for him to indulge in every day in the year. All extremes in these and the like cases are to be avoided. An occasional and perfectly temperate use of liquors slightly alcoholic may be cheerfully and readily conceded, and yet the position, that the common use of them is injurious and therefore forbidden, may be strenuously maintained. There is no inconsistency at all in this. A poor man may lawfully wear a holiday suit of clothes on holidays, which it would be criminal for him to wear while engaged in his daily labor.

It never can be shown that Jesus or His disciples indulged in the habitual use of wine. It never can be rendered probable that they drank wine at all, except in a diluted state; and such wine as they drank, when diluted with three quarters or more of water, (which was as we have seen the probable reduction of it,) could scarcely be said, in any important sense, to be capable of injuring them when only occasionally and temperately drunk.

The gratification of taste, then, would seem to be the only thing which can be pleaded in favor of wine as a common drink. But this can never come, among sober and judicious men, to be considered as an object of serious importance. Is it not true that those who drink pure water instead of alcoholic drinks, enjoy their beverage quite as much as wine drinkers do? And then, if the gratifying of taste hurts myself, and endangers the safety of my neighbor, and is uncalled for by any duty whatever, can such gratification be lawful?

To sum up the whole case: the advocates of thorough temperance measures hold it not to be a malum in se, i. e. an evil or sin in itself, to drink wine occasionally. They do not come out against the practice on such a ground. They rather take the ground, that, since no 'duty calls them to the frequent or habitual use of any drink which is alcoholic-since such drinks of every kind, when often taken, injure rather than promote health, and afford occasion of stumbling to others; they are bound on the ground of expediency and out of regard to the public good, to refrain from all habitual or frequent use of any liquor that has alcohol in it. It is indeed only on sacramental occasions that a thorough disciple of temperance, at the present time, will feel disposed to taste of any liquor of this nature. Here, the example of Christ and His disciples would seem to give a sanction to the use of wine, which may justly remove all scruples respecting it. But even here, let the example be as exactly copied as possible. Let us not eat nor drink in such a manner as to bring on ourselves judgment or condemnation. Let us not exhibit such wine at the table of our Lord, as in ancient times would have been exhibited only at the tables of the intemperate or of bacchanalians.

In fine, it is our most serious and full persuasion, that if those who love the cause of temperance, and plead and exert themselves for it, do still continue the frequent or habitual use of any alcoholic drink, however slight the proportion of alcohol may be, then the great ends of the temperance reformation will, after all, be in the sequel defeated. As soon as distilled spirits are expelled from common use, the lower kinds of alcoholic drinks will be greatly increased. Ale and cider and wine will become so abundant that intoxication will be made as cheap by means of them as by ardent spirit; and such drinks being made reputable by the usage of temperate men, will be indulged in to all degrees

of excess by those who indulge in any degree of intoxication. Such is already beginning to be the case, particularly in regard to ale and strong beer. But who does not know that the beer drinkers of England are in all respects as degraded and wretched as the whiskey drinkers of our country?

By all that is benevolent and, sacred, then, in the cause of temperance, I would beseech the advocates of it to pause, before they give countenance to the fatal consequences that will follow the upholding and encouraging of any alcoholic drink whatever, as one for frequent or common use. These consequences will not in the end be less deleterious to the interests of the community, in any point of view, than if it were deluged with wine and strong beer and cider: then repentance on the part of sober men, who have given countenance to such drinks, will be too late. The harvest will be past, the summer ended, and we cannot be saved.

Christian, whoever thou art, I counsel thee to look well to this matter, and most seriously to examine it. The great Head of the Church does certainly expect of His disciples, that they will do nothing which promotes the interests of intemperance, or keeps those in countenance who practise this vice. The gratification of bodily appetite will not avail thee, in the great day of account, as an excuse for a practice which keeps in countenance and encourages those who drink for the purposes of inebriation. Self-denial is that to which the Gospel calls thee. Its high and holy principles bid thee abstain from the very appearance of evil. If thou refusest obedience, thou must be answerable for the awful consequences.

