The Sun.
London, England, 1849-12-14 00:00:00

LONDON, FRIDAY EVENING, DECEMBER 14, 1849

schools ought to be mentioned with respect, for he
siished every Sunday-school to occupy its proper posi-
tion, and not to occupy the position of schools which
were to teach men the duties of Christians and citizens.
He would avail himself of all their advantages, in con-
nexion with other schools. He would also avail him-
self of the philanthropy of those who went about in the
lanes and alleys to establish ragged schools. Education,
whets it did come, should Dot come as the victory of a
party—it was a work which (-tight to comhiee all, and
obtain the sympathies nod the efforts of all alike. It was
the same in mearrisl philosophy; vsrious irtflaesces were
employed to the growth of a plant or tree, and so vari
ous and diverse motives must litre combine to nourish
the human product, and bring it to its lull growth.—
(Hear, hear.) And although the best educated commu-
nities would have many evils, yet there were many
things which a freaeral spread of knowledge among
the m must seedily or destroy. The different classes
would feel that they had common interest—they would
feel as brethren under the influence of that intel-
lectual power of education. " Mau is the child of
God,"—and that is a nobler title than the Son
of a nohleman.—(Hear, hear.) He would, then, exhort
the people of Matichester to persevere in the present
scheme; he conjured them by the compassion which one
man ought to feel for another, by their love of peace, by,
their love of their country, famous above all for its in-
tellcctuel greatness, by a hope of making the next
generation worthy of the land of Newton and Locke; he
conjured them by a feeline of gratitude which ought to
possess them fur the advantages which they had over
others, by the feeling which they ought to have, that as
they had by thus commexcing this movement placed
Manchester in advance of England, so by the prosecu-
tion of it they might place England in advance of the
world. (The Hon. Gentleman sat down amidst long and
continued cheering.)
Mr. JAMES SIMPSON, of Edinburgh, then proceeded
to address the meeting. Ile said he had been for many
years interested in the present movement, but the only
merit which he could claim was a chronological merit
merely. He congratulated Manchester upon the position
which it had ta,k.n in advance in this great educational
question a hint to Manchester had as usual
been sufficient. Scarecrow's of " godless," " in-
fidsl," and other epithets had been raised against
the movement. Dr. Chalmers held that secular educa-
tion, which fitted a man for life, was the best of all
educations. The late Speaker of the House of Commons
had prophesied that these views of education would
ultimately triumph, but that they would have to fight
against ten years of discussion. There was one point
upon which he would wish to take the opinion of that
auelience, and that was, that the clergy of all denomina-
tions were the natural and best educators of the country.
Mr. CoI3QPER, the leader of the Chartists in this neigh-
bourhood, then rose and said, he wished his fellow
working-men to know that he fully approved of the
present movement, and hoped that they would work
nand and heart in it. as he meant to do.—(Hear, hear.)
Mr. T. BAYLEY, Chairman of the Manchester Chamber
of Commerce, proposed the thanks of the meeting to
the distinguished strangers who had been present,
Mr. G. Wseseet seconded the motion, and bore testi-
mony to the_lung services of Mr. Simpson in this gri at
cause of education. He remembered Mr. Simpson having
delivered lectures on this very subject, in Manchester,
some twelve years ago.
Dr. WATTS, who moved a vote of thanks to the
Chairman, said that from Mr. Simpson he had received
his first impetus in this great cause.
Mr. J. SMITEI seconded the motion, which was carried
with loud applause, and the ineetiiie ;hen butte up.

