Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: LECTURE II. INTELLECTUAL CULTIVATION. Ps. Ciliv. 12.—That our sons may be as plants grown up in their youth ; that our daughters may be as corner-stones, polished after the similitude of a palace. Gray, in his " Distant. Prospect of Eton College," has drawn an exquisite picture of the simplicity, gayety and unconcern of early youth. " Gay hope is theirs by fancy fed, Less pleasing when possess'd; The tear forgot as soon as shed, The sunshine of the breast. Alas! regardless of their doom The little victims play ! No sense have they of ills to come, Nor care beyond to-day." Such is the description, which the poet gives of a class of youth, who were sent to the groves of Academus to make those intellectual acquisitions,which should fit them to fill with honor the learned professions of Great Britain. Many youth, with all the advantages for education offered by an university, have thoughtlessly squandered their privileges, and have never woke up to the " realities " of life, till it was too late. But there is occasionally a person, like Paley, who, after being prodigal of his scholastic advantages, " comes to himself," redeems his time, and wins unfading laurels on the fields of literature. Most of you have already passed the blithesome period of very early youth, and are beginning to look at life in a graver aspect. Whatever may have been the degree of success, with which you prosecuted study while at the schools, you have now reached that time of life, when you probably realize, more deeply than ever, the importance of a good education. I shall avail myself of the spirit of the text, to recommend to your increasing regard the subject of Intellectual Cultivation. My remarks will be confined to the three following topics ;— I. Its importance. ...