j
*
DELIVERED BEFORE
IN EMORY COLLEGE
BY GUSTAVUS J. ORR, A. M
PROFESSOR OF MATHEMATICS AND ASTRONOMY.
ATLANTA, GEORGIA
THE CHOICE OF A PROFESSION.
■A. LECTURE
DELIVERED BEFORE
@r
IN EMORY COLLEGE.
BY GUSTAVUS J. ORR, A. M.,
PROFESSOR OF MATHEMATICS AND ASTRONOMY.
ATLANTA, GEORGIA:
PRINTED BY C. R. HANLEITER.
1859.
CORRESPONDENCE.
Emory College, June 2d, 1859.
Professor Orr : As a Committee, representing the common sentiment of
the Senior Class, allow us to offer you our sincere thanks for the very able
and instructive Lecture you delivered before us this morning. That the im¬
pressions of the hour may be deepened, and that others may share our privi¬
lege, we earnestly solicit a copy of the Lecture for publication. Allow us
also to say, that though we leave your recitation-room, for the busy scenes of
active life, we will ever cherish for you the kindest remembrances.
With unfeigned esteem, we are very truly,
W. T. REVILL, A
W. J. CONYERS, V Committee.
ATTICUS G. HAYGOODf)
June 22d, 1S59.
Young Gentlemen:—It would be impossible for me to comply literally
with your request, as I spoke simply from notes. It will afford me pleasure,
however, to place the substance of my Lecture at your disposal as early as I
can do so. I spoke solely with the view of benefitting the Class, and a like
motive now influences me in consenting to have the views presented put in
permanent form, that their influence may be felt by others.
Allow me, in conclusion to express to you, individually, and, through you,
to the class, my best wishes for your future success and happiness.
Your friend and Preceptor.
GUSTAVUS J. ORR.
Committee.—W. T. Revill, W. J. Conyers, Atticus G. Haygood.
ADDRESS.
At your request, young gentlemen, I propose to occupy
the hour this morning in giving you my views upon the
choice of a Profession. The subject seems to he peculiarly
appropriate. Your term of pupilage in this Institution is
now about to close. Hitherto your studies have not been
shaped with special reference to this or that pursuit in life.
The object has been to bring out, in well proportioned sym¬
metrical development, all the powers of the mind—to
strengthen the memory—to expand the reasoning powers and
the judgment—to sharpen the powers of discrimination—to
cultivate the imagination and the taste, and to originate,
strengthen and confirm such habits of close consecutive
thinking and deep investigation, as will enable you to turn
these improved powers in a given direction, with such force
of concentration as to produce the greatest possible results.
It has been our aim, further, to cultivate in you a deep
sense of your obligations to God and to man, and to instill
those principles of morality and religion, which constitute
the only safe foundation for all healthful intellectual culture
and development. In short, young gentlemen, we have en¬
deavored to form you men—men in intellect—men in moral
and religious principle—men in all your habits of thought
and of life—men thoroughly qualified to enter upon a course
of special preparation, for that particular pursuit which is
to be the business of life. Whether we have succeeded in
these high aims, is a problem which is to be solved by your
future history. If we have met with only tolerable success,
I repeat that it is peculiarly appropriate for you to ask as¬
sistance in making the great choice of your lives. Hun¬
dreds have stood where you now stand—entertaining the
same high hopes, picturing in their imaginations the same
brilliant success, and forming in their minds the same noble
resolves to do something in the world—who afterwards made
4
ADDRESS.
shipwreck from not having well considered this great ques¬
tion. Would that I had the wisdom and experience to ena¬
ble me to give you such directions as would lead each of you
to make a choice that would honor God and confer the great¬
est possible benefits upon men. Such light as my experience,
my observations and my reflections may afford, I will most
cheerfully give you, trusting that God may guide me, that I
may utter only words of wisdom.
If you wish to make life a success ; if you desire to en¬
joy the greatest amount of happiness yourselves, and be the
means of conferring the greatest possible amount upon oth¬
ers, your profession must be chosen with a view to useful¬
ness, as the controlling motive. I shall not attempt elabo¬
rate argument upon this point. The world readily admits
the principle in its application to decidedly religious men.
