' and to serve their cause in the most effective man-

'"'iY’i“treasura‘~he“longlng'to the wealthy 7 It is talent

V and self taught. ~

be very wise. We do not invite you to these lec-

NEW-YORK AMERICAN.

tures, as if their object would be obtained, when

NOVEMBER 3, 5, 6, '7', V8, 9—183.‘3-

you have heard the weekly address. It is to kindle
the understanding to the consciousness of its own

LITERARY NOTICES.

Aimiisiss IN'1'noi)Uc'roitr T0 was F RANKLXN LEC~
ruiiiizs IN Bosrou ; by Enwsan Evsnsrr; delivered
November, 1831 : Boston, Gray & Bowen.—~Thero
is no more striking nor encouraging indication of
the real “ march of mind" than that afforded by the
zeal and frequency with which we see men them.
selves conspicuous and honored by reason oftlie suc-
cessful cultivation of their intellectual faculties, em-
ploying the best power of those faculties, and all the
resources of their learning and acquiremonts, to re-
commend‘ to others the path which has led them to
eminence and usefulness. This indeed is the genuine
fruit ofknowledge; and no portion of that power,
which it imparts, and indeed is, proves more grateful
in the exercise than that which enables the possessor
to share it with others. This is true homage to the
people; this is indeed to have their interest at heart,

nor; and among the gifted men ofour country, no
one has been more prompt or successful in rendering
such service than the writer ofthis address, Mr. Ever-
ett. It was delivered a year ago in Boston as introduc-
tory to a course of lectures to young men of tho indus-
trious classes, who, when their daily work was done,
might, as at the lectures given under tho auspices of
the Mechanics‘ Association, and those of the Clin-
ton Hall Association in our city, have the opportu-
tnity of acquiring useful general knowledge. In such

powers; to make it feel within itself that it is a liv-
ing, spirituul thing; to food it, in order that it may
itself begin to act and operate, to compare, con-
trive, invent, improve, and perfect. This is our ob-
ject; an object, as much within the reach of every
man who hears me, as if he had taken a degree in
every college in Christendom.

In this great rcspect,—-the most important that
touches human condition,-——wc are all equal. It is
not inoro true, that all men possess the same natu-
ral senses and organs, than that their minds are on-
dowed with tlie same capacities for improvement,
though not perhaps all in the same degree. The
condition in which they are placed is certainly not
a matter of entire indifference. The child of a sa-
vage, born in the bosom of a barbarous tribe, is, of
course, shut out from all chance of sharing the im-
provements of civilized communities. 80, in a
community like our own, an infant condemned, by
adverse circumstances, to a life of common street
beggary, muzit bu conaiclcrccl as wholly out of the
reach of all improving inﬂuences. But Shskspcare,
whose productions have been the wonder and do.
light of all who speak the English language for
two hundred years, was arunaway lad, who got his
living in London, by holding horses at the door of
the theatre, for those who went to the play; and
Sir Richard Arkwright, who invented the machinery
for spinning cotton, of which I have already spo.
ken, was the youngest of thirteen children ofa poor
peasant, and. till he was thirty years of age, follow-
ed the business of a travelling barber.

As men -bring into the world with them an equal
intellectual endowment--tliat. is, minds equally sus-
ceptible of improvoment—so in a community, like
that in which we have the happiness to live, the

an address, which sets forth most attractively the in-
estimable beneﬁts, and the self-relying happiness
which is. cultivated mind cannot fail to confer, it is
difficult to disjoin paragraphs without marring their
beauty. The annexed quotation is one, perhaps, as
complete in itself, as any that could have been made,
and will, we are sure, be read with pleasure :

