ing you the heirs of their fame and of their fortune, For all this affection and kindness, the only reward they expect; the only requital they ask is, that when you enter on the world you will act worthy of yourselves and not dishonor them.

And shall this requital be denied them? Will you by your follies disturb even the tranquility of age; rob declining life of its few remaining pleasures, and snatching away from the palsied hand of your aged parents the last cup of earthly consolation, bring their grey hairs with anticipated sorrow to the grave!

It was a noble spectacle, amidst the flames that were consuming Troy, and while the multitude were intent only on rescuing their paltry treasures, to see the dutiful Æneas bearing on his shoulder the venerable Anchises, his aged father, to a place of safety. But ah! how rare such examples of filial piety! My God! the blood freezes in the veins at the thought of the ingratitude of children. Spirits of my sainted parents, could I recall the hours when it was in my power to honor you, how different should be my conduct. Ah! were not the dead unmindful of the reverence the living pay them, I would disturb the silence of your tombs with nightly orisons, and bedew the urn which contains your ashes with perpetual tears!

It is within your power to prevent the bitterness of such regrets.-But I must arrest the current of my feelings. Your future usefulness, your eternal salvation constitute a motive so vast, so solemn that were

I to yield to its overwhelming influence, I should protract the hour of separation and fill up with counsel and admonition, the declining day.

I shall address you no more. I shall meet with you no more, 'till having past the solemnities of death, I meet you in eternity. So spend the intervening period, I adjure you that that meeting may be joyous and the immortality which shall follow it splended as the grace of that God is free, to whom, surrendering my charge, I now commit you.-Leaving with you this counsel, I bid you an affectionate and final FAREWELL.

AN

ADDRESS,

น

DELIVERED TO THE

CANDIDATES

FOR THE

BACCALAUREATE,

IN

Union College,

AT THE

ANNIVERSARY COMMENCEMENT

JULY 29th, 1807.

BY ELIPHALET NOTT, D. D.

PRESIDENT OF UNION COLLEGE.

AN

ADDRESS:

YOUNG GENTLEMEN,

A SEMINARY is a world in miniature. The resemblances are strong and numerous. None of which, however, strike the mind more forcibly than that succession of actors, who, tripping on the stage, sustain the parts of the passing drama. As generation follows generation, so class follows class; and the gladsome smile of social intercourse soon gives place to the solemn gloom of final separation. On these occasions custom authorizes an address to the young adventurers, and nature sanctions what custom authorizes. Anxious for your future welfare, your instructors, who have hitherto guarded your virtue and watched for your happiness, seize on the parting interview, and by the solemn circumstances which crowd upon the mind urge their last counsel.