THE DESTINY OF AlERICA.                                 25
further and broadly onward the great work of the renewal of the civilization of the world, and its emancipation from superstition and despotism. But the desk also must have ministers, men possessing talents, education and virtue, and so qualified to enlighten, instruct and guide mankind.
But however well the Press, the Desk, and the popular Tribune may be qualified to instruct and elevate the People, their success and consequently their influence must afifer all depend largely on the measure of intelligence and virtue possessed by the People when sufficiently matured to receive their instructions. Editors, Authors, Ministers, Statesmen and People, all are qualified for their respective posts of duty in the institutions of popular education, and the standard of these is established by that which is recognized among us by the various names of the Academy, the College and the University. We see, then, that the University holds a chief place among the institutions of the American Republic.
I may not attempt to specify at large what the University ought to teach or how it ought to impart its instructions. That has been confided to abler and more practical hands. But I may venture to insist on the necessity of having the standard of moral duty maintained at its- just height by»the University. That institution must be rich and full in the knowledge of the sciences which it imparts, but this is not of itself enough. It must imbue the national mind with correct convictions of the greatness and excellence to which it ought to aspire. To do this it must accustom the public mind to look beyond the mere temporary consequences of actions and events to their ultimate influence on the direction of the Republic and on. the progress of mankind. So it willjenable men to decide between prejudice and reason, expediency and duty, the demagogue and the statesman, the bigot and the Christian.
The standard which the University shall establish must correspond to the principles of eternal truth and equal justice. The University must be conservative. It must hold fast every just principle of moral and political science that the experience of mankind has approved, but it must also be bold, remembering that in every human system there are always political superstitions upholding physical slavery in some of its modes, as there 4