Churches of the Lord Jesus, who celebrate the memorials of His dying love, follow the example of Him whose death you celebrate.Come not to His sacred feast, and indulge in that which a sober Greek or Roman, even in a heathen state, would have pronounced to be an indecorous practice, worthy only of a people like the Scythians. Let your wine be mingled, like that which eternal Wisdom prepared for her guests. Thus may you eat and drink, discerning the Lord's body aright. Thus may your sacred rights be performed, without leading astray the weak, and without affording gainsayers any opportunity to reproach you. The end to be accomplished by such a reformation is worthy of your high and holy profession, of your fervent prayers, and of your best efforts.

ADDRESS

Delivered at the annual commencement of Dickinson College, July 16, 1835, by ROBERT EMORY, A. M., Professor of Languages.

THE spirit of inquiry, which has prevailed in reference to education, has already elicited such copious information on the subject, that some may be disposed to regard any farther discussion of it as useless. Were the productions of the pen and of speech designed only to instruct, there might be some ground for the opinion. Could we content ourselves to treat subjects of vital public importance like the mock discussions of the schools, in which the object is to see how much can

be said upon a question, we might admit that if all has not been said on the subject of education that was possible, at least there has been enough for the formation of our opinions, and the direction of our practice. But who does not know that after the public mind has been fully enlightened upon a topic, there still remains the more difficult, and not less important duty, of moving it to action.

The thrilling appeals which so often emanate from the sacred desk, are called forth not so much by the ignorance, as by the apathy of the people. Week after week we repair to the house of God, and hear from the same lips the same holy principles-principles which have perhaps been familiar to us from childhood; yet we think not the service tedious or unnecessary, because we are conscious that as yet the appropriate effect upon our life and conduct has not been produced.

It is for the same reason that we think that the subject of education cannot be too often presented for our consideration. Although much light has been thrown upon it, by the zeal and learning of those who have treated it, still their labors have not yet produced those practical results which constituted their only object. Parents still allow their children to be educated upon erroneous systems; public seminaries still send forth pupils unqualified for the duties of private or of public life; youth continue, for the most part, blind to their best interests, and are pressing their way, with indiscreet haste, to stations for which they are utterly incompetent. It is useless to discuss the best modes of teaching, or the best systems of discipline, while we have such abundant and conclusive evidence that, as yet, the very object itself of education is by many but little understood. Let us, then, devote a few moments to this inquiry:-What is the proper aim of education? It is an important inquiry. It intimately concerns all the relations of society; the public, in their expenditures for the encouragement of learning; the parent, in selecting the instructer of his child; the teacher, in adopting his course of instruction; the youth; in proposing to himself the proper object of his early efforts, and of his generous hopes; all, all, are interested to be correctly informed upon a point in which error may lead to irreparable-to fatal consequences.

On such a question, I would not presume, before such an audience, to obtrude my own crude conceptions, unsupported, as they must be, by any length of experience. But though I may advance no new sentiments, and though I may defend those which have been heretofore advanced by no new arguments, still, I trust, that I shall secure the more humble, though not less useful end, of presenting to you the matured opinions of the wise and good, in such a light, that, while they cannot fail to meet the approbation of your judgment, they may obtain the active concurrence of your practice.

That education in itself is desirable, I shall not consume your time in attempting to prove. The superiority of intelligent over ignorant man; of him, who, in point of mental, culture, has been almost fitted for the society of superior spirits, over him who is removed from the brute only by the possession, not by the exercise, of different faculties, is a subject which no longer admits of discussion. No! the question is not whether education is useful, but what kind of education is most useful. We conceive that in this case, as in every other which affects

the interests of man, the proper criterion of the utility of any object is, its tendency to promote his happiness. What then is the system of education that can best abide this test? Is it that which trains the youthful mind to habits of shrewd calculation, and sagacious planning for the accumulation of wealth? A Croesus, in the midst of his countless treasures, could not extort from the Athenian sage an acknowledgment of his happiness. Is it that which sows the seeds of restless ambition, and creates an insatiable thirst of power? From Macedonia's madman' to the Corsican, the most successful aspirants have been as miserable as their most unfortunate competitors. Is it that which stores the mind with a mass of learning, undigested and unsuited to any practical purpose? The wise man of Israel has assured us, that he that thus increaseth knowledge, but increaseth sorrow. Is it that which exclusively fosters some already predominant faculty, adding the influence of art to that of nature, to stimulate it to an unnatural growth? The fate of genius, in all ages, when unsupported by judgment, has become a proverb of misfortune. No! neither distorted genius, nor barren learning, nor unlimited power, nor boundless wealth, are sources of real happiness, and therefore, neither the cultivation of the first, nor the acquisition of the others, is the proper leading object to be proposed in a course of instruction. What then is? It is the cultivation, in just and harmonious proportion, of all the powers and faculties of man. This alone can impart a complete and generous education that which, to use the language of Milton, fits a man to perform justly, skilfully, and magnanimously, all the offices, both private and public, of peace and war.'

