DISCOURSE 
DELIVERED 
ON THE FIRST ANNIVERSARY 
OF THE 
GIRARD COLLEGE FOR ORPHANS, 
AT THE REQUEST OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS, 
BY 
JOB R. TYSON. 
PHILADELPHIA: 
CRISSY & MARKLEY, PRINTERS, NO. 4 MINOR STREET. 
1849. Girard C allege, 
January 2, 1849, 
To Job R. Tyson, Esq. 
Dear Sir,-At a stated meeting of the Board of Directors of the 
Girard College, the following resolution was unanimously adopted: 
" Resolved, That the thanks of this Board are due, and are hereby 
tendered to Job R. Tyson, Esq., for the very able and instructive 
Discourse which he delivered at the College on the first day of Janu- 
ary, 1849, and the President of the Board is requested to convey to 
Mr. Tyson this resolution, with a request that he furnish a copy of the 
Discourse for printing." 
The discharge of the pleasing duty devolved upon me by the above 
resolution, affords me an opportunity of expressing the high satisfaction 
I enjoyed while listening to your Discourse, and the great respect with 
which 
I am, dear sir, 
Your friend and servant, 
JOS. R. CHANDLER, 
President of the Board of Directors of the Girard College for Orphans. 
No. 2 Prune Street, 
January 3, 1849. 
Hon. Joseph R. Chandler, 
President of the Board of Directors of the Girard College for Orphans. 
Dear Sir,-I have received your note of yesterday, imbodying 
a resolution passed on the same day, by the Board of Directors. If 
the publication of my Address, will, in any way, promote the interests 
of the College, I cannot hesitate to comply with their request. 
Be pleased to convey to the Board my sense of the honour conferred 
upon me, by the character and terms of their resolution, and accept 
for yourself the assurance of my esteem and friendship. 
J. R. TYSON. DISCOURSE. 
Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Board of Directors. 
Ladies and Gentlemen. 
More than three lustres have passed away, since the 
ceremony of laying the corner stone of this vast pile, 
was celebrated on the spot where we are now assem- 
bled. I need not summon you back to the exciting 
scenes which crowd the canvass of the intervening 
period. Many who greeted with smiles so auspicious 
an event, and saw the brightness of the future, as a 
favored land, extending in perspective before them, are 
not now among us to enjoy its entrance or partake 
its fruition. In the sad revolutions of time, the elo- 
quent lips, which, on that occasion, gave utterance to 
"the thoughts which breathe, and the words which 
burn," are closed in silence. Of the multitude whose 
hearts were touched with the promises of this Insti- 
tution, none bounded with keener or loftier sensations, 2 
than the gifted and lamented person to whom I refer.* 
His elegant taste sought to mould the plan of the 
Founder into a symmetrical and consistent edifice. 
The building in its exact dimensions of length and 
breadth, in its costly workmanship, and in its expensive 
and durable materials, was to be erected in accordance 
with the directions of the Testator. It remained only 
for a classical mind to devise, under the guidance 
of the ingenious Architect, the noble colonnade, so 
necessary to the superincumbent mass, and to the 
architectural beauty of the whole. It stands a monu- 
ment of the munificent public spirit of the Founder, 
and of the pure and classical taste of those who were 
entrusted with the execution of his intentions. Though 
styled a Grecian Corinthian Temple, the structure is 
worthy of a Vitruvius, for chaste simplicity, majestic 
outline, and imposing effect. Without the adventitious 
aids of those modern appliances, a dome or a spire, 
its simple grandeur strikes and enchains the beholder. 
But admirable as it is in its various parts, and in 
their well adapted combination, we admire it less for 
its grand and massive proportions than for the noble 
conception which it embodies. Solid as the firm earth 
upon which it is reared, it is of perishing materiality. 
Centuries cannot roll over it without leaving the 
impression of their billows upon its bosom. An earth- 
♦ Nicholas Biddle, Esq. 3 
quake may bury this beautiful temple from the eyes 
of men. But the broad and expansive foundation of the 
principles which it introduces to the world, and of 
which it serves as an imperfect type, will survive the 
shocks of centuries. These it is, which impart to the 
dead and lifeless marble, the spirit of a warm and 
living essence. More lofty and enduring than the pyra- 
mid of Cheops, their apex rises from a deeper and an 
ampler base-they tower in the clouds, they ascend to 
a higher point in the heavens. 
But the cares of the fabric have passed away. The 
last act of the Architect, in the placing of its crowning 
stone, has been fitly commemorated by the able Presi- 
dent of the Board of Directors. The structure is 
finished, and we are convened within its walls to mark 
the first Anniversary of its active operations. We are 
to contemplate, not the architectural beauty of the pile, 
but the uses which it is intended to subserve; not the 
plan of the building, but the objects to which it is to 
be applied. 
And here we may challenge in the annals of phi- 
lanthropy, over the world, a parallel to the public 
spirit and exalted munificence which gave birth to the 
Girard College. Has it a superior, has it an equal, 
in the benefactions of ages? We may undervalue a 
liberality which turns the key upon earthly treasures, 
till they are unlocked by the cold hand of death. We 
may decry an absorbing ambition for posthumous 4 
renown, which, with the insensibility of the clod to 
which the inanimate body is consigned, can profusely 
lavish an estate of millions upon the public at large. 
We may condemn a spirit of greedy accumulation, 
which, proposing to itself no genial ministrations in 
the lifetime of the owner, refusing the luxuries of 
opulence, and overlooking the minor as well as the 
greater charities of every day existence, avariciously 
gloats over vast possessions, and is intent only upon 
the transmission of an empty name. 
But whatever motives may have predominated in 
such a disposal of his wealth, we cannot weigh the 
character of the Founder, in a just balance, without 
estimating, at their fair value, the merits of this endow- 
ment. Indifference to the claims of kindred may be 
regarded as the evidence of contracted affections and 
a selfish nature. Yet if the one object of Girard's life, 
the end to which he dedicated his daily and midnight 
labors, was not the indulgence of voluptuous appetite, 
but the establishment of a great public charity, he is 
redeemed from the imputation of a contracted spirit 
and an engrossing selfishness. If, in addition to these, 
the plan of his beneficence be as remarkable for wise 
and comprehensive sagacity, as for the magnificence 
of its income, he rises to the condition of a public 
benefactor. 
Stephen Girard was a Frenchman by birth. He 
came to this country at an early age, and acquired 5 
his immense estate in Philadelphia. While his heart 
glowed with fondness for the civil and religious freedom 
of his adopted country, he imbibed a peculiar attach- 
ment to the City of his residence, as the scene of his 
labors, and the field of his financial glory. Removed by 
local distance, but still further by personal peculiarities 
from the endearments of childhood, he nursed, in the 
stern austerity of solitude, a spirit of social aversion, 
which grew more intense, from year to year, until it 
seemed to divorce itself from any communion with his 
fellows. When his fortune became so expanded and 
colossal, as to be a subject of general notice, he was 
a stranger to familiar life. He interchanged few or 
no offices of courtesy and kindness with his neighbors. 
