In view of the high functions of the press and its immense influence in the nation,--its perpetual daily lessons, falling on the public mind like drops that wear away the hardest rock and work their channel where they will,--it is of the first importance to comprehend the power behind this imperial throne, which directs and controls it. Does it assume to originate and establish principles in government and morals? Or does it aspire only to the humbler office of propagating such ideas as have been sanctioned by the best judgment of the age, of illustrating their operation, and making them acceptable to the people? The fugitive essays and hurried comments on passing events, which fill the columns of newspapers, do not ordinarily constitute solid foundations on which the principles of social or political action can be safely established. The men usually employed in this work of distributing ideas, are not they who are capable of building up substantial systems by the slow process of induction, or who can, by the opposite system, apply great general truths to the purposes of national prosperity and happiness. They are far too much engaged in the active business of life,--too deeply involved in the strifes and turmoils of mankind,--too thoroughly imbued with the spirit of the passing hour, with all its passions and prejudices--to be the philosophic guides of humanity, and to lay down, with the serene logic of truth, the bases of moral and political progress. The inevitable sympathy between the editor and his daily readers--the action and reaction which constantly take place and insensibly lead the journalist into the paths of popular opinion and passion--these are too apt to render him altogether unfit to be an oracle in the great work of social organization and government. The common sense of the multitude is often an invaluable corrective of speculative error; but the impulses and strong prejudices of communities, though calculated to sweep along with them the judgments of all, are mostly pernicious, and sometimes dangerous in the extreme. The true remedy for these evils and dangers is, to employ in the management of the daily press, the noblest intellect, combined with the most incorruptible purity of motive. Commanding the entire confidence of the nation, and worthy of it, the lessons of this great teacher--the central light-giving orb of civilization--will be received with reverence and gratitude, and with a benign and fructifying influence, something like that which the sun sheds on the world of nature. A French philosopher, writing in 1840, says of us: