work of moral and mental cultivation. The illustrious Franklin was instrumental in the formation of a library in his adopted city, which is now one of the largest and most valuable in the United States. Let those who know the value of useful knowledge, and such as feel the want of it, follow his example. If they cannot make large collections, and form libraries containing thousands of volumes, let them gather hundreds; and where this cannot be effected, let general reading be encouraged by the circulation of tracts and periodicals. At any expense, and by all rational means, let instruction be imparted, and useful knowledge diffused throughout every land.

Thus, gentlemen, an extensive field of usefulness is open before you, abounding in the fairest prospects, and affording the richest entertainments of intellectual delight. Nor is it suitable that you should enjoy this feast in solitude, while you behold the means for gathering multitudes of all classes of the community, and of both sexes, particularly the youth, to share it with you. And so rich are the stores of learning, that no increase of her votaries can ever exhaust her treasures. The sun of science, like the sun in the heavens, may shine on millions of others, without lessening his benign influence upon us. And though millions should emerge from the glooms of ignorance and degradation to the most exalted attainments, far from diminishing, it could but increase the satisfaction of every intelligent spectator. Nor can we doubt that the days of darkness and ignorance are passing away, to be succeeded by a glorious dawn upon the most benighted countries.The arts and sciences are the handmaids of the Gospel, under whose glorious dispensation we now live. And while that is flying with the wings of the morning to every nation, diffusing its heavenly influence among men, they will follow it, and be in all places its ready

attendants.

Go, then, to your places of destination, with firmness of purpose; cultivate useful knowledge in your own minds, cherish it in the minds of others. Encourage the establishment of schools, libraries, and literary societies; remembering, at all times and places, that to assist in raising the human mind from its degradation, in diffusing learning and religion, and promoting the well being of society, will secure the great objects of the present life, and cannot fail of receiving the approbation of Heaven.

But in addressing you, as I now do, at one of the most momentous periods of your existence, I cannot close without urging more fully and specifically the importance of experimental and practical piety.With the learned and the unlearned, with the rich and the poor, in prosperity and adversity, in life and in death, this is the most valuable of all treasures. Without this treasure, learning itself can never qualify you for happiness. With it, all other blessings will appear in their fairest characters. This is the Divine principle that raises fallen man from a state of ruin, and restores him to the image of his Maker. This directs his steps from the frowns of guilt and condemnation, to the smiles of Divine favor, and fits him for the society of angels.

Pedantry and superficial philosophy may tell you that this subject is doubtful, and ought to be approached with caution. The idle, halfinstructed skeptic may endeavor to discourage you by crying mystery,' and alleging that a cloud hovers over us, limiting our views, and com

pelling us to remain in uncertainty. But profound learning, sound erudition, pierces this cloud and dispels the gloom; presenting to us the sure word of prophecy, supported by authentic evidence, giving us the promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come. In this sacred word, we find a complete system of morals, the doctrines of evangelical truth, and a compendium of the sciences. Here is exhibited the true foundation upon which is built the glorious superstructure of Christianity, extending from earth to heaven; by means of which hundreds of millions will escape the snares of death, and gain eternal blessedness.

And if the enemies of the cross tempt you to the opposite course, urging you to the pursuit of vain pleasures, to the stupid and ruinous amusements of gaming and dissipation, let them not prevail. They have the passions and appetites enlisted on their side, but we have reason and revelation on ours. And when the cup of infidelity is presented to your lips, we trust you will be able to refuse the poisonous draught, and to meet with firmness all such as offer it. Do they talk of philosophy? Recollect that the greatest among all the philosophers was a devoted Christian. Yes, the great Newton was a Christian. Follow him and his associates in learning, but follow them likewise in true religion. While with Newton you measure the heavens, and the orbs which decorate them; while with Boyle you examine the regions of organic nature; with Bacon deduce from individual facts the laws of the material world; with Herschel mount to the firmament, and learn the wonders of astronomy from the heavenly bodies themselves; or with Locke explore the mysterious powers and operations of the mind; with these same illustrious authors, go from nature to nature's God. Read His Divine character in the book of nature; read it in the book of revelation, and learn it more closely by receiving His Holy Spirit, and sharing His salvation.