He seemed to glide through the world unobserved; 
not knowing others and unknown himself. When 
approached, his speech was short and to the immediate 
subject; not a word escaped beyond the business of the 
occasion. It was only in the commercial relations of 
society, that he permitted himself to appear. He was 
satisfied that his deeds should speak for him.-At early 
dawn he issued from the damps of his abode, in Water 
street, in the plain garb of a decent citizen. He might 
be traced to his Banking House, in Third street, where, 
until the closing hour of three, he transacted, in person, 
his extensive concerns as a banker; instructed and 
received reports from the captains of his vessels, sailing 
to and from the remotest seas; and entered into all the 6 
details of his multiplied affairs. After the engage- 
ments of the morning, he retired to his farm, and there 
directed, and sometimes led the workmen in their rural 
employments. Returning to his Bank in the evening, 
the midnight hour found him alone, silently revising the 
business of his officers of the previous day, and sub- 
jecting the account of each, to a keenness of inspection, 
which no error, inadvertance, or oversight, could hope 
to escape. In this incessant toil, this unintermitted 
diligence, the history of a day is the history of his life. 
-Though publicity attended his footsteps, he shunned 
the gaze of the multitude. He seemed to shrink from 
observation. Without a note of warning, the public ear 
was occasionally startled by some grand project or 
daring and gigantic enterprise. While the air was 
ringing with the rumor, he quietly withdrew to the 
retirement of his farm, and seemed dead to the sensa- 
tion it produced. 
We may cease to wonder at the magical transforma- 
tions of his Midas touch. His secret lay in the patient 
application of a remarkably clear and sagacious intel- 
lect to the single work of accumulation, aided by inex- 
pensive personal habits and the observance of general 
frugality. He sought, through a long life, the Philoso- 
pher's stone, with a sedulous and untiring assiduity. 
Assuming that he intended to apply it, when discovered, 
to the erection of one of the greatest monuments of 
benevolence of which history or tradition speaks, it 7 
cannot be doubted, that the means and the end may be 
justified, upon the principles of an elevated philosophy. 
The faculty of amassing wealth, is quickened and 
expanded by the motive which excites it into activity. 
It is a favorite theory in regard to the Jews, whose 
opulence is as proverbial as those close-handed maxims 
which make and preserve it, that their hoarded collec- 
tions are reserved for the rebuilding of Jerusalem. If, 
in the case of Girard, they were to confer blessings 
upon the poor; to raise the lowly head; to minister to 
the great cause of virtue and science; of knowledge 
and intellect; of political and religious liberty;-if for 
these he toiled, day and night, and from year to year; 
if for these he denied himself the usual enjoyments of 
opulent life; if for these he cultivated and applied his 
powers to the great object of amassing wealth;-he 
merits and will receive the gratitude of posterity for the 
inheritance he has left it. 
Girard either threw himself or was thrown, at an 
early period of his life, beyond the protection of the 
paternal roof. Poor and practically an Orphan, he 
comes within the description of the persons for whom 
his College is erected. Houseless and exposed, sur- 
rounded by temptation, degraded by ignorance, and 
chilled by penury,-can we doubt that the recollections 
of his own bitter experience suggested the first idea 
of a safe-guard and an asylum to the fatherless wan- 
derer ? 8 
If the fall of an apple could teach the mind of New- 
ton the pervading law of the universe, if the hint of 
Ellwood could kindle anew the fire of Milton's genius, 
may we not suppose that Girard was indebted to his 
early reverses for the imperfect germ of that fine con- 
ception, which will mark his name in remote nations 
and embalm it to subsequent times ? Who can tell that 
his early struggles and solitary wanderings, exposing to 
his keen judgment,-never prone to the kindest con- 
structions,-the unamiable traits of our nature, may not 
have soured him into an apparent misanthropy? We 
may trace to this source the fountains of those bitter 
waters, which seldom ceased to flow, in his subsequent 
intercourse with his fellow men. 
But how can we account for that wayward inconsis- 
tency of human conduct which despises, underrates, and 
disparages man in the particular, and loves him in the 
aggregate? How, except by ascribing it to the inex- 
tinguishable principle of the affections, which, though 
they ceaselessly change their object, and run riot in in- 
consistency, never abate a spark of their native ardour? 
The man whose heart is endowed with sensibility, can- 
not be schooled into indifference. If his passions be 
warm, the frowns of the world and the rebukes of 
I 
adversity will never freeze them into coldness. He 
may dress his features in the repulsive garb of a man- 
hater;-his intercourse and language may betray the 
icy temperament of the stoic; yet nature will assert her 9 
pre-eminence, and through the thin veil which would 
hide it, reveal the old likeness in a different costume. 
That Girard put on the cloak of insensibility, and 
successfully sustained the disguise, in his general inter- 
course with men, cannot be denied. 
It has been beautifully said of Washington, that God 
made him childless in order that he might be the father 
of his country. Girard, deprived in early boyhood of a 
father's care, and bereft in the maturity of life, of an 
only child, has here tendered to the friendless Orphan 
the guidance of a paternal hand, and secured to him 
more than the blessing of patrimonial wealth. 
We may condemn, as sordid and avaricious, the 
miser, who, for pelf, dedicates his inglorious days and 
nights to the business of accumulation. That labor 
and that frugality, which have no higher motive than 
the increase of thousands, receive from mankind the 
meed of contempt or pity. But who has penetrated the 
more than seven-fold covering of that panoplied bosom, 
which opened itself to no ear, and challenged for itself 
no human sympathy? Who can say, beneath a cold 
and chilling exterior, what love of humanity glowed in 
its deep and unexplored recesses ? Who will say, that 
those high affections with which Providence has enno- 
bled our nature, finding in him no personal or family 
centre to which they could converge, diffused themselves 
over the great family of mankind ? 10 
That the current of his affections was neither dried 
up nor chilled, is evident from many eccentric sallies 
which live in the hearts of his cotemporaries. Among 
the self-sacrificing and heroic spirits who remained in 
Philadelphia, during the pestilence of 1793, to nurse the 
sick and assuage the pangs of the dying, was the cold- 
hearted and stoical Girard. It is recollected that many 
an indigent person was turned empty away from his 
door; but it is known, in seasons of calamity, that he 
was not insensible to the voice of distress, and, in 
seasons of inclemency, that he liberally supplied fuel to 
the poor. He gave thousands in support of charities 
which he approved, and of churches whose tenets he 
disapproved, and promoted works of public improve- 
ment with an intrepid spirit and enlarged generosity. 
