but full of aspiration to that heaven towards which pointed its spires, its towers, and its pinnacles. We hope that the professors of this interesting branch of art will step forward a little more boldly, and believe that the human imagination has still depths never fathomed either by the Roman or the Monk.—Athenæum. THE OBLIGATIONS OF EDUCATED MEN. Extracted from an Address delivered to the Students at the close of an Examination at the Mount-Allison Academy, Sackville, New-Brunswick, by the Rev. John Allison. LEARNING, next to religion, imposes obligations so sacred that they cannot be violated with impunity. These arise, in the first place, from its very nature; the object of education being, to furnish the mind with means and facilities for greater usefulness. In its application to academical or collegiate studies, it ought to be considered not so much an end, as a means to be employed for the accomplishment of a purpose higher than itself. Full many a youth is deluded with the idea that education is the act of attaining an eminence, toilsome indeed in its ascent, but from which he can enjoy his own reveries, and look down with contempt on the vulgar herd who are not so highly favoured as himself. be There are those who devote themselves to the pursuit of literature merely for the pleasure they thence derive; while others seek knowledge, that by its attainment they may furnished with the means of augmenting their own influence, or of adding to their wealth. It is true that influence and wealth are very generally found associated with superior intelligence; and, as the reward of application and industry, they may not be undesirable: but it is sordid in the extreme to make education subservient only to the aggrandisement of self; it is degrading it from its high and holy office, it is making that which ought to be the instrument of the highest good to man, the menial drudge of selfish passion. It is said that that prince of Kings, Alfred, wept when he found that his want of learning prevented him from opening the treasures of the Latin tongue to his people. We know to what heights of self-sacrificing effort an enlightened philanthropy has been able to elevate the great benefactors of mankind, and over what obstacles it has borne them onward to their angelic achievements. This ambition to mitigate the woes and augment the happiness of others, should pour all its generous impulses into the bosom of the student, and become the sleepless monitor of his waking, working hours. The world has a right to expect from educated men an acquaintance with its wants; and being furnished with the means of accelerating the march of improvement, and of mitigating the woes of our race, it should not be disappointed in this expectation. A brilliant light now quenched in death, but one whose example and words will live for many years, wrote as follows:-"Educated men are the natural sources and guides of popular opinion; and they are bound to stand forth boldly, to battle with prejudice, and breast the inundation of passion, though at some risk of being swept away by its fury." The heathen poet considered man but little more than an elevated brute; and what has been considered his celebrated description of a human being is but the eulogy of an infidel: Os homini sublime dedit; cœlumque tueri A Christian education gives a nobler view of man: it treats of his spiritual nature, and enforces duty in view of the immortality of his existence. The education which fails to recognise the spiritual relations of man a grand absurdity. He who has received a correct education, has learned that mind is something beyond the result of a mere skilful material organization: he has learned that it is a flame from heaven, purer than Promethean fire, that vivifies and energises the breathing form; that it is an immaterial essence, a being that quickens matter, and imparts life, sensation, and motion to the intricate framework of our bodies; which wills when we act, attends when we perceive, "He gave man a sublime countenance, and bade him survey the sky, and raise his face, erect, towards the stars." looks into the past when we reflect, and, not content with the present, soars with all its aims and all its hopes into the futurity that is for ever dawning upon it. A creeping thing prepares for its perfection, and at length bursts from its silken tomb with newly-developed form, appetites, and nature like a winged flower, with brilliant and delicate pinions and rich in gems, it gladly flutters in the light. The caterpillar may tend to be a butterfly; but why should the worm just peeping from its clod aspire to anything beyond the clay on which it is to crawl and rot? And why should man look higher? Why? His spirit will not crawl: it travels along with the light into infinite space, and calculates on a life and a capacity commensurate with its desires: he is impelled by a belief, which seems essential to his rational existence, that this beautiful world is not altogether a delusive show; for he cannot think that the wondrous facts of creation teach him to look for the end of truth only in death. But he feels that in proportion as his intellect expands and expatiates in knowledge, does it aspire to immortality; and when most intimate with the realities of time, his reason finds stability, satisfaction, and rest, only in communion with the Eternal. "All declare For what the' eternal Maker has ordain'd Selfishness is one of the greatest impediments to personal and social improvement. Its history, coeval with the history of the world, would form one of its darkest pages. Like a universal malady, it has visited all countries, and every tribe and tongue have furnished abundant professors of this vice. Under its deadly influence science languishes, arts decay, and progress is a word without meaning. Could we imagine a world peopled with intelligent beings, entirely divested of selfishness, beings purely beneficent, it would— in all that makes life desirable, that constitutes existence a blessing, in all that is ameliorating and ennobling-be so entirely dissimilar to our own, that to those who had mingled with the hoarding crowds which this world presents, it would be truly a paradise. It would not be difficult to prove that ignorance of nature and of God, and of the wants and relations of man, has been a great fosterer of this unlovely and destructive principle; and the just inference from such a premise would be, that the enlargement of the intellect by a proper education would have a powerful influence in extirpating this evil. --- is Apart from the direct influences of religion, we nowhere behold more noble instances of a lofty and self-sacrificing disinterestedness than among those who have enjoyed most extensively the benefits of a thorough intellectual training. The mere knowledge which education imparts of the capacities of the mind for enjoyment, is of itself a powerful incentive to do good. The question will naturally arise in the reflective mind, Why were these capacities given? Why so universally imparted? We find them in all grades of society. The beggar, the outcast, the profane and vulgar, are undoubtedly as susceptible of enjoyment,--refined and exalted enjoyment, as the rough marble in the quarry capable of the exquisite polish which glistens in the sunlight on the finished statue. Why is the material world, the earthly dwelling-place of man, so "richly coloured with the hues of all glorious things?" Why the adaptation of external nature to the being who makes his temporary residence here? Why is the eye pleased with the cheerful and ever-varying colours of the terrestrial landscape? the ear thrilled with music echoing from a thousand strings? the olfactory regaled with fragrance borne on the evening breeze? These, and many other such questions, force themselves upon the opening mind of the student; and it were presuming on a moral impossibility, to think that an educated man could find himself a stoic, or be indifferent to the claims of others, amid such affecting displays of infinite goodness. The man who finds himself placed amid such scenes, invested with such attributes, and furnished with such instrumentalities as a liberal education supplies, may well ask, "Who is sufficient for these things?" Yet a vigorous and courageous mind will not shrink from the work. All may not be public benefactors; but each, in his sphere of duty, may and should be, a centre of intelligence and usefulness. The aggregate of human happiness is made up, not so much of great deeds of philanthropy, as by the perennial acts of social life. "It is a little thing To give a cup of water; yet its draught Man is formed for society; or, in the language of philosophy, he is a social being. This law of our nature is founded upon our mutual dependence; and thus the wellbeing of society is promoted in proportion as the obligations and duties of this law are observed. Amid savage tribes, the safety of the horde consists in the acknowledgment of this principle; and the motto of a more enlightened age is found equally applicable to all stages of civilisation, “United we stand, divided we fall." Nor is the happiness of man less dependent upon the social state: consequently a due recognition of its obligations becomes an imperative duty. The educated man who launches forth into life merely to advance his own interests, to push his own claims, and to gratify his own selfishness, is but little more than a polished savage; and did all society act upon the same principle, every man's hand would be turned against his brother. Is there not reason to believe that were scientific knowledge universally diffused among the working-classes, every department of the useful arts would proceed with a rapid progress to perfection, and new arts, and inventions hitherto unknown, would be introduced to increase the enjoyments of domestic society, and to embellish the face of nature. Almost every new discovery in nature lays the foundation |