78

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to herself than her great names have brought, or could do, were
they ten thousand more. The great want of France is reverence.
Let America draw the lesson; for she too is wanting reverence.
She too has reason to consider how worthy she will prove, too
keep her precious legacies. Political liberty cannot stand in the
new world better than the old, if deprived of the two pillars which
alone can uphold it. Christian instruction, Christain reverence.
How strong are these pillars in America? Are they so strong,
that there is no reason to fear that our beautiful fabric of conserva-
tive freedom may become a shapeless ruin? If they are so strong,
it is well. If they are not strong, which is wiser, to make them
stronger, or to let them grow weaker and weaker, till the crash
comes, the pillars fall and break the brightest hopes of man?

The men of the South have now a tangible, definite, well-ordered
plan, on which to bestow their care and benefaction. Let America
wear no longer the stigma of being the Paradise only of material
civilization, the Mecca of Mammon, the land where the harp is
tuned in vain to catch the ear, where spiritual beauty languishes
and weeps. Size or wealth is not the essential quality of national
greatness. Fertile lands, fields white with cotton, or yellow with
ripened grain, harbors crowded with ships, store-houses overflow-
ing with goods from all lands, social comfort and luxury, stately
dwellings and costly garniture,--all these are blessings truly, yet.
if a nation stops with securing these, she fails in her duty, and her
shame will be as geat as was her power to be glorious.

May this beautiful mountain, with its summit of broad table-
land become the intellectual and social centre of the South, the
seat of refinement, culture, elegance, of all the graces of life, ever-
spread by that most refining, most elevating, most enduring of all
good influences, the beauty of holiness. Here may the sons of the
South quench their mental thirst at the fountain of knowledge, and
draw water for the soul from the wells of salvation. The invigor
ating air, these pure springs, to revive exhausted energies, these
magnificent prospects of fertile valleys and wooded heights, these
glorious mountain sunrises and sunsets, these splendors of the
clouds and of the forests, these softly rolling surfaces, these com-
binations of scenery, sublime and picturesque, these broad acres
extending so high above the regions which fevers invade, with pale
and haggard sorrows in their train, how well adapted are they all,
to promote the vigor of the body and of the mind, to brace the
physical energies for the intellectual conflict with hard problem, or

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the hard page that yields only to the patient siege of the deter-
mined will; and, in the hour of victory, when the wall is scaled,
and the fortress surrenders to the iron hand that grapples with
difficulty, as Jacob wrestled with the angel, how reviving it will
be, to look upon these graceful heights and secluded vales, and to
walk this mountain-top, rejoicing over victory won on the field of
hard, yet peaceful conflicts--victory which shall cause loving
friends to shed no tears but those of joy--victory that shall encir-
cle the brow with laurels that wear no crimson stain.

Those who enjoy the direct advantages of Universities reap but
a small share of their entire harvest. Universities are but the
crucibles, in which the treasures of past wisdom, the experience of
ages, the discoveries of science, the graces of literature are trans-
muted into the pure gold, which freshly stamped, supplies the
mental currency of the world, A great University is an Apostle
of the intellectual dispensation. and, while he labors long and
late, to instruct his immediate disciples, it is the world at large which
derives the main benefit of these hard and constant toils. How
many revile Christianity, who yet enjoy, during every day of their
lives, some of her unnumerable benefits conferred upon mankind!
as men, who breathe this air, so skilfully compounded for human
life, and who enjoy the brightness of the sun, and partake of the
grains and fruits, which his heat has ripened, will yet deny the
Creator, and yet worship chance and fate. So is it with Univer-
sities. Thousands fail to appreciate them, who nevertheless, are
indebted to them, remotely or directly, for many of their social,
civil, intellectual and religious benefits. The whole world is higher
in the scale of civilization, for the labors of busy scholars, ages
ago, trimming their midnight lamps. Many a man, looks on Uni-
versities as merely aristocratic establishments, has rights as a
citizen and respect as a man, which he never would have had, but
for their wide, pervading influence. No institutions, of human
design, are so wisely conservative, and so wisely progressive as
Universities; for they restrain the rash renunciation of the wisdom
of ages, and demand thorough reasons for changes, before they are
made. Universities uphold the rights of citizens against tyranny,
and the rights of lawful authority against faction. No despot ever
sat easy on his throne; anarchy never brought complete ruin to
a State, when Universities stood ready, boldly to defend the right
and to resist the wrong. Against the usurpation of the ruler, or
of the mob, Universities present a front equally firm and decisive.