But in whatever motive and from whatever feeling, 
the idea of this College had its origin, in his breast, its 
plan is a high philosophical conception, and does honor 
to the mind which conceived it. Its direct effect will 
be not merely to diffuse individual blessings, but to 
stem, at their source, the torrents of pauperism and 
crime; to elevate the working classes of society; and 
to come in aid of our free institutions by giving them 
the sustaining props of moral virtue and cultivated 
intelligence, from the least promising members of the 
state. Let us consider some of the topics suggested, 
under a broad and comprehensive view of the institution. 11 
The ample endowment of the Girard College, is now 
and hereafter to be applied to the moral and intellectual 
training of poor white male Orphans, In the exposition 
of his system, the Testator did not omit the delineation 
of any feature necessary to its completeness. His 
mind surveyed the whole, and took in each particular 
part. No child is eligible until the age of six, nor after 
the age of ten years. Between the ages of six and 
eighteen years, the inmates may be taught all those 
branches of useful learning which the interval permits. 
But not stopping here, the Founder, with equal sagacity 
and benevolence, follows these youths from the College 
walls. At the moment of quitting College, they are to 
be severally apprenticed to some useful calling or pursuit. 
He does not launch them into the dangerous ocean of 
life, and expose them, like inexperienced mariners, to the 
rocks and tempests of the voyage, but he gives them a 
conductor through the insidious narrows, and a chart 
for the open sea. 
The institution has little in common with the ordi- 
nary Colleges of Europe, or of this country. It is 
accessible only at a tender age, and is confined to a 
particular class. The Founder knew the ills to which 
youthful poverty was exposed, in a large City, when 
emancipated from parental restraint. Aware of the 
lasting influence of young impressions, he assumes the 
whole work of their moral as well as mental cultivation. 12 
He begins at the dawn of childhood; he quits them 
only at the age of legal maturity. 
But it is no less distinguished from an ordinary Col- 
lege by the age and character of the inmate, than by 
his studies and future career. He is to be taught, says 
the Testator, things and not words. The modern, and 
even the ancient languages, may and perhaps will be 
taught, but as each scholar is to serve an apprentice- 
ship to some useful art, pure and practical science will 
form the ground-work of the educational scheme. 
The pupils are drawn from the ranks of the poor, 
and are to belong to the productive classes of society; 
to those who aid the necessities, and multiply the com- 
forts and conveniences of life. They are the children 
of adversity, not the spoiled expectants of fortune; not 
the nati consumere fruges, who may subsist without the 
necessity of labor. This College does not propose to 
change the destiny of their lot, but to assist them in the 
fulfilment of its duties. It does not intend to change 
the nature of a calling, but to exalt it by increasing the 
ability of its professors. The terms of the Will look 
to practical utility and chiefly to manual art, but do not 
exclude high and various scholarship, nor any variety of 
useful pursuit. It enjoins apprenticeships "to suitable 
occupations as those of agriculture, navigation, arts, 
mechanical trades, and manufactures, according to the 
capabilities and acquirements of the scholars respec- 13 
tively, consulting as far as prudence shall justify it, the 
inclination of the several scholars as to the occupation, 
art, or trade to be learned." It is evident from this 
language of the Will, that manual pursuits were pre- 
dominant in the mind of the Testator; yet the word, 
arts, implies something different from mechanical trades, 
and the enumeration is presented only by way of exam- 
ple. A knowledge of drawing and a fitting preparation 
for the teaching of youth, are clearly within the scope 
of the general intention. 
The business of a manufacturer requires the aid of 
drawing and designs. That which is necessary to the 
accomplished artisan ought to be taught, as a part of 
his preliminary education. While an acquaintance with 
drawing, is as desirable in geometry as in a great 
variety of the useful arts, who can say of what noble 
effects a school of design, may not be productive to the 
mechanic? That which teaches the eye the forms of 
beauty, and educates the hand in their nice and delicate 
adjustment, must impart to many of the manual em- 
ployments the highest and most valuable assistance. 
Nor is it a dubious question that the business of an 
instructor, is in coincidence with the general purpose, 
and necessary to its highest excellence. The training 
will of course be adapted to the various parts which the 
learners are to play, in the drama of practical life. 
The physical powers and those of the understanding 
will be developed together, in order that the habits of 14 
mental and manual activity, formed at College, may be 
successfully applied to such pursuits as fitness or choice 
may determine to be best. Though the cultivation of 
the understanding and judgment, is an object of para- 
mount importance, the extent and period of studies 
permit, that the taste should be cultivated and improved. 
The studies will be as various as the capacities and 
destinations of the learners, and commensurate, in dig- 
nity, completeness, and extent, with the highest aims of 
learning. They include all the branches of a thorough 
education, whether in the sterner fields of science or in 
the flowery gardens of literature, whether in the experi- 
mental arts or in those which embellish and adorn 
existence. 
It is in the high aims and noble ends proposed, 
through the simple medium of its plan, that this College 
challenges our admiration. Like everything truly great, 
it is remarkable for its simplicity. But it is a simpli- 
city, which, when analyzed upon a nearer view, or con- 
templated with reference to its remote achievements, 
may be regarded as approaching the sublime. I regard 
it as characteristic of the extraordinary mind which has 
given it birth. Unique and original, as well in its de- 
tails, as in the general system, it is entitled to the 
character of being one of the finest philosophical con- 
ceptions of the age. The plan is so entirely its own 
that no other exists with which it can be compared. 
Of the two hundred and seventy-eight European institu- 15 
tions, eleemosynary and otherwise, which were visited 
by Professor Bache, in 1836, '7 and '8, no one presented 
to this College any prevailing or characteristic points of 
resemblance. 
The Franke Orphan-house at Halle, with the various 
Foundations clustering around it, may be regarded as 
the parent of many similar establishments in Great 
Britain and Germany. This and the other numerous 
institutions of Europe, described by the Professor, are 
essentially discriminated from the plan of Girard. 
Though of cognate design, and marked by features 
common to a family, they leave to it the distinction of 
occupying a place by itself, among the moral and men- 
tal nurseries of the world. 
In the attempt to make good citizens, reason and 
experience show, that we must begin with the child. 
It is the young idea that must be taught how to shoot. 
We must watch it in the tender germ of infancy, remove 
the weeds which would choke or poison it, and so water 
and invigorate it, as it rises to catch the air and the sun, 
that like a healthy and useful plant, it may bring forth 
fruit, as well as leaves and flowers. Smithson, the 
munificent benefactor of the nation, believed that he 
could add to the sum of human happiness, by the diffu- 
sion of knowledge among men. Girard, with the same 
object in view, thought that it could be better attained, 
by means of a school and nursery for boys. 16 
It has been asserted that the mind and opinions of 
a nation, can be permanently formed by the ballad- 
monger. The apothegm is false, unless the ballads are 
taught, before the gristle of infancy is hardened into the 
bone of manhood. What impressions are permanent, 
except the lessons of childhood ? The sentiments then 
imbibed, insensibly but as certainly, mould the heart, 
and form the character. To know the nursery-maid of 
the child, and the teacher and school books of the boy, 
is to know the opinions and aspirations of the man. 
