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ADDRESS,

DELIVERED AT THE COMMENCEMENT IN 1810:

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Young Gentlemen,

THE very few moments of your college life, which now remain, and which will soon be as irrecoverable, as "the years beyond the flood," I would eagerly seize with design to produce or perpetuate moral impressions.

I do most sincerely felicitate you on the arrival of this day. I partake largely in those sensations of tenderness and joy unutterable, which are, at this moment, experienced by your parents and connexions. They now obtain a joyful release from the anxiety, which, since your removal from them, has been almost their daily companion. They have witnessed the first fruits of your intellectual efforts, and

now look forward to the time, when you may appear on a more public stage, perform duties of more interest to society, and exhibit characters of more firm and deep wrought texture.

At all periods of life, we are liable to be deceived by the sound of words. There are circumstances and seasons, however, when this deception may be practised upon us with peculiar facility. To young gentlemen of ingenuous feelings, nothing is recommended perhaps, which they hear with more pleasure, than independence of character.

Though this term, in its legitimate use, comprehends qualities of high value, it is not unfrequently made to designate those, by which reason and morality are set equally at defiance.

Beyond all question, no person is independent of the Divine Being. If any think otherwise, why do they not give some proof of that power and elevation, of which they are so ready to boast? Why do they not secure to themselves perpetual life, and youth, and vigour? Why do they tolerate a lowering atmosphere, when their convenience requires serene weather? Why is the sun permitted to delay its rising, when its light is necessary to their business or pleasures? Why, indeed, should independent beings ever be disappointed? If they control events, why do the latter counteract their desires?

Among all the absurdities of heathen mythology, a constant sense of dependance on divine agency is remarkable. If a child was born, the gods. marked his destiny. If battles were fought, the gods held the balance, and gave preponderancy to which scale, they pleased. If a dart was thrown, it fell harmless unless divinely directed. Among the leaders of a numerous, combined army, it was noticed, if there was one, who acknowledged no dependance on celestial powers; or boasted, Dextra mihi Deus, et telum, quod missile libro. The best of the spoils, taken in war, were devoted by the Greeks in sacrifice to the gods. Their augury, oracles, supplications, and religious processions, unite to prove, that the sentiment expressed by Pliny in his panegyric on Trajan, was common among the Greeks and Romans, Nihil rite, nihilque providenter homines, sine Deorum immortalium ope, consilio, honore, auspicarentur.

If you are not now, it is certain, that you never can be independent of your Creator. Objects, events, and the universe itself, will never be less under the divine direction, than they are at present. Whether you shall advance in your studies, acquire fair reputations, or extensive influence; whether you shall enjoy a high state of health or long life, will depend subordinately on your activity and prudence; but ultimately on the same power, which gave you being.

Nor is this remark to be applied exclusively to the present life. A hundred, a thousand, or ten thousand years hence, you will be equally dependent, as at the present moment; and perhaps much more obviously so. Nay further; to whatever part of the empire of God you may be urged, your dependance will never diminish. The treatment, which. you shall receive from your Creator will depend on the agreement or disagreement, which there is between your character and his commands. Whenever persons pretend to independence as it relates to Deity, they deceive no one. It is always taken. for what it really is, a most nauseous compound of impiety and affectation. The independence of him, who sets the divine law at defiance, is that of a man, who, to show his spirit, should fire his own house, leap from a precipice, or swallow a deadly potion. By any of these outrages, the power of Deity would not be diminished; and surely his own would not be enlarged. He still exists; and precisely in that place, and under those circumstances, which an offended Deity sees fit to assign.

Acquainted, as you are, with the general evidence of natural and revealed religion, you can hardly be thought in danger of openly disavowing your obligations to the Most High. But even in relation to your fellow creatures, you will permit

me to observe, dépendance is probably much greater, than you imagine. The change, which is now tó take place in your mode of life, is doubtless very considerable; but does by no means imply a transition from dependance to independence. Your relations in a variety of respects will, henceforward, be different. They will be so in regard to your instructers: perhaps too your dependance on parental support will be less absolute, than heretofore. But duties and restraints, though varied, will be neither less numerous, nor less important. A state of society is necessarily a state of dependance: and if the obligations, hence resulting, are contemned, society understands perfectly well, how to bring delinquents to a better mind. I am not speaking exclusively of those restraints, which are imposed by deliberative assemblies, or which ever assume the formality of laws; but of the numerous regulations, more easily understood, than defined, which are known to be of real consequence in the intercourse of social life. As the common interest and feeling require, that these be observed, habitual inattention to them never passes with impunity. Should the interest of others be to you a matter of indifference, it will soon be rendered evident, that yours is so to them. Should you by a supercilious deportment show contempt for their esteem, they will not long want op

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