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edge and most persevering labor can avouch, is brought
here to that end; and the most liberal bounty--the
most magnificent benevolence that ever illustrated a
people's virtue, have added large stores of material
treasure.

Now, my countrymen, under God we owe this, first to
the Spirit I have endeavored to elucidate, and then to
the earnest, enlightened devotion of this noble band of
holy men. They have given their gifts to this enterprise
of Christian patriotism I cannot praise them with ful-
some eulogy, I cannot discriminate their work, but you,
and the world, and they, will feel I am not much to
blame if I turn to you, Reverend Sir, and say, as the
Roman Historian said of Alexander's conquest of the
East, "He took courage to despise vain apprehensions,"
and farther, that when it pleaseth God, your Master, to
stay your radiant and strong right arm from His battle-
fields on earth, and call you to share His everlasting
triumph, the Heavens and your grateful country will
read on your grave-stone, "THE FOUNDER OF THE
UNIVERSITY OF THE SOUTH."

And to all of you, Reverend Fathers, in the name of
our common country, and of our posterity, I may use
the language of the wisest statesman and purest patriot
of Rome, apostrophising the wisest teacher--save one--
vouchsafted to man--

"O Socrates, et Socratiei viri!
Nunquam vobis gratiam
Referam."

And again I may hail you, Venerable Fathers of our
beloved Church, in the triumphant cry of one whose
successors you are in your holy office, and brave and
meek and holy as he was, whose equal you would be,
if Liberty and Religion demanded the trial--"Be of
good comfort; we shall this day light such a candle, by
God's grace, as I trust, never shall be put out."

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I feel peculiar pleasure in introducing to you a distin-
guished fellow-citizen, whose labors in the cause of

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science have crowned his name with honor throughout
the world, and made him, in a measure, the property of
nations. The winds of Heaven and the waves of the
sea, have, by his researches and discoveries, been made
tributary to the increase of the facilities of trade to every
land, and on every sea where commerce spreads her
sails. I announce to you the name of my friend, Com-
mander Matthew F. Maury, of Washington City.

COMMANDER MAURY'S ADDRESS.

Ladies and Gentlemen:

This greeting, and the terms in which my old pre-
ceptor* and early friend has brought me into this pres-
ence, fill me with emotions difficult to utter. I thank
you for your goodness.

Physical geography makes the whole world kin. Of
all the departments in the domains of physical science,
it is the most christianizing. Astronomy is grand and
sublime; but astronomy overpowers with its infinities,
overwhelms with its immensities. Physical geography
charms with its wonders, and delights with the be-
nignity of its economy. Astronomy ignores the exist-
ence of man; Physical geography confesses that exist-
ence, and is based on the Bibilical doctrine that the earth
was made for man. Upon no other theory can it be
studied; upon no other theory can its phenomena be
reconciled. The astronomer computes an ephemeris for
his comets; predicts their return; tells the masses of
the planets, and measures by figures the distance of
stars. But whether stars, planets, or comets be peopled
or not, is, in his arguments, theories and calculations, of
no consequence whatever. He regards the light and
heat of the sun as emanations--forces to guide the
planets in their orbits, and light comets in their flight--
nothing more. But the physical geographer, when he
warms himself by the coal fire in winter, or studies by
the light of the gas burner at night, recognizes in the

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*Bishop Otey.