We may attempt to rub out these impressions by the 
attritions of counteracting, and even hostile influences. 
But they cannot be obliterated. They survive the rude 
shocks of the world. Though they may sink into tem- 
porary forgetfulness, they re-appear, as faithful mirrors 
to reflect ineffaceable images of the early past. The 
tree could as soon be divested of the nature of the 
stalk, which was grafted into the trunk of the delicate 
sapling, as manhood can throw off the lessons and 
maxims of susceptible childhood. 
Where is the chief spring of vice and crime, in a 
populous city? Setting aside anomalous cases of, what 
are called natural depravity, where are we to look 
for the origin of evil, but in neglected youth ? A 
fatherless child, whose mother is poor, is either idle 
at home, or engaged in employments, where he is an 
apt learner of the vices of the society to which he is 17 
condemned. He grows up in the example of a corrupt 
and corrupting class. He can have no higher standard 
of moral rectitude, than the conduct around him inspires. 
Exposed to every influence which can enfeeble or con- 
taminate virtue; with an imperfect sense of right; a 
will unchecked; passions unrestrained and unregulated ; 
with no ideas of religion and the Deity, but the most 
vague and shadowy-how can he be a good man? 
Ignorant of all that it is discreditable not to know; and 
irregularly engaged, at intervals perhaps, at many occu- 
pations, without an adequate knowledge of any-how 
can he be a good citizen? A boy, thus permitted to 
grow up, is a sore upon the body politic. He is ready 
for the perpetration of any mischief that will give ani- 
mation to his spirits, or mark him in the estimation of 
his comrades. Does the calamity of a fire threaten the 
dwelling of his neighbor ? The opportunity is seized, less 
to stay the fearful element, than to blow the expiring 
embers of some local or partial feud, into a fierce and 
general quarrel. Does a subject of public excitement 
bring men together, for commotion and violence ? He is 
active to accompany or lead the riotous assemblage. 
Without a regular calling, he cannot earn a subsistence, 
without the habit of industry, he is too lazy to work. 
He falls from one sink of infamy to another, until he 
ends his useless or pernicious career, in the loathsome 
degradation of the almshouse or the penitentiary! 
For a class of children, thus destitute and forsaken, 18 
this Institution offers an asylum. It offers not merely 
an asylum, but a nursery and a school. Not only these 
but a home, with all the comforts, and more than the 
security and advantages of the parental roof. It takes 
the poor Orphan at the age of six years, trains, nur- 
tures, and educates him, teaches him a trade, and sends 
him into the world at the age of majority. 
The social atmosphere which surrounds him in the 
College, is invigorating and healthy. Snatched from 
the polluted air which environed him in the world, he is 
transplanted into a soil which will rear him into a genial 
and fructifying manhood. The taints he has contracted 
which the superficial eye cannot detect, and superficial 
remedies cannot remove, will be purged away by the 
refining process to which he is subjected. No spectacle 
can be more pleasing and beautiful than to see the 
order and propriety of the infant scholars at their 
evening meal, under the eye of their matron; and at 
their evening devotions, under the solemn ministrations 
of their President.* Let those who underrate this phi- 
lanthropy, or who fear its tendency as inimical to the 
growth of a sustaining faith and vital piety, witness 
these, and have all their apprehensions resolved and 
dispelled! 
The chief officers and teachers of the institution are 
ladies. It is to women of superior parts and education; 
♦ The lion. Joel Jones, the learned President of the College. 19 
to women of cultivated manners, minds, and hearts; 
that the care of these children is chiefly committed. 
The circle of feminine employments, whose bounds are 
constantly enlarged by fresh discoveries, was believed 
to embrace those delicate functions of instruction and 
nurture, which are'incident to a young and numerous 
household. Experience has justified the trial of the 
experiment. The government is essentially maternal. 
Under the plastic discipline of their teachers, the young 
scholars are led to the observance of rule, and the 
performance of their tasks, by kind language and affec- 
tionate remonstrance. Where the law of kindness is 
effectual, is it not preferable to the authority of force ? 
And where the tender child is accustomed to the former, 
will he need a resort to the latter, in subsequent years ? 
It is upon the foundations of such a beginning that 
this great College is to be reared,-a College whose 
inmates at no distant day may assemble, within its 
walls, a thousand scholars. Let us take a prospective 
view of the results it may accomplish, upon the pupils 
themselves, and the society around them. 
Is it expecting too much to anticipate important 
improvements and inventions, in the various pursuits 
to which these pupils will be devoted ? Experience has 
not proved that useful knowledge and proper training, 
disqualify men for the handicraft occupations of life. 
On the contrary, the knowledge of Franklin and Ritten- 
house did not prevent one from being a most assiduous 20 
and accurate printer, nor the other from being a pains- 
taking and finished instrument-maker. Roger Sher- 
man was not the less a good shoemaker, because he 
comprehended the grounds of civil freedom, and the 
principles of the constitution of his country. Simpson, 
the mathematician, worked at the weaver's loom. Her- 
schel, one of the greatest astronomers that ever lived, 
commenced life as a poor fifer-boy in the army. Elihu 
Burrett, whose learning is a subject of wonder, was a 
blacksmith. The late George Stevenson, a most distin- 
guished, ingenious and useful man, was an engine tender 
at a colliery, near New Castle-upon-Tyne. The female 
operatives of Lowell show as much assiduity in the 
cultivation of their minds and tastes, as in the applica- 
tion of their hands to the labors of the loom.-On the 
other hand, who can tell what such original minds as 
those of John Fitch and Oliver Evans might have 
accomplished, if they had enjoyed, in early life, some of 
the advantages offered to the pupils of this institution? 
Evans has been called the American Watt. His curi- 
ous inventions in steam carriages, locomotive engines, 
the hopper-boy and other machines, entitle him to the 
honor of an original projector. Nothing was wanting 
but a knowledge of scientific principles, to enable him 
to bring his ingenious but crude suggestions to a pro- 
ductive and successful maturity. Fitch, illiterate as 
he was,-by the unaided power of his native genius, 
devised a Steam-boat which plied in the Delaware in 21 
1786, and by the force of his sagacity, foresaw and 
predicted in 1792, the regular navigation of the Atlantic 
by steam. Baffled and dispirited by many disappoint- 
ments which scientific attainments would have enabled 
him to surmount, he descended to the grave, desiring 
to be interred on the shore of the Ohio, a stream then 
almost unknown to commerce, " where," he said, " the 
song of the boatmen would enliven the stillness of his 
resting place, and the music of the steam-engine soothe 
his spirit." His remains still rest on the margin of that 
beautiful river, where his spirit may now be tranquillised 
by the hum of its numerous steamers, and by the literal 
fulfilment of his prophecy in the navigation of the ocean. 
