76 CLINTON S INTRODUCTORY DISCOURSE. 



perhaps, the most controverted subject of political economy is, whether 

 the home or foreign commerce is most productive of national wealth ? 



I am persuaded that sufficient has been said to show that this insti- 

 tution embraces the most important objects of investigation, deeply, 

 intimately, essentially, and extensively connected with the best interests 

 of science, the prosperity of our country, and the dignity of man. It 

 now remains that we should perform faithfully what we have undertaken 

 voluntarily. The harvest is great, and the labourers are few. The 

 cultivation of knowledge, like the cultivation of virtue, is its own reward. 



" Speak ye the pure delight, whose favour'd steps 



The lamp of science through the jealous maze 



Of nature guides, when haply you reveal 



Her secret honours : whether in the sky, 



The heauteous laws of light, the central powers, 



That wheel the central planets round the year ; 



Whether in wonders of the rolling deep, 



Or the rich fruits of all-sustaining earth, 



Or fine-adjusted spriDgs of life and sense, 



Ye scan the counsels of their author's hand." 



Pleasures ok Imagination, b- 2. 



History and observation justify the remark that, while the move- 

 ments of conquest have been from the north to the south, and the course 

 of the precious metals from the west to the east, that the progress of 

 the ocean and of the atmosphere, of the arts and sciences, and of the 

 civilization of the human species, has been from the rising to the setting 

 sun: and, according to the uniform experience of mankind, we have 

 every reason to believe that our country will be the chosen seat, and 

 favourite abode, of learning and science. May this association be a hum- 