EPW ORTH MECHANICS' INSTI-

TUTE.
(From the Lincolnshire Times.) •
On Thursday evening last, the 6th inst., a meeting
was held in the Court-house, Epworth, for the par-
pose of advocating the advantages of mechanics'
institutions, and their claims upon all members of
society, for co-operation and support, in instructing
the hitherto uneducated portion of the adult popula-
tion, within their limits.
Mr. MERRIL, solicitor, president of the institution,
took the chair : he read letters from several gentle.
men who had been invited to attend, but who were
unavoidably prevented; amongst the rest was one
from the Earl of Yarborough (a patron and life
member of the institution), from Sir Charles Ander-
son, and the Rev. E. R. Larken, Button Rectory,
near Lincoln ; they all urged the desirableness of
such institutions, and expressed their regret that they
could not attend. The Hon. and _Rev. C. Dundas,
rector of Epworth, was prevented attending by the
ill state of his health, but forwarded 1/. fur past
subscriptions, and promised a contribution of books.
Mr. Merrils then stated the reasons for holding the
present meeting, and said the society had been
established thirteen or fourteen years ; sometimes it
had been in prosperous circumstances, and at other
times not so; the principal cause of its decline being
the want of a proper place to meet in, the use of the
Court-house had now been obtained for the exchange of
books and the delivery of periodical lectures, (through
the kindness of T. Lightfoot, Esq., the Lord of the
Manor), and he (Mr. Merrils) hoped the society
would be placed on a better footing than before. He then
gave a report of the past and present condition of the in-
stitution, and said if the funds would admit of it, it
was the intention of the committee to re-establish
the classes and employ a paid teacher; after some
other observations, he called upon
Mr. HEMINGBOROUCIII, from Crowle, who said he
did not expect to be called upon to speak, but to be
allowed to sit quietly as a hearer ; he was proud they
had such talented individuals as the Rev. Gentleman
on his right to advocate the claims of mechanics' in-
stitutions, which would prevent him occupying much
of their time ; he then stated the reasons why he was
favourable to such societies, and the claims they had
upon all ; ignorance was the bane of all society—
" from ignorance error springs our youth
would be better employed in attending classes
than loitering in the streets, or spending their
time at the public-house. We have hitherto been
deficient in proper places of resort, where our youth
could assemble for improvement; it required the
leading characters of a town to come forward and
help their poorer fellow-creatures to obtain knowledge.
He was sorry to hear and see the immorality daily
presented to our view—it flows from ignorance ' •
knowledge was the opponetst of vice, and was the
chain which links society together. e then spoke
at some length, showing the advantages such institu-
tions were calculated toconfer; in a pleasing manner he
ridiculed the idea of supposing that education and
mental culture would affect the labourer to his dis-
paragement, as a servant; he trusted the present
meeting would be a nucleus around which to draw
every town and village in the neighbourhood to have
similar institutions and similar meetings. Epworth
was considered to be the centre of the Isle of Axholme,
and from that centre may such a thirst for knowledge
and improvement spring as shall radiate to all around ;
may Crowle catch the spark, and carry out the prin-
ciples of such benevolent institutions to their fullest
extent.

^T
The Rev. T. SLIPITOBTII, Belton rectory, then
addressed the meeting at considerable length. He
said he rose willingly to advocate the interests of the
society—it had his best wishes for his success;
although when he received a letter of invitation he at
first felt a little delicacy in attending or taking pal t
in the proceedings; he had never attended any simi-
lar meeting; but from whit he had heard and seen,
if another meeting was held he should attend as a
neighbour, and render them all the assistance in his
power. Clergymen should always be ready to assist
heart and hand in every good work ; if he did not
return from that meeting a wiser and a better man it
would be his own fault. The society had been esta-
blished thirteen or fourteen years, and had been sub-
ject to many vicissitudes; it was not defunct. If it
had been dreaming of happier times, he hoped the
present meeting would be the harbinger of a sun that
would shine on brighter and happier days. The Rev.
Gentleman then stated his reasons for attending ; he
said be felt, as a clergyman, in his place wherever
good was to be done (where it was consistent to be
present), where the mind was to be cultivated
and enlarged ; mechanics' institutes were de-
cidedly on the side of religion. Look at the
spirit in which this society was established.
On looking over the rules he found that nothing
of a controversial character was allowed—they
opened no arena for political discussion—nothing of
superstition, or the principle of might overcoming
right ; here, all could come and quench their thirst
at the fountain of knowledge, without being treated
as paupers. He was favourable to them for another
reason ; they were based upon the best principles of
benevolence; they helped a man to help himself ;
many of the labouring classes could with difficulty
obtain education for their children ; but the great
evil was, when they left home and wentinto situations
in large towns, after business hours, having nothing to
employ their leisure hours, they are frequently led
into habits of vice and intemperance, and end their
career in sin and wretchedness ;
"For Satan finds some mischief still, for idle hands to
do."

