probably, never did a day's work in his life, in the ordinary acceptation of the term, and who has, for some years, retired from the subordinate station he filled, in the profession of the law, as sheriff of the county and clerk of the court. He has written and published at least two hundred volumes, of wide circulation. What a vast amount of the industry of the community is thereby put in motion!-The booksellers, printers, papermakers, pressmakers, typemakers, bookbinders, leatherdressers, inkmakers, and various other artisans required to print, publish, and circulate, the hundreds and thousands of volumes of the different works which he has written, must be almost numberless. I have not the least doubt, that, since the series of his publications began, if all, whose industry, directly or remotely, has been concerned in them, not only in Great Britain, but in America, and on the continent of Europe, could be brought together, and stationed, side by side, as the inhabitants of the same place, they would form a town of very considerable size. Such a person may fairly be ranked as a workingman.

And yet, I take this to be the least of Sir Walter Scott's deserts. I have said nothing of the service rendered to every class, and to every individual in every class, by the writer, who beguiles of their tediousness the dull hours of life; who animates the principle of goodness, within us, by glowing pictures of struggling virtue; who furnishes our young men and women with books, which they may read with interest, and not have their morals poisoned, as they read them. Our habits, our principles, our characters, whatever may be our pursuit in life, depend very much on the nature of our youthful pleasures, and on the mode in which we learn to pass our leisure hours. And he, who, with the blessing of Providence, has been able, by his mental efforts, to present virtue, in her strong attractions, and vice, in her native deformity, to the rising generation, has rendered a service to the public, greater, even, than his, who invented the steam-engine or the mariner's compass.

I have thus endeavored to show, in a plain manner, that there is a close and cordial union between the various pursuits and occupations, which receive the attention of men, in a civilized community :-that they are links of the same chain, every one of which is essential to its strength.

It will follow, as a necessary consequence, as the dictate of reason, and as the law of Nature, that every man in society, whatever his pursuit, who devotes himself to it, with an honest purpose, and in the fulfilment of the social duty which Providence devolves upon him, is entitled to the good fellowship of each and every other member of the community; that all are the parts of one whole, and that, between those parts, as there is but one interest, so there should be but one feeling.

Before I close this lecture, permit me to dwell, for a short time, on the principle, which I have had occasion to advance, that the immortal element of our nature, the reasoning soul,-is the inheritance of all our race. As it is this, which makes man superior to the beasts that perish; so it is this, which, in its moral and intellectual endowments, is the sole foundation for the only distinctions between man and man, which have any real value. This reflection shows the importance of institutions for education and for the diffusion of knowledge. It was no magic, no miracle, which made Newton, and Franklin, and Fulton. It was the patient, judicious, long-continued cultivation of powers of the understanding, eminent, no doubt, in degree, but not differing, in kind, from those which are possessed by every individual in this assembly.

Let every one, then, reflect, especially every person not yet past the forming period of his life, that he carries about, in his frame, as in a casket, the most glorious thing, which, this side heaven, God has been pleased to create, an intelligent spirit. To describe its nature, to enumerate its faculties, to set forth what it has done, to estimate what it can do, would require the labor of a life devoted to the history of man. It would be vain,

on this occasion and in these limits, to attempt it. But let any man compare his own nature with that of a plant, of a brute beast, of an idiot, of a savage; and then consider, that it is in mind, alone, and the degree to which he improves it, that he differs, essentially, from any of them.

