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for a common purpose. Whatever enlightens the mind improves the heart, as the sun which illuminates the atmosphere warms the earth, and although it may happen that his beams are reflected from fields of ice, yet his general mission is to call forth whatever is useful and beautiful, and impregnate with vitality the whole body of nature. (True knowledge is the knowledge of truth); as it is said in the fine arts, that nothing' is beautiful but the true, so, in the wide signification of the word, it may be said that nothing is good but the true. To confer upon learning its just dignity and importance, it must be considered as subsidiary and auxiliary to the paramount ends of our being. It must always have in view our responsibilities in this life, and the awful responsibilities of a far more exceeding weight hereafter. You are to be made intellectual men, that you may be fit moral agents; so that as you advance in learning, you may advance in the knowledge and appreciation of virtue, remembering always that the lamp which you light up is not a gaudy show, to please by its variegated radiance, but is intended for a more useful and noble purpose, to show you, amidst the double night of error and of passion which obscures your journey through life, the only ways of pleasantness and paths of peace. Undoubtedly learning of itself is graceful and ornamental, and knowledge is power, but learning and knowledge attain their true beauty and full power only when united to virtue, and this union is ennobled, and, so to speak, sanctified by piety, making the highest condition of our nature.Learning, morality,-religion,—these are your great objects. These, in the right understanding of them, include all that is desirable. They comprehend those lesser morals, the aggregate of which make a gentleman fitted to adorn and delight society,-they comprehend all those sentiments which become a citizen born to a participation in the government of the commonwealth, and all those deep convictions and lofty aspirations which belong to heirs of eternity. This is my conception of the object and purposes for which we are associated. If we can persuade you to entertain a corresponding

idea of your duties, our task will be an easy one. We shall be joint laborers in the same field, cheered by the sure prospect of a luxuriant harvest. This, our seed time, will be a season of hope and joy, while we look forward with eager and confident anticipation to the glories of a rich harvest, and still farther to the garnering of it where there is no rust, and thieves cannot break through nor steal.

But besides the ulterior and paramount value of the moral sentiments to which I have alluded, they are of immediate and vital consequence to us here. The good order and successful administration of the College, depend entirely upon their influences.

You have passed the period of coercion, and already are moral agents. In all communities laws avail but little without a prevailing sentiment to sustain and carry them out in their true spirit, "Quid valeant leges sine moribus,” is true every where, but most emphatically true here; our government resolves itself almost entirely into an appeal to the sense of honor and duty, without which our laws are nugatory, and their impotent penalties carry no sanction. The fear of the law which prompts to a cold and reluctant observance of it, may secure from punishment, but as a principle of action, must always fail of any honorable success, and the government whose efficiency depends solely upon it, must fail in its main objects.

You cannot, young gentlemen,--you ought not to be governed by mere dint of law, you must feel that there are other and higher rules than it imposes, indeed other and higher laws than are to be found in our statutes,-laws in your own bosoms, written on your hearts,-the penalty for disobedience to which, is the consciousness of wrong,-and the reward of obedience, the consciousness of right.

It may, and perhaps must be necessary, wherever human nature is to be governed, to invoke the interposition of the law,— but our habitual and by far most pleasant, and as we hope, most efficient appeal, will be to your honor and sense of right. We do not indulge the chimerical expectation that a moral

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discipline can be so far enforced as to supercede an occasional application of penal laws. Our observation of life permits no such hope, for in no association whatever,-not senates or councils, can be regulated by the mere discretion of the members, much less can it be expected from the thoughtlessness and passions of the young. Acts of discipline must occur, and when the occasion requires them, they will be firmly and promptly applied,—but what we do calculate on, is the prevalence of a pervading sentiment, that will render such a necessity infrequent, a sentiment which will inspire more fear of offence than of punishment.

The impulsiveness and impatience belonging to your time of life, naturally make the degree of exertion and industry requisite to your proper advancement, irksome and painful to you. Indolence presents herself to the young, aye! and to the old, in a thousand seducing forms. Industry is of a harsh and crabbed aspect. The one seems to point to a smooth and flowery path,—the other to a rugged and painful ascent,but around that seducing path lurk all the ills of life,—and that toilsome ascent, at every step opens wider and wider a broad and beautiful prospect, and leads eventually to those elevations to which the noble spirit aspires.

Industry is the prolific mother of many virtues. She produces as well as sustains them, they all cluster around and nestle about her, growing and strengthening by her care. Genius itself, that divine quality which seems to be instinct with innate power, and to rise by its own upward tendency,—genius itself, is plumed for its highest flights, and trained to them by industry. It is an utter mistake to imagine that any endowment can dispense with labour. It is a fatal error into which young men fall,-no great achievement ever has or ever can be effected without it, the mode of its application may be obscure, but its presence is not the less certain. We have heard of the forest-born Demosthenes,-"of nature's darling,”"Fancy's child,

Warbling his native wood notes wild,”—

"of the blind old man of Scio's rocky isle." These were men of genius, unquestionably, but Henry, and Shakspeare, and Homer, were also men of labor,—they had the blessing of inspiration, but the blessing came to them after they had wrestled all night.

Our intercourse, I trust, will be characterized by the courtesy becoming gentlemen. My government I hope will be animated by the vigilance and tempered by the affection of a parent. If I see you preparing yourselves to go home to delight a father's heart, my bosom will swell with a parent's pride, and my vanity will be gratified if your proficiency authorizes me to believe that when the State shall hereafter point to its jewels, I may say I helped to fashion them.

I trust also, gentlemen, that both our official and social relations, may be such, that when you go into the world, and ascertain by experience the value of the lessons taught here, you will remember the College with affection, and me with no indifferent feelings, and meet me, when the chances of life throw us together, not without emotion.

Young gentlemen, if I were better qualified than I am for this office, I know how vain my efforts must be, even with the assistance of my able colleagues and your zealous cooperation, without the gracious protection and help of our Heavenly Father. To Him, then, and to His beneficent providence, I humbly and earnestly commend the issue of this undertaking.