46 DR. betiiune's oration. 



mered utilitarianism. There are the nigged, the barren, and the drea- 

 ry, but how far excelling in niiniber and extent are the graceful, the 

 changeful, the wonderful and the bright ! How lavish has he been of 

 trees, and shrubs, and herbs, and flowers, moulding their anatomy and 

 painting their leaves with infinite skill! Mountain and valley, hill and 

 dale and plain, forest and meadow, brook and river and lake and sea, 

 combine their contrasts to adorn the fruitful earth for the dwelling of 

 its innumerable tribes. Above us, the clouds, dark, fleecy, or gorgeous, 

 of every shape, sweep over the face of heaven, or hang around the hori- 

 zon, or passing away, leave the blue vault magnificent with the garni- 

 ture of sun and moon and planet and constellation. They all have their 

 uses ; but is their beauty, with our faculty to perceive and to feel it, of 

 no use ; an extravagance of the Creator, a profuseness of bounty, from 

 which we must abstain in a self-denial more prudent than the kindness 

 of God. Let the cold, dull plodder, who, intent on his creeping steps, 

 fears to look up and delight himself in that which God delights in. — 

 Study tlie lyrics of David, tlie rhapsodies of holy prophets and the il- 

 lustrated sermons of his Lord.'' Amongst the studies prominently set 

 forth in the discourse are the ancient classics. The views expressed 

 on this subject, are unexceptionable and cannot be plausibly gainsayed. 

 Gladly would we adorn our pages with extracts from the rich and grace- 

 ful expositions on this topic but we are admonished by our limits to ab- 

 stain. A single passage must suffice : " Who will challenge the services 

 of Luther, profoundlj'^ versed in ancient wisdom, and Mclancliton, (ille 

 Germaniae suse magister, omnis doctrines praesidio instructus, divinis hu- 

 nianisque Uteris ornatus,) whose eloquent exhoitations to the study of 

 the classics have ^iccompanied the Augsburg Confession to us ; of Cal- 

 vin and Rivet, wliose Ciceronian periods enchant the scholar as much 

 as their matchless divinity edifies the saint, of Zuingle, an editor of Pin- 

 dar, and Piscator, a translator of Horace ; of Grotius, teacher of all 

 moral science, and the Elder Vossius, worthy of being named with his 

 great compatriot, of Owen, Baxter, and Howe, each thoroughly bred to 

 the use of books ; of Matthew Henry, whose apt quotations show a 

 stretch of reading which, from his modest quaintness, we might not 

 otherwise have suspected, and Doddridge, whose style betrays caily fa- 

 miliarity with classic models ; of Lardner and Warburton, who heaped 

 the spoil of the Gentiles in the temple of the Lord, and of many others 

 not to speak of those in our own day and in our own land, honored 

 alike by the erudite and the good .' Was their piety, because of their 

 learning, less active or less useful, than that of those who cannot take 



