been left to keep up the repetition of the most idle superstitions; the bounty of princes and states has been wasted upon establishments, which the change of manners, the progress of literature, and the growing culture of the human mind have rendered heavy incumbrances. In truth, it may be safely asserted, that more than half of the noblest generosity of centuries has been entirely unprofitable. Some institutions have grown into nuisances, from the very accumulation of their wealth; and it is too often true, that the danger of reform is more to be dreaded, than the inconvenience of enduring abuses. Ignorant regulations, absurd restrictions, or repeated mal-administration have continued to abridge the value of so many magnificent establishments, that we are almost ready to weep at the splendid waste of public charities and private virtues. We look upon these establishments, as we do upon the cumbrous Gothic piles, with which they are so often connected; piles, which time is continually impairing, while every successive year leads us to lament, that with all their solitary grandeur, they should continue so cold, so uncomfortable, so dilapidated, unfit for the purpose of habitation, and standing in worthless grandeur only to engage the curiosity of the antiquarian, or amuse a casual spectator.

The

My friends, a vast range of benefits is open before you in the public-spirited establishment of institutions, which shall continue favourable to the best interests of the community through many successive generations. Let no man consider himself uninterested in the future influence of any rising institution. man of letters has something, for which he is responsible, in every literary project; the busy and active, in every new plan of public utility. The rich and benevolent are answerable for our charitable foundations; and every man has something, for which he is interested, in our religious institutions. We have

opportunities every day of affecting the moral and social character of the next, and consequently of more remote generations. Especially, let us remember the vast importance of our establishments for education, the intimate connexion, which exists between knowledge and virtue, between learning and the cause of pure christianity.

Let us beware of imagining, however, that because our institutions are young, they are, therefore, free from defect. There is need of experience, as well as of youthful vigour; and it is possible, that, by multiplying too fast seminaries of education and institutions of public good, we are misapplying talents and munificence, which might be more usefully employed in enlarging, encouraging, and improving older establishments.

A second circumstance in the situation of this country, favourable to moral and religious eminence, is, the equal distribution and abundance of the means of general competency. No man is here condemned, by the circumstances of his birth, to hopeless want, or to shameless mendicity. Temptations to fraud are not suggested in this country by the desperateness of any man's circumstances, but by the opportunity of great and alluring gains. So equally are our advantages distributed, that every man, in every rank of life, is necessarily taught, by some of the earliest lessons of commercial experience, the indispensable value of industry, integrity in his dealings, and the strictest fidelity and honour in his trusts. weight of opulent oppression is not even felt; and the sins, which vast monopolies of wealth, or great inequalities in the means of different classes too often generate, are, we trust, here known only by report. In countries, where the distinctions of hereditary wealth have been augmenting through successive ages, the temptations to excessive luxury, sensuality, idleness and imperious rule are hardly to be resisted among the

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great; and the conscience of the stranger stands aghast at the depravity, which brutalizes the lowest orders. There are countries, where myriads of the inhabitants have not the smallest stake in the community, and where many thousands of wretches are continued in being for no other purpose, as it would appear, than to prey upon the charity, or the unsuspecting kindness of others. Reduce any class of men to inevitable want and hopeless depression, and all the powers of their minds-powers, which must in some way' or other be exerted-are bent to the contrivances of petty fraud, or the accomplishment of more desperate crimes. It too often happens, also, that the charities, which the increasing poor of a country demand, though highly honourable to the character of the nation that bestows them, tend to perpetuate the evil, they are designed to relieve. My friends, you cannot be too highly grateful for a constitution of society, which secures to the poor his earnings, and protects the rich in his hereditary possessions; which opens sources of competence to every class of the community, and affords the enterprising spirit opportunities of opulence.

A third circumstance, which you must allow me to mention, as favourable to the moral purity and religious character of our nation, is, the comparative thinness of our population. We are no where grouped, like the inhabitants of older countries, in large masses, but diffused over a prodigious breadth of soil. Indeed, from the great extent of our sea-coast, and the multitude of our commodious harbours, it is not to be feared, that we shall soon have to lament the corruption and the miseries of an overgrown metropolis. Far be it from me to say, that great virtues are not often the peculiar growth of great cities; virtues, which, perhaps, would never have ripened in the colder and more insulated climates of a country life. But it is no less certain, that the contagion of evil

example circulates most rapidly, where the points of contact are most numerous. Vast bodies of men are always swayed by something like the principle of fashion; and it is chiefly in large cities, that a standard of public opinion is set up, hardly less than omnipotent, and to which morals, taste and conscience must dishonourably conform. It is also true, that, where men are crowded together in superabundant numbers, the lurking holes of depravity are most numerous, and most difficult to be traced. Certain portions of the population form, among themselves, little commonwealths of corruption, in which crime is at once systematized, propagated, sheltered, and brought to perfection. The promiscuous collection of all ages and sexes in large manufacturing establishments, which is one of the evils attending on great wealth and population, is also most deadly in its influence on public morals. In these establishments a mass of corruption is brought together, and kept continually fomenting, till it produces the most active and deleterious spirit of human depravity. From the evils of excessive population we have nothing yet to fear. The very activity and diffusion of our commerce will prevent the inconvenient and excessive population of any one spot; and the prospect of an overgrown inland metropolis, more unfavourable to purity of manners than a commercial city, is too faint to occasion any present anxiety about its effect on the moral character of our nation.

Intimately connected with this advantage is the fourth, we shall mention, viz. the agricultural character of a very great majority of our citizens. No situation in life is so favourable to established habits of virtue, and to powerful sentiments of devotion, as a residence in the country, and rural occupations. I am not speaking of a condition of peasantry, of which, in this country, we know little, who are mere vassals of an absent lord, or the hired

labourers of an intendant, and who are, therefore, interested in nothing but the regular receipt of their daily wages; but I refer to the honourable character of an owner of the soil, whose comforts, whose weight in the community, and whose very existence depend upon his personal labours, and the regular returns of abundance from the soil, which he cultivates. No man, one would think, would feel so sensibly his immediate dependence upon God, as the husbandman. For all his peculiar blessings, he is invited to look immediately to the bounty of hea*ven. No secondary cause stands between him and his Maker. To him are essential the regular succession of the seasons, and the timely fall of the rain, the genial warmth of the sun, the sure productiveness of the soil, and the certain operations of those laws of nature, which must appear to him nothing less, than the varied exertions of omnipresent energy. In the country, we seem to stand in the midst of the great theatre of God's power, and we feel an unusual proximity to our Creator. His blue and tranquil sky spreads itself over our heads, and we acknowledge the intrusion of no secondary agent in unfolding this vast expanse. Nothing but omnipotence can work up the dark horrours of the tempest, dart the flashes of the lightning, and roll the long-resounding rumour of the thunder. The breeze wafts to his senses the odours of God's beneficence; the voice of God's power is heard in the rustling of the forest; and the varied forms of life, activity, and pleasure, which he observes at every step in the fields, lead him irresistibly, one would think, to the source of being, and beauty, and joy. How auspicious such a life to the noble sentiments of devotion! Besides, the situation of the husbandman is peculiarly favourable, it should seem, to purity and simplicity of moral sentiment. He is brought acquainted, chiefly, with the real and native wants of mankind. Employed solely in bring