But above all things, guard against a superficiality of knowledge in any and in all things. There is much said and written about the “diffusion of knowledge;” but there is reason, I fear, to apprehend that it is the diffusion of superficial knowledge, or of that kind which does not meet the wants of the age. The stream of knowledge is extending and spreading; but its depth may be in many places inversely to its width. Incomprehensible nonsense, like that embraced in German transcendentalism, which many in our country profess to admire, and which they desire to engraft upon our literature, morals and religion, is taken for sublimity and profundity of knowledge—just as a muddy and very shallow pool is often mistaken for one of great depth.
The second and last requisite qualification necessary and indispensable are the principles of the Christian religion, as taught in the Gospel of the Son of God. Without these principles to guide you and govern you, you cannot do the work which, in the providence of God, you are called upon to perform. Liberty only is safe under the shield of Christianity; the former is the child of the latter; and child and parent mutually sustain and preserve each other. Without Christianity, liberty soon becomes disorder and licentiousness; the check and corrective of which is despotic and absolute power. Man can only govern himself, individually and collectively, as long as he is governed by the Christian religion. And Christianity without liberty is, of all forms of despotism, the most despotic on the part of those who rule; and of all forms of slavery, the most abject and degrading on the part of those who are ruled.
The first essential for the preservation and extension of liberty is universal and increasing intelligence, in perfect freedom of mind and conscience. But the most essential requisite for the preservation of these is the universal diffusion of virtue. And the only safety of virtue is in the diffusion of the principles and the spirit of the Gospel of the Son of God.
And now, in conclusion, young gentlemen, in taking my leave of you, which I do with sentiments and feelings of the most ardent kind for your honor and welfare, let me remind you that you live not for yourselves alone, but for your country and humanity; that you belong to your God, to your country, and to the age in which you live; that for these, all these, you must live, and act, and die. And that as you live and act to and for these, will eb the measure of honor or dishonor, glory or infamy, which, in the end, these will bestow upon you. Great, indeed, will be the reward that awaits you, if you are found faithful and true in your day and in your generation. But oh, a heavier curse and a deeper infamy than ever were hurled upon the heads and characters of any, by divine justice, will rest upon your names and memories forever, if to your station you are false, and if to your responsibilities you prove faithless.