This sacred treasure will enable you to meet with equal firmness both the faces of fortune. In days of prosperity it will preserve you from the vices of insolence and ingratitude; in days of adversity it will fill you with peace and quietness, strewing your rough path with flowers, and sweetening the bitter cup of affliction. And should you ever meet with an hour when earthly prospects shall fail, when friendship itself shall forsake you, then may you find relief in this unfailing source of consolation; then shall you be able to trust in its Divine Author, whose law is love, and who has taught us to forgive and love our enemies. In all the vicissitudes of life, amidst the infirmities of age and the prospects of dissolution, this supplies a refuge from the storm, turning darkness into day, and inspiring the bright hope of immortality. Let this be the grand object in your view in all the pursuits of life, and it will be an enduring treasure, that oblivion cannot hide nor time destroy. Earthly honors will pass away, the laurels of the hero will fade, cities and kingdoms be blotted from the world; but this shall brighten in the shades of death, and flourish through the eternal ages. With the pleasing hope that you may feel its influence in life, enjoy its consolations in death, and share its riches in a future state, I commend you to that God who has watched over your childhood, guarded your youth, and is able to crown you with life and felicity.

AN ADDRESS

Delivered before the Middletown Colonization Society, at their Annual Meeting, July 4th, 1834. By D. D. WHEDON, Professor of Languages in the Wesleyan University.

IN presenting to the audience the interests of the society whose cause I advocate, I am conscious of an appropriate unison between the subject and the day. To embalm the memory of the illustrious dead, to recall before the mind's eye the scenes of our past eventful history,―to contemplate the blessings and the privileges with which allbounteous Providence hath crowned our happy land, might indeed furnish matter for spirit-stirring thought; but what more grateful homage can we pay to the illustrious departed, or what greater proof of our worthiness of such an ancestry, than to aid in diffusing over other continents, the freedom which their heroism, under God, purchased for ours?

The Colonization Society, in its origin, history, and purposes, is unique and original. Liberia stands alone upon the world's map— alone in the world's history. Other emigrations have gone forth,but they have been driven by persecution, or lured alone by hardy adventure; other national projects have been founded, but they have been based merely upon the hope of gain or of ambition: this alone has gone forth from the spontaneous outpourings of private Christian munificence, and laid its foundations not merely upon the basis of self aggrandizement, but upon the eternal principles of national benevolence and universal philanthropy.

Its origin was as striking as is its character. Within a small room, in the nation's capital, in the year 1817, some twelve men assembled, unsurrounded by any of the insignia of power, save the dignity of their own noble characters, quietly and calmly to project the plan so portentous of bright hopes to unconscious, slumbering Africa. It was a scene which the heart suppresses its pulsations to contemplate. Were they even conscious of the simple, yet striking sublimity of their own movements? Some calculations of a grand prospective might have opened upon them, but national events and gigantic enterprises were business matters to such minds. Happy men! many of you have enjoyed hours of proud triumph, but none so thrilling a moment as that: some of you will have left honorable memorials of your existence, but none a more illustrious monument than the enterprise of that memorable day.

A project so bold was little likely to be received with universal concurrence. The era of stupendous philanthropic enterprise had not then arrived; the timid trembled at it as impracticable, and the skeptical ridiculed it as visionary. The advocates of slavery, almost en masse, were opposed to it as likely to disturb, ultimately, the existing state of things. A few even of these for awhile supported it, under the notion, that by rendering slavery more safe, it would confirm the permanence of that relation. Their desertion, while it subtracted something from its numerical strength, did, by relieving the steadfast and philanthropic slave-holding supporters from the suspicion of similar interested motives, really add to its moral force. The jealous northerner could

hardly believe that any philanthropy could come from a slave holder, and it required this sifting to bring out, in clear relief and bold action, the slave-holding enemy of slavery. Slowly and gradually did these jealousies lessen; national philanthropy has constantly been disclosing in new effort the energies that were slumbering in her arm; and in accordance with the spirit of the age, the Colonization Society has gone on, trusting to the splendor of its success for the refutation of the calumnies it endured, and exulting in the complete vindication of its own resplendent beneficence, in the ultimate monument of its labors, beyond the broad Atlantic.

The first direct movement of the Colonization Society, was in the year 1817, to send out two agents, (one of whom was the lamented Samuel J. Mills,) for the purpose of exploring the western coast of Africa. In 1820, eighty-eight colonists, under the care of three agents, were sent; but as they arranged matters so unfortunately as to arrive there during the sickly rainy season, the news was soon announced in this country, that the three agents, with more than twenty colonists, were carried off by the fever of the climate, heightened by exposure, fatigue, and want of medical aid. By no means disheartened at this melancholy result, the succeeding year twenty-eight more colonists were sent out, the spot was selected, the emigrants settled, and at the close of the year 1821, the foundations were laid of that colony, which has since received the name of Liberia.

