The Hillsborough recorder. [volume] (Hillsborough, N.C.) 1820-1879, 1847-09-02

IMAM tNeFs Nalue % Hey utsefte. III IT'S
recollection, as in the memory Of US all.
this ancient place yet gIows with lie old
attractions. and our affections fontlly turn
TO il, amid the wanderings Of earlh. with
something OF youthful ar,lor. As well a. at
iilial respect. However in other scenes
and less tranquil pursuits,
- the ear In all nnstrung,
"Still, still, il loves the lowIand tongue
But time, which natures and ripens,
also destroys; and as our eyes wander
over this assembly, we mourn The absence
of many familiar countenance and many
a beloved form. While we acknowledge
new and welcome acressions 10 our num-
Der from the youthful graduates of the
year, we are compelled TO remember that
they occupy the sests of earlier compan-
ions, who have been swept away in the
lapse Of years, and who repose now in the
silent shadows Of the grave. 10 those
Of us who were together here thirty years
ago, "r0ri nantes in grgie Uasto,"
these mournlul recollections come home
with peculiar power. Like dim voices
of the dead, they speak To Us from ihs
chair Of the Instructor as well as from the
bench Of The pupil.
snow kindred merit fills the sable bier;
Now laceratcd friendship claims tear;
Year ch ses year; decay pursues decay;
Still drors some joy from whitening life away"
And here | should do injustice TO The
occasion and to my own feelings if did
a1FSnf .ha Painful aag ib Be Ny fa alisBsss :
so many Many ye 70 BE map'aSyx, Of uha5nr
circumstances, but still with signal sue
cess, administered the affairs of the Uni-
versity as its presiding officer. No one,
| am sure, who has ever shared his conn-
sells or profited by his mild reproofs. can
easily forget the wisdom and the virtues
of Presiden, Caldwell. Uniting extend
ed learning with sound judgment, he pos
sessed the rare and difficult art TO temper
admonition with kindness, and TO render
discipline more efiectual by making i. less
repulsive. -.
His life was gentle; and the elements ..s
So mixed in him, that Nature might stand up
And say to all the world, this was man.
His character and his uselulness-what
he was, and what he was enabled to do
suggest theme, which in this theatre of
his labors, and among these witnesses of
his fame, it would be grateful task un-
der other circumstances to pursue. But
his own example would rebuke us, if we
should allow even his merits to turn us
aside from contemplating the great objects
Of his toll. Let US seek rather to under
stand and TO do homage to those vast in
terests of enlightened culture in our own
country, which he lived, and, had al-
most said, he died to promote. .>s-@
TO this general subject we are invited,
not only by the proprieties of the occa-
sion, but by its own intrinsic dignity and
worth. In its broad and comprehensive
sense, the work of education is the grand
business of human life; and in these u nit
ed States, need hardly say, it can neye
be neglected, but at the hazard of conse
t quences which no patriot can con,emplat.
t without alarm. 80. -.
Inns Deiiei was present with Americ
, at its very birth. and stamped upon its r,s
ing institutions the great impress of free
: dom and perpetuity. In the history G
h other nations, learning has been the slo,
). growth Of society already formed, an
;, has existed, at asst, only as The ornamel
r of wealth ort champion of power. B
E. with the Faith of our Republic, next
d religion, it was the first thing thought 0
y not as a luxury, but as necessity n
III as the handmade of privilege, bu. As d
al nurse Of equality; not as the child OF e
dowment or the accident OF place, but
d. the sures. basis Of public prosperity and
in private happiness. They planted kno
se, ledge, therefore, in the wilderness est;
lu- lished schools as soon as they bnilded
TO bi,atons; and laid The foundations o.
University, while. yet they were str
nth Cling with The ravages of disease and
on apprehension Of want. More than c
me fury ago the charter governments W
pei celebrated for promoting letters by
'ble schools and college" and y this iea