implicitly the command of our Saviour, 'Enter into thy closet, and pray to thy Father in secret,' but we have endeavored, in this also, to do something to form in you the habit of beginning every day and every work with asking the blessing of God. I believe in the efficacy of prayer. I believe that the sincere and heartfelt prayer is always heard; and, when it is a right prayer and offered in a right spirit, I believe it is always granted. How far we may pray for temporary blessings I know not. For myself, I dare not ask for any thing temporal without adding, 'Not my will but Thine be done.' But for spiritual blessings, the only ones of any great consequence, we may pray without ceasing. Weak, frail, and tempted, as we are, we must pray; and however strong the temptation may be, I believe that if, in the moment of temptation, we can, in the spirit of Christ, throw ourselves into the arms of the Father and ask, Father, strengthen thy child, we shall obtain strength.

What, then, are the most important lessons which you have been learning, or which you ought to have been learning, during this preparatory course of discipline? Is not the first so to use, improve, and occupy every talent of body and of mind, every affection of the heart, and every faculty of the soul, that they shall be at least twofold greater and better than when they were committed to you? Have you a right, on any other condition, even to hope for those gracious words of welcome from the great Master, 'Well done, good and faithful servant! enter thou into the joy of thy Lord?'

Is not the second, to set up a standard, in the improvement of these talents, higher than any thing earthly can furnish, a standard which shall be made up from your highest conceptions of what is best and most beautiful in the visible works of God, and of which you have a model, in spiritual things in Him only who came in the image of the Father? Is it not to aim continually to be perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect?

Is it not your duty, in the third place, to devote all these powers, thus carried as far towards perfection as you can have strength and opportunity to carry them, to the service of your fellow-creatures? To learn how, in your sphere and according to your ability, to love your neighbor as yourself?

And is not the highest and most consummate and comprehensive of duties, which the Saviour has repeated as the first of all the commandments, to consecrate yourselves, with all your powers of body improved by obedience to his laws, with all your mental faculties brightened and strengthened by the study of his works, with all your social affections perfected by devotion to his creatures, with all the capacities of your spiritual nature elevated by habitual reverence, by contemplation on his law and communion with him in prayer, to consecrate all to his love, to love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength?

Think not that you are bound to forget or to sacrifice yourselves. On the contrary, the divine lesson of the talents commands us to cultivate and improve to the utmost every faculty we find ourselves possessed of. It only substitutes, for the selfish motives by which the man of this world is influenced, motives incomparably higher and stronger and more enduring. What higher motives for self-cultivation and self-improvement can we even conceive of than the hope of becoming more fit to be servants of God, fellow-workers with Christ, ministers of good to men'?

Whatever faculty you find within you, do not fear to use and cultivate it to

the highest degree. Whence, for example, is a love of the beautiful? Is it not the gift of him who is the Author of all of beauty that there is in creation? Can you hesitate to exercise the faculty he has given you upon the objects for which it was given? There are some among our fellow-creatures who are so constituted, or so educated, that they are to be won from evil only by their love of the beautiful. Study all forms of beauty and all means of expressing it. It can not be useless to attempt to copy the beautiful shapes in which God has formed the works of his hand, or the colors in which he has clothed them.

If you live within reach of objects of natural history, do not let the oppor tunity be lost of studying them. Study plants, birds, shells, rocks, any thing that is God's workmanship. Do not, for a moment, think that the study of his works, purused in a right spirit, can fail to bring you nearer to him.

Cultivate the power of expression. Study language. The first miraculous gift to the earliest converts to Christianity was the gift of tongues. It was necessary for the highest service then; it is not less so now. By it we understand better, in proportion as we pursue the study, whatever is said or written in our own language or in other languages. By means of it we penetrate into whatever is the object of investigation, and set in order our own thoughts and conclusions, and make them clear and definite to ourselves. By means of it only do we communicate to others, for their good or pleasure or our own, our thoughts, feelings, wants, purposes, and aspirations; and we express them forcibly and effectually just in proportion as we possess more fully, as we have cultivated more faithfully, this wonderful power of expression. The extent of our knowledge is measured, in some degree, by the extent of our vocabulary. By nothing else is man so distinctly raised above other animals as by the gift of articulate language; and by nothing else is one man so distinguished from another. The literature of a nation is the expression of the thoughts, meditations, fancies, and conclusions of the thinkers of that nation. Acquaintance with literature is an acquaintance with the minds of which it is the exponent. The study of language is, therefore, the most useful study in the preparatory course of every one's education, and the study of general literature is, through life, one of the most delightful and profitable of human pursuits.

