ADVANTAGE OF KNOWLEDGE TO WORKINGMEN."

NOTWITHSTANDING the numerous institutions for promoting useful knowledge in our community, it was still found that many were excluded from the benefit of them. The number of persons that can be accommodated in any one hall is, of course, limited; and it has been thought desirable to make the attempt to provide an additional course of lectures, for the benefit of those who have not had it in their power, for this or any other reason, to obtain access to the other institutions which have set so praiseworthy an example in this work of public utility. We are assembled this evening to make the beginning of this new course of popular instruction.

The plan of this course of lectures was suggested at so late a period this year, that it may not, perhaps, be possible, the present season, to carry it fully into effect, in such a manner as is wished and designed, in reference to the choice and variety of subjects. It is intended, eventually, that it should extend to the various branches of natural science. It will impart useful information relative to the earth, the air, and the ocean; the wonders of the heavens; and the mineral treasures beneath the surface of the globe. It may extend to the different branches of natural history, and acquaint you with the boundless variety of the animated creation. The various properties of bodies will form a prominent subject of consideration, as the basis of so many of the arts and trades, and the sources from which so many of the wants of man

* An address delivered as the introduction to the Franklin Lectures, in Boston, November 14, 1831.

are supplied. In like manner, the various natural powers, the agency of fire, water, steam, and weight, which, in their various combinations, produce the wonders of improved machinery by which industry is facilitated, and the most important fabrics are furnished cheaply and abundantly, will not be overlooked. It may be supposed that a due share of attention will be paid to the geographical survey of the globe, to the history of our own race, the fortunes of the several nations into which mankind have been divided, and the characters of great and good men, who, long after they have departed from life, survive in the gratitude and admiration of their fellow-men. A general and intelligible view of the constitution and laws of the country in which we have the happiness to live, tending, as it will, to enlighten us in the discharge of our duties as citizens, will no doubt be presented to you by some who will take a part in these lectures. Nor will they, I venture to hope, be brought to a close without having occasionally directed your thoughts to those views of our nature which belong to man as a rational and immortal being, and to those duties and relations which appertain to us as accountable agents.

The general plan of these lectures extends to these and all other branches of sound and useful knowledge; to be treated in such order as circumstances may suggest, and with such variety and selection of subjects, and fulness of detail, as the convenience of the lecturers and the advantage of the audience may dictate. They have been called the Franklin Lectures, in honor of our distinguished townsman, the immortal Franklin, the son of a tallow-chandler, and the apprentice to a printer, in this city; a man who passed all his early years, and a very considerable portion of his life, in manual industry; and who was chiefly distinguished by his zealous and successful efforts for the promotion of useful knowledge. His name has given lustre to the highest walks of science, and adorns one of the proudest pages of the history of our country and the world. But we have thought it was still more a name of hope and promise for an institution like this, which aims to promote useful knowledge (the great

study of his life) among that class from which it was ever his pride himself to have sprung.

It would seem, at the commencement of a course of public instruction of this kind, a pertinent inquiry, Why should we endeavor to cultivate and inform our minds, by the pursuit of knowledge?

This question, to which the good sense of every individual furnishes, without meditation, some general reply, demands a full and careful answer. I shall endeavor, in this address, to state some of the reasons which go to furnish such an answer.

All men should seek to cultivate and inform their minds, by the pursuit of useful knowledge, as the great means of happiness and usefulness.

All other things being equal, the pursuit and attainment of knowledge are, at the time, the surest source of happiness. I do not mean, that knowledge will make up for the want of the necessaries and comforts of life: it will not relieve pain, heal disease, nor bring back lost friends. But if knowledge will not do this, ignorance will do it still less. And it may even be affirmed, and all who have made the experiment themselves will testify to the truth of the remark, that nothing tends more to soothe the wounded feelings, to steal away the mind from its troubles, and to fill up the weariness of a sick chamber, than some intelligible, entertaining, good book, read or listened to.

