(1852, November 2) The Evening Courant, p. 3.Philosophical Institution Public Lecture—29 October 1852, Segment 9.
her moorings, and enable her, aided by the vigilance of those on board, to outride in safety all the perils of internal anarchy, and all the threatenings of foreign aggression. In these observations I have touched—very much at random, I confess—on a few of the topics on which lectures are to be delivered in this Institution, either in due course of the present term, or during some subsequent session. It is unnecessary for me to pursue these details any further. Suffice it to say that I feel confident that the interests of general literature will be attended to equally with those of historical research. The works of Shakespeare and of Milton, and of our other great imaginative writers will furnish scope for abundant and edifying commentaries. Nor surely will our national pride, our patriotism, permit our own countrymen to be overlooked. The praises, I doubt not, shall be often and often resounded within these walls.
"Of him who walked in glory and in joy,
Behind the plough upon the mountainside."
Robert Burns, whose genius has poured over our Scottish fields a fairer illumination than the sun ever shed on sea or land—a light which shall never die out either in peasants' hut or in nobles' hall; also of Walter Scott, who rooted by his beloved Tweed, "like a tree which grows fair planted by a river," has overshadowed the globe with his branches, and dropped rich fruits of our rugged but inexhaustible soil into the gladdened hearts of all the nations of the earth; and also of Christopher North, who, unfurling the broad banner of his genius emblazoned with the infinite prose poetry of the renowned Noctes Ambrosianae, and with many other pictures of divine and imperishable beauty, has confirmed (if any confirmation were needed) the title of Scotland to take rank as a first rate and ruling power in the wide confederation of letters. In conclusion, let me remark that the benefits to the community which this Institution is calculated to produce cannot be over-estimated. Labour is the lot of man. Almost every one of us is under the necessity of pursuing some practical avocation, by which his daily bread has to be won; and this is not to be regretted. No pleasure can surpass the satisfaction which a man feels in the efficient discharge of the active duties of his calling. But it is equally true, that every professional occupation, from the highest to the lowest, requires to be counterpoised and alleviated by pursuits of a more liberal order than itself. Without these the best faculties of our souls must sink down into ignoble torpor, and human intercourse be shorn of its highest enjoyments and its brightest blessings. The dedication of the mind—to the largest extent which the circumstances of the case permit—to the service of general literature, is a duty which every man of business owes both to himself and to society; and such a dedication will not go without its reward; it will entwine with roses the fetters of every professional career, the iron of which must otherwise enter into your souls. To supply such alleviations—to afford to our citizens who are engaged in the employment of active life an opportunity of keeping up, or of renewing their acquaintance with those great branches