Our own English literature is, probably, taking all things into consideration, the richest of all literatures, and for us it is, without question, far the most valuable. I would therefore recommend to each one of you to make it a point to become somewhat fully acquainted with this noble literature. It will take many years. But the time, and you must devote only leisure time to it, will be well and most pleasantly spent; and in obtaining this knowledge you will nec essarily become acquainted with the leading thoughts of the best thinkers, upon all the most important subjects, in morals, taste, criticism, history, philosophy, poetry, theology, antiquities, and philanthropy, that have occupied the minds of men. To have a great object like this in view will give a purpose to your reading, and will prevent its being desultory, though it may seem so.

There is a great deal of poetry in the language which is not worth reading. Of that, a compendium, such as Cleveland's, will furnish you with sufficient specimens. But there are great and noble poets with whom I would advise you to become familiar. Such are Shakespeare, Milton, Wordsworth, Cowper, Scott, Bryant, Gray, Goldsmith, Longfellow, Coleridge, Young, and Pope, especially the first eight or nine.

There are certain portions of history with which every well-educated person should endeavor to become familiar. Such are the history of our own country, of our mother country, of Western Europe in modern times, of Greece, of Rome, and of Judæa, which last you will best learn from the Sacred Scriptures. I recommend to you, as valuable parts of your reading, books of travels and books of biography, as making you acquainted, better than any thing else, with the world in which God has placed you, and with the occupants of that world. Biography tends to make us charitable. He must be thoroughly bigoted who shall continue to think ill of our brethren the Methodists, after reading attentively the life of Wesley; or to condemn in a mass those who belong to the Catholic Church, after having become intimate with the character of Fénélon. The life of Elizabeth Fry, or of William Penn, proves that there are earnest and sincere Christians amongst the Quakers; the life of Leighton shows that a bishop may be very humble, and that of Peabody or of Channing, that vital piety may dwell with one who rejects all authority of man's device, and admits that only of the simple Word of God.

We are all willing enough to believe in the piety, intelligence, and Christian faithfulness of those of our own sect: it is therefore particularly important, if we would make our reading help us to become charitable, in the comprehensive seuse of charity, as explained to us by St. Paul, that we should seek to become acquainted with those who differ from us most in their theological opinions.

Upon the subject of morals, of moral philosophy, I have constantly referred you to the source of light and truth. It is profitable to read other books upon the subject, but it is dangerous to consider them as having authority.

As a help to careful reading and reflection, and to the storing up for use of what is most valuable, I would advise you to keep a diary, not of your feelings, but of the good thoughts or beautiful images which are presented or suggested by your observation, by your reading, or by conversation. This will cultivate your powers of expression, improve your habits of attention and observation, and strengthen your memory; and if rightly used, it will give you materials for improving and elevated conversation.

Conversation may be made the most delightful of all arts. Its first and necessary uses are to carry on intercourse in all the business of life, to communicate our wants, sorrows, feelings, affections, and purposes. It may be made an instrument to instruct, soothe, and delight. Too little is thought of it, and too little pains are taken to improve in it. Hence we find very few good talkers, where there might be many. Most people make no progress at all in it; they talk at sixty as they talk at sixteen. They say what comes into their mind, without reserve or selection, without choice of thought or of language. It should be managed much better; it may, by each one of you. A daily recurring opportunity of doing good to others by doing good to yourself, of contributing to the pleasure, instruction, and elevation of those nearest and dearest, ought to demand a better preparation. She who will take pains to have suitable topics for conversation, topics which will bring in narrative, imagery, witticism, sentiment, and will study the art of introducing them naturally and gracefully, will make herself a charming companion, and will be a blessing to the circle of which she is the ornament. Let me enjoin upon you to take pains in regard to your conversation, and let me remind you that the indispensable graces of a good talker are simplicity, sincerity, and truth.

We have taken much pains, in the regulations of the school, to induce you to form habits of punctuality and order in the disposal of your time. These you will find of the utmost consequence. After a few years, and as soon as you shall have entered upon the active duties of life, most of you will have very little leisure for reading or writing or private thought. That little will depend on your habits of order and punctuality, and will be of scarcely any avail, unless with severe economy. But those few moments of leisure, wisely used, will make the difference between thoughtful, well-informed, wise, and agreeable ladies, and frivolous and gossiping old women.