If they joined a mechanics' institute they would have
a chance of becoming good members of society, and of
bringing forth the fruits of goodness and righteous-
ness. The institute sets its face like a flint against
intemperance, and places its powers against the evil
—that evil which is the bane of all society; when a
man ceases to be a reasonable being be becomes:a
brute. They likewise have a tendency: to make
people happy. The Reverend Gentleman drew a
beautiful contrast between an intelligent sober
labourer, and an illiterate inebriate. He appealed to
the ladies for their assistance, end said a woman's
smile hail sometimes more influence than a long
address from the pulpit or the bench. He then, in a
kind and affectionate manner, invited all present to
unite in carrying/out the good work, and gave some
excellent advice as to how and in what manner study
should be pursued, and entered at some length into
the advantages of education, and concluded by ex
pressing his best wishes for the success of the institu-
tion, that it might be a blessing to the inhabitants of
Epworth.
The Rev. JAMES ASI'INALL7 rector of Althorpe,
Lincolnshire, spoke as follows—Believing education
to be the rich and wealthy joint-stock bank of issue

whence proceeds the great and still increasing circu-
lating medium of common sense, for which the intel-
ligent masses of the people are becoming every day
snore remarkable, I always consider it a matter of
duty, as well as of pleasure, when it is in my power
to achieve it, to attend a meeting of this kind, and to
help on, according to my humble d:Jilities, the
great cause of' man's improvement, which we are all
so anxious to promote. I was reading a little time
since of a labourer, who, when employed in re•
moving an embankment, which almost blocked up his
cottage window, was asked, " what he was doing?"
" Oh I" he replied, " I want to let eut the dark ;"
a quaint fashion of expressing himself, which drew
upon him the laughter of the bystanders. But,
nevertheless, I adopt it at once as the motto and the
maxim ofour modern educationists. We also want to

let out the dark, because we know that, on the prin-
ciple that nature abhor/ a vaccuum, when we let out
the dark, we let in the light. And this work of let-
ting in the light is going on admirably at the pre-
sent time. We continually hear of new schools being
opened in what were before considered to be dark
holes and corners in remote villages, of branch me-

chilies' institutes, in connexion—with those in the
neighbouring towns, of libraries set up by the work-
ing men in such localities themselves, and many
other signs and symptoms that the intel ectual leaven
is working amongst every class of our population.
and this march of improvement no longer meets with

opposition. Oo the contrary, it is fostered and en-
couraged in all directions. Here and there, pro-
bably, some old-world admirer of the slew coach
system trembles at the progress of popular education.
And trembles, perhaps, the more because he feels that
he is impotent to check it. It would, indeed, be as

easy to turn back the rising sun into midnight, or to
extinguish the luminary when at his mid-day glories,
as to put out the light of education at its present
point. Who dreams oft ?
" Vain arc your efforts ! Stay your aims begun :
Fools that you are! No arrow strikes the sun !"
In short, as we gaze at our Nilometer, we see by it
that the stream of intelligence is rising higher and
higher, day by day, in this country, to the gratifica-
tion of all our own wishes, and the relief of all our

anxiety on the subject. I have always one feeling of
especial delight at a meeting of this kind. It arises
from a contrast which will present itself to my mind,
between the freedom of thought and speech which we
. .

enjoy, and the state of thing.; on these points in some
other countries. At Vienna, for instance, the news-
papers inform us that a decree has just been issued,
prohibiting the publication of any work unless the
manuscript has be en inspected by the military govern-
ment; while from Daly we hear that at Bologna, in

brder to check political discussion, the barbers have
been forbidden to have more than four customers at a

time in; their shops. Here, on the contrary, we may
meet in any numbers we please, the more the better,
and the more the merrier, and may speak what we
like, and our students read what they choose, and
no man say " nay" to ua. Old England then is a
country worth loving, and worth living for, and
worth living in ; la who will deny it. Ido not know
what are to the subjects of your lectures during the
present season, but I trust that they are to be of
a practical and useful character. At the late meeting
of the British Asswciation, the Prince of Conin read
ei paper on the- • difference between tie little blue
Magpie of the Briizil and the little blue magpie of
Siberia. And I have known a whole winter taken

