Daily National Democrat

Immaturity of Our Young Men.-President Felton, of Harvard University, in his inaugural address, made use of the following suggestive language:

Our young American needs more than European youth, the training that shall give him composure and self command-that shall give him the mastery of his faculties, and the habit of steady action. He is a citizen of a vast republic. wherein every man has his career to open, his fortune to make, his success to achieve. He feels, every moment, the social or party pressure, and the weight of individual responsibility. These very circumstances make the period in which we live, one which tempts the young man into premature activity. He is allured into the busy scene when his faculties are but half unfolded; his principles are as yet uncertain; his views vague, his hopes gorgeous as the rainbow and perhaps as fleeting and unsubstantial- His tastes unformed, and his moral being crude as the unripe fruit of every summer.

A solid character is not the growth of a day -the intellectual faculties are not matured without long and vigorous culture. To refine the taste is a laborious process—to fortify the reasoning power with its appropriate discipline, is an arduous undertaking. To store the mind with sound and solid learning, is a work of long and studious years. It is the business of the higher education to check this fearful impatience, this crude and eager haste to drink the cup of life-to exhaust the intoxicating draught of ambition.