Whatever objection may be made to the incompa- 
tibility of elegant tastes with laborious employments, 
there is no doubt that knowledge, properly directed, 
is an aid to manual labor in rendering it more intelli- 
gent and enlightened. Is not a knowledge of the 
peculiarities of soil, and of the science of vegetable 
chemistry, necessary to the practical farmer? Will the 
navigator who is informed of the planetary system, and 
the laws of the air, as taught by meteorology, be more 
or less worthy of reliance in his profession ? Will the 
carpenter and builder have less claims to public consi- 
deration and confidence, by an acquaintance with the 
laws of mechanics and the theoretical principles of 
architecture? In short, while with Girard, I do not 
recommend the elegancies of classical learning for one 22 
whose path in life is handicraft occupation, yet I may 
contend for an education and species of knowledge 
adapted to his destiny. 
The ancient philosophy of Greece and Rome, 
though elevating, subtle and beautiful, was inimical 
to a just appreciation of the useful and experimen- 
tal sciences. These were degraded to a place below 
the sublimated sphere of that wisdom, which dealt in 
speculative reasonings upon the soul. The mind was 
perpetually exercised by nice disquisitions into the 
spiritual affections, capabilities and infirmities, but 
never advanced from the magic circle to which it w as 
confined. Many ages passed away, without adding to 
the stock of ideas. During all this period it has been 
truly observed, that the human mind rather marked 
time than marched forward. 
One of the effects of a philosophy which professed 
so much, and produced so little, was the pride w ith 
which, in the midst of its lessons of humility, it in- 
flamed its votaries. Plato reproved his friend Archytas, 
for degrading geometry to the purposes of vulgar utility. 
He contends that the value of the science consists in 
teaching the elements of abstract, essential, and eternal 
truth, and that so noble an exercise should not be level- 
led to the mean arts of the carpenter and wheel-right. 
Seneca indignantly disclaims for philosophy, the glory of 
having discovered the principle of the arch and the use 
of metals. Its province is too exalted, according to 23 
him, to have anything in common with the profane 
necessities of the material universe, or the physical aids 
and comforts of those who inhabit it. To impute to so 
etherial and sublime a principle the invention or improve- 
ment of a plough, a ship, or a mill, was, it seems, to dero- 
gate from its dignity and to disparage its elevated sphere. 
After referring to a variety of useful inventions, he 
exclaims, in the genuine spirit of the ancient philosophy: 
" That the inventing of such things is drudgery for the 
lowest slaves. Philosophy lies deeper. It is not her 
office to teach men their hands. The object of her 
lessons is to form their souls." 
This system of learning, which consisted in words, 
and degenerated into controversy, left the world where 
it found it. It was the door on its hinges which moved 
to and fro, but made no advances. It nourished a 
spirit of disputation, which, though it sharpened the wit 
of opposing champions, made no one else the wiser. It 
was barren and unfruitful of every result but pride. As 
it furnished aliment to a vain and supercilious conceit, 
which stigmatised every useful invention as degrading, 
so it effectually repressed every effort to escape from its 
thraldom. 
The humility of primitive Christianity opposed itself 
to the haughty teachings of the ancient philosophers. 
It was against this perhaps that St. Paul intended to 
inveigh, when he desired the Collossians not to let any 
man spoil them by philosophy. But the effect of such a 24 
remonstrance was lessened, if not undermined, by a se- 
cret admiration, among the learned, of the Platonic tenets, 
and the study of the writings of classical antiquity. Se- 
veral learned men of a later day, especially Luther and 
Ramus, attacked the system of Aristotle and Plato, and 
perhaps prepared the human mind for the reception of 
the truths revealed by the teachings of Francis Bacon. 
It was to this great man we are indebted, more than to 
any other who ever lived, for the explosion of these an- 
cient errors in philosophy,-and with them a multitude 
of opinions equally subversive of social progress. What 
could be made subsidiary to the purposes of life, or the 
welfare of the human race, he encouraged and promoted; 
-all else he esteemed unworthy trifles, a useless expendi- 
ture of the intellectual powers, and an abuse of the gifts 
of heaven. His own description of the ancient philosophy, 
which he characterised as ending in disputation, is happy 
and just. "It is a wood," he says, "of briars and thistles, 
in the mazes of which the traveller who loses himself, 
brings back abundance of scratches, but no food." To 
him we are indebted for rescuing science from the intri- 
cacies of erudite folly, for pointing to the fit end by the 
fittest means, and for inculcating the real uses of habit, 
training and education. 
Two hundred years have passed since the blazing 
torch of Bacon enabled us to penetrate the darkness of 
those ages in philosophy, whose clear and effulgent light 
on questions of literary taste and genius, is a certain 25 
guide at the present day. Since that period, most of those 
discoveries and inventions have appeared which astonish 
the world. His great scientific cotemporary in Italy, 
encountered a cloud of persecutions, which embittered his 
days, placed him in a dungeon, and drove him to blind- 
ness. Newton and Leibnitz, soon after catching the 
spirit of scientific enquiry which was awakened in 
Europe, rendered wider and more distinct the luminous 
path which had been marked by the foot-prints of 
Galileo and Kepler. 
But the philosophy of Bacon, gave the first upward 
impulse to the dignity of useful art, and the repute of 
manual labor. The reign of Elizabeth, which was 
adorned by the genius of Shakspeare and Spencer, and 
immortalized by the philosophy of Bacon, was further 
illustrated by the settlement of North America. This 
event imparted other aids to a cause, which would have 
languished without them. The stoical philosophy might 
teach men to endure the privations and hardships of a 
wilderness life, but it could not overcome the austerities 
incident to such a residence. The inventive spirit of 
the colonists was called into requisition, as constantly 
as their patience and perseverance. The noble emi- 
grants to Virginia; the bold, adventurous and hardy 
settlers of New England; the worthy and unambitious 
colonists of Pennsylvania, felt that in separating them- 
selves from their native land, they relinquished the sym- 
pathies and charities of the people they abandoned. 26 
They were thrown upon their own resources. The con- 
ventional ideas which prevailed in England, unmoored 
by the republican movement of the Protectorate, were 
superseded by more independent modes of thought and 
action. Various causes emancipated the colonial mind 
from those fetters of servitude, which subjected Europe 
to the shackles of inveterate habit. The necessities of a 
new country, co-operating with the spirit of a prevailing 
equality among the people, conferred upon labor a new 
dignity, and upon the operative himself, a new title to 
consideration. 
In Pennsylvania, especially, the foundations of the 
colonial establishment, were laid in harmony with these 
ideas. The Quaker colonists went beyond the teachings 
of antecedent reformers, in the inculcation of simplicity 
of aim, and unambitious views of life. As the apostles 
were poor fishermen, they believed that humility of 
demeanour constituted one of the badges of true disci- 
pleship. They discarded epitaphs for obituary memo- 
rials, which simply recorded the honest parentage, and 
spiritual virtues of the deceased. Though not insensi- 
ble to the influences of a long line of virtuous proge- 
nitors, the stricter members either destroyed or threw 
aside the use of their ensigns armorial, because lead- 
ing to vanity, and the offspring of the demon of war. 