up wick lectures cn such and kindred subjects in
some mechanics' institutes. Now, do not mistake
me. I do not say a word against such topics being
mixed with others, bat I think that a great portion,
the greater indeed, of our own lectures should be of
the useful and practical order. We want some of
the necessaries as well 25 the luxuries of intellectual

life—some of its roast beef, if I may so say, and
solid pudding, and not all goodies and sweeties, and
dessert and sugar plums. They should teach the
people how to pursue their several handicraft trades
with greater ease and facility. They should bring
science to help the plough, and enable the farmer
to grow two blades of grass and two ears of corn
where he only grew one before. And on another
point mark me. The establishment of a mechanics'
institute in a town does not necessarily rn...ke every
member of it—every man, boy, labourer, mechanic,
and clerk in the place, a genius or a giant. What
is a mechanics' institute ? What are the lectures
given in it ? They are but guide posts and way-
marks set up by the friends of education, and nothing
else. But on this head I must address you more at
large. When I speak of the friends of education
doing this or that, let me not be misunderstood.
They can work no miracles. They can build insti-
tutes ; they can attend meetings ; they can point the
way to fame and emimence, both by precept and
example. But they can do no more. They cannot
teach and improve men against their own will. No
one was ever yet raised, except by his own genius,
study, and industry, into that glorious race of thinkers
whose magnificent inspirations are repeated in
numberless echoes from every corner of the world,
and felt in every breast in which beats a human
heart. No one, indeed, must hope to become even
moderately or usefully learned or well-informed, ex-
cept by his own exertions. Means and opportunities
will all be lost unless a man himself has diligence
and application. There is an old proverb which tells us,
"No gains without pains," and it is only when this
is felt that an internal desire can be stirred up within
the student to lallraur for improvement, and to
persevere until he arrives at a great future result in
the fruit bearing of intellect. Where we give such
advice, we sometimes hear strange excuses. Many,
when told to keep good pace with the spirit of the
age, and with the progress which is visible on every
side of them, are ready to exclaim with the soldier
who, when reproved by his sergeant for being always
the last on parade, anwered with the most remarkable
naivete," Be easy, Sergeant Sullivan, surely some one
must be last I' Ido not mean to controvert this de.
cided truism, but still as we often hear of a man
running a good second, so I would have you run
such a good last, that it shall be hard to say whether
you are not coming in first in the intellectual race.
Others, again, when appealed to and encouraged to
approach the fountains of education, not only for
self's sake, but for the sake of society at large, which
is, of course, affected, for better or for worse, by the
character of all who compose it, answer with humility
or with that pride or indolence which would so often
ape it, "It is of no consequence what we do say, or
think; our voice, opinions, attainments, and so forth,
cannot exert the smallest influence upon the state or
destinies of an empire." But are you quite sure of
that ? Did you never hear the sweet pretty lines—
" What, if the little rain should say,—
So small a drop as I
Can ne'cr refresh the thirsty plain:
I'll tarry in the sky?
What if a shining beam of noon,
Should in its fountain stay,
Because its feeble light alone
Cannot create a day ?
Doth not each rain-drop help to form
The cool, refreshing shower?
And every ray of light to warm
And beautify the flower?"
And, even so, as the ocean is but an aggregate of
drops, time made up of moments, and the sand of the
sea-shore of grains, so is every human society com-
posed of individuals, and its character but the reflec-
tion of theirs when taken in the mass. But, after all,
humility is not the peculiar feature of the 'present age.
We have oftener to pull the curb than apply the spur.
But let me, for a fear moments, speak more particularly
of the Epworth Mechanics' Institute. I was de-
lighted to find, from my invitation to this meeting,
that it was once more about to be up and doing in
the world. I had begun to fear, from its long
silence, either that it was sun-scorched or frost-
bitten, or moth eaten, or rust-consumed, or that,
like the Royal George, it had foundered in a calm. I
was, therefore, glad to learn that it had only been
enjoying a little quiet and comfortable repose, and is
now again about to enter, like a giant refreshed, upon
its course of usefulness, improvement, and instruction.
It is always, too, a great source of satisfaction to me
o hear of the establishment of a mechanics' institute

