134 WISDOM AND FOLLY. 



flourish within the walls of the col- 

 leges, while ignorance of the grossest 

 nature should reign without, (a fact 

 that cannot be controverted), raised at 

 once my amazement and my curiosity. 



It was natural to suppose that the know- 

 ledge and wisdom of which those walls 

 could so justly boast, if they did not 

 impart virtue, would spread their influ- 

 ence far and wide ; and that every ex- 

 hibition of folly and dissipation opposed 

 to morality and religion would be pro- 

 hibited ; but it is not a very uncom- 

 mon thing to confound causes and effects, 

 as well as to anticipate effects as the 

 natural result of such causes, that are 

 never realised. 



The very fact of more than two thousand 

 men, most of them in the heyday of youth, 

 in the glow of health and full flow of 

 animal spirits, assembled at College, albeit 

 to receive instruction and to imbibe wis- 

 dom, involves a considerable expenditure, 