We may deduce from their moral scheme the result, 
that though it be wrell for a man to receive an illustrious 
name from his ancestors, it reflects higher honor to 27 
transmit such a heritage to his descendants. They 
were the antipodes of Plato, and the whole sect of Pla- 
tonic philosophers, in ranking utility of pursuit as the 
highest claim to distinction. Rejecting those arts which 
embellish existence, and those studies which are merely 
curious, or recommended by their elegance or refine- 
ment, they brought every calling which received their 
sanction or support, to the standard of usefulness. The 
Founder, himself, though educated and polite, mingling 
in courts, and the companion of the rich and titled, 
recommended trades to his own children. The earliest 
law enacted in the province, required that every child of 
twelve years of age, without respect to his condition in 
life, should be taught some art of skill, or useful trade. 
Most of the Friends of Pennsylvania, though claiming 
descent from the better classes of English and German 
society, and though, for the most part, persons of educa- 
tion and property, became the followers of some manual 
occupation. 
What the common people of England resorted to from 
the spur of necessity, or the habits of their ancestors, 
the disciples of Fox, Penn, and Barclay, adopted from 
choice. Very few of the present race of Pennsylvania, 
who have a Quaker ancestry, but find in the second or 
third generation of the ascending scale, a community of 
farmers or artisans. This truth is attested by the call- 
ings of the First Purchasers from Penn, where the addi- 
tions are preserved, and by the Wills and Deeds of sub- 28 
sequent times. Notwithstanding this voluntary derelic- 
tion of their original condition, there was one feature by 
which the Society was always distinguished. Attention 
was given to those branches of learning, which aid the 
understanding and the judgment. Practical and experi- 
mental science was always in high estimation. The 
mind was informed and the mental powers were exer- 
cised, while the hands were trained to labor. 
The vocations of these men did not detract from their 
claims to a most respectable, and in some instances to a 
commanding, social position, among their cotempora- 
ries. They filled the dignified stations in their own 
society, and those who were willing to participate in 
public affairs, were elevated to some of its highest 
offices. This utilitarian spirit, this disregard of caste, 
became an element of the social atmosphere, and regard- 
less of the distinctions which depressed men in Europe, 
the colonists wrere taught to consider personal merit as 
the passport to honor, and useful industry the standard 
of respectability. No state of public sentiment could be 
more favorable to the exaltation of the handicraft em- 
ployments of life, than that which existed in Pennsyl- 
vania, from the settlement of the colony, to a period 
antecedent to the American revolution. It only required 
the sustaining voice of those primitive times, to stimu- 
late the working man so to train his intellect, and to 
cultivate his affections, as to entitle him to a place in the 
respect and esteem of mankind. 29 
It was in the condition of colonial opinion to which-1 
have adverted, that Rittenhouse was enabled to emerge 
from the obscure labours of the axe, the plough, and the 
scythe, to be President of the American Philosophical 
Society. It was owing to this, that the trade of God- 
frey, as a glazier, presented no obstacle to a just 
appreciation of his inventive and scientific character. 
It was owing to the same cause, that Dr. Franklin's 
practical genius, in spite of an humble trade and an 
empty purse, met with sympathy and succor in a land 
of strangers, and that honors as various and distin- 
guished as his deserts, were conferred upon him at 
different periods of his life. It is not unworthy of 
notice, in such a connection, that the members of a 
learned body, called the Junto, which was formed in 
Philadelphia, in the year 1727, were indifferently taken 
from the most opposite walks of society. Of the 
eleven members who convened to form the association, 
seven, according to Franklin's autobiography, were 
mechanics. 
The scientific tastes and practical aims of Pennsylva- 
nia are exhibited, as well in the character of the learned 
Institutions of the City, as in the genius of our colonial 
annals. The American Philosophical Society, of which 
the Junto formed the root, had its origin in the utilita- 
rian and practical tendencies of its founders. It was 
devoted, at the beginning, to the cause of pure and 
experimental science, but to science exclusively. From 30 
1743, when its maturer existence began, to the year 
1816, no department of letters engaged the attention of 
its members. It was not* until the latter year, that a 
committee was added upon literature and history. Its 
scientific transactions are voluminous, and place it in an 
elevated position before the learned Societies of the 
world; while less than three octavo volumes make the 
sum of its literary and historical labors. The Franklin 
Institute and Academy of Natural Sciences, severally 
include, in their collections, most precious materials for 
scientific research. The Cabinet of the latter, is espe- 
cially various and rich, and has no competitor, in some 
of its departments, on this side of the Atlantic. How 
far a taste for scientific investigations is diffused among 
us, may be ascertained from the numerous members of 
these Institutions, and the ardor and zeal with which 
they are pursued, without reference either to emolu- 
ment or fame. 
With a community thus imbued with the love of sci- 
ence, and thus alive to the value and repute of practical 
art, can the scientific mechanic require stronger guar- 
antees, that every draft he may make upon its respect, 
will be answered with a cordial and ready acceptance ? 
What a prospect then, for each of the discharged pupils 
of the Girard College! He may see in the annals of the 
past, and in the indications of the present, every assurance 
that his path in life can be made smooth and easy, and 
his own condition, one of respectability and usefulness. 31 
Whatever may be alleged by the inertness of sloth or 
the folly of ignorance, mankind are usually just to merit 
in any rank where it may be found. Greece and all 
posterity have held in honor, the names of Demosthenes 
and JEsop, though the former was the son of a black- 
smith, and the latter was born a bondsman. Rome 
delighted in Horace and Terence, though one was 
the son of a freedman, and the other a manumit- 
ted slave. Sir Edward Sugden and Sir Richard Ark- 
wright commenced the world, as barbers. But the 
annals of every age and country, abound with examples. 
The late George Stevenson, whose originally humble 
name is inseparably associated with the improvements 
of the locomotive engine, has left the following memora- 
ble sentiment, as to the extent of the real diversities 
among men. " He has dined," he tells us, " with princes, 
peers, and commoners-with persons of all classes, 
from the highest to the humblest; he has dined on a red 
herring, and has gone through the meanest drudgery; 
he has seen mankind in all its phases, and the con- 
clusion he has arrived at is, that between the lowly and 
illustrious, there is little difference except the trappings 
of the latter." 
In all systems for the training of youth, the most 
important, because the groundwork of all the rest, is the 
cultivation of the religious and moral sentiments. With- 
out this, the intellect may be rendered sharp and quick 
only for the conception and perpetration of mischief. 32 
The statistics of pauperism and crime, are far from 
proving, that vice is exclusively the companion of igno- 
rance. It is often to be found in association with men- 
tal accomplishments, where the moral faculties have been 
suffered to stagnate and languish. Without the anchor 
of religion, and the ballast of cultivated moral principles, 
the unsteady youth, like a richly furnished but empty 
vessel, is at the sport of every accident; and those 
fierce gales to which every adventurer is exposed, and 
which, with proper protection, would waft him in safety 
on his voyage, become the elements of his shipwreck 
and ruin. 