They seem to think it all right and proper for such men,
not only to choose their pursuits, but to order every change
in the conduct of their lives, with a view to the highest use¬
fulness. I should like to know when the wonderful discov¬
ery was made, that there was one law for the very religious
man, and another and a very different one for the moderate¬
ly pious or wicked. The truth is, this great principle is a
law of social life, which we may not disregard without im¬
periling our highest interests. Honor will hold up her splen¬
did prizes which glitter in the distance to lure you on to ea¬
ger pursuit, and wealth will seek to dazzle and mislead by
filling your minds with golden visions of the future ; but you
must not "listen to the voice of the charmers, charming
never so wisely." If these things alone determine your
choice, you will act upon considerations purely selfish, and
the curse of God will be upon you. When the Israelites in
the wilderness, persisted in the pursuit of an unlawful ob¬
ject, " God granted their request, but sent leanness into
their souls." So He may permit you to achieve success, but
that very success may be designed by Him as a punishment.
Honors may be heaped upon you, and wealth may flow into
your coffers, but they may turn your brain and bring hard¬
ness of heart; or, if they bring not these evils, still they
may fail to yield happiness. They may prove
" Like dead sea fruits that tempt the eye,
But turn to ashes on the lips."
ADDRESSr 5
If, on the other hand, you make your choice with reference
ence to usefulness, your decision will be in harmony with the
law of your being; yea, and with the law of that God who has
said "no man liveth to himself." We are told that when God
said to Solomon "ask what I shall give thee," and Solo¬
mon asked for wisdom, God told him because he had not
asked riches, wealth or honor, nor the life of his enemies, nor
yet long life, but had asked for wisdom to judge his people,
that He would give him the wisdom for which he had asked,
and would add to him riches, and wealth and honor, such as
no King before him had possessed, and greater than any
who were to come after him were to have. Here is an in¬
stance of one who chose with reference to the highest motive,
and had bestowed upon him all the blessings connected with
the lower. So, young gentlemen, shall it be with you. If
you choose your pursuit in life with a view to usefulness,
and, more especially, if you desire to honor God by that
usefulness, as sure as He exists, He will see to it that you
shall have all the honor, wealth and other blessings that will
be best for you in this life and the life to come. The histo¬
ry of those illustrious men who have disinterestedly de.voted
their lives to the good of the race—the Howards, the Lu- .
thers, the Wesleys and the Washingtons of the past—fully
vindicates the soundness of the views here presented; and
while you may not hope to be Luthers or Wesleys or Wash¬
ingtons, you may, nevertheless, furnish as genuine illustra¬
tions in your lives of the same great principles. But it may
be asked, is the choice of a pursuit to be made with refer¬
ence to the relative usefulness of the different callings in
life ? Every calling, pursuit and profession which God has
made necessary to the well-being of society, is useful, nay,
indispensable; and while success in one may attract the
eyes of the world, and bring with it more of eclat, yet de¬
votion to the humblest is alike beneficial, and honorable.—
St. Paul, in his first letter to the Corinthians, has given us
a beautiful allegory, illustrating the position that all the
different offices in the church are necessary to form one en¬
tire effective body, and that while some may give the incum¬
bent more prominence, yet that all are useful, and repu¬
table, and honorable. The passage is so appropriate that I
cannot forego the pleasure of quoting at least a portion of
it. "For the body," says he, "is not one member, but
many. If the foot shall say, because I am not the hand I
6
ADDRESS.
am not of the body, is it, therefore, not of the body ? And
if the ear shall say, because I am not the eye I am not of
the body, is it, therefore, not of the body? If the ■whole
body were an eye, where were the hearing? If the whole
body were hearing* where were the smelling? But now
hath God set the members every one in the body as it hath
pleased him. And if they were all one member, where were
the body ? But now are they many members, but one body.
