring hopes to call forth his latent abilities, to incite him to vigorous exertion, and to spur him onward in the race of intellectual improvement. The consequences of this equality have been auspicious to the individual and to national advancement. On all sides we have seen genius and talent emerging from the obscurity of humble station, and rising to the highest offices of power and distinction. Our common country claims and rewards the services of all her children. With the field of competition so broad, with the list of aspirants so formidable, with such powerful incentives to exertion, it need not be a subject of surprise that such numbers of highly gifted minds have come forward upon the theatre of intellectual operation-whose combined knowledge, zeal, and patriotism, have

contributed to raise our country to such an exalted pitch of greatness and glory. Every man is permitted to adopt whatever profession or calling in life which best comports with his interest or inclination. Here is furnished every motive to action. Talent and enterprise find their appropriate rewards.

THE SPIRIT OF ENTERPRISE.

"To the bold and restless spirit of enterprise which liberty fosters, and to the mild and protecting character of our laws, may be traced the rapid increase of wealth, and the wonderful improvements which our country every where exhibits. That spirit is still at work-conquering space and time, removing the barriers which nature has opposed to friendly and commercial intercourse, and bringing remote places and countries into the same neighborhood. Science has come down from among the stars, and become the hand-maid of industry-the nurse of commerce-the instructress of the arts of civilized life. Who shall assign bounds to her discoveries?

TRUE PROPHETIC KEN.

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"Who shall limit their application to the practical purposes of life? If we take past experience for our guide, we may safely conclude that so far from having attained her culmination, she has but commenced her dawn upon the world.”

A REMARKABLE FORESHADOWING.

Mr. Baldwin then remarks with true prophetic ken: "We may live to see even greater things accomplished. The day may not be far distant, when the proud Alleghanies shall bow to the genius of internal improvement, and stand in their humiliation a monument of the triumphs of scientific power over physical nature-when the metropolis of our own State shall be but one day's remove from us, and the dwellers upon the banks of the Mississippi become the neighbors of those who inhabit the seaboard. This may be called enthusiasm· anything but probability; and yet within the present century, the realities of the present day were deemed even more absurd and chimerical."

I will close this notice with one extract more, upon the subject of the establishment of our "free school system," and the distribution of the funds provided for the instruction of the poor, affording them a sufficient education for the ordinary business and intercourse of life.

THE FRUITS OF THIS SYSTEM.

"The fruits of this wise system,” Mr. Baldwin remarks, "is every where apparent. Labor directed by skill is proportionably more productive. Knowledge is power. The means and resources of a community are multiplied in proportion as their understandings are informed, and their judgments rendered less liable to be imposed upon. Justly appreciating the influence of education, in inspiring correct principles, in refining the taste, in liberalizing the feelings, in enlightening the understanding, and opening to the mind more healthful sources of enjoyment, we seek to plant the conservative principle deep in the intellectual soil. We

LIPS OF PERSUASION.

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know that the first impressions upon the infant mind are derived from the mother; that to her is committed the delicate task of teaching the young idea how to shoot-that the earliest lessons of virtue are taught by maternal lips; that the character is in a great measure formed by the precepts which are first instilled, and the examples which are first set before it; and we endeavor by all the means which learning and science can afford, to render the female sex worthy of the high destiny to which they are called. We desire that as nature has been prodigal to their persons, education and knowledge may give a correspondent beauty and elegance, and an attractive charm to their minds. That the eye which sparkles with vivacity, may beam with intelligence; that the features which are robed in loveliness, may be animated with thought; that the lips which nature has touched with persuasion, may breathe pure and virtuous sentiments; that the influence which females justly possess in every enlightened community, may, in ours,