found no very apt pupil, as far as logic is concerned, in him who can entertain the idea, that he may honorably go from beneath their roof, to pursue merely his own selfish ends with the help of the learning which they gave him, regardless henceforward of them, and of the purposes for which they bestowed it.

But, if we owe the patrons of our college such a debt, to whom shall we repay it? since from its nature and the circumstances of the case, it is incapable of being discharged directly to themselves, nor was such their own intention.

I. We should testify our gratitude, in the first place, by causing their good offices to be effectual for that elevation of our own characters, which was one of the objects in their contemplation.

Doubtless it was part of their design, to be benefactors, on a large scale, by promoting the individual good of all, who, from age to age, should present themselves to share in the advantages they offered; and, accordingly, by using those advantages to that end, it belongs to us to accomplish their wishes, and render our acknowledgments. They intended to give to every object of their liberality the power of earning, by the honest labor of his mind, a decent maintenance, without being further burdensome to others; and so far they would have a right to complain of whoever should go from beneath their care to live an idle life, even if he should think to dignify his pusillanimous unprofitableness, by calling it by some such name as the enjoyment of learned leisure. They de

signed to give to their pensioners opportunity to realize the satisfactions, appropriate to the holding of those places in society, which are attended with influence, and regarded with respect; and it concerns our duty to them, that no negligence of ours should frustrate this their purpose. But they intended, my hearers, to put us in possession of enjoyments, far beyond what any array of prosperous external circumstances is able to afford. The world of intellect and feeling within us, is that where our happiness is most truly held to reside; and that world it was their purpose to set in order and enrich. The high and unalloyed satisfactions, which God has made to be found in the pursuit and contemplation of the truth; the pleasures inseparable from the mind's action in a sphere, where there is every thing to excite, and nothing to irritate; the delights belonging to the developement and harmony of those capacities, which ally the human with superior natures; the joys that inhabit the empyrean region of sober thought; to these, and to a strong and permanent relish for these, it was their will to introduce us, and if we do not greatly prize and earnestly seek the boon, we shall have done them, as truly as ourselves, much less than justice. They did not desire to give a knowledge, which should serve the bad purposes of an unholy mind. They did not aim to furnish, in any man's cultivated understanding, an armoury of treason against his higher nature. It was the mandate of a christian charity, which bade these walls arise; of a charity, which con

templated the advancement of the interests of the accountable and never-dying soul. Upon their humble front, when first it lifted itself, making the desert rejoice, it wrote their consecration to Christ and to the Church.' It did not mean thus to announce alone, that it proposed to rear within them a ministry for Christ's and the Church's service; though this of course was one prominent way towards the attainment of the more comprehensive object; but, that it would build up, in every heart it might reach, an invisible temple of the christian faith, that it would send forth in every intellect it should nurture, an efficient friend and advocate of the Redeemer's cause. It meant to make the intellectual element in man capable of ministering effectually to the higher element of goodness; of doing its bidding, and quickening its growth, and signalizing its dignity. Few, if any, my friends, let us trust, will ever be found those recreant brethren of ours, who will be so lost to reason and to duty alike, as to use the weapons, with which they have furnished themselves from this mental arsenal, in a warfare against all that is most excellent within them. Such a foolish son' might well be called the heaviness of his mother,' and 'his mother,' as the prophet says, besore confounded by him.' Be it ours, at all events, to render so far the most acceptable honor to the benefactors of our minds, by dedicating all conquests, we may have won in the wide field of intellect, for so many sanctified offerings to the supreme source of all intelligence ;

by making all knowledge and accomplishments, we have been assisted to acquire, lend their aid towards the culture of a manly, pervading, and vigorous piety. The intellectual light is but faint and clouded, unless the spiritual lend its rays, making it pierce and warm, while it shines nor alone can it quicken any growth of the soul, to repay much pains in the rearing. But let the acquisitions of the understanding bring the tribute of their energy and richness to the graces of the heart, and we witness a venerable specimen of that nature, which then without incredulity we hear described as a little lower than the angels.'

II. But certainly it was not the ultimate object of those, whose wishes, having been benefited by their bounty, we are bound to consult, to convey even the highest good to such as should be the immediate objects of their care. They entertained the comprehensive wishes of patriots, of philanthropists, of christians. At their own cost, but through our agency, they designed to benefit their race, in our country, in all countries, in all interests, in all times. Intelligent and well-intended human action, they knew was the instrument for doing this; and for such action they designed to give power and impulse, through their benefactions, to every mind which these should reach.

Accordingly, my friends, I present it as a distinct and unquestionable obligation resting on the sons of this college, to go thence to labor, after the largest measure of their powers, for the pro

motion of the common good. We withhold the payment of a debt contracted to those, who have here put us in possession of any capacities of effective action we may exert, if we limit ourselves, in the use of these capacities, to the attainment of any personal end. In whatever liberal pursuit we may choose, we cannot consent, until we have become deaf to the plainest dictates of justice, to do merely as much as will give us a living, or wealth, or office, or fame, and there cease our endeavours. Our public spirit, our spirit of christian benevolence, is to be partly manifested in one or another form, according to the peculiar facilities and occasions of that sphere of service to God and our generation, which we may have adopted for our own; but in no sphere of action can it honorably fail of being manifested. The lawyer is not to argue his causes, and satisfy his clients, and receive his gains, and then suppose that he is acquitted of his duty. No; he received part of his preparation to do this at the charge of those, who demand from him, in return, that he should make some contribution to those great doctrines of social justice, on which, as on a broad and firm foundation, the fabric of social happiness stands; or, at least, that, pervaded by the spirit of the noble science he professes, he should always be found standing in his lot, the inflexible friend of public liberty and order, and of private right. The physician has not discharged the obligations, which here in the early stage of his career were laid upon him, when he has pur