44 ' - 1311. CETHUNe's OllATION. 



as below mediocrity, those master spirits who have now proved their 

 capacity to move the v^'orkh 



Mow careful then should the teacher be, not to despise the mystery 

 of boyhood ; for who knows what, in any given instance, may be the 

 hidden gferm which has not yet budded into life ! And how much is it 

 the interest as well as the duty of every scholar not to fold his talent 

 in a napkin, lest the gift whicii in his folly he has neglected as the ver- 

 iest pittance, might have proved a richer treasure than the untold wealth 

 of Eastern kinsrs. 



Rev. Dr. Bethune's Oration. Yale College. 



The author of this address is an admired minister of the Gospel iu 

 one of the churches of the city of Philadelphia. His reputation as a 

 pulpit orator is very high, and he has, on more than one occasian, ap- 

 peared before the public with literary addresses, which have obtained 

 for him the highest award of praise that accompanies successful efl'orts 

 of this description. The address before ns takes its place, amongst 

 those which have issued from his pen, and^challenges attention both on 

 account of the celebrity of the orator, and the fame of the school be- 

 fore whose literary societies it was delivered. It has been before the 

 public more than a year, but deserves to be rescued from that oblivion 

 into which such productions so speedily pass. It deserves our com- 

 mendation, not because it was asked for publication by the societies be- 

 fore which it was delivered, not on account of the favorable reception 

 it has met from the newspaper-press, though we feel n^ inclination to 

 undervalue their judgment, which in the absence of proof to the con- 

 trar}' we are bound to consider intelligent and just, but because of the 

 solidity of the matter and the tastefulness of the attire in which it ap- 

 pears. In this, as in other performances, Dr. Eelhune evinces his clas- 

 .sical predilections, and displays an uninterrupted intercourse with the 

 writers of Greece and Rome. It is worthy of notice, when any one 

 engaged in an arduous and laborious profession, (and what more so than 

 the Christian ministry, when its duties are conscientiously discharged,) 

 resists the temptations, so effective with many, entirely to lay aside the 

 perusal of the master spirits of the past, those especially who have 

 earned for tiiemsclves the honored appellation of "Classics." 



Detaining our readers too long from the Oration itself, which we de- 

 sign to notice especially for the benefit of that class of persons to whom 

 it was more particularly addressed, wc announce its subject as 'sStudy,-' 

 one, the importance dWil adaplcducbs of which to his auditory, will not 