And the eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need of thee;
nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you. Nay,
much more, those members of the body which seem to be
more feeble, are necessary." What is here written by in¬
spiration of the different offices in the church, may be said
with equal truth of the different legitimate callings in socie¬
ty. All are useful, yet it cannot be doubted that, as men
look upon them, there are differences in this respect. But,
young gentlemen, while you may not enter upon a pursuit
without considering whether it is intrinsically useful, and
while it is allowable for you to desire to choose that which
appears to you to be relatively most useful; yet these are
not the only, nor, indeed, the main points to be looked to in
the decision. In order to insure the highest degree of suc¬
cess, the greatest amount of usefulness to the individual,
his mental and moral endowments, and his entire character,
must be such as to adapt him to the proposed pursuit.—
However multifarious the pursuits of life, and however va¬
ried the character of the men that compose a world, yet
there is not a doubt in my mind but that every man has his
place to fill in society. God as certainly calls men, in a
particular sense, to farm, to. teach, and to engage in the
pursuits of commerce, as He does to preach the gospel.—
He calls them by bestowing upon them a natural aptitude
for this or that pursuit, and by so ordering their lives in
His Providence, as to give them ample opportunity for cul¬
tivating, expanding and developing the native talent which
He has bestowed. God gives the talent and the opportuni¬
ty for improvement, but leaves the responsibility of making
the choice, in a large measure, upon the man himself; and it
is because men do not open their eyes and exercise the mind
that He has given them, that we see so many signal failures
in life. Men eke out a miserable existence at the lawq or in
the practice of physic—a burden to themselves and a disgrace
to their friends—who ought to have spent their lives at the
ADDRESS.
T
plow handles, at the carpenter's bench, or in some other of
the industrial pursuits of life. A false notion of what is
honorable, in the first' place, and then a fatal mistake in
judging of their own adaptation, have been their irretrieva¬
ble downfall. You have heard it said that " Cotton is King,"
and perhaps no man ever contributed half so much towards
the establishment, extension and perpetuation of that do¬
minion as Whitney, the inventor of the cotton gin. Here
we see the genius of one man clothing and furnishing labor
to, and thereby feeding one half the civilized world. And
the genius of Fulton, by applying steam in the propelling
of boats and ships, has wrought changes in the commerce of
the world, and has produced an energy, and an enterprise,
and an activity upon the great highways of the nations,
never witnessed before his day. What figure, think you,
these men would have made in the council chamber, in the
cabinet, or on the field ? On the other hand, that illustrious
trio who have been an honor to American statesmanship—
who have shed an undying lustre upon the annals of their
country—"whose renown," in the language of one of them,
"is [of the treasures of the whole country"—what would
they have achieved as inventors ? In all probability they
would have gone down to their graves unhonored and un¬
known. We repeat, then, that the native talent, the culture
and the whole character of the man, every way, must be
such as to adapt him to the particular pursuit upon which
he proposes to enter, in order to ensure the highest success
and the greatest amount of usefulness.
This point having been established, the question naturally
arises how is this adaptation to be judged of? How am I
to decide so as to be secure against the fatal consequences
of error at this point? This is a very important question,
but one to which, I think, an adequate answer may be given.
In the first place, I would give the scriptural advice, "in all
thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths."
The language here is explicit. We are required to acknowl¬
edge Him, not in a part, but in all our ways, and the " ex¬
ceeding precious promise" is added, that "He shall direct
thy paths." If we go to Him, then, with an humble, child¬
like confidence, infinite wisdom is pledged that we shall not
err. A number of you have been in the habit of seeking
the Divine guidance. To you this advice is peculiarly ap¬
propriate, and doubtless you feel it so. To the others, it is
8
ADDRESS.
hardly less appropriate. To them, I would say, it is the du¬
ty of all, and if you have not been ip. the habit of seeking
that guidance, then, begin at once to-day. But God's prom¬
ise to direct is based upon the condition that we use the
mind, the powers of judging which He has bestowed upon
us. He never helps any one to do any thing who will not
seek to help himself.
This brings us, then, to say, in the second place, that
strong inclination to a given thing often argues adaptation.
