ADDRESS DELIVERED BEFORE THE GRADUATING CLASS OF THE LAW DEHAMILTON COLLEGE, AT CLINTON, N. Y., PARTMENT OF July 21, 1858. [CORRESPONDENCE. HON. DANIEL S. DICKINSON: CLINTON, N. Y., July 22, 1858. DEAR SIR-The undersigned, Committee, in obedience to the earnest wishes of the Graduating Law Class of Hamilton College, request of you a copy of your eloquent and instructive Address before our body, for publication. DEAR SIR-I herewith transmit to you an extract from the Minutes of our Board of Trustees; and with the hope you will comply with the request therein contained, I remain, Your obedient servant, O. S. WILLIAMS, Secretary, &c. At a meeting of the Board of Trustees of Hamilton College, held at Clinton, on the twenty-first day of July, 1858, the following resolution was unanimously adopted: Resolved, That the thanks of this Board be tendered to Hon. DANIEL S. DICKINSON, for his able and interesting Address, and that he be requested to furnish a copy of the same for publication. (A copy.) O. S. WILLIAMS, Secretary, &c. BINGHAMTON, July 31, 1858. GENTLEMEN-Previous to the receipt of your favor of the 22d, desiring a copy of my Address, delivered before the Graduating Class of Hamilton College, for publication, I had received a like informal request from Professor Dwight in behalf of the Trustees, and have consented to comply with it. It will therefore be published accordingly. Be pleased to accept my acknowledgments for the generous terms in which you are pleased to speak of my effort, and believe me to be Sincerely yours, D. S. DICKINSON. Messrs. W. B. RUGGLES, A. S. SEYMOUR, WM. G. ROBINSON, Committee, &c. BINGHAMTON, Aug. 6, 1858. DEAR SIR-I am honored with yours of the 3d instant, conveying a resolution of the Board of Trustees of Hamilton College, requesting a copy of my Address recently delivered before the Graduating Law Class of that institution, for publication. The Address was prepared amidst the press of professional engagements, and in complying with a request so flattering I have only to desire that the reader will indulge accordingly. Your obedient servant, O. S. WILLIAMS, Secretary, &c.] D. S. DICKINSON. MAN is an involuntary traveller along the pathway of existence from the cradle to the grave, led by an unseen hand, and striving with the best forces of frail humanity to keep pace with the mighty mass of being, bound upon the same earnest and engrossing pilgrimage. All alike stretch forth their hands for protection and sustenance; all are cheered and encouraged by the same voiceless words, animated by the same hope, quickened by the same expectation, and allured by the same promise of present enjoyment and future success; and yet, to the imperfect vision of mortals, "their aims are various as the roads they take, in journeying through life." It is no less interesting than instructive to contemplate the course of the countless beings who struggle for the mastery in time's great steeple-chase, not to determine who shall first reach the appointed goal, but who shall secure the greatest aggregate of happiness in the transit; each expecting "that age will perform the promises of youth, and that the deficiencies of the present day will be supplied by the morrow." One chains himself to the car of Avarice, and toils with skinny hand beneath its crushing wheels, an abject drudge, the slave for life to a mean, base, and absorbing passion :-half fed, half clothed, like Tantalus consuming with thirst, while waters are flowing to his lips, crawling rather than walking upon his servile mission, until all traces of integrity and manliness are lost forever, that he may degrade those of one generation within the circle of his brazen influence in accumulating, and those of another be destroyed in distributing his extortionate and ill-gotten gains. "O cursed lust of gold! When, for thy sake, the fool Throws up his interest in both worlds- First starved in this, then damned in that to come.” Another, possessing a genial and generous spirit, but scarcely less mistaken in the true philosophy of his being, elects to accumulate first and enjoy afterwards :-to write untimely wrinkles on his care-blanched brow, and bow his attenuated form in a slavish devotion to business, regardless of social duties or domestic affections, for one-half the period allotted to mortal existence, that he may revel in abundance for the residue, and groan under the tyrannous exactions of indolence and its corroding concomitants. One conceives artificial wants, and renders life a burden in efforts to supply them, unmindful that he will be more miserable still when hope gives place to fruition. One seeks enjoyment and consequence in