Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1854-10-11
From the Baltimore Patriot.
Address Of b. johnson Barbour, Esq, of Va,
Delivered before The Literary Societies Of the Vr
ri,ia .Wititaru Institute.

|
Delivered before the Literary Societies Of the Vir
g.iiia Military Institute.
We have found this admirable address in TIN
Southern Literary Messenger, and have peruset
| it with pleasure. II is the production of mine
stored with information, ripened by reflection, ant
uttered by a heart animated with patriotism. W.
know these are earnest terms But we do not ust
them to fatter. We look at the text of d dis
course addressed to youth, and We employ Ian
guage of commentator because we wish to aiC
with our humble appreciation the influence of truti
and eloquence. The following extracts will b.
| found to vindicate our cOmmendaton
ADVICE TO THE YOUTH OF VIRGINIA.
And have | come to ask you, among other
things, to do what fear too many of our Leglsla
tors have failed to do-to spread the map of tlr
ginia before you-to trace out not only her dotted
boundaries and pencilled shores, but to study hel
condition, her wants, and her resources--to bend
your head to catch the pleadings of her feeble
voice, and then, with noble resolution here in The
purer atmosphere, and amid our grander scenery
to consecrate yourselves to her service. And here
let me entreat you n all kindness and confidence
to commence your life of duty by casting off or re
pellng that false pride too COMMON in our State
which is prone rather TO exact than to render hon
lor hope and believe that the day of morbid
thinking and miserable working is past-that the
time is at hand when the youths of Virginia will
deem it no degradation to earn an honorable indie
pendence in the cause of their State by the strength
Of their own good right arms-will believe thai
ideness is not meritorious, and labor not humilc:
ting-that an embrowned cheek is no derogation
from the gentleman, and that a hardened hand
ho k,,t a., a1n oF -
If you value the nober parts of the Virginia char
acter, its true nobility of soul, its scorn of mean
ness, its high toned honor and all those other so
cial and moral qualities which have So long adorn-
ed it-qualities that its enemies have pretended 10
deride, but before which they have ever stood a
bashed-if you would preserve and transmit these,
YOU must early learn that their true basis is inde-
pendence. You must learn to seek other roads to
wealth and fame than in the walks of oyercrowd
ed professions, or along the precarious and sppe-
ry paths Of politics. Do not think have come to
read you homily against ambition. would my.
self suspect the sincerity of any man who would
proclaim himself insensible 10 the good opinion Of
his fellow men. There is much truth in the old
scholastic aphorisn, that he who lives wholly de-
tached from his kind. must be either an angel or
a devil. But what would impress upon you is,
first, that however glitterng the prize, it is but
false ambition which does not hold self respect far
above any office in popular OF governmental gift,
and secondly, that if office, in the only form IN
which you would accept it, is withheld, If 1t be
not offered without solicitation, and won without
dshonor, it is still in your power. with talent and
perseverance, to gain high and enduring distinc-
lions such as midnight caucusses cannot give, nor
scheming politicians take away.
IMPORTANCE OF THE BIBLE TO YOUNG MEN.
shall not venture presumptu0usly to recon-
mend any particular course Of study or of reading.
But there is one Book that would place in the
centre of your thoughts, as would place the jew
ell in the crown aud the keystone in the arch.--
Edward Bulwer, in late noble Grafton, advised
the youth of Scotland to the prosecution OF classic
studies, because she whose early steps have been
led into the land of DENT gods and heroes. will
find that its very air will enrich the ile-blood OF
his thoughts, and he will quit the soil with front
which the Greek has directed towards the stars.
and step which imperial Rome has disciplined
to the march that carried her eagles in triumph a.
round the world" 1t is but just to add that in
neagre paragraph, he "deems it unnecessary to
admonish religious Scotland that the most daring
speculations as to Nature may be accompanied
with the humblest faith in those sublime doctrines
which open Heaven alike TO the wisest phlloso-
pher and the humbest peasant" But seeing
That Buwer lives in an age where these daring
speculations are made la defiance of, and for the
attempted Yefutaton of, these sublime doctrines
and that humble faith, we must deplore that such
mind as his-one that in his later works has
shown itself susceptible to pure and sacred infiu-
ences-did not advocate the study Of those nober
classics and those higher oracles which transcend
Greek originals and Roman copies, in beauty and
submity, as far as inspiration is above intellect.
and in mighty thoughts as the heavens are high
above the earth 1t would have been aob!e a
tenement for the fascinating evils of Falkland and
Devereux, if Buwer had made his pilgrimage to
Edinburgh to nculcate with all his force and beau
ty that there was more Of grandeur in The lofty
warnings Of Isaiah, than in the sublime arrogance
of ciyus-that the nothingpess of human wis
dom was better taught by the psalmist than by the
Edipus Of Sophocles-that the simple story OF
Ruth shines with lovelier lightthan all the mer-
etrcions splendors of Aspasia's Court-and that
the words under which Felix trembled, and A
grppa wavered, appeal more eoquently to the
heart of man than all the persuasons OF Cicero, or
the thunder Of Demoshenes.