ADDRESS.

GENTLEMEN OF THE PEITHOLOGIAN SOCIETY,-In undertaking the task to which your flattering invitation has called me, I have been influenced by no vain expectation of fulfilling it to your satisfaction, or my own. Profoundly sensible of the difficulty of preparing a discourse equal to such an occasion, or of worthily treating the great interests of literature and science, my object in acceding to your wishes has been solely to testify a respect for your institution, and a desire to evade the performance of no duty devolving upon me as a member of your society.

With unfeigned pleasure I congratulate you at this your first public celebration upon the success that has thus far attended your persevering exertions to establish a society, which, having in view the laudable design of mutual improvement, deserves the encouragement and good wishes of every friend of education. In spite of unusual and disheartening obstacles, you have from a small band grown to respectability in numbers, have accumulated a valuable library, the fruit of individual liberality, and have laid the foundations of an association, which, if maintained with equal zeal by those who shall come after you, will secure to your names a lasting and grateful remembrance.

Such societies have existed so long in most of our American colleges, as to have fully tested their utility, and not unfrequently have been deemed worthy to enlist the ablest pens and most eloquent tongues, to do honor to their anniversary commemorations. Their aim being more immediately directed to improvement in the arts of composition and elocution, whether they be viewed as an innocent relaxation from the more dry pursuits of science, or as a stimulating excitement of the varied faculties of the mind, they cannot but be deemed important auxiliaries in the plan of education. It is not clear, indeed, that this field for exercising and invigorating the intellectual powers, and training youth in mimic combats for the busy strife which awaits them beyond the academic walls, has ever yet been improved to the extent of which it is susceptible. Though the scheme of collegiate instruction has been greatly enlarged and advanced in our country, the order and classification of study improved, and the diligence of the student rewarded with far more ample stores of learning than our colleges could formerly bestow, it may not be an unprofitable inquiry for those upon whom devolve the honorable responsibilities of instruction, whether the value of societies like yours has received a corresponding attention.

Among their obvious advantages may be enumerated the active exercise of the invention, memory, and imagination. By this intellectual collision the mind is expanded, the recollection of scientific and historical facts refreshed, and new illustrations and perceptions are awakened. Errors are corrected, definite ideas of things fixed, self-complacency checked, and intellectual torpor prevented. A generous emulation quickens the attention, bending it to close investigation and methodical arrangement; without which the mind cannot arrive at conclusions satisfactory to itself, or convincing to others. Precision

of language, fluency of expression, and graceful elocution imperceptibly follow, until at length the deep fountains of eloquence are unsealed, and powers are revealed to the surprised and delighted youth of which he was before unconscious.

A lofty ambition, such as burns in the bosom of a gifted few, may not need the incentives of emulation to arouse its ardor in quest of knowledge; but the mass of mankind require competition, and hence every system of education which has ever been devised, professes to found itself upon this honorable principle. The effect of well regulated debating societies, is to call into action upon a wider scale whatever has been gained by solitary application, and to excite efforts far beyond those which are prompted by the desire of excellence in the daily round of study. In the latter case, that desire is limited to the just comprehension of portions of science, but in the field of debate every science may be made to contribute its aid, and to furnish weapons whose combined and dexterous use tasks the utmost energies of the mind.

The estimation in which such exercises are held will vary with the different views which each one may entertain on the subject of education. He who contemns the charms of felicitous style, or the graces of oratory, though he may not appreciate their importance in these departments, yet nevertheless will not withhold his approbation of their influence in forming and strengthening the reasoning powers. Such diversities of opinion upon the proper objects and direction of education necessarily arise from the different temperaments and habits of men; and in this age of free discussion have given birth to an endless variety of systems for the instruction of youth. The comparative advantages of public and private tuition, the value of ancient classical learning, the establishment of a uniform and equal standard of education, these, with many other topics of a similar nature, have been agitated in every portion of the civilized world, with a zeal correspondent to their interest and importance.

