Imágenes de página
PDF
ePub

INTRODUCTORY DISCOURSE.

BY FRANCIS WAYLAND, JUNIOR.

PRESIDENT OF BROWN UNIVERSITY.

[IN March, 1830, a society was established at Boston in the United States, called the American Institute of Instruction. It consisted chiefly of teachers, but is open to any one "of good moral character, interested in the subject of education," a dollar being paid on admission, and an annual subscription of a like sum, by every member. At the meetings, the principal of which takes place in August of each year, and continues for several days, the members are occupied with discussions on questions brought forward relative to matters connected with education, and lectures are delivered upon similar subjects. The Society have also instituted prizes for essays on subjects appointed by them. By the constitution of the Society, the Board of Directors are empowered to appoint competent persons to deliver an address at the annual meeting, and lectures "on such subjects relating to education as they may deem expedient and useful;" and they are also to collect such facts as may promote the general interests of the Society. The censors are to publish such of these as may tend to throw light on the subject of education, and aid the faithful instructor in the discharge of his duty." Two volumes have been published, containing much valuable matter, and from these volumes we take the following

66

Introductory Discourse, delivered by Francis Wayland, President of Brown University, at the first annual meeting, and shall avail ourselves in the course of this work of a few of the lectures delivered before this Society.]

In the long train of her joyous anniversaries, New England has yet beheld no one more illustrious than this. We have assembled to-day, not to proclaim how well our fathers have done, but to inquire how we may enable their sons to do better. We meet, not for the purposes of empty pageant, nor yet of national rejoicing, but to deliberate upon the most successful means for cultivating, to its highest perfection, that invaluable amount of intellect, which Divine Providence has committed to our hands. We have come up here to the city of the Pilgrims, to ask how we may render their children most worthy of their ancestors and most pleasing to their God. We meet to give to each other the right hand of fellowship in carrying forward this allimportant work, and here to leave our professional pledge, that, if the succeeding generation do not act worthily, the guilt shall not rest upon those who are now the Instructors of New England.

Well am I aware that the occasion is worthy of the choicest effort of the highest talent in the land. Sincerely do I wish that upon such talent the duty of addressing you this day had devolved. Much do I regret that sudden indisposition has deprived me of the time which had been set apart to meet the demands of the present occasion, and that I am only able to offer for your consideration such reflections as have been

snatched from the most contracted leisure, and gleaned amid the hurried hours of languid convalescence. But I bring, as an offering to the cause of education, a mind deeply penetrated with a conviction of its surpassing importance, and enthusiastically ardent in anticipating the glory of its ultimate results. I know, then, that I may liberally presume upon your candour, while I rise to address those, to very many of whom it were far more beseeming that I quietly and humbly listened.

The subject which I have chosen for our mutual improvement is, The object of intellectual education; and the manner in which that object is to be attained.

I. It hath pleased Almighty God to place us under a constitution of universal law. By this we mean, that nothing, either in the physical, intellectual, or moral world, is in any proper sense contingent. Every event is preceded by its regular antecedents, and followed by its regular consequents; and hence is formed that endless chain of cause and effect which binds together the innumerable changes which are taking place everywhere around us.

When we speak of this system as subjected to universal law, we mean all this; but this is not all that we mean. The term law, in a higher sense, is applied to beings endowed with conscience and will, and then there is attached to it the idea of rewards and punishments. It is then used to signify a constitution so arranged, that one course of action shall be inevitably productive of happiness, and another course shall be as inevitably productive of misery. Now, in this higher sense it is strictly and universally true, that we are placed under a constitution of law. Every action which we perform is as truly amenable as inert matter

[blocks in formation]

to the great principles of the government of the universe, and every action is chained to the consequences which the Creator has affixed to it as unalterably as any sequence of cause and effect in physics. And thus, with equal eloquence and truth, the venerable Hooker has said, "of law there can be no less acknowledged than that her seat is the bosom of God, her voice the harmony of the world; all things in heaven and earth do her homage, the very least as feeling her care, and the very greatest as not exempted from her power; both angels and men and creatures of what condition soever, though each in different sort and manner, yet all with uniform consent, admiring her as the mother of their peace and joy."

Such a constitution having been established by a perfectly wise Creator, it may be easily supposed that it will remain unchangeable. His laws will not be altered for our convenience. We may obey them or disobey them, we may see them or not see them, we may be wise or unwise, but they will be rigidly and unalterably enforced. Thus must it ever be, until we have the power to resist the strength of Omnipotence.

Again; it is sufficiently evident that the very constitution which God has established is, with infinite wisdom and benevolence, devised for just such a being, physical, intellectual, and moral, as man. By obedience to the laws of God, man may be as happy as his present state will allow. Misery is always the result of a violation of some of the laws which the Creator has established. Hence, our great business here, is, to know and obey the laws of our Creator.

That part of man by which we know, and, in the most important sense, obey the laws of the Creator, is

called MIND. I use the word in its general sense, to signify, not merely a substance, not matter capable of intellection, but one also capable of willing, and to which is attached the responsibility of right and wrong in human action. And, still further, it is one of the laws of mind, that increased power for the acquisition of knowledge, and a more universal disposition to obedience, may be the result of the action of one mind upon another, or of the well-directed efforts of the individual mind itself.

Without some knowledge of the laws of nature, it is evident that man would immediately perish. But it is possible for him to have only so much knowledge of them as will barely keep generation after generation in existence, without either adding anything to the stock of intellectual acquisition, or subjecting to his use any of the various agents which a bountiful Providence has everywhere scattered around for the supply of his wants and the relief of his necessities. Such was the case with the aborigines of our country, and such had it been for centuries. Such, also, with but very few and insignificant exceptions, is the case in Mohammedan and Pagan countries. The sources of their happiness are few and intermitting-those of their misery multiplied and perpetual.

Looking upon such nations as these, we should involuntarily exclaim, What a waste of being, what a loss of happiness, do we behold! Here are intelligent creatures placed under a constitution devised by infinite wisdom to promote their happiness. The very penalties which they suffer are so many proofs of the divine goodness-mere monitions to direct them in the paths of obedience. And besides this, they are endowed with

« AnteriorContinuar »