life; supposing men freed from the exactions of an arbitrary fashion.
If he was near correctness, his time must be abundant in our day, when
the productiveness of machinery, and skill in the arts, are so much
improved. Then it is within existing possibilities, that every mind be
thoroughly cultivated; and every body taxed for labor, only to the
extent required by the conditions of its own best vigor and that of the
inhabiting mind. So far afield from truth is the common supposition,
that the many can receive but the elements of learning; while the few
must sacrifice bodily vigor to excessive intellectual cultivation.
Connect with this thought that before advanced of the irresistible
tendencies of our intellectual life to one average; and what a
boundless vista, in the direction of human progress, opens before us.

As citizens of the republic, we have comparatively little cause to
exult in the conceit of being freer or happier than other communities;
much more in the chance, having broken the fetters of superstition and
tyranny, next to rend those of false habit and fashion--to enthrone
reason over the authority of one another's eyes and prejudices: to say
in truth,--

"Here the free spirit of mankind at length
Throws its last fetters off; and who shall place
A limit to the giant's untamed strength,
Or curb his swiftness in the forward race?
Far, like the comet's way through infinite space,
Stretches the long untravelled path of light
Into the depth of ages; we may trace,
Distant the brightening glory of his flight,
Till the receding beams are lost to human sight."