I trust, well calculated, to expand and
strengthen the intellectual faculties, in as much as it involves a
process by which the mind is addressed, and a knowledge of grammar
communicated in an interesting and familiar manner.

You are aware, my young friend, that you live in an age of light and
knowledge;--an age in which science and the arts are marching onward
with gigantic strides. You live, too, in a land of liberty;--a land on
which the smiles of Heaven beam with uncommon refulgence. The trump of
the warrior and the clangor of arms no longer echo on our mountains, or
in our valleys; "the garments dyed in blood have passed away;" the
mighty struggle for independence is over; and you live to enjoy the rich
boon of freedom and prosperity which was purchased with the blood of our
fathers. These considerations forbid that you should ever be so
unmindful of your duty to your country, to your Creator, to yourself,
and to succeeding generations, as to be content to grovel in ignorance.
Remember that "knowledge is power;" that an enlightened and a virtuous
people can never be enslaved; and that, on the intelligence of our
youth, rest the future liberty, the prosperity, the happiness, the
grandeur, and the glory of our beloved country. Go on then, with a
laudable ambition, and an unyielding perseverance, in the path which
leads to honor and renown. Press forward. Go, and gather laurels on the
hill of science; linger among her unfading beauties; "drink deep" of her
crystal fountain; and then join in "the march of fame." Become learned
and virtuous, and you will be great. Love God and serve him, and you
will be happy.

LANGUAGE.

Language, in its most extensive sense, implies those signs by which men
and brutes communicate to each other their thoughts, affections, and
desires.

Language may be divided, 1. into natural and artificial; 2. into spoken
and written.

NATURAL LANGUAGE, consists in the use of those natural signs which
different animals employ in communicating their feelings one to another.
The meaning of these signs all perfectly understand by the principles of
their nature. This language is common both to man and brute. The
elements of natural language in man, may be reduced to three kinds;
modulations of the voice, gestures, and features. By means of these, two
savages who have no common, artificial language, can communicate their
thoughts in a manner quite intelligible: they can ask and refuse, affirm
and d