Morse Family

You are collected from various & distant parts of our country. Here you are imbibing those principles & forming ^{& laying up} those habits ^{persons of knowledge}whch are to have ^a [?] influence through your futurelives.-- These you will carry with you when you return to your parents & friends. These will abide with you ^{& direct & assist you} while you act the parts assigned you by Providence the stage of life. How necessary is it then that your ^early principles & habits be sound & correct & that you diligently improve your time & advantages in deep & broad the foundation for future advancement in useful learning? When you shall arrive to manhood should you be spared to that age, & shall take an

active part in the concerns of religion & literature & in the civil affairs of our country, your influence, my young friends, scattered as you will be in various parts of our country & this world over a considerable portion of the globe will be very considerable. We ^anxiously wish to secure it all, if possible, on the side of christian piety & morality, of good government & social order.-- In wishing this, we regard your true interest & happiness the comfort of your parents & friends, as well as as our over gratification. In this you will answer most satisfactorily the intention of the pious founders of this Institution.

Our feelings toward you, young gentlemen, are of the parental kind, [?] anxious for your

8 for your improvement, affectionate & tender. We wish to share your filial confidence & esteem that our labours for your good may be replenished more easy & more successful ^{[?] & yourselves}. For a society of amiable, orderly & affectionate youth, plans for their of improvement are formed & executed & instruction communicated with pleasure & obedience to those we love is easy.

Prompted by an affectionate concern for your best good, I shall improve this opportunity unexpectedly enjoyed by me in giving you, my young friends, a few words of advice, such as becomes me.

Address to the Students of Phillips Academy, Aug. 23 1814

The period in whch we live bears many marks of the "last days," in whch Apostle has taught us to expect that "perilous times shall come" when it will be extremely difficult for men conscientiously & faithfully to discharge their duty & to preserve their own safety. Such have been the times, in one degree or another ever since the commencement of the Gospel dispensation ^{whch in the largest [?] of the phases of denominated [?]} Such especially ^{ewas the period}after t^{& {??]}of the Romish Apostasy-- & such, it is thought by many, will be still more evidently the character of the times preceeding the Millenium. If this opinion be correct, times & more perilous that have yet been withstood, are before us & the generation whch is to succeed that whch is

now on the stage may to encounter whch, though familiar in kind, will exceed in degree, [??] cannot be foreseen those now experienced. On a subject of this kind, it becomes me not to speaking positively. Yet so far as my own exmaination of [prophecy?] ^{yet to be fulfilled} has extended, I am led to believe, that days' more difficult & perilous than any whch have been witnessed since the beginning of the Gospel dispensation, are before us.-- This is not the time nor the place to assign reasons for this opinion. Admitting, however, its correctness the generation of youth who are to succeed those now upon the stage are coming into active life at a very important & critical period of the world. Of this our youth generally ought to be apprized; those especially who ^{under our patronage} are receiving an education, which is to prepare them

to act leading & conspicuous parts duringn their own times. Whether these shall be of the character just described or not still the preparations whch are ^adapted to such times will not be unsuitable to those them of a quite different complexion. And as it is always wise to be prepared for the worst, I cannot perhaps better employ the present oppy [opportunity?] than in pointing outsuggesting to the youth of this Seminary (whose performances & appearance this day have given us ^{so much} great pleasure) ^{some of} the duties particularly incumbent on them in view of the future prospects before them & their ^{present peculiar} advantages & motives to fulfill these duties.

First, as to your ^appropriate duties in the existing stae of things, & in view of what, in all probability, is before you in life--

^{Under the head [?]} The present is an age ^{in whch} when many of the that [?]branches of human science have been carried to a pitch of improvement unknown in any former period of the world. The following prophecy, in the book of Daniel, is evidently in a course of fulfillment.-- "Many shall [?] & [?] & knowledge shall be in earnest." The intercourse among the nations of the world, by means of commerce ^{in consequence}the voyages & travels ^{for discovery} of intelligent men ^{missionary exertions} & the recent wars ^{& treaties} among those nations who have control over more than three fourths of the inhabitants of this globe is far greater now than it has been in any former period of the [?] & ^{in consequence} the sources of information in regard to sacred literature

as well ^{as almost every} other branch of human knowledge, have been vastly increased. Men, therefore of [?] talents & application are now more learned ^{& [?] may shared information}than their predecessors, who flourished in previous less favourable for improvement & those who are to succeed ^{the generation now upon the stage} it is to be expected from their increased means of improvement acquiring knowledge, from the vast multiplication of sources of information, will be proportionally more learned than those who have gone before. You perceive, then, ^{young gentlemen} what are your ^[?]duties as students. To whom much is given of then much is required.-- You are to require upon your [?] [??] of general knowledge & to be better scholars then your predecessors. This you must do & this you must be in order to fulfill the just expectations of your fellow men ^{to do them the most good in your [?]} to [sustain?] your proper rank among them in society.-- With

such means as now exist in-- fidels, heretics, & unprincipled men ^{who are} the corruptors of the world, will learned & good men, christians must be learned too in order to that they may be able to meet them on their own ground & with their own weapons to detect ^{& engage} their errors & counteract their influence.-- You cannot ^fully avail yourselves [?]of the means you possess [?]for [treasuring up?] useful knowledge without diligent & persevering application without acquiring habits of study, of temperance, of ^willing? opbedience to those who have the charge of your education; & above all habits of study & virtue. Such habits then it is your duty to form.-- Such are your duties of the class I am now describing. You are faithfully to use all the means in your posession you can command to become eminent scholars

Secondly the times in whch we live are perilous times-- & those in whch you are to act your parts upon the stage in all probability will be still more perilous. An Apostle has thus described ^themthese last time? "Men will be lovers of their own selves, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, truce breakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady high minded, lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God. Having a form of goodness, but denying the power thereof." Such characters as are here descended have existed in every age since the commencement of Gospel dispensation. They have been more numerous in some periods than in others-- They were certainly never so numerous in our own country in proportion to our [??] as at the present day.-- They