ing, who have cheerfully combined their means to build these walls and dedicate them to the diffusion of useful knowledge among men. In this great work we have had the favoring Providence of the All-wise God. And we have never doubted that this house will advance his honor and secure his praise. To him we look for continued smiles. Never may these walls be vocal with a sound, never may these alcoves give shelter to a page, on which the face of Infinite purity and truth will frown! And now we enter upon their enjoyment. I wish that we had some adequate conception of what is before us here and hereafter. Sometimes I have thought it would be a mission worthy of the most exalted powers of argument and persuasion, not unworthy an angel's gifts, to go into the market-places of this generation, and challenge living men to think of what they are and where they are going? We are intellectual and immortal beings. Combine these attributes of our nature, and think of our duties and destinies. Pause in the race of life, and view the goal to which you are hastening. Can you see it? Take the strongest glass that human ingenuity has contrived to aid the eye, and with it pierce the future. Canst thou measure the capacity or duration of thy spirit? Didst thou ever undertake to estimate the reach of infinite progression? Concerning thyself with matter, the limit of thy power is soon exhausted. Pile up pebbles, and at last you can pile them no higher. Art is long and strong, but time is longer and stronger: and what man does is undone. There is an end to it. But didst thou ever, child of immortality, consider the power of an endless life: that death is predicated only of the flesh, and that for nothing but to free thy spirit for the spirit-land, and give it wider range in realms of knowledge where the etherial essence dwells alone. Life has its labors. I know them, and would not shun them. Day by day we must seek our daily bread. The world around us has a claim upon our heart and hand. We must work while we live. It is our lot, and it is right. Life has its pleasures. I love them, and rejoice in them. The domestic fire-side, the social circle, the song of friendship, the voice of love;-there's not a joy on earth I would not share with every son and daughter of the wide family of man. But with the labors and the pleasures of the life that now is, I would never cease to feel, and I would fasten the thought as with nails upon every youthful heart, that the purest and loftiest pleasure is in the prolonged and infinite expansion of the human mind. From the depths of our present ignorance, let us rise into the regions of light and truth that are above us. The company of the good and great and wise invites us to the upward flight. Let us know more, and the more we know, the more we shall long to know. Gravitation draws upward in the world of mind. Onward is the word: higher! See the proud eminence on which the leader spirits of olden times are resting now. They have not drawn the ladder after them. In the morning of our career we may climb to their side, and when no steps ascend to higher worlds, our spirits, loosed from flesh, shall stretch their way right onward and upward, till they fold their pinions at the foot of the eternal throne. APPENDIX. THE NEWARK LIBRARY ASSOCIATION was organized during the latter part of 1846, and the first election for Directors was held on January 4th, 1847. The foregoing Address was delivered at the opening of the Hall of the Library Edifice on the evening of 21st February, 1848, by the Vice President of the Association. On that occasion the President of the Association-Mr. WILLIAM RANKIN-took the chair at half-past seven o'clock, and having announced the order of exercises, the Secretary-Mr. W. A. WHITEHEAD-addressed to the Association and the assembly the following introductory remarks: GENTLEMEN, STOCKHOLDERS OF THE NEWARK LIBRARY ASSOCIA TION: It is with no ordinary pleasure that the Directors meet you this evening, in this beautiful and commodious apartment, which constitutes so interesting a portion of the structure which your liberal contributions have enabled them to erect. Having so recently, in their Annual Report, presented in detail the present condition and prospects of the Institution, they have now only to welcome you-as they do most cordially-to a participation in the exercises with which it is intended to dedicate this Hall to the noble uses for which it is designed. e open this Hall to the inhabitants LADIES AND Gentlemen:- -We of the City of Newark, as a place where all, of every class and condition, may increase their intellectual stores by participating in the |