1'%;^^^ 'i'^wm^ m AN ADDRESS, PRONOUNCED AT THE OPENING I OP fe,| THE NEW- YORK ATHENtEUM, 1 A DECEMBER 14, 1824. UHiVER 1 pHE SPARKS ) LIBRARY. j^ [MISCELLANY.] ^ CoUeeted by ^ JARED SPARKS^LL.B.^ President of Harvard College. ^1 T Purchased by the Cornell University, 1872. Cornell University Library Z733.N6585 W55 Address, pronounced at the open ng of th olin 3 1924 029 532 995 Cornell University Library The original of tliis bool< is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924029532995 AN ADDRESS, PRONOUNCED AT THE OPENING OP THE NEW-YORK ATHENJEUM, DECEMBER 14, 1824. BY HENRY WHEATON. SECOND EDITION. J. W, PALHEK AKD CO. PRINTERS TO TBB ATHENJSOM. 1825. At a Meeting of the Proprietors of the Literpool Rotal Instito- TION, held the 1st February, 1825, B. A. Haywood, Esq. President in the chair, it was proposed by Mr. William Rathbone, seconded by Mr. Thomas Longton, and carried unanimously. That the members of this Institution oiler their respectful congratu- lations to the Committee of the Athenaeum of New-York, on the suc- cess of its exertions, and that they add their best wishes for the fu- ture progress of that establishment, and express their hopes that the two Institutions may mutually aid each other in promoting their respec- tive important objects. That any member of the Committee of the New-York Athenaeum who may visit Liverpool, shall have the privilege of admission during his stay : And that the President be requested to communicate these resolu- tions to the Committee of the New- York Athenaeum, and to accompa- ny them with a copy of the several printed Addresses which have been delivered to the proprietors of this Institution. It was upon' the motion of William Roscoe, Esq. seconded by Dr. Traill, Unanimously Resolved, That the thanks of the Proprietors be given to the President for the Address he has delivered, and that he be re- quested to favour the Institution with a copy for publication. THOMAS MORTIN, Secretary. At a Meeting of the Associates of the New- York Athen^um, held in the City Hall, the Reverend Dr. Harris, President, in the chair, the following resolutions were proposed by the Reverend Dr. Wain- wright, seconded by Mr, William Gracie, and carried vmaninurusly. Resolved, 1. That the Associates of the New-York Athensum, have receiv- ed much satisfaction from the resolutions communicated by the Presi- dent of the Liverpool Royal Institution, and do cordially reciprocate the good wishes expressed therein, and unite in " the hope that the two Institutions may mutually aid each other in promoting their respective important objects." 2. That the members of the Institution when visiting New- York, be admitted to all the privileges of the Athenaeum. 3. That the President transmit the above resolutions to the Presi.' dent of the Liverpool Royal Institution, together with such printed Addresses and Documents as he may deem to be of general interest. By order, F. G. KING, Recording Sec'ry. ADDRESS An association of literary and scientific men, actuated by a disinterested zeal for diffusing the lights of knowledge, and for promoting the cultivation of literature in our common country, would invite public patronage to their undertaking. I am called upon to address you in their behalf : and I cannot perhaps better , dis- charge the duty, than by taking a general retrospect of what the American mind, has hitherto accomplished; and iendeavouring to present you with some prospective views of what may be achieved hereafter by the intellectual genius of our countrymen. 2 8 In taking this review of the past, and hazarding these anticipations of the future, we will be careful not to indulge in exag- gerated estimates of what we have already performed. Neither our colonial condition, nor the civil war which made us a nation, could ^ be considered as propitious to the cultivation of the liberal arts, of science, and of letters. We had great and peculiar diflSculties to surmount ;• — a wilderness to subdue — our physical wants to provide for — our personal and public rights to secure — our indepe"iidenoe to purchase with our blood — and the foundations of government to settle. The genius of Franklin, indeed, was capacious enough to pursue the sublime speculations of philosophy -in the midst of such scenes and such employments; and Edwards, whose great metaphysical work still attracts the attention of the learned in every part of Europe, could reason high Of Providence, foreknowledge, will and fate. But in general, the master-spirits of the land found their faculties sufficiently tasked by the great business of war and government. 