Excerpt from A Valedictory Address: Delivered to the Students of the University of North Carolina January 21, 1838 Upon him, and resolve to use them for the benefit of his country and of mankind. Let him place before his mind high standards of excellence, by perusing the bi ographies of the great and good, and let his mind thirst after valuable knowledge, instead of cramming and vi tiating itself with the trash that is poured forth daily in such pernicious abundance from the press. If you faithfully improve the opportunities you here enjoy, you will have the elements of almost all useful knowledge, and the stamina of a vigorous mental constitution. The first you may afterwards use as a foundation for indefinite future improvement, and as the instrument for future acquisitions. The latter will serve you to grapple with every occurring difficulty. I would not forbid all books of amusement and all excursions into the fields of fancy and fiction. But beware lest these seduce you from the hardy and invigorating studies of the College course. Remember, that although it is pleasing to devour volume after volume, and it is flat tering to our pride to go over a great deal of ground, yet it is quite possible to do' this without strengthening the mind - nay it is the very way to enfeeble the mind, to encumber it with a vast mass ofother men's thoughts, without obliging it to exert itselfin some production of its own. Such a man may accumulate facts, and he may be accurate in his opinions so tar as his guides reach but put him upon his own resources, bring him into some new situation where he will have to depend upon himself, and he will utterly fail. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.