Excerpt from An Oration: Delivered Before the Literary Societies of Oglethorpe University, Georgia, Nov, 10, 1847<br><br>And why, above all, and necessary to all, should faith and will be thus important to achievement? Faith! Exclaims the sceptic, with the habitual sneer of all his tribe - would you bring us back, in this enlightened century, to' the ancient superstitions which it has been our pride to overthrow - Will demands the mere moral doctmnazre, with his eternal monotone, would you impress, with the aspect of a passion, the principles of a' philosophy? And each petty pleader, rising in his place, and trembling for his little system, insists upon the recognition of certain special laws such as furnish sufficient barriers for himself - nar row bounds in reasoning, by which the nature that we are, and the nature that we enjoy, are limited, to the appreciation only of the simplest sight and touch! But Faith and Will, if not in themselves virtues, are essential to the action of all the virtues. They constitute those qualities upon which, alone, depends the forma tion of character. They perfect all other endowments. They are the sources of all that is sincere and earnest in the soul of man, and make him the courageous and hearty exponent of his own resources. In this respect they are of the last importance to the race. This Very exposition. Is the peculiar duty of mankind. Educa tion ministers to this object only, and self-development, which is the inevitable master of progress, is only another name for duty and religion!<br><br>About the Publisher<br><br>Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com<br><br>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.