In the bright array of influences with which the Col- 
lege is to be guarded and encircled, we find coupled, in 
beautiful sisterhood, Virtue and Morality, sustained and 
nurtured by their foster-mother, Religion. The virtue 
is to be elevated, the religion to be holy-a religion of 
the affections and the reason; purified from intole- 
rance, and redeemed from bigotry. Are not these com- 
prised in the following remarkable passages of the Will ? 
" I desire that, by every proper means, a pure attach- 
ment to our republican institutions, and to the sacred 
rights of conscience, as guaranteed by our happy Consti- 
tutions, shall be formed and fostered in the minds of the 
scholars. * * * As there is such a multitude of 
sects, and such a diversity of opinion amongst them, 
I desire to keep the tender minds of the orphans, who 
are to derive advantage from this bequest, free from the 33 
excitement which clashing doctrines and sectarian con- 
troversy are so apt to produce: My desire is that all 
the instructors and teachers in the College, shall take 
pains to instil into the minds of the scholars, the purest 
principles of morality, so that on their entrance into 
active life they may, from inclination and habit, evince 
benevolence towards their fellow creatures, and a love 
of truth, sobriety and industry, adopting, at the same 
time, such religious tenets as their matured reason may 
enable them to prefer." 
Saving one restrictive and somewhat invidious pro- 
hibition,* at war with those sublime ideas, from which 
it is deduced as a corollary, or upon which it professes 
to lean for support, no one can fail to perceive whence 
these principles were derived. In Pennsylvania, the 
Great Law of 1682, and the successive Constitutions of 
the province, all recognise "the sacred rights of con- 
sciencef and proclaim the unfettered liberty of faith 
and worship. The Constitutions of the State, which 
succeeded to a colonial dependency,-first that of 1776, 
then of 1790, and the recent one of 1838, all repeat that 
fundamental doctrine of political freedom which was 
* " I enjoin and require that no ecclesiastic, missionary, or minister of any sect 
whatsoever, shall ever hold or exercise any station or duty whatever in the said Col- 
lege ; nor shall any such person ever be admitted for any purpose, or as a visiter, 
within the premises appropriated to the purposes of the said College. In making 
this restriction, I do not mean to cast any reflection upon any sect or person whatso- 
ever ; but as there is such a multitude of sects," etc., as quoted in the text, page 32. 34 
announced at the first settlement. It was introduced 
into the great Charter of the National Government, 
as one of the richest trophies of the revolution. It 
is now assumed as a fixed law of the social state, 
that man is answerable only to his Maker, for the 
modes of faith and worship he may adopt; and that 
however opposed to reason, or condemned by authority, 
these cannot abridge the consciences of others, or inter- 
fere between men in the relations of society. This 
genius of a free land, thus caught by the fathers of our 
Commonwealths, and diffused through a wide-spread 
and mixed population, was imbibed by Girard, and 
breathed into his College. He saw that an Institution 
which could be made an arena for heated sectaries, or 
be torn in pieces by contending factions, would be rather 
a curse than a blessing. He saw that its pupils might 
become entangled in the mazes of polemics, or fall a 
prey to the embittered spirit of party. He saw that 
though he might err, in unduly fortifying his walls 
against insidious approaches, he was vindicating the 
majesty of a noble principle of our history, and was 
arming champions to battle for the extension of its 
sceptre over the world. 
Among the curious researches of Mr. Chadwick, of 
England, are to be found some speculations on the short- 
ness of American life, and the consequences to which it 
leads. He asserts that the average age of human exist- 
ence, in this country, is twenty-two years, and that 35 
fewer persons attain the age of fifty years, than in Eng- 
land and Scotland. To this cause, he attributes what 
he characterises as a young, heady, and passionate 
population, deprived of the moderation, experience, and 
wisdom of maturer age. The difference between the 
violent measures of revolutionary France, in the last 
century, and her more deliberate action at the present 
day, is in part imputed to a difference in the ages of her 
public men. In the French Assembly of 1793, the 
records of whose folly and wickedness are a disgrace to 
the page of human history, a large majority of the mem- 
bers are said to have been under the age of thirty years. 
In the republican Assembly of 1848, there is a nume- 
rical predominance of the middle age, over the fervid 
impetuosity of headlong and fearless youth. How essen- 
tial then, to mould the intellectual and moral habits, so 
as to prepare them for the intelligent and upright dis- 
charge of those responsible duties which each citizen 
will be called upon to assume at the age of manhood ! 
The moral and religious culture, which forms the 
staple of early instruction, acquires additional moment 
when we consider that many of the pupils may become 
instructors in their turn. Of all the occupations which 
they may be called upon or prepared to pursue, this is 
by far the most elevated and responsible. If indeed the 
College can, as it assuredly ought to be made, a nur- 
sery for teachers; if it may impart such moral and 
mental accomplishments as will qualify a portion of its 36 
inmates for the highest ranks of the calling;-how 
extensive and signal will become the sphere of its 
operation! A period, varying from eight to twelve 
years, passed within the College-walls, is compatible 
with the highest aims of scholarship. The faculties of 
sound intellect and elegant taste, have ample time for 
development and maturity. If a mechanical trade re- 
quires a long apprenticeship before it can be success- 
fully pursued, should not some preparation be deemed 
essential in the science of teaching ? The profession has 
acquired the dignity of an art, too subtle for intuitive 
knowledge. 
A class of teachers educated for the purpose, is 
wanted in the common schools of Pennsylvania. The 
question may be seriously entertained, whether such a 
desideratum can be supplied from the scholars of this 
institution. Let an appropriate Academic degree be 
awarded to meritorious students, which shall be the 
only passport into a great normal school, where the art 
of preparing teachers, shall itself be taught, upon ap- 
proved systematic principles. 
The whole spirit of this Institution, requires that the 
constitutions and histories of the United States and of 
Pennsylvania, should form material branches of its 
study. With this knowledge, the matriculates of a 
normal school will be prepared, in one department at 
least, for the important noviciate. A taste for our 
own history will be imbibed. Its cultivation will become 37 
popular. A race will spring up of educated and prac- 
tised writers, and among them compilers of text- 
books for seminaries, which may be suitable for the 
wan^ of this locality. The minds of the children, in 
our public schools throughout the state, will be imbued 
with the beautiful lesson of our domestic history, by a 
faithful and attractive development of those principles 
of freedom and peace, of integrity and mercy, of tolera- 
tion and religious faith, which constitute the monuments 
of its glory. It was these beautiful lessons with which 
Girard was impressed, and which he enjoins shall be 
imprinted upon the minds of his own pupils. The 
inculcation of these lessons here, will form the seed 
for a rich harvest of benefits which will be all our own. 
