pointed, his means exhausted, his heart was crushed and he sickened and died, far from those who loved him, in the land of strangers. Whose sympathetic breast throbbed with warm pulsations over the lowly dying couch of this fair boy? Who ministered consolation and nourished and sustained him when in his fevered dream he murmured of his distant home? Who smoothed his dying pillow and closed his eyes in death when the light of life had ceased to relume them? And who laid him in the humble tomb with the forms of Christian burial? Had the silent, yet eloquent grave, a voice, it would pronounce the name of James Collier! How many fathers' blessings have been mingled with his name. Oh! how many mothers' prayers have ascended to the throne of the infinite God for blessing upon the head of that kind stranger, who stood by the bedside of her cherished child, in his last sad moments of affliction! Such, gentlemen, is the history of this case-such is James Collier, whose destiny is committed to you.

REMARKS

AT THE OXFORD ACADEMY JUBILEE.

HELD AT OXFORD, CHENANGO COUNTY, N. Y., August 1st and 2d, 1854.

[The occasion celebrated by the "Jubilee was the Sixtieth Anniversary of the founding of the Institution, and the dedication of a new Academic edifice.

At the Jubilee Dinner, Hon. Henry W. Rogers, of Buffalo, President of the day, having in some preliminary remarks alluded in pleasant and complimentary terms to Mr. Dickinson, whose wife was a former pupil of the Academy, as, "though not a student in his own right, having high claims as 'tenant by courtesy,'" and playfully recounted some passages in their early acquaintance and friendship, called upon him to respond to the toast:

"The Ladies here educated: the wives and mothers of Senators and Statesmen."

Mr. DICKINSON spoke as follows:]

WHEREVER the blessings of civilization and Christianity have been extended, a high position in society has been assigned to It is obvious that the wise and beneficent Creator, in the adjustment of human economy, ordained that one portion of the duties of life should be discharged by the male, and another by the female; nor, because her duties are unlike his, is it to be inferred that they are less important, interesting, or dig nified. To man, with his more rugged nature, has been assigned the physical elements, and various duties incident to government; to woman, the empire of the heart and the affections. She has not felled the forest, wrestled at the bar, enacted laws in the legislative hall, nor gravely presided over courts of justice; but she has been charged with the execution. of a holier and more interesting trust,-that of standing at the vestibule of human existence, watching the development of

mind, and moulding the heart and character of those who are to compose society. These duties are suited to her peculiar nature, her purity and affection, her intuitive perception, her deep religious devotion, her patient endurance, her love of virtue, her abhorrence of vice; and the gentleness and delicacy of her natural and moral structure have qualified her to discharge this elevated mission, and to inculcate peace on earth and good will to men. The great mass of virtuous females would by no means exchange a relation so sacred and interesting for any earthly destiny; while an ambitious and clamorous few, scorning the tame duties which society, with the sanction of Heaven, has assigned the sex, seek relief in preparing their minds and adjusting their costume for making more hasty and enlarged strides in pursuit of their lost rights.

It has often been said, sportively if not seriously, that woman was the first to partake of the fruit of the forbidden tree; though it is admitted, in extenuation, that she was the earliest witness in the atonement. But if my clerical friends will pardon me for a moment for invading their peculiar prerogative, I will challenge any one to show from the sacred writings that woman was ever forbidden to eat of the fatal fruit. Whether the injunction was not extended to her because it was deemed unnecessary by reason of her obedient nature, or whether it was supposed the inhibition would heighten her curiosity to taste, is of course unknown to erring mortals. Be this as it may, the Scripture informs us that man was created and placed in the garden, the command to abstain was given him while he was yet alone, and afterwards, in the order of events, woman was created. No heavenly mandate, so far as we are informed, reached her ears upon the subject; nor did she rest under any declared prohibition, except by implication.

