New-York tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1841-1842, 1841-11-10
MERCANTILE LIBRARY.

o;, =, Clinton Hall. Long before the hour an
..ad Cor the commencement of the exercises the
.oo,, y,s crowded, and hundreds were unable TO
obtain an entrance.
At74 o'clock the President of the Association,
after making few brief remarks in relation 10 the
objects of the Institution, introduced the Hon.
WILLIAM IscLis as the Introductory Lecturer
whereupon Judge Inglis rose, and, after warm
reception from the audience, proceeded as follows:
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN
The Mercantile Library Association of the City
of New-York has awarded to ne the grateful and
honorable distinction of addressing them on this
the ,wen,y-frst Anniversary Of the establishment
Of their institution.
appreciate most deeply, gentlemen Of the As
ISOLATION, this mark Of your kindness. doubt not
that amongst your own stated members many could
be found who even before audience such as That
which We now see before Us, would not unworthily
represent the interests and explain the objects and
aims Of your Society.
know that amongst those whom she has nur-
tured in her friendly bosom and sent ierth as her
representatives the busy arena OF the worl.,
there are troops of friends whom ste could call
upon 10 sustain Tue SlOIy Vi luelr aIIidIIdeI anu
to adorn and illustrate any occasion.
In selecting one, therefore, not originally con-
nected with the Association, indeed even with
that particular profession, the improvement and
advancement of which is your peculiar aim, IS
fooud proof Of that catholic and ennobling spirit
which institutions such yours are calculated 10
! foster and which teaches that all the various
occu patons of life in their final aim and result
connected together by the necessities and sympa-
thes one common nature and one general interest.
But, gentlemen, whilst you have thus considered
yourselves at liberty TO look beyond your par
icular ranks in difference TO feeling which shows
how free your Institution ia from any narrow or
exclusive tendency, cennJt be so far misled To
attribute the permission which you have given TO
nv name TO prccede and mingle with the older and
brighter that adorn the list which is to follow,
to any other than personal and perhaps
somewhat local feelings, that have influenced your
judgement in my favor.
remarl g that this was The twenty-hrst Ami
versary of the Mercantile Library Association.
A period which on the Fages Of thu historian OF
the human race, limits the existence of a genera
ton of mankind. and in the life OF the individual
man conducts him from the first dawn of feeble
and precarous infancy through the stages Of boy
hood and adolescence to the bright opening of
early manhood has passed away since the ninth
day OF November, one thousand eight hundred and
twenty The birthday of this Institution What Il
varied train of feelings and associations rises TO
the minds eye, even of him the least ideal and i'm
ngnu,ive, at the mention of the number
twenty-onc as connected with the years of his life
1t CONVEYS to all of British origin or speaking
the English tongue the innumerabIe associations
connected with the idea sf legal majority, with
which the physical Development of the species in
the northern climates of our ancestors and ourselves
seems so we'll TO comprehend. To all it appears
be or to have been the era OF ife-,he fullest OF
destiny to those who are pressing forward through
the intermediate years which now appear long
those of us who look back upon it at various in
tervals which now seem so short, and TO those
whose footsteps have just pressed and still lingcr
around the mystic boundary.
The age, it is true, has passed away which re-
posed implicit confidence in prcsages and omens
in horoscopes and climacterics in days dark OF
bright, and which suojugated the freedom OF the
human will aud raised or depressed its energies
the will Of external and secondary deities and IT,
flences. But the error in tho faith OF those earl,
ages consisted principally in >ubecting the destiny
OF man TO the influence of agencies that were ply
steal and outward to himself, and supposed to be
as present and real the mysterious beings who.e
existence the popular belief had never lourned 10
doubt.
The internal and moral influences and associa
tons which tbs heart of itself originates and
d~ells upon in connection with the outward world
and nature and peculiar epochs in his history
and that of his fellow were made matter OF
subordinate consideration, or nearly merged in the
tendency 10 a system Of universal pantheism or !
materialism, terms which, although apparently ex
pressive OF different ideas, were and have continued
TO be in fact practically synonymous The DISPOSE
ton TO connect peculiar MOI Al associations and feel
ings with particular epochs and events in his
tional, social and individual relations is natural to
man, however pure and sublime his religious faith |
may be- and will continue to exist whilst he re-
mains creature not only of reason an judgement
but of Imagination and sentiment
1t is not, then, the part of wise philosophy to
endcavor 10 destroy or repress sentiments and feel
ings like these, which inseparable from our ma
lure. Our duty is to regulate and purify them
10 give proper direction to those genial emotions
which issue from the deep wells of the human
heart, TO be exhaused uDtil the mysterious
fountain itself is broken up and destroyed
Let the sentiments and associations, then, still
be cherished which the first early period of ex-
pected, present and past manhood is calculated to
inspire in every bosom. Let the yoath, then, be
still pernlt,ad TO gaze upon the airpanted visions
Of wealth, glory and ambition which rose before
his eye, DIM shadow and ndistinc, as the distant
object, bark, tree ar mountain-op, seen through |
the misty atmosphere of these autGmna days !
whose varying forms the slow ascending sun paints
with azure and gold, until his meridian orb unveils
them in their cold realities. Let the young man
OF twenty-one recall his energies and replumc has
wings for the high and daring flight which his i'm
agination has pictured. Let these wha have passed
that point in the journey of life pause TO compare
realities with the esrly promises OF hope, and |
learn on the RETROSPECT; chasteucd wisdom and
motives for calmer endurance and sustained
exertion for the trials and duties of the future
In nations communities and associations an