abound in generous thoughts and high examples; both, whatever their occasional license, inculcate, upon the whole, the habitual practice of manly virtues; both glow with the love of country; both are animated by the desire of fame and honor. Therefore, whatever be our future profession and pursuit, however they may take us from the scholastic closet and forbid any frequent return to the classic studies of our youth, still he whose early steps have been led into that land of demigods and heroes will find that its very air has enriched through life the blood of his thoughts, that he quits the soil with a front which the Greek has directed towards the stars, and a step which imperial Rome has disciplined to the march that carried her eagles round the world.

Not in vain do these lessons appeal to the youth of Scotland. From this capital, still as from the elder Athens, stream the lights of philosophy and learning. But your countrymen are not less renowned for the qualities of action than for those of thought. And you whom I address will carry with you, in your several paths to fortune, your national attributes of reflective judgment and dauntless courage. I see an eventful and stirring age expand before the rising generation. In that grand contest between new ideas and ancient forms, which may be still more keenly urged before this century expires, whatever your differences of political opinion, I adjure you to hold fast to the vital principle of civilization. What is that principle? It is the union of liberty with order. The art to preserve this union has often baffled the wisest statesmen in stormy times; but the task becomes easy at once, if the people whom they seek to guide will but carry into public affairs the same prudent consideration which commands prosperity in private business. You have already derived from your ancestors an immense capital of political freedom; increase it if you will,- but by solid investments, not by hazardous speculations. You will hear much of the necessity of progress, and truly,- for where progress ends decline invariably begins, but remember that the healthful progress of society is like the natural life of man: it consists in the gradual and harmonious development of all its constitutional powers, all its component parts, and you introduce weakness and disease into the whole system, whether you attempt to stint or to force the growth. The old homely rule you prescribe to individuals is applicable to a State: "Keep the limbs warm by exercise, and keep the head. cool by temperance." But new ideas do not invade only our

Philos

political systems; you will find them wherever you turn. ophy has altered the directions it favored in the last century—it enters less into metaphysical inquiry; it questions less the relationships between man and his Maker; it assumes its practical character as the investigator of external nature, and seeks to adapt agencies before partially concealed to the positive uses of man. Here I leave you to your own bold researches; you cannot be much misled if you remember the maxim to observe with vigilance and inquire with conscientious care. Nor is it necessary that I should admonish the sons of religious Scotland that the most daring speculations as to nature may be accompanied with the humblest faith in those sublime doctrines that open heaven alike to the wisest philosopher and the simplest peasant. I do not presume to arrogate the office of a preacher; but, believe me, as a man of books and a man of the world, that you inherit a religion which, in its most familiar form, in the lowly prayer that you have learned from your mother's lips, will save you from the temptations to which life is exposed more surely than all which the pride of philosophy can teach. Nor can I believe that the man will ever go very far or very obstinately wrong who, by the mere habit of thanksgiving and prayer, will be forced to examine his conscience even but once a day and remember that the eye of the Almighty is upon him.

One word further. Nothing to my mind preserves a brave people true and firm to its hereditary virtues more than a devout though liberal spirit of nationality. And it is not because Scotland is united with England that the Scotchman should forget the glories of his annals, the tombs of his ancestors, or relax one jot of his love for his native soil. I say not this to flatter you, I say it not for Scotland alone. I say it for the sake of the empire. For sure I am that, if ever the step of the invader should land upon these kindred shores-there, wherever the national spirit is the most strongly felt-there, where the local affections most animate the breast-there will our defenders be the bravest. It would ill become me to enter into the special grounds of debate now at issue, but permit me to remind you that, while pressing with your accustomed spirit for whatever you may deem to be equal rights, you would be unjust to your own fame if you did not feel that the true majesty of Scotland needs neither the pomp of courts nor the blazonry of heralds. What though Holyrood be desolate - what though no king holds

revels in its halls? - the empire of Scotland has but extended its range, and, blended with England, under the daughter of your ancient kings, peoples the Australian wilds that lay beyond the chart of Columbus and rules over the Indian realms that eluded

the grasp of Alexander. That empire does not suffice for you. It may decay-it may perish. More grand is the domain you have won over human thought, and identified with the eternal progress of intellect and freedom. From the charter of that domain no ceremonial can displace the impression of your seal. In the van of that progress no blazon can flaunt before that old Lion of Scotland [pointing to the flag suspended opposite]. This is the empire that you will adorn in peace; this is the empire that, if need be, you will defend in war. It is not here that I would provoke one difference in political opinion,- but surely you, the sons of Scotland, who hold both fame and power upon the same tenure as that which secures civilization from lawless force, surely you are not the men who could contemplate with folded arms the return of the Dark Ages and quietly render up the haven that commands Asia on the one side and threatens Europe on the other, to the barbaric ambition of some Alaric of the North. But, whether in reluctant war or in happier peace, I can but bid you to be mindful of your fathers! Learn from them how duties fulfilled in the world become honors after death; and in your various callings continue to maintain for Scotland her sublime alliance with every power of mind that can defend or instruct, soothe or exalt humanity.