In our own country, the structure of civil society differing essentially from all historical experience, and presenting new moral and intellectual aspects for philosophical examination, these inquiries respecting the system of education best adapted to a rational and self-governed people, have been pushed farther, and I had almost said more extravagantly, than in any other part of the world. The novelty of our social condition giving plausibility to speculations which cannot always be contradicted by analogy, or confuted by experience, has opened a wide field to visionaries and enthusiasts for the display of their favorite theories, and it is not less remarkable than creditable to the good sense of the people, that thus far these innovators have not been able to make any serious inroad upon the reverend usages and discipline of our universities.

Nevertheless the predominant spirit of the times is improvement.Already its advances have changed the character of the whole civilized world by such rapid triumphs of art, that nothing less than the most extraordinary discoveries and inventions can arrest the public attention. Every element has been vexed by this active and insatiable principle, its hidden virtues explored, and in innumerable forms made tributary to the service of man. Nor has this eager curiosity been confined to the material world. The human mind has been profoundly analyzed,

its various faculties discriminated and defined, and its operations assisted by the most lucid order and arrangement. The first effect of these close and liberal investigations has been to establish a sound and just philosophy in contradistinction to the arbitrary dogmas which had for ages been received upon the authority of distinguished names; the next effect has been a general amelioration of the social state throughout the world. No sooner had the mind been permitted to discover the true relations of things, than men became impatient of every unjust restraint of their natural or civil rights, and after many and painful struggles, have in some countries wholly, and in others partially reclaimed their original inheritance. In the more favored portions of the human family, the principles of civil liberty, guaranteed by law, have become so completely incorporated with every notion of government, that no change or revolution can ever wholly eradicate them. Instead therefore of that restless anxiety which characterizes nations seeking to acquire their primary rights, a people secure of their possession are intent only upon turning them to the utmost possible advantage for themselves, and for mankind. Hence in our own happy country, no plan of moral or intellectual improvement, no scheme of benevolence or philanthropy, no experiment to mitigate the ills of life or advance the interests of society, is viewed with indifference. The foundation of free schools and other institutions for education, the organization of societies for the diffusion of the Gospel, the establishment of foreign missions, and last though not least, the vast and noble design of African colonization, all bear honorable testimony to the active influence of free institutions. The surprising changes wrought by the light of science in the condition of society are illustrated by nothing more strikingly, than by the increased facilities of intercourse, which not only strengthen every where the bonds of human sympathy, but create a chain along which the spark of knowledge is conducted with electric rapidity. Those are now living who may remember when the literary communication between nations was confined to a few learned men, who contrived with difficulty to maintain with each other an uncertain and irregular correspondence; but now every novelty in science, every production of genius, from whatsoever quarter of the globe, is speeded over pathless oceans by the unrivalled skill of modern navigation in an incredibly short space of time, or borne with still greater celerity into the heart of every country by the swift-winged power of steam.

Amid these various and active improvements the subject of education could not fail deeply to engage and divide the public mind. Much that was deemed venerable by our fathers has been exploded by common consent, as inapplicable to our altered condition, and the question still remains undecided, whether yet more shall not be sacrificed upon the altar of reform. Upon the just determination of this question the welfare of future generations greatly depends, for it may not be denied that education exerts a decisive influence upon national as well as individual character, and that we cannot be too cautious in fixing the standard which may affect the destinies of our beloved country to the remotest time.

While a few still cherish an exclusive veneration for the ancient schools, others are willing to concede much to the vast acquisitions of

experimental science in modern times, while a third party with equal zeal reject whatever is not stamped with an obvious, and as it were tangible utility. As usual, the truth probably lies in the middle course, which, embracing a due portion of the practical science of the age, combines also sufficient of polite learning to save us from degenerating into mere utilitarians.

That a lively concern for the cause of education, and a wise discretion in the choice of means, are not only important, but absolutely essential to the permanence of free institutions of government, is obvious to the slightest reflection; since the only sure tenure of popular rights is their thorough comprehension. Nations subject to despotic rule have but a brief lesson to learn, that of passive obedience; but where the governed are also the governors, no one can become too familiar with the various and complicated interest of political and social economy. The apparent simplicity of our own institutions betrays when closely examined the most consummate art, and whoever presumptuously imagines that such a scheme of civil government as binds together this vast confederacy may be easily devised or successfully imitated,

'Sudet multum, frustraque laboret Ausus idem.'