9 How far we have since fulfilled the just expectations of those who have been accus- tomed to associate with the enjoyment of republican freedom, a general taste for liberal arts and studies, sustained by public sympathy, we shall perhaps find it more difficult to answer. Thirty years' enjoy- ment of peace and of liberty, during which we had gratuitously participated in the rich fruits of European genius and invention, imposed upon us a heavy weight of obliga- tion in this respect. The intellect of Europe, far from slum- bering during this period, never shone forth with a brighter effulgence. Even the terrific volcano of the French Revolution scarcely gave a momentary interruption to the peaceful labours of science ; the past glories of English genius have been emu- lated by the productions of our own times ; and the opulent literature of Germany has almost been created since we became a nation. But had our freedom been cloven down in some disastrous field of the late conflict with the parent country, and the American (Confederacy now lived only on 10 the historian's page, I fear he would have little else to record than the matchless wis- dom by which it was founded, and the splendid acts of heroic valour by which its fate was delayed. Had this been the con- summation of our story, those who meditate among the ruins of states and empires, would have found few vestiges of American genius in arts or literature to attract their contemplation. I speak not of the science of government and of practical administra- tion — of the useful arts, or of mere profes- sional learning : — 1 speak of those arts which adorn and embellish human life — which invigorate and ennoble the spirit of freedom — which chastise and soften the rudeness of unformed society. In the noble and useful science of go- vernment, indeed, we might point with a just pride to the -formation of 'our present national constitution— to the admirable com- mentary upon it in the Letters, of Publius, or the Federalist, and in the judicial in- terpretations of its text — to the various discussions in the halls of legislation, in polemic writings, and in state papers, of the 11 multiplied questions of public and constitu- tional law, to which the eventful state of the world and of our own domestic politics had given rise. We might appeal to the names of Rush and Bard in the healing art, and to those of many learned theologians. We , might iiivoke all these witnesses to attest the wisdom and eloquence of our statesmen, jufistSj and legislators, and our advancement in mere professional learning. But still it would not be less true that be- fore the -period to whiqh I have alluded, no American Scholar had successfully at- tempted to subsist by his literary labours. We had produced no povverful , poetry-^ no classical works of history or biography —no originally inventive works of fiction, (except perhaps the novels of Brown,) which could justly challenge any portion of the admiration of the world and of pos- terity. A day-spring has since, indeed, dawned upon our view, and brighter pros- pects now lie l^efqre us. A purer and better taste has sprung up among us ; instinctively rejecting the ambitious style which threat- ened to corrupt dur literature even before 12 it was formed, and demanding something besides a tame and servile imitation of the English classics. An original school of American poetry has been formed ; and writers of fiction have appeared, whom we hail as the genuine interpreters of nature, both as her voice is uttered- by man in general, and as she appears among the pe- culiar associations of our romantic scenery, in our revolutionary story, and our domestic manners. Still we cannot forget the period when a general sense of languor, of feebleness, and of mediocrity weighed upon out literary existence — when there was no demand among us but for active professional or business talents — when our scholars felt no other incentive to their exertions than the pure pleasures which the cultivation of let- ters must always bestow. I do not mean to intimate, in what I have said of the ciaution necessary to be observed in contemplating what we halve already ac- complished, that this country has contribut- ed nothing to increase the stores of human knowledge. On the contrary, I am well 13 aware that much injustice' has been done us in this respect, by the malevolence of Euro- pean criticism ; and that to have given to the world the model of such a beneficent government, of humane laws, and of an ample provision for the elementary educa- tion of the people, and to have sustained them by eloquence and wisdom, adequate to all the occasions by which they have yet been tried, ought to be sufficient to redeem us from the reproach of entirely neglecting the inestimable advantages of our condition. But the illusions of national pride are some of the most formidable obstacles to national improvement in science and in literature. A nation, like an individual, must not only greatly dare — it must not only be conscious of its own intellectual power — but it must hold up to itself an original and elevated standard of intellectual attainments. We may apply to literature in general, what the great teacher of Roman eloquence sayS of his own art : Nam est certe aliquid cbn«um- mata eloquentia; neque ad eam' pervenire natufa: humani ingenii pi-ohibet; quod si non contingat, altius tamen ibunt qui ad 14 sumraa nitentur. But they who fancy that they have alresidy attained the summit, Vvhen they have only made some feeble efforts to gain th^ vantage ground which will enable them to begin to climb the lofty paths of Science, will never rise above their own tame conceptions of excellence. Th6 lite- rature of a nation cannot be highly culti- vated, and bear its noblest fruits, if it is trained to a servile imitation of models of imaginary perfection, but real mediocrity. It must bear the impress of the nation's own peculiar