Excerpt from An Address Delivered Before the Literary Societies of Amherst College: August 25, 1835 The place of our meeting, the season of the year, and the occasion, which has called us together, seem to prescribe to us the general topics of our discourse. We are assembled within the precincts of a place of education. It is the season of the year, at which the seminaries of learning throughout the coun try are dismissing to the duties of life that class of their students, whose collegiate course is run. The immediate call, which has brought us together at this time, is the invitation of the members of the literary societies of this highly respectable and fast rising institution, who, agreeably to academical usage, on the eve of their departure from a spot endeared to them, by all the pleasant associations of collegiate life, are desirous, by one more act of literary communion, to strengthen the bond of intellectual fellowship and alleviate the regrets of separation. In the entire uncertainty of all that is before us, for good or for evil, there is nothing so nearly certain, as that we, who are here assembled to-day, shall never, in the Providence of God, be all brought together again in this world. Such an event is scarcely more within the range of probability, than that the individual drops, which, at this moment, make up the rushing stream of yonder queen of the valley, mounting in vapor - to the clouds and scattered to the four winds, will, at some future period, be driven together and fall in rains upon the hills, and flow down and recompose the identical river, that is now spread ing abundance and beauty, before our eyes. To say nothing of the dread summons, which comes to all when least expected. 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.