Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1847-09-11

may lead him into Who calculate its relations
with others in the vast range OF human knowledge 1t is
operated upon by hundred forces acting in different drec-
tons and with different ntensies, subject the action Of
time which will control them that before the philosopher
has decided upon their resulting influence not one 1.-THE
them will remain And for this those who have been
educated by the experience of others frequently Laud
torres enpors ac while efomers forget that antiquity had
also its phantoms and illusions.
The impression obtains hold sometimes that the great
thinkers of different past generations as conspicuous
the of their times to u.s. look back upon
them from This impression only the hasty thought
which study Of past literature will confirm OF the lite
ra Of the sixteenth and centuries those whom
most respect and venerae had such of esteem
among their contemporaries Any of the old libraries gath
cred in day has its shelves thousands of books which
dead to is the literature of Carthage. What,
them if age be marked age which there poured
out deuge of worthless literature That deluge be
accounted by the extraordinary literary activity the age
by this system which has thrown literature into the market
the system in which happens that publishers called pre-
emineny the trade. The literary activity is greater the
Of publication doubtless much greater and its
ness greater The question be decided is whether it
is greater in the proportion.
When the literature of age shall have been put the
test which will disclose its great and great authors,
have good hope that that test will show that be the
unsound portion what may the average standard Of era
has constantly sen and has been well sustained in its
advances since the revival of learning And as to the
unsound portion its influence will prove as insignificant as its
merits poweIless for evil as for good.
Here Mr. MARsH led to word two, exqusely
chosen and hopeful in spirit the rich promises of the lite
nature Of America for the investigation of the highest subjects
Of speculation.
Tha, investigation and tho method in which it be
pursued brings that axiom of Bacon, which
Bacon perhaps did not fully develop in his mind,
that knowledge power" OF this axiom the full force
is not felt by any who does not anayze his meaning in
using the word "power." The axiom demands more than
the ordinary Specification of that wod-more than the idea OF
force excited effectively For the STUDENT the by
which he to attain that foce the mental growth with which
he szes it, become part of the very aim and object of his
effort And, although selfish perver their mental
QUESTION to the pursuit of wealth poor hope of po
puar applause, there to them in of that power
self which subdues the passions to the will and controls the
will by In the Greek the very word which expresses
power derived from roots which convey to the idea oil
state rather than action and the gross Latin
the delicate distinction may be detected The deviation
here is the expression Of true conception. The highest
power the being that which mans highest nature may be-
come. And yeti is of course-his conception OF power
does not exclude the idea of action The higher the inward
state, the vigorous and frequent its outward effort He
who knoweth all things the Creator of all things And 1t
is from the state that the action The Christian does
not obey mainly in the hope of future reward and we can
not think Of the soldier fighting merely studied expec-
taon of What those is the origin OF what
they do. The worships-he other defends. One may
trace the law in morals in the arts religion.
And here Mr. MARSH closed the train OF close thought,
which have nadequatey followed, by the suggestion
that to men in the position Of OF letters if any
one study peculiarly recommends ITSELF that study IS
stleHCc-SCtcHCc
alive law not the knowledge of facts but the high
speculative science which deduces probable theory from
few known facts, and is also ready to divine facts yet
unobseved necessarily resulting from theoretical law
The pursuit of such science most fitting occupation for
who find themselves where OF letters so often
are only leisure for careful study when they retire from
the business which has consumed the youth and perhaps part
Of the maturity of his life At that time finds his ply
steal powers failing him and, has his mind only been
pied by the of outward life it begins prey upon itself
But he who has kept alive his interest in letters or in true
science nd at that period of his LEISURE that he ready
extend and continue that interest 1t has kept off the rust
which else would have gathered his faculties and thus the
love Of letters is the fountain of perpetual youth He who
ever learning young Indeed it seems as Nature
reserved for the sober eye Of her choicest gifts the incest
perception, the most full appreciation Of the beauties Of Ma
tuie and of Art TO be its peculiar treasure that the
evening OF the scolar gded with the nobest glow which
lights up the horizon Of his life.
With such picture of the delights of the pened years of
the true scholars life, Mr.. MARSH ended.
The close of the address, nervous concise like every part
of IT. was peculiarly beautiful in conception and expression
As he closed the audience gnfed their great pleasure by
repeated bursts of the applause which had frequently inter
ruped him.