Nevertheless History too has her
mission, though her time has not yet come. It will not always be that
the past will be to us "as the words of a book that is sealed, which
men deliver to one that is learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee:
and he saith I cannot, for it is sealed; and the book is delivered to
him that is not learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee: and he
saith, I am not learned."
No! It will not be always so.
VI.
THE BUILDING UP OF A UNIVERSITY.
. . . . "so famous,
So excellent in art, and still so rising."
Some years ago I found myself in a Northern capital, and committed
myself to the guidance of a native coachman, whose business and pride
it was to drive me from place to place, and indicate to me the
important buildings of his majestic city. He was a patriotic showman,
and I am bound to say he showed us a great deal; but the most
memorable moment of that instructive day was when he stopped before,
what seemed to us, a respectable mansion in a respectable street, and
announced to us that "you" was "the Free Kirk _Univairsity_." It
was the first time in my life that I had heard four stone walls with
a roof over them called a University. It was not long, however,
before I discovered that I myself had been living with my head in a
sack and, in more senses than one, had been of those
Who sweep the crossings, wet or dry,
And all the world go by them.
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