Year: 1859

ping of the wheels Of progress at every
! toll-gate and frontier for the benefit of


learned publicans, is certainly against the
common sense of the world. as It undoubt-
is against "the spirit of the age" if any
bony knows exactly what that is. Any
thing and everything which places fetters
upon the spirit of enquiry, which blinds the
eyes Of discovery, and abridges the freedom
Of thought, whether it be contained in the
lore of past ages or of the present time, is
a thing to be contemned and abjured. A
living man with carcase lashed to his back
may creep but cannot run.


Learning runs back for everything, and
reaches forward for nothing. 1t educates
| the young Christian mind ofto-day by leading
it through literature whose highest inspi
rations were found in paeanism. Ii seeks
! for models Of style and expression among
authors enthgoned among the classical;
who only become worthy Of the distinction
by laying their hearts by the side of nature,
that realm which is spread all around US
now, illuminated with Christian light, yet
| forsaken for second hand sources of instruc-
ton. 1t ignores the theory and the fact
of human progress, and reverseS the order
of nature by making an old world obedient
to young world.


But / stay too long from the definition
of the legitimate sphere and real value Of
learning. Whenever learning becomes trib-
utary to wisdom, it occupies its legitimate
sphere, and by the amount of its tribute is
it valuable The soul that abides in learn
ing as an end-that purSues learning as an
end-that finds in it its food, raiment and
guidance--that surrenders itself to the
records Of other minds, perverts learning
and perverts itself. The soul that uses
learning as a means by which to project
itself iuto higher lfe,-that stands upon
it, with all its truth and all its falsehood,
as upon platform from which it may sur
| vey better truth and u nobler issue,-
uses learning Alright and is enriched. The
future is an untrodden realm. Around
each step, as the world advances, new cir
cumstances will gather, new emergencies
arise, new problems present themselves for
solution. With these circumstances, emer-
gencies and problems the common sense
and wisdom of the world are to DEAL and
not the worlds learning. We do not re-
peat through unvaryng cycles the expert
ences of the past. Comparatively little of
the records Of life and thought Of the ages
that are gone can have direct relation to
the ages that are to come. If the learned
men of the present find themselves left be-
hind in the race Of life, it is simply and on
ly because, while they have been walking
among graves, or busying themselves with
facts for which the real life Of the world has
no uSe the wisdom and common sense of
the world have got in advance Of them.-
A man must sell his ware at the rate OF the
market, not only, but he must supply the
market with what it demands.


But learning has a noble value. 1t is
like the mould that accumuateS from the
decay of each succeeding year OF vegeta-
ton. 1t furnishes humus into which the
roots Of mental and moral life may pene-
trate for nouriShment, but out OF which
that life must spring and mount into the
air and sunlight. Human life is not po-
tato-a bloated tuber that battens in the
muck Of other times, but stalk of maize,
burdCned with golden fruitage, and whis-
pering through all its leaves Of the life with
in it and the influences without it. 1t is
not thing whose issue and end are in its
roots, but in life to which those roots are
tributary and all the learning which may
not be assimulated to that life is as value
less as the dust of its authors.


pa Bob, where is the state Of matri-
mony 2"


at is one of the United States. 1t is
bounded by hugging and kissing on one
side, and cradles and babies on the other
Its chief products are population, broom
sticks and staying ont late of nights. 1t
was discovered by Adam and Eve while
trying to find northwest passage out of
Paradise The climate is sultry till you