INTRODUCTORY LECTURE DELIVERED AT THE OPENING OF THE BANGOR LYCEUM, Nov. 15th, 1836, BY REV. F. H. HEDGE. PUBLISHED BY REQUEST. NOURSE & SMITH AND DUREN & THATCHER, PUBLISHERS, 1836. The undersigned, in behalf of the Bangor Lyceum, present to you their grateful acknowledgements, of the favor conferred upon them in the Lecture of Tuesday evening last. They are happy to find the audience of that evening, concurring with them in the impression, that the interests of the Lyceum would be promoted, and the community highly gratified by its publication; and they therefore respectfully request a copy for the press. We are, with sentiments of high regard, Your very ob't servants, W. H. FOSTER, Managers. Bangor, Nov. 17, 1836. GENTLEMEN : Please accept my thanks for the honor done me by your proposal to publish my lecture. Were I to consult my own feelings solely, 1 should certainly be averse to such a step, but if the public or the Lyceum can be served thereby, I shall waive all personal considerations. A copy shall be placed in your hands as soon as the necessary corrections can be made. ADDRESS. GENTLEMEN OF THE BANGOR LYCEUM: We are met this evening to open the first course of lectures under the conduct of this Institution. I esteem it a good omen, and an evidence of your zeal in the cause of intellectual culture, that you have been induced to engage in this undertaking at a time when so many embarrassments are pressing on every branch of business, and when, in the aspect of things abroad, there is so little to stimulate and so much to depress. I am glad to see that you have not suffered the hard times to harden your sensibility to the higher wants of our nature, but have shown yourselves resolved to support the interests of learning, however other interests may suffer, to maintain the pursuit of knowledge, though the pursuit of money should come to a stand, and to keep the mind open, if possible, though the shops be shut. In this you have done wisely, and consulted your highest good. Next to the formation of a manly character, the highest object which the human mind can propose to itself, is the one contemplated in institutions like this-the education of the intellectual powers. To this end, whether we seek it or not, the whole course of things is made to minister. The edu |