Who shall assert then that any degree of moral or intellectual culture is superfluous to a people daily called, under the auspices of such a constitution, to the exercise of the highest political privileges, and the decision of the gravest questions of human polity?

Yet there are those, I regret to say even among our own countrymen, who refuse to admit the importance of the higher grades of literary institutions, and regard them with a jealous and unfriendly eye, as the nurseries of principles dangerous to freedom, as well as the seats of an unprofitable learning. A prejudice of this kind must be the offspring of ignorance, rashness, or depraved moral taste. Rarely indeed has it the sanction of those to whose opinions experience gives authority, who having themselves drank deeply at the wells of science are best capable of judging of its effects. When we consider that every new acquisition of knowledge brings man one step nearer to the Supreme Intelligence, can it be worthy of a civilized age to wage war like the fanatic Saracen upon the asylums of learning, to bring the human mind down to a dead level, to crush the aspirations of genius, or circumscribe the pure light of science?

The

It is a vulgar error which confounds the character of cloistered learning with the liberal spirit of modern institutions. Science in those days was the handmaid of oppression, forging chains for the mind when the body was already enslaved. Education was literally a craft, in which the truths of nature and the discoveries of art were blended with a vain and frivolous philosophy, deeply tinged with superstition, and basely dedicated to the service of arbitrary power. darkness of popular ignorance favored every species of imposture, and gave to its false lights a meteor brilliancy which dazzled and led astray even the strongest minds. The sublime sciences were prostituted to the juggles of astrology and divination; the study of physics was made subservient to the idle pursuit of alchemy; reason moved mechanically, according to the rules of arbitrary logic, and theology was distorted by fables as monstrous as those of heathen mythology. From this delu

sive and pernicious system the world was at length awakened, by the simplest yet greatest of human inventions, and lifted upon the mighty wings of the press, science soared aloft free and unfettered over the whole civilized world. The unworthy tenants of academic shades were displaced by the ministers of truth, and with the mummeries of religious bigotry for ever fled the sophistries of pedantry, the ostentation of learning, and the creeds of political slavery.

It is likewise a very common and pardonable error of self-taught and strong-minded men, who have hewn out, as it were, their own education without the aid of scholastic discipline, to indulge an overweening contempt for that portion of polite learning which to the classical student is an object of fond veneration. Such persons, referring every thing to the test of its direct applicability to the business pursuits of life, cannot easily be made to comprehend how the study of a dead language, or the perusal of ancient classics, can at all compare in importance with a knowledge of the principles of the steam engine, or the mysteries of trade. They make no allowances because they do not always realize the fine moral influence which these studies exert upon the character, and which have procured for them in some of the schools the honorable and exclusive title of humanities. As intimately connected with individual and social prosperity, the practical sciences are of the first importance, but if man be designed for something more than to make provision for his immediate necessities, or the gratification of his senses, then whatever tends to refine the taste, purify the heart, and exalt the imagination, deserves also a prominent place in the scheme of education. A people whose knowledge should be confined to demonstration, or to mere facts, would be in danger of becoming not only skeptics in religion, but dull and unenterprising in character. The mind requires variety of food for its healthy action, and if we could destroy the records and the writings of antiquity, we should discover, when too late, that we had lost one of the greatest spurs to human intellect, as well as one of the chief sources of its decoration.

Whether it be the necessary result of a general system, or a proof of the peculiar influence of classical literature, it is nevertheless true, that of the multitude of names distinguished in modern history, for that wisdom and eloquence that sway and guide the affairs of nations, or survive in imperishable records to posterity, the far greater number have been deeply imbued with a knowledge of the ancient classics.— Scarce a single exception can be found among the best European writers whose style does not bear the plainest evidence of the models of antiquity, upon which they were formed. Nor does this justify the charge of a tame and servile imitation, any more than the close study of the remains of the great masters of painting or sculpture argues the absence or the restraint of original genius. Whether we imitate the excellencies of others, or aim at originality, still nature is the great prototype, and our success must always be in proportion to the closeness of our adherence to her unerring standard.

The task of public instruction is so responsible and laborious, so replete with sacrifices and privations; its aims are so noble and philanthropic, and the character of its ministers for the most part so exemplary, that we might well wonder how they should become objects of jealousy