in the agricultural districts. Education is making
such rapid strides among the people, in the manufac-
turing
and trading parts of the country, that we must
press and push forward a little, or rather, not a little,
and run well in the race if we do not intend to be left
behind in it. I was in Lancashire, last week, at a
meeting of this kind, and, after seeing what I did see
there, I hastened back in hot speed, doubly anxious
to attend here this evening, in order to ring in your
ears that golden precept, which ought to be written
in letters as long as my arm, over every parlour,
every kitchen, and every cottage fireplace in Lincoln-
shire,—
"Let those now read who never read before,
And those who always read, now read the more."
I can assure you that the mechanics and working men
there are all carrying heads upon their shoulders for
use as well as ornament. And why should it not be
the same here ? I will tell you at ance. We have not
yet, in the matter of education, taken the same pains,
either with ourselves or others, which they do in
Lancashire. We have not tried to stir up the very
depth of society with it; but that is what we must do
if we wish to improve the people about us as they
ought to lie improved. Subsoil ploughing is, educa-
tionally speaking, as necessary to produce a good hu-
man crop as it is, agriculturally speaking, to give a
good crop of wheat. And the use of a mechanics'
institute is to help us in working out such a consum-
mation. An institution in Liverpool has for its motto
" to make the mechanic a better man, and the man a
better mechanic." We might even shorten this, and
adapt for ours—" to make a man a man indeed."
This, in truth, is a glorious object. Hitherto millions
of our fellow-beings, even in the boasted land of civi-
lization, have gone through life, mere machines in
their work, mere animals in their enjoyments. 1 was
reading lately of some young man given to somnambu-
lism, who, having got out of his bed and walked about
for two or three hours in his sleep, was utterly

astonished, when suddenly awakened, to find himself
in a strange place arid among strange races. And, as
far as their intellects are concerned, are there not
thousands about us who are nothing better than som-
mmbulists, w'-lo go on waikin,g• in their sleep from
their cradle to their grave ? I want to see thim also
awakened up, and what a glorious awakening it would
be to make them acquainted with all the strange
places, and strange faces, and strange things, and all
the wonders in the "heavens above, the earth beneath,
and the waters under the earth," which heretofore
have been as if they were a sealed book, or as if they
had no existence, to their neglected and benighted and
slumbering minds. The very character of the times,
moreover, requires that men should now be better
instructed than they have been in days gone by.
Shame itself should now prick and push every man on
in the race of self-improvement. There is no longer
any hiding place for ignorance ; it is certain to be
found out. When the careless housemaid was
scolded for her untidy work, she answered,
"I'm sure the rooms would be clean enough,
if it were not for the nasty light of education
which is al ways showing my ignorance on every
subject." And how great that light is we may judge
from this one fact, and it is, to use a, passing
phrase of the day, " a great fact," that whine about a
century ego the amount spent in books, periodicals, and
newspapers in this kingdom, did not exceed 100,0001. a
year, it is calculated that the sum now so expended,
and with printing, paper, &c., so much cheaper, is
2,100,0001 in the same space of time. Thecre ought
to be some improvement to show for all this money.
And let me give you another reason in behalf of both
education and self-education. In these times, when
steam has, as it were, bridged all the nations of the

earth into one, men are not the fixtures they used to
be, on the spot that gave them birth. They may be
whirled by the vicissitudes of trade, or the search for
employment at anv moment to the most distt lands,
where they should uphold the character of their
country, and be the missionaries of civilization at the
same time. That you may not suppose that lam
here riding the hobby of my imagination in sa)ing
this, I will give you an example of this kind of
transplanting from your own neighbourhood. Some

rew jears since, before the late (roubles in Hungary,

and English gentleman, travelling its that
country, passed through its capital, Budik-Pesth,
at that time more remarkable for the mixed
elements of its population, both European and
Oriental, than, p.r-rhaps any other city in the. world.
As he walked along the streets he was joled by
almost every specimen of mankind. Thole were
sullen-looking Russians, fiery and restless Poles,
glorious Magyars, proud and grave Turks., heavy
Austrians, high-capped Tartars, with wild Cossacks
galloping in all directions, amongst its heterogeneous
multitudes. Even China had sent its contribution to
'swell the human medley. At last he c.ime upon a

group whose honest Anglo-Saxon countenances he
thought proclaimed the land of their nativity, a fact
of which he was aura when he saw their honest