The character of woman is appreciated, and her exalted mission acknowledged, in proportion as society advances in learning, refinement, and true religion; and her position is degraded in the same ratio, under the dominion of despotism, ignorance, and barbarism. occasion is a most memorable illustration of this interesting truth. It signalizes one of her proudest triumphs. Contrast her condition as it is here, with that of other lands of more ambitious pretension. Passing by countries where she is an inferior and a slave, go to decayed, mildewed,

This very

beggar-gilded Spain, boasting of her ancestral renown, her refinement, and her religion, and search her moth-eaten monarchy throughout for such an assemblage as this-where they have met together to recount the triumphs of learning; and you will not find it. Assemblages of "fair women and brave men" you may find; but they have assembled to witness struggles for mastery and prowess between brute beast and brutal man, cheered on by a brutalized audience (in which, I blush to add, woman is conspicuous), while they worry and destroy each

other.

I remember much of the history of the Oxford Academy, commencing, perhaps, at an earlier period than I should now be willing to confess. I remember once to have seen its benevolent founder, Mr. Hovey. And I remember now full well, and with a pride and gratification not easily described, of those I may venture to claim amongst my early and most valued friends, those who have sustained it through all its vicissitudes to its present exalted eminence, who mourned when it languished, and when it rejoiced, rejoiced with it. In what pleas ing contrast they stand with the conquerors of armies, the disturbers of the world's repose, the violators of the public peace! How much more approved in the sight of all good men! how much more justified in the sight of Heaven!

From this institution no demoralizing influences have proceeded ;--it has produced neither sickness nor sorrow; but, like an ever-welling fountain of good, it has sent forth living streams to the north, the south, the east, and the west, to refresh, to fertilize, and bless the vast domains of humanity. Its benefits have reached all ages, classes, and conditions. It has taught the wealthy humility, and the vulgarity of ostentation; the poor, how to endure poverty without wretchedness; and all, that virtue and integrity are priceless. Nor has this institution, in the education of females, been one of those modern shaving shops where a young lady must be taken up by payment of her value every ninety days, like a matured bank note; where they are smothered under so many studies that they can learn little of them besides the names of the books, and know no more of the useful branches when they leave than when they commenced;-but here true learning has been imparted and real knowledge inculcated, at an expense which placed them within

the reach of means the most moderate. Here woman has been taught lessons which qualify her for the duties of life in whatsoever condition Providence may cast her lot; whether in the secluded quiet of domestic retirement, or whether her fortunes are launched with the companion of her destiny upon some stormy sea, she is fitted to cheer and console him when all others frown, to be his light and sunshine when the skies lower and the storm gathers blackness and fury.

"When envy's breath would coldly blast his name,
And busy tongues are sporting with his fame,
Who solves each doubt, clears every mist away,
And leaves him radiant in the face of day?
She who would peril fortune, fame, and life,
For man the ingrate,—the devoted wife."

It was said that although Mark Antony had no hand in the death of Julius Cæsar, yet he would receive the benefit of his dying; and I will add, that although I never attended the Oxford Academy, I received the benefit of its excellent instruction, and that, although never a student there, I obtained one of its highest prizes.

The honorable President of the day, who has with so much ability and good taste presided upon this occasion, has, among other reminiscences of boyhood which he has awakened, reminded me that we were then both residents of Guilford, in this county, and that he received from my official hand a certificate to teach a common school. Although it had long been forgotten, I now remember well the circumstances and the occasion. It could not have been, I am quite certain, that I gave it him because I knew that he was fresh from the halls of Oxford Academy, which we all held in profound veneration for its learning, for he had not then entered them; it could not have been because of the strong sympathy as brother mechanics which bound us together; it could not have been because of the private friendship which sprung up between us at an early day and has existed to the present moment, commencing in the confiding spirit of youth, and growing stronger and brighter with years; but my good genius must have whispered me, that the candidate for pedagogical honors would one day discharge great and responsible public trusts,-that in the exercise