We see this illustrated in a thousand ways in the vegetable
kingdom. Why is it that when a deposit of any fertilizing
principle is made in the vicinity of a plant, the roots of the
plant at once start in the direction of this deposit ? It is
that the mouths that nature has formed on the little rootlets
may suck up the nutritious principle that gives life, and
health, and vigor to the plant. Why is it that a plant, that
has sprung up in a place from which the light of day is ex¬
cluded, will incline in the direction of a few straggling
beams of light that have found admittance into its prison
house ? It is because the influence of the light is a want of
its nature, without which, it dwindles and droops and is
dwarfed. The animal kingdom also furnishes us with illus¬
trations. We see that animals, and reptiles, and birds, and
insects are inclined, by instinct, to seek those localities which
furnish in greatest abundance those elements which are adapt¬
ed to minister to their varied wants. You are familiar, too,
with hundreds of illustrations of this principle in its appli¬
cation to men. I need not make special reference to any of
that "innumerable company," who have manifested in early
life an indomitable inclination to some particular pursuit,
and, afterwards, rose to the highest distinction in that par¬
ticular calling. Musicians, and Poets, and Painters, and
Mathematicians, and Orators, and Philosophers, and States¬
men, have all, in numberless instances, furnished splendid
exemplifications of the principle in question. Indeed, I be¬
lieve I may lay it down as an unfailing laiv that, whenever
the inclination to a given pursuit is healthful, it always ar¬
gues adaptation. When the man loves the pursuit for the
sake of the pursuit itself, and not on account of the glory,
or the wealth, or the position, or some other extrinsic ad¬
vantage which its successful cultivation brings, it is Nature
proclaiming the law of adaptation, and her voice may not
be disregarded with impunity. Strong love for a given pur-
ADDRESS.
9
suit, amounting, as it sometimes does, to a passion, argues
something more than simple adaptation. It is an indication
of a high degree of adaptation, of decided genius, and is,
therefore, not less rarely to he found than that uncommon
endowment itself. Hence the mass of mankind need not ex¬
pect evidence so clear and convincing, as to what Nature de¬
signs them to pursue. Still, it frequently happens that men
exhibit a tendency to a particular pursuit or profession suf¬
ficiently strong to show the bias of the mind.
But if indications of this kind are entirely wanting; if
the mind has no particular preference for one pursuit above
another, we must, in the third place, study ourselves, and
the nature of the proposed pursuit, and the conditions essen¬
tial to success in its prosecution. Of all the kinds of knowl¬
edge, perhaps none is more difficult of attainment than self-
knowledge. " Know thyself" is a heathen injunction, ven¬
erable for its antiquity, full of wisdom, and worthy of the
profoundest consideration of the christian moralist and phi¬
losopher. Many persons who show themselves capable of
forming a reliable, discriminating judgment upon any mat¬
ter of taste or of business, or even upon any profound ques¬
tion of morals or philosophy, are easily bewildered and mis¬
led, when they are required to form an opinion of self.
Some are disposed to look at their own powers and their
own performances through a distorted medium, and every
thing pertaining to self assumes, in their view, immense pro¬
portions ; while others err upon the other extreme, distrust
themselves, and form exceedingly humble opinions of their
own powers and capabilities. You have enjoyed fair oppor¬
tunities, young gentlemen, of forming a sober, reliable opin¬
ion of your own abilities. During the past four years, your
minds have often been taxed by profound questions in Ma¬
thematics and Philosophy; your powers of discrimination
have been tested by nice points in Philology and criticism,
and your taste and imagination have been appealed to by the
finest performances, in this department of intellectual effort,
of the great masters of ancient and modern times. Your
ability to avail yourselves of your intellectual resources in
argument, in attack, in defence, in ready repartee, ha.s been
severely tested in the gladiatorial contests of your literary
associations, and your powers of comprehensive statement,
of logical disquisition, of lucid, forcible, elegant expression,
have been fully brought out in the various exercises in com-
10
ADDKESS.
position, which have been required of you from time to time.
Difficult, then, as it may be to form a sober estimate of one s
own powers, the necessity is upon you, and you must come
up to the question boldly, and, availing yourselves of the
fine advantages which I have endeavored to sketch, you
must seek to make a wise judgment—one that will secure
you against error, in the great choice which it is the purpose
of this discussion to assist you in making.
