hundred millions of these mild and oppressed fellowbeings.

But it is time to relieve your patience; I will do it, after a reflection on the relation which this Country bears to the work of general education; and all I wish to say will be comprised in one word of encouragement, and one of warning.

The recent agitations of the Country have a bearing on the great moral questions we have been discussing, more important, as it seems to me, than their immediate political aspect. In its present united condition, that of a state already large and powerful, and rapidly increasing; its population more generally well educated, than that of any other country, and imbued with an unusual spirit of personal, social, and moral enterprise; it presents, in itself, the most effective organization imaginable, for the extension of the domain of improvement, at home and abroad. The vital principle of this organization is the union of its members. In this, they exjoy an exemption from the heavy burden of great local establishments of government, and still more, from the curse of neighboring states, eternal border war. In virtue of this principle, they are enabled to devote all their energies, in peace and tranquillity, to the cultiva tion of the arts of private life, and the pursuit of every great work of public utility, benevolence, and improvement. To attack the principle of union is to attack the prosperity of the whole and of every part of the country; it is to check the outward developement of our national activity; to turn our resources and energies, now exerted in every conceivable manner, public and private benefit, into new channels of mutual injury and ruin. Instead of roads and canals, to unite distant States, the hill tops of those which adjoin each other would be crowned with fortresses; and our means would be strained to the utmost, in the support of as many armies and navies as there were rival sovereignties. Nor would the evil rest with the waste of treasure. The thoughts and feelings of men would as

for

sume a new direction; and military renown, and rank, plunder, and revenge, be the ruling principles of the day. Destroy the Union of the States, and you destroy their character, change their occupations, blast their prospects. You shut the annals of the republic, and open the book of kings. You shut the book of - peace, and you open the book of war. You unbar the gates of hell to the legion of civil discord, ambition, havoc, bloodshed, and ruin!

Let these considerations never be absent from our minds. But, if the question is asked, What encouragement is there, that a vast deal can be done, in a short time, for the improvement of man? I would say to him, who puts the question, Look around you. In what country do you live? under what state of things has it grown up? Do you bear in mind, that, in a space of time, one half of which has been covered by the lives of some yet in existence, in two hundred years, these wide-spread settlements, with so many millions of inhabitants, abounding in all the blessings of life, more liberally and equally bestowed than in any other country, have been built up in a remote and savage wilderness? Do you recollect, that it is not half a century, since, with a population comparatively insignificant, she vindicated her independence, in a war against the oldest and strongest government on earth? Do you consider, that the foundations of these powerful and prosperous States were laid by a few persecuted and aggrieved private citizens, of moderate fortune, unsupported, scarcely tolerated, by the government? If you will go back to the very origin, do you not perceive, that, as if to consecrate this Country, from the outset, as a most illustrious example of what a man can do, it was owing to the fixed impression, on the heart of one friendless mariner, pursued through long years of fruitless solicitation and fainting hope, that these vast American continents are made a part of the heritage of civilized men? Look around you again, at the institutions which are

the pride and blessing of the Country. See our entire religious establishments, unendowed by the state, supported by the united efforts of the individual citizens. See the great literary institutions of our Country, especially those in New England,-Dartmouth, Williams, Bowdoin, Brown, Amherst, and others,-founded by the liberality of citizens of moderate fortune, or by the small combined contributions of public-spirited benefactors, aided, at the most, by moderate endowments from the public treasury;-and "the two twins of learning," if I may, without arrogance, name them apart from the rest; this most efficient and respected Seminary, within whose walls we are now convened, and my own ancient and beloved Harvard; to whom, and what, do they trace their origin? Yale, to the ten worthy fathers who assembled at Branford, in 1700, and laying, each, a few volumes on the table, said, "I give these books for the founding of a college in this Colony;" and Harvard, to the dying munificence of an humble minister of the Gospel, who landed on the shores of America but to lay his dust in its soil; but who did not finish his brief sojourn, till he had accomplished a work of usefulness, which, we trust, will never die. Whence originated the great reform in our prisons, which has accomplished its wonders of philanthropy and mercy, in the short space of eight years, and made the penitentiaries of America the model of the penal institutions of the world? It had its origin in the visit of a missionary, with his Bible, to the convict's cell. Whence sprang the mighty temperance reform, which has already done so much to wipe off a great blot from the character of the Country? It was commenced on so small a scale, that it is not easy to assign its effective origin to a precise source. And counsels and efforts, as humble and inconsiderable at the outset, gave the impulse to the missionary cause of modern times, which, going forth, with its devoted champions, conquering and to conquer, beneath

"the great ensign of Messiah,—

Aloft by angels borne, their sign in Heaven,"

has already gained a peaceful triumph over the furthest islands, and added a new kingdom to the realms of civilization and Christianity.

BENEFITS OF A GENERAL DIFFUSION OF
KNOWLEDGE.*

THE place of our meeting, the season of the year, and the occasion which has called us together, seem to prescribe to us the general topics of our discourse. We are assembled within the precincts of a place of education. It is the season of the year, at which the seminaries of learning, throughout the Country, are dismissing, to the duties of life, that class of their students, whose collegiate course is run. The immediate call which has brought us together, at this time, is the invitation of the literary societies of this highly respectable and fast rising Institution. Agreeably to academic usage, on the eve of their departure from a spot, endeared to them, by all the pleasant associations of collegiate life, they are desirous, by one more act of literary communion, to strengthen the bond of intellectual fellowship, and alleviate the regrets of separation. In the entire uncertainty of all that is before us, for good or for evil, there is nothing more nearly certain, than that we, who are here assembled to-day, shall never, in the providence of God, be all brought together again, in this world. Such an event is scarcely more within the range of probability, than that the individual drops, which, at this moment, make up the rushing stream of yonder queen of the valley,† mounting in vapor to the clouds, and scattered to the four winds, will, at some future period, be driven together, and fall in rains upon the hills, and flow down and recompose the identical river, that is now spreading abundance and beauty before our eyes. To say nothing of the dread summons, which comes to all, when least expected, you will scarce step

* Address delivered before the Literary Societies of Amherst College, August 25, 1835.

† Connecticut river.