And let no one think he wants opportunity, encouragement, or means. I would not undervalue these, any or all of them; but, compared with what the man does for himself, they are of little account. Industry, temperance, and perseverance, are worth more than all the patrons that ever lived in all the Augustan ages. It is these, that create patronage and opportunity. The cases of our Franklin and Fulton are too familiar, to bear repetition. Consider that of Sir Humphrey Davy, who died in 1829, and who was, in some departments of science, the first philosopher of the age.* He was born at Penzance, in Cornwall, one of the darkest corners of England; his father was a carver of wooden images for signs, and figure-heads, and chimney-pieces. He himself was apprenticed to an apothecary, and made his first experiments in chemistry with his master's phials and gallipots, aided by an old syringe, which had been given him by the surgeon of a French vessel, wrecked on the Land's End. From the shop of the apothecary, he was transferred to the office of a surgeon; and never appears to have had any other education, than that of a Cornish school, in his boyhood. Such was the beginning of the career of the man, who, at the age of twenty-two, was selected, by our own countryman, Count Rumford, (himself a self-taught benefactor of mankind,) to fill the chair of chemistry at the Royal Institution, in London; such was the origin and education of the man, who discovered the metallic basis of the alkalies and the earths; invented the safety-lamp; and placed himself, in a few years, in the chair of the Royal Society of

* The sketch of Sir Humphrey Davy, which follows, to the end of the lecture, is abridged from the article in the Annual Biography for 1830.

London, and at the head of the chemists of Europe. Sir Humphrey Davy's most brilliant discoveries were effected by his skilful application of the galvanic electricity, a principle, whose existence had been detected, a few years before, by an Italian philosopher, from noticing the contractions of a frog's limb; a fact, which shows how near us, in every direction, the most curious facts lie scattered by Nature. With an apparatus contrived by himself, to collect and condense this powerful agent, Sir Humphrey succeeded in decomposing the earths and the alkalies; and in extracting from common potash, the metal (before unknown) which forms its base; possessing, at seventy degrees of the thermometer, the lustre and general appearance of mercury; at fifty degrees, the appearance of polished silver, and the softness of wax; so light, that it swims in water; and so inflammable, that it takes fire, when thrown on ice.

These are, perhaps, but brilliant novelties; though connected, no doubt, in the great chain of cause and effect, with principles of art and science, conducive to the service of man. But the invention of the safetylamp, which enables the miner to walk, with safety, through an atmosphere of explosive gas, and has already preserved the lives of hundreds of human beings, is a title to glory and the gratitude of his fellow men, which the most renowned destroyer of his race might envy.

The counsels of such a man, in his retirement and seasons of meditation, are worth listening to. I am sure you will think I bring this lecture to the best conclusion, by repeating a sentence from one of his moral works :

I envy," says he, "no quality of the mind or intellect, in others; not genius, power, wit, nor fancy; but, if I could choose what would be most delightful, and, I believe, most useful to me, I should prefer A FIRM RELIGIOUS BELIEF to every other blessing."

12*

ADVANTAGE OF USEFUL KNOWLEDGE TO WORKINGMEN.*

NOTWITHSTANDING the numerous institutions for promoting useful knowledge, in our community, it was still found, that many were excluded from the benefit of them. The number of persons, that can be accommodated in any one hall, is, of course, limited; and it has been thought desirable to make the attempt to provide an additional course of lectures, on the various branches of useful knowledge, for the benefit of those, who have not had it in their power, for this or any other reason, to obtain access to the other institutions, which have set so praiseworthy an example, in this work of public utility. We are assembled, this evening, to make the beginning of this new course of popular instruction.

The plan of this course of lectures was suggested at so late a period, this year, that it may not, perhaps, be possible, the present season, to carry it fully into effect, in such a manner as is wished and designed, in reference to the choice and variety of subjects. It is intended, eventually, that it should extend to the various branches of natural science. It will impart useful information, relative to the Earth, the Air, and the Ocean; the wonders of the heavens; and the mineral treasures beneath the surface of the globe. It may extend to the different branches of natural history, and acquaint you with the boundless variety of the animated creation. The various properties of bodies will form a prominent subject of consideration, as the basis of so many of the arts and trades, and the sources from which so many of the wants of man are supplied. In like manner, the various natural powers, the agency of fire, water, steam,

* An Address delivered as the introduction to the Franklin Lectures, in Boston, November 14, 1831.