1846.] Education. 143 



ness of its own wing. The worm of the dust in its slimy track, 

 knows no guide save its own feeble instincts. The earth, the air, 

 ihe sea, " and all that in them is," have stamped upon th 'ir phy- 

 sical condition a law for their development, that each take care of 

 itself. And man, the noblest of them all ; the only created thing 

 which to the instincts of nature, hath added the lights of reason; 

 who " perisheth not as the beasts perish," he, too, for the de- 

 velopment of his intellectual nature, is subject to the same gene- 

 ral law, that each rely upon himself. 



^ ■^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ 



But while I would thus encourage you by the example of oth- 

 ers to test your capacities to the utmost, do not let me be misun- 

 derstood. I do not urge you into a headlong impetuosity — a 

 rush upon the duties of life without preparation — a blind reliance 

 upon your own powers, in despite of the counsels of your elders. 

 All experience confirms the truth of the sentiment, " temeritatis 

 est videlicet aetatis, prudentia senescentis." Nor do I suppose 

 that all who hear me are to shine as stars of the first magnitude. 

 We cannot all be destined to an immortality of fame. But each 

 of you may become respectable in the several departments of hu- 

 man industry. This is a target within " point blank" distance; 

 all may reach it. Literature, and science; the healing art; the 

 pulpit; the bar, and the council chamber are all open. But in 

 each and all, at every step you must remember that self reliance 

 is essential to success. 



In science or literature, to make a name which will live beyond 

 the hour, a man must do something or say something, worth being 

 done or said, and not better said or done before. He must add 

 something to the knowledge or happiness of his species. And 

 without the habit of self reliance, even literary men attempt 

 nothing serious. They are elegant triflers only. They skim the 

 surface of human knowledge as certain birds skim the face of the 

 deep, just touching a pinion to the watei- in sport, then sparkling 

 go away into other. But there is another of a higher order, 

 which self-sustained, poises itself aloft, with eye fixed, then pitch- 

 es from its height down, down to the very depths beneath; then 

 upward soars, higher, higher still, with its treasure in its beak." 



Before you embark in public life, you will, if just to yourselves, 

 prepare yourselves by deep and careful study of the history, con- 

 stitution and laws of your country. This will avail you more a 

 thousand fold, than all that petty knowledge of political detail 

 picked up in magazines and newspapers; and which is current, 

 as a kind of circulating medium among street politicians. A spe- 

 cies of knowledge, which, like small change, answers only the 

 small purposes of life. Let your views and objects be more'libe- 

 ral and enlightened. You do not live in a day of revolution — 