But, young gentlemen, while it is very important to study
yourselves, it is not less so to consider the nature of the
proposed pursuit, and the conditions necessary to its sqpcess-
ful prosecution. In order to make this discussion as practi¬
cal as possible, I propose, in the next place, to consider
briefly a few of the leading pursuits upon which the educa¬
ted men of this country most frequently enter, in reference
to their usefulness and the mental and the other characteris¬
tics essential to success in their prosecution. And first, let
us'turn our attention to the profession of the Law. There
is a very common and deep-seated prejudice in the popular
mind against this profession, so strong that men not unfre-
quently entertain the opinion that it is impossible to be a
lawyer and a good man. Surely there must be some mis¬
take at this point. Society is so constituted as to make it
necessary, that our dearest rights should be canvassed be¬
fore the courts of the country. Great questions involving
property, liberty and life, must there be settled, and will it
be said that we must have a class of men to build our hous¬
es and cultivate our farms, while questions that lie at the
foundation of society can be disposed of by tyros ? The great
Lawyer, whose mind is thoroughly imbued with the princi¬
ples of the science, and who has spent his life in seeking to
have those principles justly and equitably administered ;
who has lived above the petty tricks and chicanery of the
more unworthy members of the profession, and has not de¬
graded himself by soiling his pockets and his conscience
with ill-gotten gains, is at once an ornament and a benefactor
of his race; and we can no more dispense with the services
of such men, than we can with those of the men who furnish
us with the food that we eat and the clothing that we wear.
The prejudice in question, has arisen from the conduct of
those members of the profession whose business it is to seek
" to make the worse appear the better causewho live, tmd
fatten, and thrive upon strifes which they have engendered,
ADDRESS.
11
and lawsuits which they have provoked; and we protest
against the injustice of judging the whole class by these un¬
worthy representatives.
Having disposed of the question of the usefulness of the
profession, I will state as succinctly as possible those char¬
acteristics which will ensure success in it. The first and
chief requisite, is a strong logical mind—ability to grapple
with the great principles to which allusion has been made,
and to trace them to their consequences. The shallow,
skimming, superficial thinker, will find himself unequal to
the encounter when he comes in collision with the strong
men of the profession, and he will bring discomfiture and
disgrace upon himself, and loss and injury upon his client.
In. some professions, the spurious can pass for the genuine,
but in this the crucible through which all have to pass will
bring out the pure gold and add to its brightness.
I would mention, as a second requisite, ability to express
one's self with clearness and force. Some men, who seem
to think clearly, have a dark and feeble elocution.—
These men can never make themselves felt, and pass-for
what they are worth at the bar. Great powers of eloquence
are not essential to success; though occasions often arise,
when these tell with tremendous force. A luminous, forci¬
ble, perspicuous style of expression will secure attention
and carry conviction.
I would state, as the last essential requisite, great powers
of application. Blackstone, in his chapter upon the study
of the law, quotes approvingly an English authority for the
opinion that "such a knowledge as is necessary for a Judge,
is hardly to be acquired by the lucubrations of twenty
years." It is true that, in our day, a wonderful advance
has been made in this respect, and men have sometimes
reached the Bench in one-fifth of that time. But doubtless
the learned authority did not have such Judges in his mind
at the time he made the remark. He spoke only with ref¬
erence to the men of his day. And as you, young gentle¬
men, are too modest to claim equality with these modern
prodigies, you must allow me to rank you with common mor¬
tals, and to insist that there must be some truth in the Eng¬
lish Judge's opinion, at least in its present application. I
have been told by a gentleman who knew him well, that one
of Georgia's sons, who acquired a national reputation, and
was known as the constitutional lawyer of the U. S. Senate—
12
ADDRESS.
I allude to the lamented Berrien—was in the habit, for up¬
wards of forty years of his life, of spending a fixed portion
of each day in studies connected with his profession. The
authority cited, and the illustrious example given, may serve
to show the immense labor imposed upon him who would be¬
come a Story, a Webster, or a Marshall.
Next we turn to the profession of Physic. Its usefulness
is seldom called in question. Occasionally, however, we
hear men make disparaging remarks in reference to it, some¬
times going so far as to assert that physicians do about as
much harm as good; but even these men, when severe ill¬
ness comes upon them, or upon any member of their fami¬
lies, send post-haste for the physician, thereby making con¬
fession that they feel, in their hearts, a want which they
refuse to express with their lips. When we reflect upon
that wonderful piece of mechanism—the human form—with
its hundreds of organs of the most delicate structure, and
liable to the assaults of disease in a thousand forms, we are
not surprised that an inspired writer should exclaim, "we
are fearfully and wonderfully made!" Nor is it matter of
surprise that, from the earliest periods, it has been felt ne¬
cessary to have a class of men to devote their time and talents
exclusively to the study of the various ills to which flesh is heir.