What is it that we wish to improve? The mind.
Is this a thing monopolizcd by any class of society’?
God forbid : it is the heritage with which he has on.
dowcd all the children ofthe great family of man. Is

bestowed alike on rich and poor; high and low. But
this is not all; mind is in all men, and in every man,
the same active, living, and creative principle; it is
the man himself. One of the renowned philosophers
ofheathen antiquity beautifully said of the intellec-
tual faculties, I call them not mine. but me. It is
these which make the man ; which are the man. I do
not say that opportunities, that wealth, leisure, and
great advantages for education are nothing; but I
do say, they are much less than is commonly sup-
posed; I do say, as a general rule, that the amount
of useful knowledge, which men acquire, and the
good they do with it, are by no means in direct pro-
portion to the degree to which they have enjoyed
what are commonly called the great advantages of
life. Wisdom does sometimes, but not most com-
monly, feed her childrenwith a silver spoon. I be-
lieve it is perfectly correct to say, that a small pro-
portion only of those,_ who have been most distin-
guished for the improvement of their minds, have
enjoyed the best advantages of education. I do not
moan to detract, in the least degree, from the advan-
tages of the various seminarios for learning, which
public and private libcrality has founded in our
country. They serve as places, where a large num-
ber of persons are prepared for their employment in
the various occupations which the public service ro-

mcans of improvement are much more equally en-
joyed, than might, at first, be supposed. Whoever
has learned to read, possesses the keys of know-
ledge; and can, whenever he pleases, not only un-
lock the portals of her temple, but penetrate to the
inmost halls and most secret cabinets. A few dol-
lars. the surplus of the earnings of the humblost in-
dustry, are suﬂicient to purchase the use of. books,
which contain the elements of the wliolo circle of
useful knowledge.

It may be thought that a considerable portion of
the community want lime to attend to the cultiva-
tion of their minds. But it is only necessary to
make the experiment, to ﬁnd two things; one, how
much useful knowledge can be acquired in (I. very
little time; and the other, how much time can be
spared, by good management, out oftlie busiestday.
Generally speaking, our duties leave us time enough
if our passions would spars us; our labors are much
less urgent in their calls upon us, than our indolence
and our pleasures. There are very few pursuits in
life, whose duties are so incessant, that they do not
leave a little time every day to a man, whose tempor-
ato and regular habits allow him the comfort" of a
clear head and a cheerful temper, in the intervals of
occupation; and then there is one day in seven
which is redeemed to us, by our blessed religion,
from the calls of life. and affords us all time enough
for the improvement of our rational and immortal
natures.

It is a prevalent mistake to suppose, that any class
gofmen have much time to spend, or do spend much
time, in more contemplation and study. A small
number of literary men may do this: but the very
great majority of professional mei.,---lawyers, doc-
tors, and ministers, men in public station, rich capi-
talists, merhants,——men, in short, who are supposed
to possess eminent advantages and ample leisure to
cultivate their minds, are all very much occupied
with the duties of life, and constantly and actively
employed in pursuits very unci-mgenial to the culti-

quires. But, I repeat it. of the great benefactors of
our race; the men, who by wonderful inventions,
remarkable discoveries, and extraordinary improve.
ments, have conferred the most eminent service on
their fellow men, and gained the highest names in
history,--by farthe greater part have been men of
humble" origin, narrow fortunes, small advantages,

And this springs from the nature of. the mind of
man, whichis not, like natural things, a vesselto
be ﬁlled up from without; into which you mayrpour
a little or pour much; and then measure, as with a
gauge, the degrees of knowledge imparted. The
knowledge that can be so imparted is the least va-
luable kind of knowledge; and the man who has
nothing but this, may be very learned, but cannot

vation of the mind and the attainment of useful
knowledge. Take the case of an eminent lawyer.
in full practice. Ho passes his «lays in his oflicc,
giving advice to clients, often about the most unin-
teresting and paltry details of private business, or in
arguing over the same kind of business in court;
and when it comes night, and he gets home, tired
and harassed, instead of sitting down to rest or to
read, he has to study out another perplexed cause,
for the next day ; or go before referees; or attend a
political meeting. and make a speech; while every
moment, which can be regarded in any degree as
leisure time, is consumed by a burdensome corres-
pondence. Bcsides this, he has‘ his family to take
care of. It is plain that he has no more leisure for
the free and improving cultivation of his mind, inde-

pendent of his immediate: profession, than if he had

been employed the same number of hours in mechan-
ical or manual labor. One of the most common
complaints of professional men, in all the profes.
sions, is, that they have no time to read ; and I have
no doubt, there are many such, of very respectable
standing, who do not, in any branch of knowledge,
not connected with their immediate professions.
read the amount of an octave volume in the course
ofa season. ’ r

