I
can conceive what such an institution would have afforded to the
suggestive mind of a youthful Arkwright.
I can conceive what a nursing-
mother such an institution must have been to the brooding genius of
your illustrious and venerated Dalton. It is the asylum of the self-
formed; it is the counsellor of those who want counsel; but it is not a
guide that will mislead, and it is the last place that will fill the
mind of man with false ideas and false conceptions. He reads a
newspaper, and his conceit oozes out after reading a leading article.
He refers to the library, and the calm wisdom of centuries and sages
moderates the rash impulse of juvenescence. He finds new truths in the
lecture-room, and he goes home with a conviction that he is not so
learned as he imagined. In the discussion of a great question with his
equals in station, perhaps he finds he has his superiors in intellect.
These are the means by which the mind of man is brought to a healthy
state, by which that self-knowledge that always has been lauded by
sages may be most securely attained. It is a rule of universal virtue,
and from the senate to the counting-house will be found of universal
application. Then, to the youth of Manchester, representing now the
civic youth of this great county and this great district, I now appeal.
Let it never be said again that the fortunes of this institution were
in danger.
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