The evils which I have mentioned are not confined to the schools of North Carolina; they exist in nearly all the schools of the Union. Massachusetts has taken the lead in correcting them and introducing methods of instruction founded upon the philosophy of the mind. The state of science and literature among her people shows the happy effect of these changes. The Trustees of this University have resolved to make similar changes, to remodel the plan of studies, and introduce new methods of instruction. But whatever changes may be made in our plan of education, young men, who are desirous of being either useful or eminent in active life, should recollect this truth, that the education received at a college or university is intended only as a preparation of the mind for receiving the rich stores of science and general knowledge which subsequent industry is to acquire. He who depends upon this preparation alone will be like a farmer who ploughs his land and sows no grain. The period of useful study commences when a young man finishes his collegiate course. At that time his faculties have acquired some maturity from age and some discipline from exercise; and if he enter with diligence upon the study of a branch of science, and confines his attention to that branch, he soon becomes astonished at his progress and at the increase of his intellectual powers. Let him avoid reading or even looking into a variety of books. Nine-tenths of them are worse than useless; the reading of them produces a positive injury to the mind; they not only distract his attention, but blunt his faculties. Let him read only works of men of genius--read but few books, and read them often. Take two young men of equal minds and similar genius; put into the hands of one Shakespeare's _Plays_, Milton's _Paradise Lost_, _Don Quixote_ and _Gil Blas_; and into the hands of the other all the hundred volumes of dullness which fill our libraries; and at the end of twelve months mark the difference between them. The first will be like the high-spirited steed that is ready for the course; the other will be encumbered with a load of useless ideas, his faculties weakened, and the bright tints of his genius obscured.