attention is Theology. This of all others is most important. It embraces your highest interests in life, in death, and in eternity. The sciences, I have already mentioned, seem calculated, by furnishing you with knowledge and mental energy, to give you a distinguished rank among men. Theology by inspiring you with just sentiments of Deity, will ally you to all his perfections, and give you assurance of an eternal inheritance in his kingdom. This exalted science, unfolds the existence, perfections, providence, laws, designs and works of God. It teaches you what you must believe and what you must practice, to secure the divine approbation, and obtain eternal felicity. Theology deduces moral obligation from the absolute perfection of God, and enjoins the performance of duties by motives drawn from eternity. Human philosophy cannot stretch out an arm to support and conduct you beyond the limits of time. It exhibits you acting for a few moments on a narrow stage, and then loses sight of you forever. But divine philosophy exhibits you, while in this world as in the embryo of your existence; and while it announces to you that you must dissolve and die, assures you by the most impressive proofs that, you shall rise to a state incorruptible and interminable. The value and importance of man are no where seen but in the light of eternity. Here you behold him, moving forward in rapid progression; enlarging in capacity, and forever approximating the source of infinite perfection. I must recommend these things to your consideration, hoping that they will engage you in a vigorous pursuit of human and divine knowledge. The limits prescribed me on this occasion forbids me to enlarge. Before I part with you, I feel it my duty to declare in this public manner, that your moral conduct and literary proficiency, have excited sentiments of the highest esteem and most cordial friendship in the hearts of those who have had the care of your education. May you rapidly progress in knowledge and virtue. Remember at all times that you are in the hand of God; that you are accountable to him for your conduct; that your characters are forming for eternity, and that its joys or woes, must be your portion. Impressed with anxious solicitude for your prosperity, I now, Gentlemen, bid you Farewell! AN ADDRESS. To you, young gentlemen, the present, is perhaps, the most important period of life. You are now about to commence a new career; to engage in new pursuits; to display yourselves on the great theatre of the world; to bring into exercise the powers and the virtues which you have cultivated; and to convert to private and public use, the learning and talents which you have acquired in the shades of retirement. On the determinations which you now make, and the plans of conduct which you now adopt, depend your future prosperity and honor; or your ill fortune and disgrace. On your enlargement from the restraints and discipline of collegiate life, some of you are filled with joyous hopes, others with anxious fears, and all I presume with an honorable ambition. On you are fixed the eyes and the hearts of your parents and friends. From you they hope and expect much. And did they not from experience know the dangers to which you are exposed; did they not know the real evils of life, their pleasure on this occasion would be free from intruding anxiety; their pleasing anticipations of your future glory, would fill their minds with enchanting visions, and their hopes strong and free, would spring and smile, like a morning without clouds. But alas, they know that there is no unmixed good in this world; that all things here exist by opposition and |