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such the obstacles which impede the growth of mind, and the spread of knowledge in our land. It has been my principal endeavor in the foregoing remarks, to illustrate the dignity and worth of knowledge, as an independent good, apart from the earthly uses to which it may minister-as a fit instrument for adorning and perfecting the human mind, that it may accomplish worthily its great destiny, and unfold the germ of a higher life. A passage from Lord Bacon's "Advancement of Learning," for which, in conclusion, I shall crave your indulgence, furnishes an appropriate close to these reflections.

"Men have entered into a desire of learning and knowledge sometimes upon a natural curiosity, and inquisitive appetite, sometimes to entertain their minds with variety and delight, sometimes for ornament and reputation, and sometimes to enable them to victory of wit and contradiction, and most times for lucre and profession, and seldom sincerely to give a true account of their gift of reason to the benefit and use of men; as if there were sought in knowledge a couch whereupon to rest a searching and restless spirit, or a terrace for a wandering and variable mind to walk up and down with a fair prospect, or a tower of state for a proud mind to raise itself upon, or a fort or commanding ground for strife and contention, or a shop for profit and sale; and not a rich store-house for the glory of the Creator and the relief of man's estate. But this is that which will indeed dignify and exalt knowledge, if contemplation and action may be more nearly and straitly conjoined and united together than they have been, a conjunction like unto that of the two highest planets, Saturn, the planet of rest and contemplation, and Jupiter the planet of civil society and action."

ERRATA. Sixteenth page, in second line from the bottom, for 'scientific productions' read 'scientific production.'

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