The country to which this appropriate name has been given, is a sea-coast strip of about 280 miles in length and 30 in breadth, separated from the eastern interior by a belt of almost impassable forests. Its soil, well watered by beautiful streams, is said to reward an easy cultivation with all the productions of tropical climates. The harbor of Monrovia, the principal town, pronounced to be the best between Gibraltar and the Cape of Good Hope, is already visited by the flags of the different commercial nations. The varied successes and calamities, resulting sometimes from inevitable providences, and sometimes from the errors and mismanagements incident to so untried a scheme, and the statements which would result in the obviation of many popular objections, I have not time to detail. Catastrophies it has suffered, but these have been merely sufficient to try the nerve, not to dishearten the soul. It has been keenly and justly scrutinized, but has never shrunk; it has been fiercely scathed, but not broken. About twelve years have passed since her first founding, and yet, through vicissitude and disaster, through the desertion of friends and the hostilities of opponents, through invasion and disease, Liberia has held her triumphant way; and never more triumphant than at the present moment, she still stands the child of Christian benevolence, the nursling of a guardian providence, the hope of unborn nations.

It is not denied that its enemies may point to many errors and failures, but these are merely incidentals which affect not the main question; while on the other hand, it may be safely asserted that not only has the colony accomplished all that could have been expected in so brief a progress, but that few benefactions, at so small an expense, occupying so little hitherto of public attention, and in the face of so formidable an opposition, have effected so much good. Upon the very spot where Liberia now presents an asylum of liberty, was once the

theatre of the slave trade, the market place of human souls. Without claiming that the colony is a miniature millenium, it may confidently be asserted that a settlement possessing even the average morality of an American village with its intellectual advantages, will be, in the so sarcastically echoed language of Mr. Clay, 'a missionary of civilization and religion.' No one who has observed the susceptibility of the African character to the influences of civilization, can reasonably doubt the efficacy of such a contiguity; and it little becomes the professed peculiar friend of the negro to depreciate the noble traits that characterize that race. The native of our forests seems all but inaccessible to our most philanthropic efforts. Invite him to a civilized home, he comes and goes-a savage. Educate him, and he flies back to his forest again-a savage. Isolate a whole tribe within surrounding civilization, and he withers and dies away-a savage. But the African, on the other hand, with a spirit which, rightly understood, is above all ridicule, and susceptible of the noblest direction, loves the privileges, aspires to the refinements, and catches the decorums of social life. Yet he does this, under the pressure of a cruel and overwhelming public contempt; he does it at the expense of an infamous ridicule, which finds a warrant for heartless insult in the color of his face, wherever he shows it. But if this be here the case, under the weight of so tremendous an oppression, what must be the fact when he stands upon his own free soil, where ridicule hushes its cowardly tones, and he acknowledges no superior but his God? Can it be that these noble elements will not take a still nobler aspiration, when the exalting prospect of freedom and of empire open before him, upon his own ancestral land? His spirit would swell at the touch of his own free soil like the Highland chief's, restored to his country and his clan, when his foot was again upon his native hills, and his name was M'Gregor!' And when the splendid miracles of civilized life are exhibited, in all their wonders, before the native African, who, possessing the same original noble capacity, has never bowed his neck to the slaver's chain, when he learns, by the example of his own brother, of his own hue, that these are not the patent prerogatives of a white skin, will not the same predisposition to catch and arrogate the proud advantages of elevated character, prompt them to seize and transfer from man to man, and from tribe to tribe, the ennobling qualities to be acquired from civilization, science, and Christianity? I appeal to fact. Upon the shore of Africa is arising an infant nation, exhibiting gradually many of the blessings of organized government; its schools are offering the rudiments, and its high schools will soon offer the superior branches of education; its infant cities, extending their streets over a soil to which they are giving a constantly-rising value; its press, diffusing the means of popular information; its harbors, visited by the floating banners of the different nations of the earth; its courts and its legislative halls dictating and dispensing wholesome laws, and its sacred spires pointing to heaven, emblematic of that religion whose spirit breathes their life into all these institutions, and offers the same blessings of science and of salvation even to them. And what are the effects? Brief time as these causes have had to develope and operate, and retarded as they have been by accidental misunderstandings, pushed into open hostilities, already has many a prelude to a full appreciation of these advan