I Doubt Not That
They Feel Conscious Of The Position Which They Occupy - A Position
Which, Under All Circumstances, At All Periods, In Every Clime And
Country, Is One Replete With Duty.
The youth of a nation are the
trustees of posterity; but the youth I address have duties peculiar to
the position which they occupy.
They are the rising generation of a
society unprecedented in the history of the world; that is at once
powerful and new. In other parts of the kingdom the remains of an
ancient civilization are prepared ever to guide, to cultivate, to
influence, the rising mind; but they are born in a miraculous creation
of novel powers, and it is rather a providential instinct that has
developed the necessary means of maintaining the order of your new
civilization than the matured foresight of man. This is their
inheritance. They will be called on to perform duties - great duties. I,
for one, wish, for their sakes and for the sake of my country, that
they may be performed greatly. I give to them that counsel which I have
ever given to youth, and which I believe to be the wisest and the best
- I tell them to aspire. I believe that the man who does not look up
will look down; and that the spirit that does not dare to soar is
destined perhaps to grovel. Every individual is entitled to aspire to
that position which he believes his faculties qualify him to occupy. I
know there are some who look with what I believe is short-sighted
timidity and false prudence upon such views. They are apt to tell us -
'Beware of filling the youthful mind with an impetuous tumult of
turbulent fancies; teach youth, rather, to be content with his
position - do not induce him to fancy that he is that which he is not,
or to aspire to that which he cannot achieve.' In my mind these are
superficial delusions. He who enters the world finds his level. It is
the solitary being, the isolated individual, alone in his solitude, who
may be apt to miscalculate his powers, and misunderstand his character.
But action teaches him the truth, even if it be a stern one.
Association affords him the best criticism in the world, and I will
venture to say, that if he belong to the Athenaeum, though when he
enters it he may think himself a genius, if nature has not given him a
passionate and creative soul, before a week has elapsed he will become
a very sober-minded individual. I wish to damp no youthful ardour. I
can conceive what such an institution would have afforded to the
suggestive mind of a youthful Arkwright. I can conceive what a nursing-
mother such an institution must have been to the brooding genius of
your illustrious and venerated Dalton. It is the asylum of the self-
formed; it is the counsellor of those who want counsel; but it is not a
guide that will mislead, and it is the last place that will fill the
mind of man with false ideas and false conceptions.
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