ADDRESS. XXIX 



you will say, all is imaginary — and to what use do we feed our minds with 

 these empty pictures of unattainable good? To what use, do you ask? 

 Some of you, well aware that, in the constitution of man, imagination and 

 hope, — the boldest imagination, the loftiest hope, — are not without their use 

 — aware what that use is, have already answered this question in your own 

 hearts. Of what use are the ideal pictures of objects that tend to elevate 

 and improve the condition of man ? Of that use, which, if we disregard, the 

 condition of man forthwith becomes degraded, and his prospects a blank. 

 They are of use in raising our thoughts and stimulating our exertions, so 

 that we may become Aviser, and better, and nobler than we are. Is this a 

 new doctrine ? God be thanked, in this country at least, it has long been 

 familiar to men's minds — has been practically acted upon, and has been 

 attended with the most blessed and glorious effects. Let us look to other 

 objects, very different from the increase of knowledge, and we shall easily 

 discern the operation of this doctrine. It is not difficult to see in what form 

 we may expect to find it showing itself. For if we imagine this Utopia of a 

 perfect government, Solomon's House will not be the only ideal institution 

 there. In such a land of justice, and wisdom, and religion, we shall have 

 colleges for diffusing justice, and wisdom, and religion over the face of the 

 earth. We shall have a college for teaching the poor, a college for repress- 

 ing the vicious, a college for the abolition of slavery, a college for diffusing 

 Christianity over the face of the globe. Such colleges we should have in our 

 Utopia — but Utopia is not. What then ? do we therefore despair of these 

 great objects ? Do we sigh to think that all this contemplated good is mere 

 imagination ? Do we lament that we are not in an absolute monarchy, 

 where the wisdom of the sovereign, supported by unlimited power, might 

 call into existence those beneficial institutions ? Do we despair of these 

 great and good objects, because we live in a state of society where men act 

 each for himself, unforced by supreme power ? Do we cast away our ideas, 

 because we are not likely to be carried towards their realization by the whole 

 power of the state ? Do we do this ; or do we not do something very dif- 

 ferent ? Something very different indeed we do. We still keep our thoughts 

 fastened upon our ideas of what is highest and best ; but feeling that we are 

 free, and that it is our glorious privilege to act as freemen, we attempt to 

 realize our ideas, not by the power of the state, but by that power which, in 

 such a state and on such subjects, represents the conviction of the nation, the 

 power of voluntary association. We have had thus, — not state colleges, but 

 voluntary societies, — for Christianizing the Heathen, for teaching the igno- 

 rant, for repressing the vicious ; and we had a voluntary Society for the Abo- 

 lition of Slavery, till the principle of voluntary association, in that instance, 

 thank God I performed its work even to the end, by inducing the State to take 

 up and carry into effect the great object which had been the aim of the vo- 

 luntary society from its foundation. 



What, then, is the conclusion to which we are led, by looking at the spirit 

 of our country, as shown in its most strenuous exertions and most glorious 

 acts, and combining this view with the loftiest ideal aspirations of the greatest 

 philosophers the land and the world have produced ? What but this ? that 

 with regard to that institution, which has for its object to extend the bounds 

 of human knowledge, we must realize the idea in the same manner as we 

 endeavour to realize other ideas in our practice ; — that what in a perfect 

 monarchy would be done by a wise sovereign, we must do by voluntary 

 exertion ; — that in the place of a Solomon's House supported by the State, we 

 must have a British Association supported by ourselves. 



The British Association has now for ten years discharged the office of such 