The is, also a time of leisure, which Providence.
in this climate, has secured to almost every man,
who has any thing, which can be calleda moment ;
I mean our long winter evenings. This season seems
provided as if expressly for the purpose of fur.
nishing those who labor, with ample opportunity
for the improvement of their minds. The seven.
ty of the weather, and-the shortness of the days,
necessarily limit the portion of time which is de-
voted to out door’s industry ; and there is little
to tempt us abroad, in search of amusement. Every
thing seems to invite us to employ an hour or two
of this calm and quiet season, in thescquisition of
useful knowledge, and the cultivation of the mind.
Tho noise of life is hushed ; the pavement utznuvo tw
resound with the din of laden wheels and the tread
of busy men ; the glaring sun has gone down,
and the moon and the stars are left to watch in
the heavens over the slumbers of the peaceful
creation. The mind of man should keep its vigil:
with them ; and while his body is reposing from the
labors of the day, and his feelings are at rest from
its excitements, he should seek, in some amusing
and instructive page, a substantial food for the gen-
erous appetite for knowledge.

AN Anmuiss DELIVERED nssoni: THE UNION L11‘-
ERARY Socnrrv or Muuur Uuivsnsrrv, in September
last, by TIMOTHY Wsmciia, A. M.: Cincinnati; Co-
rey &. Fairbank.—The difference between practice
and preccpt—--between the principles inculcated by
the chosen orator ofa literary Society and those
avowed and acted upon by thessme individual, (when
he happened to be a conspicuous public man) on the
great theatre ofthe world-—has been so disgustingly
manifested in some recent inatanceI——we may in-
stance that of Mr. Geo. Dallas, of Pa., as a type of
the wholo——that when we took up this address, our
first inquiry was, whether the author ofit was known
as a politician. We cannot ﬁnd that he is——-we cer-
tainly do not know him as such ourselves-——though
we can say with truth, that if the opinions and doc-
trines he inculcatos ln-this address, were carried by
allaapirants into public life, and there acted upon,
we could not have too many politicians framed on
such a. model. But this is travelling out of re-
cord. Mr. Walker’: discourse, addressed to the
alumni of a College in Ohio, upon the occasion of
their anniversary assembly, when a new class was
about to take leave of their alma mater, very natu-
rally refers to the evils which young men in our
country are most exposed to in the outset of their oa-
roer. These he serves up, under several heads, as
follows :-—-

1st. The proneness, at the outset of active life, to
overlook the distinction between character and re-
putatwn :

2d. The forming erroneous impressions as to the
importance of wealth as one of the object! of life =

3d. The liability to false notions respecting the
importance of oﬂice; and '

4th. The aptnoss to set out with false impressions
respecting the nature of civil liberty. '

Under each of these heads, advice, instructions
and warning, are given in language that tcstiﬁcs
most amply to the ability and purity of the mind
which conceived them, and which cannot be wholly
without good results. We regret that our limits for.
bid, more than a single quotation, which refers to the
ﬁrst head, the distinction between character and repu-
tation. «

These two things, so widely different, drsioﬂen
fatally confounded. The rlistinetion is this; char-
acter is determined by what a man :‘a,.in reference
to himself alone; reputation, by Whﬂl hi 08111810 be.
in the opinion of the world. Character is the com.
bined result of our thoughts and actions as they ex.
hibit thomgglycs goth? al1.seeing Eye; reputation is

l