Our guest, only a moment ago, in conversation alluded to this Saturday evening, which so peculiarly belongs to gentlemen of the Press, as reminding of the “Cotter’s Saturday Night,” the exquisite poem of Burns. He will allow me to quote words peculiarly applicable:-- “The toil-worn cotter frae his labor goes; This night his weekly moil is at an end; Collects his spades, his mattocks, and his hoes.” [_Laughter._] Such is your case to-night, unless you are connected with a Sunday paper. [_Laughter._] Your weekly moil is at an end. Allow me to wish that when it is again renewed, it may be with heart strengthened and soul refreshed by the social enjoyment of to-night. DUTY OF THE YOUNG COLORED LAWYER. ADDRESS AT THE COMMENCEMENT EXERCISES OF THE LAW DEPARTMENT OF HOWARD UNIVERSITY AT WASHINGTON, FEBRUARY 3, 1871. YOUNG GENTLEMEN, GRADUATES OF THE LAW SCHOOL:-- I am glad in listening to the exercises on this interesting occasion. They carry me back to early life, when I was a student at the Law School of Harvard University, as you have been students in the Law School of Howard University. I cannot think of those days without fondness. They were the happiest of my life. Nor do I doubt that hereafter you will look back with something of the same emotion to your student days. There is happiness in the acquisition of knowledge, which surpasses all common joys. The student who feels that he is making daily progress, constantly learning something new, who sees the shadows by which he was originally surrounded gradually exchanged for an atmosphere of light, cannot fail to be happy. His toil becomes a delight, and all that he learns is a treasure,--with this difference from gold and silver, that it cannot be stolen or lost. It is a perpetual capital at compound interest. Therefore do I say, for the sake of happiness, and also for worldly good, must the young man be faithful in study. Pardon me, if, while congratulating you upon the career you now commence, I make one or two practical suggestions, which I hope may not be without value. In the first place, you must not cease your studies, now that you leave the Law School. You must be students always. Some there are who content themselves with what is called “an education,” and then cease their studies. This is a mistake. At college or school we acquire the elements of knowledge, and we learn also _how to study_,--but very little more. If to this be added the love of study, this is the beginning of success.