538 Dedication of Polytechnic Mall— Address. [November, 



knowledge, to liim who needs and knows its use. But to undertake 

 to give one and the same man all this, is to attempt to educate a God 

 and not a man ; while the attempt to give him a smattering of the 

 vast whole, without any clear, definite and practical knowledge of 

 any part, will end only in the production of a pedantic fool— mere 

 talkers of commonplace, and slaves of extant custom and authority, 

 who owe the silly influence they exert on human society to their 

 Braminical caste, and the deplorable ignorance around them, far more 

 than to any real and truly practical wisdom, or superior mental or 

 moral power of their own. 



Human life is so short, the powers of the human mind are so lim- 

 ited, that it is only a mere point in this vast field of infinite knowl- 

 edge that the brightest genius can fully explore, much less reduce to 

 its ultimate uses and ends. Among civilized and enlightened men, 

 there must ever be a division of labor and of pursuit. This division 

 will be based on that diversity and aptitude which God has enstamp- 

 ed on every human soul, and which no artifices of teachers or schools 

 can ever efface. To attempt to force the same modes of culture and 

 development upon all human minds, is as impracticable and absurd 

 as to attempt to drive them all into the same occupations and pursuits, 

 or to compel all animals to eat straw with the ox, or spout water 

 with the whale. The Esquimaux can not live on oranges, nor the 

 West Indian on whale oil ; yet the laws and habits of the mind are, 

 if anything, more various and inflexibly diverse than those of the 

 body, and require more varied adjustments for its appropriate nurture 

 and development. This leads us to another remark, which is : That 

 a knowledge of things directly connected icifh ones own individual in- 

 terests, is not only practical for each individual, but it also furnishes 

 the only sure and proper basis of his own highest mental and moral 

 discipline and development of mind. The allotment of these vari- 

 ous pursuits of life is not a Divine blunder— intended to consign 

 nine-tenths of the human race to brutal ignorance, with scarce men- 

 tal capacity enough to feed themselves— and produce another — mis- 

 called educated class — all nerves and brains, with no bodies or souls 



particularly skilled only to tyranize over, and defraud and rob their 



supposed inferiors by the varied stratagems of law, of custom, and 

 of faith ; but it is the highest manifestation of the infinite God and 

 Father of all, adapted, when rightly understood and improved, to 

 serve not only the broadest freedom, and the highest, and purest 

 faith, but also the most perfect moral and mental development of all 