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Such a definition, it is obvious, must include the cultivation not only of the intellectual, but also of the physical and moral powers. And would that my limits permitted, or that my abilities enabled me to brand, with an appropriate stigma, the criminal neglect with which these have been treated. To depict in living colors the cruel folly of those, who, whether from misguided fondness, or blind devotion to fashion, bring up their children with feeble and sickly frames, to be the prey of lingering disease, or the victims of untimely death: or to denounce, with becoming indignation, the still more fatal thoughtlessness of those, who, while they train the body, and discipline the mind, leave the immortal spirit destitute of that moral culture, without which bodily vigor is pernicious and learning a curse. But I forbear. Leaving these interesting and momentous topics to other and abler hands, I confine myself to the single branch of intellectual education.

Here then we maintain, that however proper it may be in the diversity of human occupations, that a man should not waste his strength by vain attempts to pursue them all, but rather confine himself to whatever one may be best suited to his capacity, still this remark does not apply to that period of life which is devoted to education. Then the great aim should be, not to replenish, but to enlarge the capacity; not to prepare the student for any particular vocation, but to impart to him that mental vigor by which he shall be qualified for any station to which subsequent events may lead.

It is true, that, in such a course, there must be much positive information acquired, and the student will be more or less fitted for particular offices; but still these are not the objects, but only the accompa

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nying results and so soon as any one of them loses this its appropriate secondary character, and assumes that of a principal, we have at once an education partial in its nature, and distorting in its effects. For, as he only is a perfect model of the human frame, who exhibits every member in symmetrical proportion; as he only is a perfect moralist, who combines in his character every virtue; so, he only is a perfect scholar, who has united in himself, and cultivated to their highest extent, all the attributes of mind.

The advantages for every pursuit in life of such an education, or as near an approximation to it as circumstances will admit, need but be stated to be acknowledged. Why is it that upon the occurrence of those changes which are so frequent in our day, whereby the current of public business without being diminished, is turned into new channels, why is it that there is such an amount of private suffering? Is it not because the unhappy subjects of it have received a sort of mechanical education, which fitted them for nothing but the routine of the particular business in which they had been engaged? Who is the physician upon whom you would rely in the hour of danger? Is it he who has merely stored his mind with the theories of others, and learned by heart the symptoms and treatment of every disease in the books? or is it he, who, by more profound investigation, and more intense study than such plodding ever required, has attained so intimate a knowledge of the human constitution, that nature seems to have revealed to him, as to her favored priest, the mysteries of life and health? Who is the advocate to whom you would intrust the defence of your dearest rights? Is it he who, though familiar with the forms of every action, and the decisions of every case, is lost when out of the beaten track of precedent? or is it he who has penetrated to the foundations of the law, and, from its profound depths, has brought forth principles whose application is as certain as the basis upon which they rest is unchanging?

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But it may be asked, What are the studies best calculated to afford this development and discipline of the faculties? Of the various branches, each has in turn had its advocates, who have urged its claims, if not to exclusive, at least to pre-eminent attention. For one, I am as much opposed to catholicons and panaceas' in literature, as in medicine; and I would as soon believe that all the diseases of the body can be healed by a single remedy, as that all the faculties of the mind can be trained by a single study. As then all the kingdoms of nature are made to furnish their contributions for the preservation of health and the protraction of life, so let every department of science lend its aid to the formation and perfection of the mental character. We are not here then to balance the respective claims of the ancient or of the modern languages, of the natural or of the exact sciences,to depreciate the one or to extol the other; but, to assert the importance of each in its appropriate place.

When it is considered, however, that of these, the study of the ancient languages has of late been an especial object of attack, it may not be thought improper on this occasion to make a short digression, in order to test its value, by the principles which have been advanced.Before we do so, however, it becomes us to remove an objection of a different character which has been urged against this study, and which,