1846.] Education. 141 



read it. It at least hints at the reason why the great mass of 

 men know so little of common truth, even of those operations in 

 nature we may add, by which the fruits of the earth are pro- 

 duced.] 



In the outset of your career I wish to impress upon you the ne- 

 cessity of self-reliance as essential to success in life. I do not 

 mean by this to inculcate that which is synonymous with mere 

 industry. A life-time may be spent in gathering up the thoughts 

 of other men. The granary may be full, and yet not a sheaf of 

 your own be there. The ancient mariner who crept along the 

 coast, guided by some mark on the land, or at best some star in 

 the sky, was just as laborious as he, who, before the shape of the 

 earth was settled, or the philosophy of Newton was known, rea- 

 soning from visible objects only, steered his ship boldly into the 

 great deep, to reach Cathay, the further India, by a western pas- 

 sage. It is the self-reliance of intellect, of thought, which I 

 would inculcate as necessary to distinction in life. And without 

 meaning to touch upon the province of others, whose better right 

 it is, to enforce our humble dependence upon a Higher Power; I 

 would add that such dependence from the creature to the Creator, 

 is daily and hourly due; that its constant acknowledgement gives 

 strength to our w^eakness, upholds us in every effort for the better 

 development of our powers. Let it not then be forgotten that the 

 self-reliance I inculcate in the course of these remarks, is in ex- 

 clusion only of that reliance w^hich feeble man places upon his 

 fellow. 



And here permit me, in the first place, to refer to a principle of 

 our nature antagonistical to the exCTcise and development of this 

 faculty. I mean the vis inerticB of the animal, as opposed to the 

 intellect of the man. It is more pervading and controlling in its 

 effects than the vanity of our nature will readily admit. The 

 truth is, mankind in the mass, are indolent. How else is it that 

 they know so little, as a whole, of common philosophic truth? so 

 little of the material universe around them? They live by the 

 fruits of the earth, yet scarcely ask how nature works in their 

 production. The lightnings play, the winds come, and the raijis 

 descend; they see the effect, but trouble themselves not to under- 

 stand the cause. The sky is literally bespangled w'ith shining 

 bodies; some fixed, some wandering, and some shooting madly 

 from their sphere; they look in momentary surprise at a falling 

 star, then trouble themselves no further about the economy of 

 God's glorious universe! While these things add nothing to 

 sound sleep or easy digestion, the inertia of the animal is too 

 much for the intellect of the man. However much we may talk 

 of the incitements of honorable ambition, I very much fear they 

 only control the few: that it is want — the wants of physical na- 



