Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1843, by In the Clerk's office of the District Court for the District of Massachusetts. H. L. Devereux, Printer, 4 Water Street. REV. O. A. BROWNSON, DEAR SIR: At a meeting of the Gamma Sigma Society, held immediately after the public services of yesterday, we were appointed to present you the thanks of the Society, for the very interesting, just and instructive Oration, pronounced before them on this Anniversary; and to request a copy of the same for the press. SIR: At a meeting of the Alumni and other Friends of the University of Vermont, the undersigned were appointed a Committee to solicit for publication, a copy of the very acceptable Address, which you yesterday pronounced before them. In conveying to you the request of the meeting, permit us, as individuals, to unite our wishes with theirs, that you may gratify those who listened to the discourse by furnishing a copy for the press. We are, sir, very respectfully yours, CHAS. PAINE, T. FOLLETT, NOTE. This Oration was pronounced before the Gamma Sigma Society, of Dartmouth College, Hanover, N. H., July 26, and repeated before the Alumni and other Friends of the University of Vermont, Burlington, August 1, 1843, and is published by request of both societies. It is published substantially as it was delivered before the first named society. O. A. B. THE SCHOLAR'S MISSION. GENTLEMEN : You have invited me, and I have very willingly accepted your invitation, to address you on this anniversary occasion, which must be to you one of no ordinary interest. I say, to you, for the recollections and associations, which make this a great day to you, a day long to be remembered, and looked back upon as marking an important epoch in your life, form, I regret to say, no part of my experience. I have no recollections or associations connected with college halls or academic bowers; yet I have learned from the events of life, to rejoice with those who rejoice, and to weep with those who weep; and I would not willingly admit myself wanting in that patriotism which takes a deep interest in each successive generation of scholars, that our literary institutions annually send forth for the honor and glory, the safety and prosperity, of the country. Though but ill-qualified by my own scholastic attainments to do the subject justice, I have yet thought that I could not better comply with your wishes, and answer the request which brings me here, than by selecting for the theme of our reflections, THE SCHOLAR'S MISSION. This is a subject which must be fresh in which must have often occupied your minds; your thoughts, and given rise to both painful anxieties, and joyful anticipations; and to which the attention of us all is naturally drawn, by the day, the place, the occasion, and their respective associations. In treating this subject, I shall first consider the Scholar's Mission in general; and secondly, as modified by the peculiar tendencies of our own age and country. I use this word Scholar in no low or contracted sense. I mean by it, indeed, a learner, for truth is infinite, and we are finite; but on this occasion I mean by it the MASTER rather than the pupil; and not merely the one who has mastered some of the technicalities of a few of the more familiar sciences, but the one who has, as far as possible, mastered all the subjects of human thought and interest, and planted himself on the beach at the farthest distance as yet moistened by the ever advancing wave of science. I understand by the Scholar no mere pedant, dilettante, literary epicure or dandy; but a serious, hearty, robust, full-grown man; who feels that life is a serious affair, and that he has a serious part to act in its eventful drama; and must therefore do his best to act well his part, so as to leave behind him, in the good he has done, a grateful remembrance of his having been. He may be a theologian, a politician, a naturalist, a poet, a moralist, or |