232 
This confession binds you to contri- 
bute your share to the establishment of 
truth and of law. 
For my studies in this university, I 
refer you to what may be collected from 
my writings, my sevtiments, and my 
zeal for the prosperity of my country, 
which are sufficiently well known. Lf 
will only add, that the period of my 
education there was the same which 
erect many of the young men who 
have since contributed so largely to the 
organization of the government which 
now smiles upon us, and from whose 
character and talents, we may enter- 
tain the best hopes of its prosperity. 
Among the public tutors of that 
epoch, to whom I owed the most, and 
by whom the greater number of the 
young men of reputation in the uni- 
versity were formed, was Dr. D. José 
Domingo Mintegui, a man equally con- 
spicuous for learning and modesty. He 
has in vain endeavoured to retire from 
the situations to which this city has 
called him whenever it has needed a 
man of intelligence and virtue. He 
alone in Salamanca possessed a copy of 
your works, when in the year 1813,dur- 
ing his absence as deputy to the Cortes, 
T made them known in the university. 
Government has lately eppointed him 
to a situation in the general direction 
of education, with the hearty concur- 
rence of your disciples and of all good 
men. 
When the constitution was prescrib- 
ed, J was separated from this university 
and from its library, which had been 
entrusted to me in 1812; as were also 
two other professors,* who did honour 
to it by their works, and by their 
learning, for no other cause than the 
holding of opinions opposed to the new 
direction sought to be given to the 
course of study. 
This reverse, however, we all bore 
with resignation, studying in the school 
of adversity, which alone discovers the 
resources of courage, until the new 
order of political affairs restored us to 
the bosom of our university. I am now 
about to carry to the congress of the 
nation the information I have derived 
from my instructors here and from 
you, the experience of its utility in 
human affairs, and the opinions which 
I have formed from the perusal of all 
our productions. I wish you to un- 
derstand that I refer whatever know- 
* D. Juan Justo Garcia, and D. Mig- 
uel Martel, now deputies in Cortes, 
Memoirs of Nunez, the 
[April 1, 
ledge I have been able to collect from 
books and the study of men, to this lite- 
rary institution, to which I owe the 
cure of the cataracts with which upon 
our eyes we all come into the world ; un- 
til at length, the light of your principles 
broke upon the obscure path, which 
conducted me in my enquiry into the 
origin of our moral ideas, and in my 
search for that touch-stone of them, 
for which this same institution has al- 
ways been celebrated. You may per- 
ceive by the dates to which I refer, that 
Iam not so young as you appear to 
have imagined from the preliminary 
discourse to your works which I pub- 
lished, wherein I announced the glory 
that awaited you: if the warmth with 
which it is written bas excited in you 
this idea, it has deceived you; I go to 
the Cortes with many grey hairs, yet 
with the same ardour for the welfare of 
my country and for the good cause of 
the human race, which is manifested 
in that sketch. May heaven grant that 
my knowledge, corrected by yours, my 
integrity, and my prudence may cor- 
respond with my good intentions, as 
with your aid, I hope they will; and if 
with this disposition J implore whatever 
instruction my enlightened master can 
still give me, I am persuaded he will 
not refuse to assist with his advice his 
“beloved” disciple, and the nation, 
already enriched by so many proofs 
of his affection, to which that disciple 
has the houour to belong. At about 
the same time that you complete your 
seventy-fourth year, I shall complete 
my fifty-sixth ; but from what you tell 
me of your strength and spirits, 1 must 
be as far advanced in the decline of Jife, 
through weakness of constitution as 
you through age; this, however gives 
me no anxiety, nor do I desire to live 
longer than will enable me to accom- 
plish what depends upon me, and to 
assist my children with my counsels. 
My fortune has indeed never been large, 
but I have acquired it by my own exer- 
tions, without sacrificing my own inde- 
pendence or injuring others; and it 
has been sufficient to maintain my fa- 
mily with decency. I have never de- 
sired nor solicited public employments, 
and if after serving my country with 
fidelity, and obtaining some benefits for 
this city which I love, and for the peo- 
ple of this province, who have honoured 
me with their confidence, I can pass 
some years in the library of this univer- 
sity, in so forming the reason of the 
amiable youth around me, that it may 
hereafter 
