Publication
Newburyport: Printed by W. & J. Gilman. Sold at their Book-Store, No. 2, Middle-Street.
Physical description
23 p.; 27 inches
Notes
We note this is one of the few extant messages from Rev. Dana which does not open with a Scripture text.
Opening words:
At a period like the present, when a new impulse seems imparted to the human mind, and unexampled exertions are made to improve the condition of society, it is not strange that attention is powerfully attracted to the young. They are the rising hope of the church and world. Indeed, they are the materials of which both the church and world will soon be composed. In a few years at most, all who now occupy the busy, or the public scenes of life, will quit the stage for ever. Behold then, my hearers, in the infant group assembled before you, those by whom your places will soon be filled; by whom the cause of God and man will soon be supported, or trampled on; and all that is precious to human beings, be preserved or lost.
This is not all. The moments allotted to these young immortals, these future men and women, are rapidly fleeting away, and will soon be gone for ever. But not so the sentiments they now imbibe. Not so the impressions they receive, nor the habits they form. These remain. They remain to stamp their character and their fate for eternity. They will stamp for eternity the character and fate of thousands and of millions yet unborn.
It was remarked by Pericles, when a multitude of Athenian young men perished in battle, that it was like the loss of spring to the year. This just and beautiful remark admits an easy accommodation. If from infancy and youth, you withhold the hand of culture; if you do not prepare the ground, and sow the seed, and cherish its growth, you strike out the spring from human life. Nothing remains to the future year, but barrenness, or what is worse--a profusion of useless and noxious weeds.
But I shall not occupy the time of my audience with general remarks on the importance of education. . . ."
Opening words:
At a period like the present, when a new impulse seems imparted to the human mind, and unexampled exertions are made to improve the condition of society, it is not strange that attention is powerfully attracted to the young. They are the rising hope of the church and world. Indeed, they are the materials of which both the church and world will soon be composed. In a few years at most, all who now occupy the busy, or the public scenes of life, will quit the stage for ever. Behold then, my hearers, in the infant group assembled before you, those by whom your places will soon be filled; by whom the cause of God and man will soon be supported, or trampled on; and all that is precious to human beings, be preserved or lost.
This is not all. The moments allotted to these young immortals, these future men and women, are rapidly fleeting away, and will soon be gone for ever. But not so the sentiments they now imbibe. Not so the impressions they receive, nor the habits they form. These remain. They remain to stamp their character and their fate for eternity. They will stamp for eternity the character and fate of thousands and of millions yet unborn.
It was remarked by Pericles, when a multitude of Athenian young men perished in battle, that it was like the loss of spring to the year. This just and beautiful remark admits an easy accommodation. If from infancy and youth, you withhold the hand of culture; if you do not prepare the ground, and sow the seed, and cherish its growth, you strike out the spring from human life. Nothing remains to the future year, but barrenness, or what is worse--a profusion of useless and noxious weeds.
But I shall not occupy the time of my audience with general remarks on the importance of education. . . ."