110 Extracts from the Journals. [Jan., 



it be argued that the Christian religion is an evil because thou- 

 sands have died martyrs in its defence. 



On the contrary, institutions of learning — the college and the 

 university — have, in all ages of the civilized world, been the 

 houses of freedom, — the nurseries of human rights, — and in no 

 country, or age, has that freedom been defended, or those rights 

 advocated with so much ardor and efficiency as by the learned. 

 So w^as it in Greece, when Demosthenes thundered his Philippics 

 against the tyrant of Macedon; so was'it in Rome, when Tully 

 raised his eloquent voice in defence of the popular rights; so was 

 it in England, when a Milton, a Hamden, and other similar 

 spirits, employed their pens and their tongues in behalf of the 

 violated Magna Charta of English liberties; so was it when 

 Kosciusko, at the head of the flower of educated brave youths of 

 ill-fated Poland, attempted in vain to throw off the yoke of 

 Russian despotism; so was it in France, when La Fayette and 

 his illustrious compatriots essayed, without success, to guide their 

 country's helm safely through the perils of regal rule, on the one 

 hand, and bloody Jacobinism, on the other; and so was it in our 

 own America, when a Hancock and Adams, a Washington and 

 Warren, in council and on the field, raised their voices and arms 

 against British oppression. Ignorance is ever the accompaniment 

 of despotism, as learning is that of free governments. 



One of the chief impediments to the advancement of learning 

 in this country is, it is feared, the time-serving and unmanly 

 spirit manifested by our scholars themselves — by those whose 

 first and great care it should be to further the good cause by 

 every means in their power. If they, who are the recipients of 

 the great blessings of education, yield to the utilitarian and anti- 

 literary prejudices of the day, by whom is it expected the glorious 

 standard of literature and science will be upheld and borne for- 

 ward? If they are faithless to the high trusts reposed in them, 

 by whom are those trusts to be executed? Not, surely, by the 

 ignorant and vulgar — by empty-brained and soulless agrarians. 

 There must be a waking up on this subject by our men of learn- 

 ing. A heavy responsibility rests upon them, imposed alike by 

 duty and patriotism, to do all in their power — though it cost 

 them their time, labor and substance — to advance the glorious 

 cause of letters and sound education. It is the cause of our 

 country, of truth, virtue and religion. Let that cause be tri- 

 umphant over the land, and w^e shall witness a wonderful revo- 

 lution, for the better, in the characters and conditions of our 

 people, in whatever avocation they may be engaged. The arts 

 of the demagogue will be forgotten, and our politicians — pro- 

 moted to office upon the true republican principle of " honesty 

 and capability" — will vie with each other in their efforts to effect 