We have then every reason to congratulate ourselves 
and the country, upon the commencement of this great 
Institution. It comes in aid of principles, which, thanks 
to the genius of Bacon, were in silent operation in 
Europe, at the colonization of this country. It co- 
operates with the mighty movement in those arts and 
inventions, and that spirit of practical improvement, 
which distinguish the present age. It harmonizes with 
that spirit of practical utility, which, impressed by the 
example and sentiments of the early colonists, has 
always been predominant in Pennsylvania. It enforces 
religious and republican freedom. It aids the heartfelt 
recognition of that fundamental and pervading axiom of 
our political system, that man, however debased by 38 
artificial rank, does not forfeit the proper dignity of his 
nature. 
" Rank is but the guinea's stamp, 
The man's the gowd for a' that.'' 
It tends to break down the barriers which separate 
castes and races, and to elevate the common mind. 
Under its influence, in combination with other causes 
now at work in the world, the prejudices of centuries 
will fall, as broken shackles at the feet of freemen. 
Gentlemen of the Board of Directors! 
The College, whose hospitable doors have been 
thrown open to children under your care, in the past 
year, may, in the vicissitudes of life, be hereafter closed 
upon your own. Fluctuation, instability, change, is 
written upon everything sublunary. No one can claim 
exemption from this common lawr of the world. The 
richest gifts of fortune may be lost in the revolutions of a 
wheel, which is perpetually turning. Those who are the 
furthest from its axis, feel most its mutability; those who 
to-day are uppermost, may be at the foot to-morrow. 
The accidents of life have often changed the seat 
of opulence into want, and reduced the occupant of a 
throne to the condition of a beggar. Dean Swift once 
pointed to some smutted colliers of Ireland, as the true 39 
representatives of the old and proudest aristocracy of 
the kingdom. A lineal descendant of that intrepid 
champion of human rights, the first Governor of the 
Newport Colony of Rhode Island, it is said, lately died 
in an almshouse. I need not refer to the melancholy 
reverses, in our own city and state, since the corner 
stone of this edifice was laid. Within the compass 
of a year, we have witnessed political hurricanes in 
Europe, which have uprooted some of the noblest 
family oaks of Christendom. The monarch, no less 
than his subjects, have felt the fury of the storm. In 
some instances the escutcheoned blazonry of a thou- 
sand years, has been effaced; in others private fortunes 
have been shipwrecked and engulphed; and illustrious 
men have been led to ignominy, captivity, and death. 
We cannot forget, within the last few months, the sud- 
den deposition of the King of the French. A Prince, 
who was supposed to be the most firmly seated ruler, 
and reputed to be the richest man in Europe, whose 
state was that of sumptuous and elaborate luxury, 
whose mandate was obeyed by millions, and whose nod 
was death, in almost the twinkling of an eye, is de- 
prived of his diadem, transformed into an exile, and 
reduced to penury I These evidences of the fickleness 
and instability of fortune, may dispose you to view the 
objects committed to your care, as neither degraded by 
poverty, nor placed by their condition below the level of 
your sympathy. They are innocent children and im- 40 
mortal beings, worthy of your generous regard and 
entitled to your protecting vigilance;-unoffending 
victims of the faults or misfortunes of others. It is 
your grateful task to repair the effects of these faults 
or misfortunes. With the intelligent and devoted zeal 
you have applied to your arduous business here,-and 
it is entitled to the attestation of a public tribute,-I am 
pursuaded you do not overlook the fact, that as guard- 
ians of the institution, you represent the person of the 
Founder, who intended to supply the place of a father 
to the helpless children, whom his bounty has collected 
together.-These children are to be distinguished alike 
from foundlings, educated at the public charge, and from 
poor dependants, upon the public charity. Their legal 
designation excludes every reproachful idea. No imputa- 
tion against his legal parentage can ever rest upon the 
name of a child, who is admitted w ithin the walls of this 
Institution; and he is wholly independent of the public 
alms. He is a beneficiary of Stephen Girard, one of 
the inheriters of his large estate, and no matter " to 
whom related or by w hom begot,"-whether the child 
of humble parents or the descendant of an eminent but 
impoverished family,-each and every one, without dis- 
tinction and without stint, may claim as his own, the 
munificent provision he enjoys. 41 
When we survey the broad field which is to be sown, 
and the rich harvest to be gathered, we may sympa- 
thise with the Founder, in the sensations which the full 
conception of his College must have excited. We may 
follow him in fancy around the wide circle of charities, 
as each solicited his notice, and was waived or rejected 
in turn, till he struck upon the cause of forlorn and des- 
titute orphanage. It dawned, perhaps, upon his mind as 
an imperfect image in the twilight; then with larger 
conceptions, but only in dark and shadowy outline; till 
at length when the grand idea broke in a gleam of efful- 
gence to his delighted vision-bright, distinct, and pal- 
pable-he must have felt an ecstacy equal to that which 
entranced the philosopher, when the long sought dis- 
covery was unveiled to his view. He found what Archi- 
medes is said to have wanted,-a fitting place for his 
fulcrum. From the spot he has selected, and the power 
he has applied, his lever may put in motion, not the phy- 
sical, but the metaphysical world,-not the material, but 
the intellectual elements of the universe! 
From this period we may enter into the feelings with 
which he amassed his riches, and regard that midnight 
toil, and that self-denying frugality as sacred, whose 
object was so noble, disinterested and pure. What if 
in looking to the future, he foresaw that his name should 
be blazoned with honor, and descend, as a benefactor, 
to posterity! What if the hope of future praise,-that 
last infirmity of noble minds,-should have stimulated his 42 
efforts, and inspired him to more heroic achievements, 
more perfect self-sacrifice ! Shall we withhold the meed 
which is deserved, because it may be expected; or 
refuse to one of the noblest acts of humanity, the tributes 
which are its due, because it cannot be free from the 
imperfections of its own nature ? He rested the basis of 
his College upon its permanent and diffusive utility. He 
saw that, through such an agency, the sources of social 
impurity could be drained, and that the very elements of 
moral deformity and contagion, would be converted into 
instruments of beauty and health.-The tolerant spirit 
which breathed in the laws, and the benevolent feelings 
and practical aims which predominated among the people 
of Pennsylvania, met with a sympathetic response in the 
bosom of Girard. He saw that his scheme would blend 
in beautiful harmony with these; that it would give an 
impulse to the inventive and practical spirit of tire age; 
and lend a certain and enduring assistance to the politi- 
cal prospects of the country and the world. Let us in- 
dulge the hope, that this bright vision may be realized; 
and with all the fond anticipations which loomed upon 
his fancy, and animated his endeavors, that the Institu- 
tion may be blessed, under the smiles of Divine Provi- 
dence, to us and to succeeding ages.