of mind, and the present ardor of philosophical speculation, promises still more brilliant results. There is, upon the whole, a steady and mighty advance in the great empire of cultivated intellect, which we trust nothing will seriously impede, and to which no definite limits can be assigned.

In connexion with this part of our subject, or rather in continuation of it, I cannot help calling your attention for a moment, to those rapid and splendid conquests of general science, which shed such a glory upon the age in which we live. What scholastic entrenchment is there which she has not carried-what moss-grown battlement on which she has not planted her standard? what height is there which she has not surveyed-what depth has she not explored? What desert of sand, or snow, has she not traversed-what arctic sea or strait has she not navigated-what ice of four thousand winters has she not seen-what mountain or heavenly parallax has she not measured-what mineral has escaped her eagle eyewhat stubborn resistances in the great field of experiment, has she not overcome-what substance has she not found means to break, or fuse, or solve, or convert into gas?

It is indeed wonderful to think, how the boundaries of human knowledge are by the aid, and under the directing eye of human intellect, extending in every direction. Every lamp that is lighted for the purposes of discovery in one department, sheds a portion of its radiance upon some other, or perhaps upon many others, at the same time: and thus, by the intermingling and reflection of rays from so many points, the progress of discovery is greatly and increasingly facilitated. Objects which fifty years ago were scarcely visible in the dim horizon, are now left by its retrocession far within the vast circumfer

ence. The ever busy hand of experiment is daily laying open new wonders and making new discoveries in air, earth, and water. Some of the great agents of nature, which had been at work in secret from the foundation of the world, have recently been detected in their mysterious operations, and made subservient to the health and convenience of man. Science has scaled those awful barriers, which less than a century ago it would have been thought the height of madness and impiety to attempt; and she is now successfully exploring far wider regions beyond, than were ever included in her ancient dominions. Thus while the astronomer is polishing his glasses, finding out the longitude, watching the return of the comets, and looking for new constellations in the blue depths of ether, the mechanical philosopher is lengthening his levers, perfecting his screws and pullies, and combining and concentrating all the prodigious energies of fire and water. And last, but not least, the chemist is rejoicing in the midst of his newly discovered attractions, affinities, and antipathies: and if in subjecting every known substance to his acids, his blow-pipe, and his deflagrator, he has not yet converted the baser metals into gold, he seems to be in a fair way, at least, of transmuting charcoal into diamonds. *

The train of these remarks falls in so naturally here, with the following bright and philosophical anticipations of a distinguished writer, † that I shall offer no apology for laying them before you in his own words. Speaking of the progressive improvement of the human race, he mentions by way of example, the history of mathematic

* I here allude to some very interesting experiments, by Professor Silliman of Yale College, of which he has given a particular account, in the American Journal of Science and Arts: Vol. V. and VI.

+ Dugald Stewart.

al science, in which the advances of discovery may be measured with greater precision than in most others.

Those elementary truths of geometry and of astronomy,' he remarks, which, in India and Egypt, formed an occult science, upon which an ambitious priesthood founded its influence, were become in the times of Archimedes and Hipparchus, the subjects of common education in the public schools of Greece. In the last century, a few years of study were sufficient for comprehending all that Archimedes and Hipparchus knew; and, at present, two years employed under an able teacher carry the student beyond those conclusions, which limited the inquiries of Leibnitz and of Newton. Let any person reflect on these facts: let him follow the immense chain which connects the inquiries of Euler with those of a priest of Memphis; let him observe, at each epoch, how genius outstrips the present age, and how it is overtaken by mediocrity in the next; and he will perceive, that nature has furnished us with the means of abridging and facilitating our intellectual labor, and that there is no reason for apprehending that such simplifications can ever have an end. He will perceive, that at the inoment when a multitude of particular solutions, and of insulated facts, begin to distract the attention, and to overcharge the memory, the former gradually lose themselves in one general method, and the latter unite in one general law; and that these generalizations, continually succeeding one to another, like the successive multiplications of a number by itself, have no other limit, than that infinity which the human faculties are unable to comprehend.'

How cheering, how ennobling is this intellectual march of our species! Who but must aspire to a place in the ranks, if not to the honor of bearing a standard? Who

is there, that will not contribute by every proper means in his power, to elevate, expand, and strengthen the immortal mind, as it still presses on in the path of discovery and looking upward, pants for a wider range, a clearer vision, and worthier attainments in a brighter world?

The third and last great branch of education is moral. I use the word moral here, in the largest sense, as comprehending all the instruction, restraints, and discipline which are requisite, for the government of the passions, the moulding of the affections, the formation of an enlightened conscience, and the renovation of the heart. I do not merely say that this branch is indispensable-for in a sense it is every thing. What would a finely cultivated mind, united to the best physical constitution, be without moral principle? What but mere brute force, impelled by the combined and terrible energies of a perverted understanding and a depraved heart? How much worse than physical imbecility, is strength employed in doing evil? How much more to be dreaded than the most profound ignorance, is a high state of mental cultivation, when once nien have broken away from the control of conscience and the Bible. The reign of terror and atheism, under whose bloody seal the demon of anarchy once presided over a great and polished metropolis, affords so good an illustration here, that I hope I shall be indulged in the backneyed allusion. What availed all the erudition of the National Institute, and all the learning of the Encyclopediasts, in the hands of men, who could bow the knee to the meretricious goddess of reason, and write upou the tomb, that death is an eternal sleep? It was not the blind and unlettered frenzy of the multitude, but the cool and calculating genius of infidel philosophy, which put the wheels of revolution in motion in France;

and it was the friction, occasioned by that tremendous impulse, which set the whole machinery of the government on fire, and burnt down the palace, the altar, and the throne together. Now, take away all the restraints and sanctions of religion, and something like this might be expected to happen in any state, and in spite of the highest intellectual attainments. Without the fear of God nothing can be secure for one moment. Without the control of moral and religious principle, education is a drawn and polished sword, in the hands of a gigantic maniac. In his madness he may fall upon its point, or bathe it in the blood of the innocent. Great and highly cultivated talents, allied to skepticism, or infidelity, are the right arm that 'scatters firebrands, arrows, and death.' After all the dreams of human perfectibility, and all the hosannas which have been profanely lavished upon reason, philosophy, and literature, who, but for the guardianship of religion, could protect his beloved daughters, or be safe in his own house for one night? What would civil gov ernment be in the profound sleep of conscience, and in the absence of right moral habits and feelings what, but an iron despotism on the one band, or intoxicated anarchy on the other?

Let any system of education, which leaves out God and the scriptures, prevail in your families, schools, and Colleges, and what would be the consequences? How long would you have any domestic circles to love, or to live in? How long would children reverence their parents, or listen to the voice of their teachers? The truth is, moral habits, and religious sanctions, cannot be dispensed with. The world would be one vast and frightful theatre of misery and crime without them. What anxious and unremitting care, then, should be bestowed upon the re