Anglo-Saxon bands toiling away at their work,
utterly regardless of the mctley and miscellaneous
crowds who were curvetting, capering, and prancing
around them. They were driving the piles of the
far famed bridge of Btrla-Pesth. He approachcd,

and at once adressed the foremost of them iu plain
English. " Where do you come from, my man ?"
The party spoken to looked up, delighted to hear his
Nil ire tongue in a strange land, and answered, "From

Althorpe, —in the Isle of Axboltne, in Lincoinahire."
Now I am quite sure that when some of us were boys,
we should just as soon have expected to have met the man
in the moon as a man of Althorpe in the streets of
the far off city which I have mentioned, and either
expectation would have been as equally lunatic. But
times are changed : and may not the case of the man of
Althorpe be the case of the man of Epworth, or the
man of Haxey, or the man of Belton, to-morrow ?
Educate yourselves for it. But further, in this
country of free institutions it is impossible to say how
a man may rise, and how his social position may be
changed in the course of a few short years. I heard
a Noble Lord a very short time since, talking of a
Member of the House of Commons, who has, by the
strength of bis own energy and industry, worked
himself up to what he is, from the ranks of the people.
"He always (he said) speaks good sound sense' but
confound him for being so ungrammatical" This
also, I think, proves our case. It should, at all events,
convert into active friends of education all those whose
polite and fastidious ears are shocked by transgressions
against syntax, that henceforth good sound sense may
always approach them, no longer arrayed in ungram-
matical calico, but in grammatical satin. But, with-
out taking any such changes of country or eleva-
tions in society into account, let us suppose that all
here have to perform their usual mill-horse round
of duty to the end of their existence. Still we

want all the helps of light and education. To go
back to what I said of your lectures, which I would
recommend the members of your institute to pursue.
Let it be the useful first and foremost, the useful

before everything. Whether mechanics, or clerks,
or farmers, they should, before they go on to any-
thing else, make them elves acquainted with those
works which will be of most assistance to them in
their several trades, callings, and employments ;
good heads and good hands are both required in these
times. But, although I have talked of the young, 1
mean, remember, to include the old also in
these remarks. Mehemet Ali, the late ruler of
Egypt, was 46 years of age before he began to learn
either to read or write. A man can never be too old
to enter upon a good work. But, of course, you
will say that mental relaxation is as necessary as
bodily, and that the intellectual bow will be strained
if it is not sometimes unstrung. I agree with you.
It was beautifully observed by Lord Mallen
at the late meeting of the Leeds Mechanics'
Institute, "If it be true, as we often hear
it said, that knowledge is power, it certainly is
not less true that knowledge is pleasure." In
using it as such, then, I would recommend you parti-
cularly to the reading of history. It is delightful to
be carried back from our own little present, and to
be placed, as it were, front to front with men of all
times, all countries, nations, and languages, and to be
made acquainted, not only with the men themselves,
but with their customs, their habits, and ways of
thinking. History is, indeed, a most exquisite occu-
pation for our leisure hours, as it recalls from the
tomb of their grandeur, and pasFes in review before
us, empires and kingdoms, in their day as great as
our own, rising and falling, like the waves of the sea,
until, vanity of vanities I they have left behind them
but, with their sculptured ruins, the name and fame
of their dominion, and glories upon which the lapse
of centuries has shed a halo of almost sancity, from
the circle of which the mind can hardly escape. And
biography, too, is a most interesting study. But, in
pointing out this branch of reading, I would remind
you, that I do not restrict you to the lives of those
who, generally speaking, have been the objects of
mistaken hero-worship in times past. I include the
men of the pen as being more truly illustrious than
the men of the sword, the authors of great inventions
fur the good of mankind, the celebrated in the arts
and sciences sculptors, painters, philosophers, and
Christian philanthropists. You should dwell upon
the career of such giants as these to spur on imitation
and emulation on your part; for truly it has been
written,

