DISCOURSE. THE course of liberal education is completed, and the youthful student stands for the last time upon his academic threshold, eager to plunge into the throng of active life. The world lies fresh and green before him, whilst in the distance-a distance which his confident anticipation seems to overleap at a single bound-the rewards of enterprize and ability, the bright prizes of wealth or of glory glitter in his view, In this hour of young and stirring excitement, ere he rushes forth to the attainment or the disappointment of his hopes-destined, as he most surely is, in either case, to find how different are the realities of life from their early seeming-let me invite him to pause for a moment, and with me to cast back a hasty glance on the studies and acquisitions of his college life. Let us consider together what are the fruits of those studies, and weigh the advantages placed within his reach by education. Unless he has been singularly ill-taught, or worse misled by his own vanity, he will know and deeply feel that the learning he has now gained, is but an imperfect fragment of the science actually acquired by man, and far smaller and more imperfect still, when compared with the knowledge within the ultimate grasp of the human intellect. He will feel too, and willingly confess, the feebleness and darkness of human reason itself, in its highest state of mortal perfection. But that learned humility, thus rebuking intellectual pride and checking presumption, will not make him undervalue the treasures of true science or chill his gratitude for being enabled to know their worth and extent. How abundant, how varied, how magnificent is the wealth of that intellectual treasury thus laid open to him! cence grow upon us, filling us with reverent awe, when we reflect that the science and literature of the present generation are the accumulated fruits of the labour, patience, observation, experience, experiments, sagacity, and genius of countless myriads of minds all guided to one end and combined and harmonized in one common purpose, by the overruling providence of the Father of lights, who as it seemed good to him, from time to time, put wisdom and understanding into the hearts of men. That common purpose is no other than the improvement of the human race. But how does that magnifi The Chaldean shepherd solaces the long hours of |