The Madisonian. [volume] (Washington City [i.e. Washington, D.C.]) 1837-1845, 1841-08-25

from the blast. The first spreads over the eaitn
a carpet enamelled with the brightest and sweet
est fiowers-peoples each star and fills earth and
Heaven with harmonious dulcet sounds. The
last sees in each howeret, and every blade OF
grass, as well as in the glorious Heavens, evi-
dences Of power unseen, infinite IN wisdom,
and boundess in benevolence. The one creates,
the other preserves. The one embellishes and
adorns the judgment-seat with the gayest and
brightest garlands the other holds the scales
| with an untrembling hand and weighs out the
DEGREES of good and evil TO mankind. The
| one, II may sospeak, IS the capital to the phi
lar, the other the pillar itself, which upholds the
edi6ce
God has most wisely endowed the human
mind with various faculties. The Imagination
springs forth like the falcon in its upward flight,
| seeking 10 reach the sun, while reason, by re-
| straining cords, draws ii back again TO earth ere
| its wings are scorched. To cultvete these TWO
faculties so that the first shall not attain the mas
terry, is the true secret of successful education.
| The mind is thereby matured, and its energies
are brought forth, as required, into beneficial ac-
| ton The man of mere imagination IS almost
| useless in his day and generation He lives IN
world Of his own creation, and peoplesit after
| his own untamed conception Man Is not the
| creature that God has made him, nor is earth
| fitted for his residence. Man, and the earth,
according TO his wild imaginings, are neither
suited to their appointed destiny. He either ele-
Yates man TO equality with his Creator, or
sinks him below the level Of the wild beasts.
| The realities Of life torture and distract him.
| There is nothing to him of harmony, nothing OF
| beauty in the flame of the universe. This
| goodly frame, the earth, seems to him a sterile
promontory; this most excellent canopy, the
air, this brave overhanging armament, this ma
jestica roof fretted with golden fire, appears no
other thing TO him than foul and pestilent
congregation ofvapors." He would, like anoth-
er Pheton, mount the chariot, snatch the reins
from the hands Of Apollo, and drive the horses
of the sun. Blind and infatuated man! and
yet he is the creature of education, and that mis-
directed, has overwhelmed him in misery.
What, if the volume of nature had been early
opened TO his sight; what, if the chain OF being
had been traced out for him from the merest
| atomite TO the infinitely great and all glorious
Creator; what, if he had been taught the adap-
tation of the parts to the whole; what, If mans
position on the map of exstencles had been
pointed out TO his eager and curious gaze; what,
if mind itself, and each and every OF its Gle
ments had been exposed tohis view; what, II he
had been instructed in knowledge OF the hui
man passions, and the volume of his moral duties
had been opened before him he would have
| arisen from the instruction another and a better
being he would then have seen order and har-
mony in all around him, Each little flower
which bloomed by the way-side, as well as the
lofty tree whose top aspires to the clouds, the
pearly dew drop as well as the broad ceantself,
the lowly ant hill as well as the snowclad noun
tain, the smallest insect as well as the eagle
"when towering in his pride of place" the glow
worm as well as the bright and golden sun, all,
all would have united in unwilling to him
the face of Omnipotence. He would have
learned that order was Heavens first law"
and would have taken his appointed place
in society with the volume of his duties
in his hand, and obedience written on his
heart. Love to man would have arisen
as necessary consequence of love 10 God. The
copious stream Of his moral duties would have
flowed from knowledge of his Creator; his
bosom would have swollen with desire to be
useful in his day and generation; pure ambi-
ton would have possessed him-an ambition to
be distinguished among the beneiactors of man
kind. True glory would have waved him on TO
that high eminence on which stands the temple
OF true fame, and he would have aspired to i'm
mortality on earth,an endless reward in heaven.
What, if difficulties and dangers had at any
time beset his path; what, if persecution and
obloquy attended his footsteps; what, If man,
for whom he labored, magned him, and society,
for whom he toled, disowned him ?-he would
still have persevered, and persevered to the end:
his name would, ultimately, have been inscribed
on the pillars of the temple, and its tablets would
bear record TO his noble virtues. Such would
be the results of a well directed system OF edu-
cation. The two men whose names you have
adopted as the representatives of your two So
cieties, verified in their lives the character and
results which have described as proceeding
from well disciplined minds George Washing
ton and Benjamin Franklin, each in his own
appropriate sphere, ran the race which was set
before him, and terminated his career in glory.
The first, under heaven, gave TO his country free
dom, and assisted TO open that heretofore sealed
book in which is written the rights of man ; the
other taug hit to Philosophy new lessons, and I'M
folded more fully the great book of nature. The
one snatched the rod from the hands of oppres-
sion and broke it; the other grasped the thun-
derboit and deprived the lightning of its wrath.
Around the temples of the one was entwined
civic wreath richer, and brighter, and purer than
had before adorned the brow of the proudest
conqueror the other was the darling child of phi
losophy, to whom Nature disclosed her most
secret mysteries.
There was wisdom and power exerted in
the formation of man inexpressibly great, and
most truly wonderful. In the anatomy of the
physical system there is much TO excite our adj
miration. The heart, like the ocean, at each
pusation pours out the blood through the arteries,
giving life and activity to the whole mechanism.
The thews, the sinews, and the muscles, nay,
every bone and thread and FIBRE performs its
appropriate function, and concurs in producing
and preserving that most nexplicable of all
mysteries, animal life. Look upon the form
divine Of the youth who is in the act Of tran
sition from puberty to manhood his blood runs
frolic through his veins and the deer bounding
over the dewy lawn is not more agile or airy
in its STEP His eye and cheek bespeak the
varied emotions which arise from time to time
within his breast. His voice is attuned to har
mony, and the graces of his person, and man
illness Of his form vie with each other for ex-
cellence. He would constitute model worthy
the chisel of Phideas or Prasieteles. 1t is
full of life and beauty and majesty--that youth