arn
how to suffer, and from their great and good deeds how to act nobly; if
the development of the human heart, in different ages and countries, do
not give us a better knowledge of ourselves! How little does literature
benefit us, if the sketches of life and character, the generous
sentiments, the testimonies to disinterestedness and rectitude, with
which it abounds, do not incite and guide us to wiser, purer, and more
graceful action! How little substantial good do we derive from poetry
and the fine arts, if the beauty, which delights the imagination, do not
warm and refine the heart, and raise us to the love and admiration of
what is fair, and perfect, and lofty, in character and life! Let our
studies be as wide as our condition will allow; but let this be their
highest aim, to instruct us in our duty and happiness, in the perfection
of our nature, in the true use of life, in the best direction of our
powers. Then is the culture of intellect an unmixed good, when it is
sacredly used to enlighten the conscience, to feed the flame of generous
sentiment, to perfect us in our common employments, to throw a grace over
our common actions, to make us sources of innocent cheerfulness and
centres of holy influence, and to give us courage, strength, stability,
amidst the sudden changes and sore temptations and trials of life.

LECTURE II

In my last lecture I invited your attention to a subject of great
interest,--the elevation of the laboring portion of the community. I
proposed to consider, first, in what this elevation consists; secondly
the objections which may be made to its practicableness; thirdly, the
circumstances which now favor it, and gives us hope that it will be
more and more accomplished. In considering the first head, I began
with stating in what the elevation of the laboring class does not
consist, and then proceeded to show positively what it is, what it does
consist in. I want time to retrace the ground over which we then
travelled. I must trust to your memories. I was obliged by my narrow
limits to confine myself chiefly to the consideration of the
intellectual elevation which the laborer is to propose; though, in
treating this topic, I showed the moral, religious, social improvements
which enter into his true dignity. I observed that the laborer was to
be a student, a thinker, an intellectual man, as well as a laborer; and
suggested the qualifications of this truth which are required by th