All experience demonstrates that we must have physicians,"
and, while this is true, perhaps there is nothing in which
men are more readily humbugged, than in the physicians
whom they employ. If they have occasion to employ an
overseer or an artisan of any kind, they institute the most
rigid investigation into the questions of competency and
faithfulness; but when health, and, perhaps, life are at stake,
they abandon themselves often to the treatment of the shal¬
lowest pretenders. Hence there is a necessity, not only for
having physicans, but for having good men, faithful and
true, to prepare themselves fully for the high and responsi¬
ble duties of this calling.
The first thing that I shall mention as an indispensable
requisite in forming the successful physician, is strong com¬
mon sense. More brilliant endowments, great reasoning pow¬
ers, for instance, a glowing imagination, and even the gift
of eloquence, may be highly useful in certain offices of the
profession. They may be powerful auxiliaries in the labors
of authors and lecturers, and certainly would not be hurtful
to the practitioner, if held in check by a well balanced
ADDRESS.
13
judgement; but let me have the strong common sense at the
expens.e of more shining qualities. An observation of some
years has convinced me that such men oftener succeed in
establishing the reputation of safe, reliable practitioners.—
In the second place, the physician must have strong powers
of endurance. Exposed tb all kinds of weather; often
called out at night and deprived of needful rest, and some¬
times for days together; taking his meals at irregular inter¬
vals, and often denied them altogether, he must have a
constitution of iron to carry him safely through assaults at
so many points for any great length of time, and according¬
ly tables of mortality indicate the fact that physicians are
short-lived.
I come next to consider the profession of the Teacher. I
am happy to say that this calling is beginning to be hon¬
ored as much, if it is not ranked among the learned profes¬
sions. The time has been when it was disreputable to en¬
gage in the business of school teaching, and when men were
employed in this responsible relation, not because of any
peculiar fitness for it, but because they were either too lazy
to work, or because they had been tried and found unfit for
some other avocation. But I rejoice to say that the race of
old-field school masters—the Israel Meadowses, and the Mi¬
chael St. Johns of a former era—are rapidly passing away.
Men are beginning to realize that there is no calling equal
to this in responsibility, or so influential for good, except
that of the Minister of the Gospel. To the physician we
commit our health, to the lawyer the guardianship of our
rights, but the principle upon which the teacher bestows his
labor, is immortal, and would to God that every school house,
and academy,- and professorship in the land, were manned by
an instructor who felt in his inmost soul the full extent and
meaning of this declaration! It would b<3 the dawning of a
brighter day than mortal eyes have ever beheld.
But I must now turn to the consideration of the charac¬
teristics that make the successful teacher. In the first place,
he must have an analytical mind—a mind capable of resolv¬
ing a complex subject into its elementary parts, of examin¬
ing minutely its own operations, arid of observing closely
the successive steps which bring us to the conclusion in a
long train of reasoning. It is only such a mind that can
communicate truth clearly and impressively to others, and
unless the pupil can be brought to perceive clearly, and in-
14
ADDRESS.
wardly to feel the force of the truth at every step as the
instructor advances, all teaching is vain. Men of a differ¬
ent stamp may hear lessons, but they will never be able to
teach.
In the second place, the teacher must possess great pa¬
tience. He must be willing to toil and labor in order to
bring his subject to the level of the most ordinary capacity,
not despairing, when, upon explaining a principle for the
twentieth time, he perceives that some have not been able
to grasp it. When one kind of proof, or one mode of illus¬
tration has failed to place the truth in the mind of the learn¬
er, perhaps some other may succeed, and he must never give
over effort till his ingenuity and invention are exhausted.—
And he must be willing to perform this labor, and must seek
to do it with zest and enthusiasm, when, perhaps, he has
gone over the same round with twenty previous classes. The
patience of Job would not be too great for such a work.
