Flowers that deck the earth with glory,

Birds that warble in the grove,
Tell the same unvaried story

Of our great Creator's love.

This should clear the heart of sadness
And to pure devotion raise,
Sorrow is ungrateful madness,
Cheerfulness is silent praise.

Though the clouds of dark despair
Often gather round the soul,
Mirth should scatter them in air
And dispense its sweet control.
While the bounteous hand of Heaven
Pours its gifts from plenty's horn,
Though some transient ties are riven,
Grateful hearts should briefly mourn.

PLAN FOR A NATIONAL UNIVERSITY.

BY THE HON. ASHER ROBBINS.

AN Institution, I conceive, may be devised, of which, at present there is no model either in this country or in Europe; giving such a course of education and discipline as would give to the faculties of the human mind an improvement

But

and power far beyond what they obtain by the ordinary systems of education; and far beyond what they afterwards attain in any of the professional pursuits. Such an Institution, as to its principle, suggested itself to the sagacious and far-seeing mind of Bacon, as one of the greatest importance. while his other suggestions have been followed out with such wonderful success in extending the boundaries of physical science, this has been overlooked and neglected. One reason is, that the other suggestions were more elaborately explained by him ; there, too, he not only pointed out the path, but he led the way in it himself. Besides, those other suggestions could be carried out by individual exertion and enterprise, independently of the existing establishments. But this required an original plan of education, and a new foundation for its execution; where the young mind would be trained by a course of education and discipline that would unfold and perfect all his faculties; where the genius would plume his young wings, and prepare himself to take the noblest flights. The idea, however, was not entirely original with Bacon; for it would be in effect but the revival of that system of education and discipline which produced such wonderful improvement and power of the human mind in Greece

and Rome, and especially in Greece. Its effects here, I am persuaded, would be many and glorious. Of these I shall now indicate only one; but that one whose importance all must admit. In its progress, and ultimately, it would give to our country, I have no doubt, a national literature of a high and immortal character. However mortifying to our national pride it is to say it, it must be confessed that we have not a national literature of that character; nor is it possible we ever should have, as it appears to me, on our present systems of education. Not that our literature, such as it is, is inferior to that of other nations produced at the present day. No; mediocrity is the character of all literary works of the present day, go where you will. It is so in England, it is so in France, the two most literary nations of Europe. It is true, learned men and great scholars are every where to be found; indeed, they may be said to abound more than ever; the whole world has become a reading world; the growth of the press is prodigious; but it is all ephemeral and evanescent-all destined to the grave of oblivion. Nor is it that our countrymen have not the gift of genius for literary works of that high and immortal character. Probably no people were ever blessed with it in a greater degree-of which every where

we see the indications and the evidence; but what signifies genius for an art without discipline, without knowledge of its principles and skill in that art? "Vis consili expers, mole ruit sua;

Vim temperatam, Dii quoque provehunt,

In majus."

Literature is now every where mediocre-because the arts of literature are no where cultivated, but every where neglected-and apparently despised.

It

The object of education is two-fold, knowledge and ability; both are important, but ability by far the most so. Knowledge is so far important as it is subsidiary to the acquiring of ability, and no further; except as a source of mental pleasure to the individual. It is ability that makes itself to be felt by society; it is ability that wields the sceptre over the human heart and the human intellect. is a great mistake to suppose that knowledge imparts ability of course. It does indeed impart ability of a certain kind; for by exercising the attention and the memory it improves the capacity for acquiring; but the capacity to acquire is not ability to originate and produce. No; ability can only be given by the appropriate studies, accompanied with the appropriate exercises-directed by a certain rule, and conducting infallibly to a certain result.

In all the celebrated schools of Athens, this was the plan of education; and there the ingenuous youth blessed with faculties of promise, never failed to attain the eminence aspired to, unless his perseverance failed. Hence the mighty effects of those schools; hence that immense tide of great men which they poured forth on all the departments of science and letters; and especially of letters; and hence, too, the astonishing perfection of their works. A celebrated writer, filled with astonishment at the splendor as well as the number of the works preduced by the scholars of these schools, ascribes the event to the hand of a wonder-working Providence, interposed in honor of human nature, to show to what perfection the species might ascend. But there was nothing of miracle in it; the means were adequate to the end. It is no wonder at all that such schools gave to Athens her Thucydides in history, her Plato in ethics; Sophocles to her drama, and Demosthenes to her forum and her popular assemblies; and gave to her besides, that host of rivals to these and almost their equals. It was the natural and necessary effect of such a system of education; and especially with a people who held, as the Athenians did, all other human considerations as cheap in comparison with the glory of letters and the arts.