the straggling notes sounded from the cracked and squeaking trumpet of spurious fame, and if perchance no other trumpeter is found, will kindly condescend himself to play the substitute. One loiters by the wayside, gazing upon the gaudy winged insects of the morning, beguiled from the path of duty by the fruits and flowers which tempt the senses, and, ere evening closes down, is overtaken by the dark and fearful storm, which gathers in the distance with awful density. One launches his frail bark upon that devious and capricious stream, which the world in a moment of invidious sarcasm christened pleasure, and floats adown its maddening and treacherous current, tossed upon the waves of fashionable folly, and stimulating flagging volition, "Where mincing dancers sport tight pantalettes, And turn fools' heads in turning pirouettes," until he is totally wrecked upon the shoals of dissipation, and lost forever. One, in obedience to the behests of the beneficent Being who gave him existence, looks "through nature up to nature's God," and essays to discharge the relations of his transitory mission with virtuous moderation, in the direction indicated by revelation and reason, for the happiness of the human family. He regards the Divine declaration that man should eat bread in the sweat of his face, as a blessing, and believes employment necessary to the enjoyment of life. One explores the arcana of science, scattering the terrified gnomes from their cavernous habitations below, and stretching aloft to read the time-tables of the celestial world. A Howard, a Fry, a Nightingale, a Dix, in imitation of Him who spake as never man spake, and who went about doing good, have carried light and hope to the cell of the lonely captive, and, in the angelic spirit of a mother's love, been all the world to those whom all the world had forsaken. One frail son of humanity-a man and a brother, and bound with us to a common tribunal-sinks deep in crime, and his soul is blackened with the curse of sin and shame; but there are still transient gleams of Heaven's sunshine playing around his seared and callous heart. The hoary criminal, laden with guilty chains, slumbers heavily in his cold and loathsome cell. But the muscles of his hardened face relax, and a smile rests upon his lips. Hist! the straw in his rude couch rustles: he dreams. He sports again by the banks of the stream of his childhood "As only boyhood can." Birds warble their notes of melody from the old familiar shadetrees; bees hum amidst the clumps of bright and fragrant flowers; the soft, soothing wind whispers in lulling cadences; -the cool spring gushes from the hillock, and its pebbled stream dances along to the music of its own rippling; the warm life-blood circles round the heart in glad and gentle ed dyings. There is the sainted mother, smiling with a mother's hope upon her stainless son; there those "Who grew in beauty, side by side, The bleak and desolate waste of a misspent life is in mercy for a moment shielded from his vision; the pallid form of decayed manhood, bowed with age and disfigured with vicious indulgence, is cast off for the "plumage of sinless years," and he who had found no repose in his dreary wanderings is permitted, for one blissful moment, to bathe the shattered remnant of humanity in the pure fountain of domestic love. But "A change comes o'er the spirit of his dream." The pitying angel is withdrawn; the cruel tide of memory rolls back upon him, and the manacled wretch, weeping with emotion, awakes to the fearful reality that it is but a dream. “How poor, how rich, how abject, how august, These and many other strange and incongruous moral elements, chequered and diversified by every form of vicissitude, trial, and conflict, demand of fellow-travellers upon the journey of life, and especially from those qualified to give counsel and instruction, the ready interchange of sympathy and communion. Among all the occupations of life, that of the lawyer is the most laborious and responsible. It has been justly termed the noblest of professions; but let no one enter upon it reposing on the slovenly idea of " masterly inactivity," or for the purpose of appearing upon its parade days, or holiday occasions. He must, if he would attain respectable eminence, pass through an ordeal as severe as a furnace seven times heated. He must be prepared to hold intercourse with every variety of human character, in its best as well as its most abandoned forms, and will need, to sustain him in his extremity, the wisdom, meekness and patience of the patriarchs, and the learning of an Aristotle and a Paul. In the countless conflicts which arise from the business |