back on this place with repentance or with shame; and be well assured, that, whatever time-ay, every hour-you squander here on unprofitable idling, will then rise up against you, and be paid for by years of bitter but unavailing regrets. Study, then, I beseech you, so to store your minds with the exquisite learning of former ages, that you may always possess within yourselves sources of rational and refined enjoyment, which will enable you to set at nought the grosser pleasures of sense, whereof other men are slaves; and so imbue yourselves with the sound philosophy of later days, forming yourselves to the virtuous habits which are its legitimate offspring, that you may walk unhurt through the trials which await you, and may look down upon the ignorance and error that surround you, not with lofty and supercilious contempt, as the sages of old times, but with the vehement desire of enlightening those who wander in darkness, and who are by so much the more endeared to us by how much they want our assistance. To me, calmly revolving these things, such pursuits seem far more noble objects of ambition than any upon which the vulgar herd of busy men lavish prodigal their restless exertions. To diffuse useful information-to further intellectual refinement, sure forerunner of moral improvement-to hasten the coming of that bright day when the dawn of general knowledge shall chase away the lazy, lingering mists, even from the base of the great social pyramid; this indeed is a high calling, in which the most splendid talents and consummate virtue may well press onward, eager to bear a part. I know that I speak in a place consecrated by the pious wisdom of ancient times to the instruction of but a select portion of the community. Yet from this classic ground have gone forth those whose genius, not their ancestry, ennobled them; whose incredible merits have opened to all ranks the temple of science; whose illustrious example has made the humblest emulous to climb steeps no longer inaccessible, and enter the unfolded gates, burning in the sun. I speak in that city where Black having once taught, and Watt learned, the grand experiment was afterwards made in our day, and with entire success, to demonstrate that the highest intellectual cultivation is perfectly compatible with the daily cares and toils of working men; to show by thousands of living examples that a keen relish for the most sublime truths of science belongs alike to every class of mankind. To promote this, of all objects the most important, men of talents and of influence I rejoice to behold pressing forward in every part of the empire; but I wait with impatient anxiety to see the same course pursued by men of high station in society, and by men of rank in the world of letters. It should seem as if these felt some little lurking jealousy, and those were somewhat scared by feelings of alarm—the one and the other surely alike groundless. No man of science needs fear to see the day when scientific excellence shall be too vulgar a commodity to bear a high price. The more widely knowledge is spread, the more will they be prized whose happy lot it is to extend its bounds by discovering new truths, or multiply its uses by inventing new modes of applying it in practice. Their numbers will indeed be increased, and among them more Watts and more Franklins will be enrolled among the lights of the world, in proportion as more thousands of the working classes, to which Franklin and Watt belonged, have their thoughts turned towards philosophy; but the order of discoverers and inventors will still be a select few, and the only material variation in their proportion to the bulk of mankind will be, that the mass of the ignorant multitude being progressively diminished, the body of those will be incalculably increased who are worthy to admire genius, and able to bestow upon its possessors an immortal fame. And if the benefactors of mankind, when they rest from their pious labours, shall be permitted to enjoy hereafter, as an appropriate reward of their virtue, the privilege of looking down upon the blessings with which their toils and sufferings have clothed the scene of their former existence; do not vainly imagine that, in a state of exalted purity and wisdom, the founders of mighty dynasties, the conquerors of new empires, or the more vulgar crowd of evil-doers, who have sacrificed to their own aggrandisement the good of their fellow-creatures, will be gratified by contemplating the monuments of their inglorious fame: theirs will be the de light—theirs the triumph-who can trace the remote effects of their enlightened benevolence in the improved condition of their species, and exult in the reflection, that the prodigious change they now survey, with eyes that age and sorrow can make dim no more of knowledge become power -virtue sharing in the dominion-superstition trampled under foot-tyranny driven from the world-are the fruits, precious though costly, and though late reaped, yet long enduring, of all the hardships and all the hazards they encountered here below! DRAMATIC AND COLLOQUIAL PIECES. SCENES FROM THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH.-Shakspeare. SCENE III-Dunsinane.-A Room in the Castle. Enter MACBETH, DOCTOR, and ATTENDANTS. Macb. Bring me no more reports; let them fly all; I cannot taint with fear. What's the boy Malcolm! The mind I sway by, and the heart I bear, Shall never sink with doubt, nor shake with fear. Serv. Soldiers, sir. Enter a SERVANT. Macb. Go, prick thy face, and over-red thy fear, Thou lily-liver'd boy. What soldiers? Serv. The English force, so please you. Macb. Take thy face hence. Seyton!-I am sick at heart, When I behold-Seyton, I say!This push Will cheer me ever, or disseat me now. And that which should accompany old age, Enter SEYTON. Sey. What is your gracious pleasure? Macb. What news more? Sey. All is confirm'd, my lord, which was reported. Macb. I'll fight, till from my bones my flesh be hack'd. Give me my armour. Sey. "Tis not needed yet. Macb. I'll put it on. Send out more horses, scour the country round; Hang those that talk of fear. How does your patient, doctor? Doct. Not so sick, my lord, Give me mine armour. As she is troubled with thick-coming fancies, Macb. Cure her of that: Canst thou not minister to a mind diseas'd; Doct. Therein the patient Must minister to himself. Macb. Throw physic to the dogs, I'll none of it. Seyton, send out. Doctor, the thanes fly from me. Would'st scour these English hence!-Hearest thou of them? Macb. Bring it after me. I will not be afraid of death and bane, Till Birnam forest come to Dunsinane. [Exit. Doct. Were I from Dunsinane away and clear, Profit again should hardly draw me here. SCENE IV.-Country near Dunsinane. A Wood in view. [Exit. Enter, with Drum and Colours, MALCOLM, old SIWARD and his Son, MACDUFF, MENTEITH, CAITHNESS, ANGUS, LENNOX, Ross, and Soldiers, marching Mal. Cousins, I hope the days are near at hand That chambers will be safe. Ment. We doubt it nothing. Siw. What wood is this before us? Ment. The wood of Birnam. Mal. Let every soldier hew him down a bough, Sold. It shall be done. Siw. We learn no other, but the confident tyrant Mal. 'Tis his main hope: For where there is advantage to be given, Macd. Let our just censures Siw. The time approaches, That will with due decision make us know Towards which, advance the war. [Exeunt, marching. SCENE V.-Dunsinane. Within the Castle. Enter, with Drums and Colours, MACBETH, SEYTON, and Soldiers. Macb. Hang out our banners on the outward walls; The cry is still, They come: Our castle's strength |