The Southern Literary Messenger, Vol. I., No. 11, July, 1835Various
General
The Southern Literary Messenger, Vol. I., No. 11, July, 1835
Various
American literature -- 19th century -- Periodicals
And now, my young friends, we close a relation which has been to me
one of the happiest of my life. God grant it may prove equally
profitable to you. If it does not, the fault is in me. I have indeed
the satisfaction to know that my exertions are appreciated by you, at
more than their real value; and that wherever your lots may be cast,
you will long remember the months we have spent together with feelings
responsive to my own. It has been my endeavor to divest the subject of
our studies of its dryness, and to render it, if possible, less
unpalatable than you had expected to find it. The task was difficult,
but I hope I have not altogether failed. I have felt it my duty too,
to lay aside the pedagogue, and to disarm my office of all austerity.
In doing this I had but to yield to my natural disposition. The rules
of our institution indeed placed me _in loco parentis_. But the
relation of an elder brother was more congenial to my feelings. I am
happy to believe that it has been so filled, as to establish the
sentiments appropriate to it in each of our minds; and that, when the
infirmities of age shall overtake me, there is not one of you who
would not extend an arm to stay my tottering steps, as there is not
one on whose shoulder I would not lean with confidence.
But my method of instruction was not adopted merely because it suited
my disposition. I believed it most appropriate to the subject of your
studies. It in some measure prepares you to enter in its true spirit
into that relation to the heads of your profession, of which I have
spoken. You will find few judges to whom the authority of office will
not be as irksome as it is to me; and it will be in your choice to
establish, between yourselves and your brethren of the bar and bench,
the same sentiments which make our separation at once pleasant and
painful.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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