Again, the teacher must be a man of great firmness. He
often has duties to perform in administering discipline, which
are exceedingly painful, and from which he would most wil¬
lingly be relieved; but the highest interest of the pupil, ob¬
ligation to the parent and to God, require that the thing be
done. Often, too, when he has taken a position in a matter
of this kind, he finds the parents and, sometimes, a whole
community arrayed against him, and though frail human na¬
ture may suggest retreat, allegiance to truth, to right, to
God, bids him stand his ground.
The teacher must also be an apt student of human nature.
One boy is stimulated to study by words of encouragement.
These link him to his teacher "with hooks of steel," and
lead him to stretch every nerve, and put forth every effort
of which he is capable. Another is influenced by motives
of ambition; a third, perhaps, by fondness for study, and
there may be yet another who can be moved only at the end
of the rod. The same variety of character in its relation
to discipline is found, and the teacher must be apt to get an
insight into boy-nature to enable him to turn all these pe¬
culiarities to the best account.
The teacher must likewise have a strong sense of moral
obligation. He must feel that he is working for Eternity,
and that he is accountable to God for the results of his la¬
bors. This will make him alive to all the interests of the
pupil for this life and the life to come. It will make him
ADDRESS.
15
ever vigilant in seeking to give the right impulse, in the
right direction, and at the right time, and equally solicitous
to check and restrain, when restraint is necessary. Have
y°uj young gentlemen, ever enjoyed the instructions
u*S1u a ^eac^ier • Then you owe him a debt of gratitude
which you can never repay, and, however humble he may
he, you ought to honor him in your hearts next to him from ,
whom you derived your being.
There are many other pursuits open to our educated young
men, which it would be interesting to discuss—pursuits which
are as useful, intrinsically, as some of those that I have con¬
sidered, and perhaps more so; and many enter upon the
latter and sink into obscurity, whose peculiar endowments
might have enabled them to shine as lights in some of the
former. I wish it distinctly understood that I have made
this selection solely with a view to illustrate principles.—
The same line of discussion in reference to any other call¬
ing, as to its intrinsic usefulness, the conditions neces¬
sary to success in it, and your adaptation to it, will enable
you to make a wise decision. I have refrained from con¬
sidering that highest of all callings, the Ministry of the Gos¬
pel, for special reasons. In the first place, the theme is
more appropriate in the pulpit. And again, while the church,
in forming her decision, may look to "gifts, graces and
fruit," and the candidate for license is under obligation to
study the nature of the calling and his 5wn adaptatiort to it,
yet all must remember that it is written, "God hath chosen
the foolish things of this world to confound the wise, and
the weak things of the world to confound the things which
are mighty." It must also be remembered, that it is again
written, "no man taketh this honor to himself, but he that
is called of God as was Aaron " There is an inward light'
communicated by the Spirit of God, which, if not smothered,
will become clear and strong, and which he, who is the sub¬
ject of it, may not disregard, though other marks may not
be as clear as might be desired. '
I would say, in conclusion, young gentlemen, that having
made your choice in the fear of God, and in the exercise of
the means of judging that have been indicated, there must
be unity of pursuit. You have learned ,from your Political
Economy, the great importance of the principle of the divi¬
sion of labor. No man ever rose to great eminence whose
time, and talents, and energies were divided among a varie-
16
ADDRESS.
ty of pursuits, while history is full of examples of those
who have*won distinction by turning their powers in a par¬
ticular direction.
You must also be men of strict integrity, and virtuous in
your lives. No man ever stood forth as the expounder of
great principles, or the representative of high interests of
humanity, who did not pay the homage of the heart to Vir¬
tue, to Purity and to Truth, and that can not be felt in the
depth of the heart which is not practiced in the life.
And, finally, there must be entire consecration to God to
ensure the highest success. God rules in the armies of hea¬
ven and among the children of men. His good Providence
is over great things and small things. lie overthrows em¬
pires and kingdoms, and "not a sparrow falleth to the
ground without his notice." "He that honoreth me, him
will my Father honor."
Young gentlemen, we meet to-day for the last time as
instructor and pupils. You go forth, bearing with you the
warmest affections of one who has ever been your friend.
If you act upon the advice which I have given you, 1 know
that I shall hear from you again, if God spares us ; for you
cannot fail to make useful men, and virtuous and respected
citizens. May God bless you, and make you useful, and
respected, and honored in life, and happy in death!