4‘ Lives of great men all remind us,
We can make our lives sublime;
And, departing, leave behind us,
Footsteps on the sands of time."
And there is another branch of reading for your hours
of ease, at once agreeable and instructive. I mean
travels, voyages, and works on the colonies and emi-
gration. We have, many of us, probably, friends or
relations in distant parts of the world, about whom,
and their position as to locality, climate, and many other
circumstances, we feel strongly interested and anxious.
Besides, if most of us may continue, as old birds, to
abide in the old nest, and roost on the old perch to the
end of the chapter, still our children may be driven,
by the increase of population and the pinch of com-
petition, to seek their fortunes in foreign lands. We
should, therefore, for their sake, accumulate as much
information as possible upon the subject to which I
am referring. And one word morel must add, and Icrave
your serious and solemn attention while I say it. You
mutt make all earthly knowledge, be your stores of it
ever so great, secondary and subordinate to that
higher knowledge which is from above. The ray
is but the light of a feeble taper to guide the worm
of earth from the cradle to the grave. The other
is the Sun of Heaven of Heavens to illnminate
his path, as an immortal being, to the eternal
" mansions beyond the skies." Whenever, there-
fore, the pride of human labour begins to turn the
head and poison the heart, and to elevate the gift of
intellect above the giver of it, from that moment, re-
collect, it becomes as worthless as the crumpled paper
on which its words of ink are written. But enough.
The eloquence which I see beaming from the eyes of
so many gentlemen around me who are anxious to
address you, reminds me that it is time for me to cut
short my trespass upon your patience, and hasten to
conclusion. I shall do so with another word of advice.
You must not expect your young institution to start
into miraculous maturity all at once. Success may
be marred by the very recoil of feeling which often
follows the disappointment that is not instantly
achieved. You must be satisfied to begin with the
beginning, and go on from little to more. The
young eagle does not at once soar from the parent
nest to meet the blazing sun in all its glories, but has
to take many a wheeling and circling flight before it
can ascend to revel and bathe itself in the fountains
of light, which come dazzling forth from the meridian
orb. Moreover, an, institute can only flourish as it
depends upon itself. The pressure from without is
good for the accomplishment of many things, but it is
only by the pressure from within that a mechanics' in-
stitute can hope to achieve success; only by the energy,
the perseverance, and resolute determination of its own
members that it, can or shall succeed. An annual
meeting like this is all very well in its way, to give a

S

little stimulus and impulse, iNfer4ii:644Ms,
the year, in which you hav
..„," ,':7i, • :,.. fplOcst4l
to its proper position of use *eft -497#quizz-1-44
f(it;
what 1 say of your institute - *11,4=. ,--
member of it in particular. ' tAtr4 I-in-.' ~ f
- ,
your advancement in knoxvle cyfitz,c'r6n
exertions. Your own industr tW.liing
cap of Fortunatus to you, and lour own zeal and
efforts the seven leagued boots which are to carry
you on to improvement. What may he your future
position in life I know not, but be it what it may you
will, if not wanting to yourselves, still have the
pleasure of knowledge, the luxury of rational enjoy-
ment, the comfort of intellectual cultivation and
mental refinement, for the solace of your hours of
leisure, and, with them, the glorious recollection and
feeling, that
" Honour and shame from no condition rise:
Act well your part, there all the honour lies."
Mayyou individually be happy ! and may the Epworth
Mechanics' Institute succeed and flourish, growing,
day by day, more and mere, until it becomes a light
and beacon, a guide and a rallying point to all the
neighbourhood.—(Great applause.)
Mr. T. PEARSON, the secretary, proposed a vote of
thanks to the reverend gentlemen and Mr. Hemming-
borough for their kindness in attending, and for
the excellent addresses they bad delivered, which
was ably seconded by Mr. READ, of the Albion- house,
Vice-President, and was handsomely acknowledged by
the Rev. d. ASPINALL, who proposed a vote of thanks
to Mr. Merrils, the Chairman, which was seconded
by the Rev. T. SKIPWORTII; Mr. M. briefly acknow-
ledged the compliment, and the meeting separated.
The Court-house was crowded with an attentive
audience.