AND THE MODE OP TEACHING THEM. 453 



Such, Gentlemen, are the provisions which the Heads of the 

 University have made for your instruction. The profession you 

 have adopted, whose duties were not long since limited to the 

 construction and care of engines, has now risen to take its rank 

 among the first of the liberal professions. In a country like ours, 

 where public works of such magnitude are ever in progress, the 

 interests committed to its keeping are numerous and weighty; 

 and the knowledge demanded of it proportionably varied and 

 extensive. It is your part, then, to try to profit by the oppor- 

 tunities thrown open to you. Attend with diligence to the 

 instruction which will be given to you in these halls ; take notes 

 of what you hear ; and endeavour to combine the knowledge thus 

 gained with the results of your private reading. You have every 

 inducement that can be offered to exertion. The path which is 

 to conduct you to the goal of your profession is interesting and 

 attractive ; and the career which afterwards expands before you 

 is one in which you may serve your country nobly, and earn for 

 yourselves an honourable independence, and an honourable fame. 



