the best helps to interpret divine revelation. This science of course is of vast importance because it respects you as rational and religious beings. Another branch of learning which I would recommend to your particular attention is Criticism. This respects all the productions of genius in the fine arts and teaches you to distinguish what is defective, what is decent and proper, grand, sublime and beautiful. Some have supposed that there is no invariable standard of taste, and that criticism is left to fluctuate with the caprice of every individual. If this is the case how has it happened that certain productions of genius, have in every age and nation excited universal applause and admiration? How has it happened that all are pleased with the fine arts, if there are not certain fixed principles in human nature to which those arts apply, and with which they accord? Why are we pleased with a certain degree of order and connection, of uniformity and variety, unless it is that these control, direct and influence within certain limits the train of perceptions and ideas in our own minds? True criticism is undoubtedly a rational science, founded on principles in the nature of man. These principles, so far as they respect the sensitive branch of our nature coincide with those which govern in morals. He who studies criticism as a science, will observe the same refined and correct feelings springing up within him, as he observes excited and required by the precepts of moral philosophy. If in tracing the connection between the fine arts and those feelings which are excited through the eye and ear, we accustom ourselves, to distinguish what is beautiful and what deformed, what is proper and what is improper, we shall naturally transfer the same taste and the same habit into our researches concerning the propriety or impropriety of human actions. Hence the science of criticism is of vast importance as a support to morality, independent of the ornament and splendor which it enables true genius to display. When you can assign a reason for the pleasure you derive from the fine arts, your enjoyment is doubled; because you experience the combined pleasures of judgment and sensibility. Hence Criticism occupies a middle station between the higher senses and the intellect. It unites sentiment and reason; enlivens and improves both. Another science, which occupies an higher station and which I would earnestly recommend to your attention, is, Ethics. The great end of this science is to bring all our affections and actions into subjection to the dictates of reason and the injunctions of revelation. To accomplish this, it unfolds the ground, the nature and extent of moral obligation; points out the nature of virtue and vice; ascertains the duties we owe to God, to ourselves and to our fellow-men in all the relations of solitude, domestic life, political and religious society. The habit of studying and investigating those things which respect you as moral accountable agents, will inspire you with an high sense of decency and propriety, which will add splendor to all your literary acquirements, and give a right direction to all your faculties. In your researches into moral philosophy, be careful not to depart from the principles of your own nature, for moral rules not conformable to these are impracticable, and of course useless. In Ethics metaphysical speculations are of no consequence. They are tenants for life in the clouds; and cannot like the philosophy of Socrates be brought down from heaven and established in cities and families. The consideration of your own powers and talents compared with your situation, must suggest the rule of duty and point out the force of obligation. We are so constituted that the moral sense accompanies reason in all its disquisitions about right and wrong, about virtue and vice. Though moral obligation is imposed on all rational beings, by the standard of all perfection, yet this obligation can never exceed their ability to perform. God can never require impossibilities of his creatures. The instant we perceive that an injunction exceeds our capacity, we pronounce it unreasonable and become discouraged. A mole cannot be censured for not taking in the universe with its eye; nor a gnat for not shading the orbit of Saturn with its wing. Man is neither so great nor so small as some have supposed him. He can neither comprehend infinity, nor does he sink below nothing. He has intellect and will, but he is limited within a certain sphere. His duty so far as reason can go is to be deduced from a consideration of his powers, from fact and experiment. The next science which I would recommend to your particular 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! |