There are two practical rules in reading which I would gladly engrave upon your memory. Be not deceived by names. A book with the best name-a sermon or theological treatise—may be the vehicle of arrogance, self-sufficiency, bigotry, pride, uncharitableness, in short, of whatever is most inconsistent with, and hostile to, the very spirit of Christianity; while a romance or a song may breathe the spirit of gentleness, humility, love, and charity,—the highest and peculiar graces of the gospel. Remember that he who began his prayer with thanking God that he was not as other men were, went away condemned.

The second rule is, remember that your heart, your imagination, your conscience, are in your own keeping. Whatever tends to stain the purity of your imagination, whatever tends to increase your pride and self-love, to make you think better of yourself and of those who agree with you, or to diminish your charitableness, and make you think ill of others, of those who differ from you, whatever tends to diminish your love and reverence for God and his Providence, is bad and to be shunned, by whatever name it may be called.

I have spoken of some of the means you must use to improve the talents of which you will be called to render an account; and as all the parts of life are necessarily connected, I have naturally anticipated something of the uses to be made of the talents so improved. I shall not, of course, undertake to enter into all which is meant by devoting our talents to the service of our fellow-creatures. Every good life is necessarily devoted, directly or indirectly, to the service of mankind. We have before us, therefore, a subject as broad as human life, and as various.

To a single point in this wide field I would ask for a few moments your attention: it is the duty of educating yourselves for a life of charity, of devoting to charitable uses the talents you will have improved. I wish you to consider this question, whether it is not the duty of each one of you to prepare herself to do something effectually to relieve or diminish the wants, the ignorance, the sufferings, and the sins of her poor fellow-creatures? And by this preparation I mean something different from the general, vague, good purpose, which almost every woman has, to be charitable to the poor. I mean a special preparation, a careful inquiry as to what are the wants and what the condition of the poor, and what ought to be and can be done by Christian women of them. I should be most thankful to my Father in Heaven if I could know that he would move the hearts of many of you to choose this for your profession, as deliberately, as thoughtfully, and as resolutely as your brothers are choosing law, medicine, commerce, or some useful art. A great purpose for which Christ came on earth is not accomplished, the gospel is not yet preached to the poor; and I think it never can be until woman takes up the work.

We add Dr. Emerson's portrait of Louis Agassiz as a teacher.

THE HOPKINS BEQUEST AT NEW HAVEN.

INTRODUCTION.

THE Town, and Colony of New Haven were singularly blessed in having among the early settlers and organizers of their society two such men as Theophilus Eaton and John Davenport-for no two men in all New England took a deeper personal interest, or larger views of education, in the institution of public schools. To their early, enlightened, and persevering labors must be ascribed the credit of commencing in New Haven, before it ceased to be an independent colony, institutions of public instruction, which in time were developed into the Hopkins Grammar School, and Yale College.

THEOPHILUS EATON.

THEOPHILUS EATON, for twenty years the chief magistrate of the Colony of which he was one of the principal founders, was born in Stony-Stratford in Oxfordshire, in the year 1590-91, and died in New Haven Jan. 7, 1658. He received his education from his father, and in the endowed Grammar school of Coventry, where his father was a 'faithful and famous minister.' His inclinations drawing him to business, and not to ministerial life, as his father wished, he went up to London, and there worked his way into a large commercial trade, particularly with the ports of the Baltic. He was made deputy-governor of the London mercantile guild of which he was a member, and for a time was the agent of the King of England at the Court of Denmark. He was married twice-his second wife being the widow of David Yale* and daughter of Dr. Morton, Bishop of Chester. At the time of his decision to assist in founding a new colony in New England in 1636, he was a citizen and merchant of great commercial and social consideration in London; and his personal influence, weighed with many of his neighbors and mercantile friends of the same religious views, to induce them to' exchange their old homes of ease and affluence for the perils and hardships of the wilderness.

*ELIHU YALE, whose timely benefaction to the College in New Haven has associated his name with that institution, was the son of Thomas Yale, a son of Mrs. Eaton by her first husband, David Yale. He was born in New Haven, and returned to England with his grandmother, Mrs. Eaton, soon after Governor Eaton's death.