harmony with the principles here so briefly and imperfectly sketched. The ample endowment of that

institution will enable its conductors to command the means necessary for a thorough trial of the system, to an extent hitherto unknown in our country; and the anticipation may be confidently indulged, that it will produce results most cheering and salutary, both in respect to the pupils themselves and the community of which they form a part.

There are two or three other topics which I had intended briefly to handle, but the time I have already occupied admonishes me to bring my remarks to a close. I conclude by expressing the hope that all impediments to the organization of the college may be ere long removed, and the just expectations of the country be fully met by the city selected by the founder as the trustee for the execution of his munificent bequest. When the edifice, now in progress of construction, shall have received its finishing touch, and the last scaffolding shall have been removed, the sun never shone upon a purer or nobler monument of architectural beauty. Yet the moral structure to be reared within it, will as far exceed in beauty the former, as the spiritual and eternal transcend the material and the temporary.. "Long may this structure stand, the pride and admiration of the latest posterity; long may it continue to yield its annual harvest of educated and moral citizens, to adorn and to defend our country. Long may each successive age enjoy its still increasing benefits, when time shall have filled its halls with the memory of the mighty dead who have been reared within them, and shed over its outward beauty the mellowing hues of a thousand years of renown. Girard's will, in

deed, be the most durable basis of all human distinction,

-a wise henevolence in the cause of letters. The ordinary charity which feeds or clothes the distressed, estimable as it is, relieves only the physical wants of the sufferer. But the enlightened beneficence, which looks deeper into the wants of our nature, which not merely prolongs existence, but renders that existence a blessing, by pouring into these recesses of sorrow the radiance of moral and intellectual cultivation,-this it is which forms the world's truest benefactor, and confers the most enduring of all glory,—a glory the more secure, because the very objects of that benevolence are enabled to repay with fame the kindness which sustains them. It is not unreasonable to conjecture, that in all future times there will be in existence many thousand men, who will owe to Girard the greatest of all blessings, a virtuous education; men will have been rescued from want, and perhaps from vice, and armed with power to rise to wealth and distinction. Among them will be found some of our best educated citizens, accomplished scholars, intelligent mechanics, distinguished artists, and prominent statesmen. In the midst of their prosperity, such men can never forget the source of it, nor will they ever cease to mingle with their prayers, and to commemorate with their labors, the name of their great benefactor. What human being can be insensible to the happiness of having caused such a succession of good through remote ages, or not feel that such applause is more grateful than all the shouts which ever rose from the bloodiest field of battle, and worth all the vulgar fame of a hundred conquests ?"

LECTURE IV.

THE

SCHOOL-ROOM

AS AN

AID TO SELF-EDUCATION.

BY A. B. MUZZEY.

WHAT is the great Purpose for which man was created? Why was he gifted with these various capacities, and placed in the sphere he now occupies? What is the one leading object, to be kept always in his mind, and to be made the aim and endeavor of his life? There is but one rational answer to these questions. If the reply be, "the acquisition of wealth," it will be found that we have fixed upon a possession that multitudes, nay, a vast majority, of our race, are absolutely precluded from attaining. So long as men differ in talents, in wisdom, in diligence and perseverance, so long will they differ in point of property, so long will there be the poor as well

as the rich on earth. The affluent man may bequeath millions to his sons, but there is no security that those sons will retain and transmit them to their heirs. Legislators may frame laws for the periodical and equal division of all the estates in the land; but unless they bind the hands and stifle the thoughts of every individual citizen, they cannot compel each and all to retain their precise shares, with no increase or diminution. How vain,

therefore, were the attempt of parents to train their children supremely for the acquisition of wealth. They who do this are false to their offspring, false to their own high trust, false to human nature, and to its beneficent Author.

Shall we turn from this object to another. Fame, distinction, the praise of man, was it to gain these that we were endowed as we are? Should we educate our children mainly with reference to elevated stations, to office, or to the securing of human applause? This end is equally impracticable with that already considered. For, what is Fame? Wherein does its good consist? In being raised above our fellows. The moment, therefore, we attempt to prepare all for honorable places, we disregard the fundamental law of fame. We seek to give all that which, when once made common, loses its whole value. The king sits on an undivided throne. Let him have associates, and his subjects will cease to rend the air with their shouts as he passes. To train up our sons, therefore, to be all renowned, admired, and applauded, is to aim at an absolute impossibility.

By a similar course of remark, we might show that animal indulgencies and every merely outward concern, are not so much as within the reach of all mankind. He who, under these circumstances, deliberately stakes his

whole fortune on any one of these objects, and who binds up in it his entire happiness, acts the part of consummate folly. To educate our children with no other aims than these, would betray no less our ignorance of the world on which they are to enter, than our insensibility, or faithlessness, to their true interests.

What, then, must we regard as the sum of our duty to the young ? It is to assist them to develope their Inward powers and faculties. It is not to gain riches, honors, or any thing out of themselves, but to become intelligent, virtuous, qualified for any condition, whether of opulence or of need, and for any station, whether elevated or humble, and for any fortune, whether prosperous or adverse. We e are to prepare them for, and they must be led, through our influence and aid, to aspire to, a Perfect Character.

Here is an object, if not immediately attainable, yet not absolutely impracticable, but one towards which they may constantly approximate. Nor is it, like those before named, of an inferior nature; it is noble, dignified, worthy of a rational and immortal being. Intellectual, moral, and religious culture, what higher aim can man have than this? No question, then, becomes so entirely interesting, as to know how we may best promote this in the coming generation ?

THE TRUE IDEAL FIRST NEEDED.

In speaking of education in general, I would never put asunder what God hath joined together. I would that every part of our nature should be duly cared for, and that the whole man, in his perfect stature and just