"The King a seat hath, there prepared, High, on eternal base upreared,

For His eternal Son:

His palaces with joy abound;

His saints, by Him, with glory crown'd,
Attend and share His throne.

"Mother of cities! o'er thy head,

Bright peace, with healing wings outspread,
For evermore shall dwell;

Let me, blest seat! my name behold,
Among thy citizens enroll'd,

And bid the world farewell!"

III.

THE BACCALAUREATE ADDRESS,

AT THE

*THIRD ANNUAL COMMENCEMENT OF BURLINGTON COLLEGE.

MANNERS MAKYTH MAN.

"MANNERS MAKYTH MAN." There was a Bishop, that was filled and fired, with a desire to benefit his kind. He was of poor parentage. His opportunities of education had been small and few. But, he had faithfully improved his gifts. And he attained to great, and well-deserved, influence; the greatest, and the best deserved. He was not without its surest tokens, in a wicked world; malicious and vindictive enemies. But, he escaped their clutches. And he outlived most of them. He was not only Bishop of a large and powerful diocese; but Lord High Chancellor of England; and, for a long period, scarcely second to the King, in influence, with the State. Yet, his noblest memorials are the two Colleges, which he founded and endowed, at Winchester, and at Oxford; and the Cathedral, which he rebuilt at Winchester. It was not till he had

* St. Michael and All Angels, A. D. 1852.

earned it, that he used a coat of arms. And, when he did, the motto was, "Manners makyth man." It was a teaching text. And his life was its best commentary. It is WILLIAM of WYKEHAM, Lord Bishop of Winchester, of whom I have been speaking.

I have taken his motto, for my theme, to-day, "Manners makyth man." A theme, in its whole extent, too wide for any one occasion. Especially, for this; which, into a few hours, crowds so much. Burke takes his pitch from it, and gives some notion of its volume, in these few sentences, from his first letter, " on a Regi cide Peace." "Manners are of more importance than laws. Upon them, in a great measure, the laws depend. The law touches us, but, here and there; and, now and then. Manners are what vex or soothe, corrupt or pu rify, exalt or debase, barbarize or refine us, by a constant, steady, uniform, insensible, operation; like that of the air, we breathe in. They give their whole form and colour, to our lives. According to their quality, they aid morals, they supply them, or they totally destroy them." And, in another place, with a still wider range. "Men are not tied, to one another, by papers and seals. They are led to associate, by resemblances, by conformities, by sympathies. It is with nations, as with indi viduals. Nothing is so strong a tie of amity, between nation and nation, as correspondence in laws, customs, manners, and habits of life. They have more than the force of treaties, in themselves. They are obligations written in the heart. They approximate men to men, without their knowledge; and sometimes, without their

intentions. The secret, unseen, but irrefragable, bond of habitual intercourse, holds them together; when their perverse and litigious nature, sets them to equivocate, scuffle and fight, even about the terms of their written obligations."

It needs but moderate acquaintance with mankind, to know, that this is so. But for the Spartan manners, three hundred men would not have held Thermopylæ. Not till the largesses and games of their designing tyrants could sway the manners of the people, that were once Republicans, was the old Roman heart entirely eaten out; till they became, what one, aptly, calls them, "Italians of Rome." And, to come nearer home, and see ourselves in truth's unflattering mirror, how have the men of this republic changed, with their manners: until the Adamses, the Hancocks, the Franklins, and the Putnams are as rarely reproduced, as their stern virtues, their straight-forward speech, and all their old, rude, rough, and racy, ways. The question, once, was, "Is he honest, is he capable, is he faithful to the Constitution?" The question, now, is, "Can he be elected?" The Constitution contemplates, for the President of these United States, the man, whom all the people, by their special representatives, in their separate councils, held in every State-held, on the same day, through them all, that none may know the chosen of another, till its choice is made,-freely and spontaneously choose. The prac tice is, to elect one of the two, whom two Conventions, unknown to the Constitution, and altogether irrespon sible, may succeed in beating, screwing, moulding, lick

ing, into that shape, which they shall deem, the most available. Truly, the crucible, in all its ranges, through alchymy and chemistry, turns out no stranger transformations, than are wrought, by manners. And, on what a scale! The morals of a people; the freedom of a nation; the wealth, the power, the grandeur, the existence, of a State!

But, I must circumscribe my range. I am to deal with individuals, now. This is the civil birth-day of fourteen young men. To-day, they leave the shade of academic groves, to bear and brave the heat of open day. They drop the College, to assume the manly, gown. We have all seen, how well and gracefully they wore the one; and we all know, how they came to wear it, So. It is of infinitely more moment, that they wear the other, gracefully and well: and, what is now said, as their Alma Mater's parting words, must tend to that result. It may be, that, as before, so, now, reluctant nature will recalcitrate. That, as they chafed and fretted, at the discipline, which, now, they bless, that brought them on, thus far, successfully; so, they may chafe and fret at that, which is to curb them, now. But, it must still, be so. It is stern nature's unrelenting law.

*

"Qui cupit optatam cursu contingere metam

Multa tulit fecitque puer."

O Philotheus, you cannot enough thank God, for the order of the place you live in, where there is so much care taken, to make you a good Christian, as well as a good scholar; where you go so frequently to prayers, every day in the Chapel, and in the School; and sing hymns and psalms to God, so frequently in your chamber, and in the Chapel, and in the Hall; so that you are, in a manner, brought up, in a perpetuity of prayer.-Bishop KEN, to a Winchester Scholar.

VOL. IV. -3