But knowledge is still more important, as the means of being useful; and the best part of the happiness which it procures us is of that purer and higher kind, which flows from the consciousness that, in some way or other, by example or positive service, we have done good to our fellow-men. One of the greatest modern philosophers said that knowledge is power; but it is power because it is usefulness. It gives men influence over their fellow-men, because it enables its possessors to instruct, to direct, to please, and to serve their fellow-men. But little of this can be done, without the cultivation and improvement of the mind.

It is the mind which enables us to be useful, even with our bodily powers. What is strength, without knowledge to

apply it? What are the curiously organized hands, without skill to direct their motion? The idiot has commonly all the bodily organs and senses of the most intelligent and useful citizen.

It is through mind that man has obtained the mastery of nature and all its elements, and subjected the inferior races of animals to himself. Take an uninformed savage, a brutalized Hottentot, in short any human being, in whom the divine spark of reason has never been kindled to a flame, and place him on the sea-shore in a furious storm, when the waves are rolling in as if the fountains of the deep were broken up. Did you not know, from certain experience, that man, by the cultivation of his mind, and the application of the useful arts, had actually constructed vessels in which he floats securely on the top of these angry waves, you would not think it possible that a being like that we have mentioned could for one moment resist their fury. It is related of some of the North American Indians, a race of men who are trained from their infancy to the total suppression of their emotions of every kind, and who endure the most excruciating torments at the stake without signs of suffering, that when they witnessed for the first time, on the western waters of the United States, the spectacle of a steamer under way, moving along without sails or oars, and spouting fire and smoke, even they could not refrain from exclamations of wonder. Hold out a handful of wheat or Indian corn to a person wholly uninformed of their nature, and ignorant of the mode of cultivating them, and tell him that by scattering these dry kernels abroad, and burying them in the cold, damp earth, you can cause a harvest to spring up sufficient for a winter's supply of food, and he will think you are mocking him by vain and extravagant tales. But it is not the less true that, in these instances, as in all others, it is the mind of man, possessed of the necessary knowledge and skill, that brings into useful operation, for the supply of human want, and the support and comfort of human life, the properties and treasures of the natural world, the aid of inferior animals, and our own physical powers.

When, therefore, we improve our minds by the acquisition

of useful knowledge, we appropriate to ourselves, and extend to others to whom we may impart our knowledge, a share of this natural control over all other things which Providence has granted to his rational children.

It cannot, it is true, be expected to fall to the lot of many individuals, by extending their knowledge of the properties and laws of the natural world, to strike out new discoveries and inventions of the highest importance. It is as much as most men can hope and promise themselves, to be enabled to share the comfort and benefit of the unnumbered improvements which, from the beginning of time, have been made by others, and which, taken together, make up the civilization of man. Still there are examples, in almost every age, of men who, by the happy effects of their individual pursuit of useful knowledge, have conferred great benefits upon all mankind. I presume that, in consequence of three inventions, that of the machinery for spinning cotton, that of the power loom, and that of the mode of separating the seed of the cotton plant from the fibrous portion to which it adheres, the expense of necessary clothing is diminished two thirds for every man in Europe and America. In other words, the useful knowledge imparted to the world by the authors of these inventions, has enabled every man, woman, and child, in the civilized world, as far as clothing is concerned, to live at one third of the former cost. We are struck with astonishment when we behold these curious machines; when we look, for instance, at a watch, and see a few brass wheels, put in motion by a small piece of elastic steel, counting out the hours and minutes, by night and by day, and even enabling the navigator to tell how many miles he has sailed upon the waste ocean, where there are no marks or monuments by which he can measure his progress. But how much more wonderful is the mind of man, which, in the silence of the closet, turned in upon itself, and deeply meditating upon the properties and laws of matter, has contrived this wonderful machine!

The invention of the power loom by Mr Cartwright beautifully illustrates the strength and reach of the intellectual