character— must breathe forth its original thoughts and feelings — must speak of the story arid traditions of the land where it dwells, or from whence its fathers came— ^must connect itself with all that is beautiful or grand in their external scenery, and the moral associations belonging to it. Among the causes which have hitherto impeded the cultivation of letters in the United States, some have enumerated the want of a national language and literature peculiar to ourselves, and the consequent servitude to foreign models. But this will hardly be considered as a sufficient apology 15 for our past literary deficiencies, when we consider that our fathers spoke and wrote the noble dialect of England, not as a foreign language, but as their own native idiom ; that they bi'oke off from the parent stem, after that idiom had been perfected by the pens of Shakspeare, and Milton, and Taylor, and Clarendon ; that their descen- dants have constantly been supplied with the standard productions of the British press, and have never been strangers to the real or supposed improvements which each successive age has wrou'ght in English diction. During all this lapse of time, the genial soil of England has never ceased to bear fruits andjflowers worthy of the spring- time of her literature, though often sup- pressed in their growth by foreign and false modes of culture. Our countrymen were therefore, in this respect, placed upon an equal footing with their British brethren. Originality of language is immaterial to the success of literary enterprise. The lan- guage of the mind is to be found in its own vigorous, overpowering thoughts and emo- tions. It matters not in what dialect they 3 16 are poured forth. The forms of diction used by different nations who write the same language, are no more necessarily alike, than those of different individuals ; nor is the imitation of the classical models of English style more likely to have an unfavourable influence upon an American, than a British writer — upon a Franklin or a Frisbie, than upon a Burke or a Johnson. It is the faculty of true genius to, assimilate with itself, and incorporate into its own intellectual nature, the elements produced by other minds. Thus the poetical powers of Dante and Milton vi^ere nourished, and sustained, and strengthened, by ambro- sia gathered from the rich fields of Virgil and Homer. In highly gifted and well regulated minds, the profound study and ardent admiration of such models produces merely the effects of that liberal imitation which teaches them to think, speak, and write, as other great men would have thought, spoken and written, when placed in the same circumstances. We shall, there- fore, find ourselves compelled to attribute our literary poverty to the want of true 17 intellectual courage and enterprise — to the want of that noble self-reliance and con- sciousness of intellectual power, which has of late only been seen among us ; rather than to the possession and full enjoyment of the literary riches which have been shower- ed upon us from the abundant sources of the parent country. The defect of patronage, and of those aids which are united in the extensive libra- ries, museums, and laboratories, which the taste and munificence of European sove- reigns and republics have collected and founded, may with more appearance of jus- tice be considered as real obstacles to the growth * and improvement of science and letters among us. At the same time, we cannot be unmindful of the change which has taken place in the Usages of society in this particular. The foundations of that dependence, in Which men of letters were once held upon the great, have been shaken ; and that disgraceful commerce of servility and flattery,, which once prevailed between them, has almost ceased. Instead of the patronage tof princes and nobles, who de- 1 18 mand expensive adulation, we have that of a reading public, the most numerous in pro- portion to our populousness w^hich the world has yet seen. The writer of genius and learning who is able at once to instruct and delight mankind by the labours of his pen, needs, as recent experience has shown, no other, patronage than that of the great body of his countrymen. If, before the event to which I have already referred as marking a new epoch in our intellectual history, one or two writers of ingenious fiction or smooth poetry were overlooked by the American public, whilst every thing that issued from the British press, and had received the sanc- tion of the higher tribunals of criticism on the other side oY the Atlantic, was eagerly sought for, it is probably to be attributed to that sense of helplessness and dependence which had become almost a part of our intellectual nature. It may perhaps be considered as one of the greatest incidental benefits we have derived from the vindica- tion of our national rights in the late war with Great Britain, that it revived and quick- ened our sense of national pride, roused all 19 those generous emotions connected with the love of country, and stimulated our am- bition to be distinguished Jn every thing which contributes to true national glory. Such political events are often the precur- sors of great changes in the intellectual character of a people : the passions exbited by a sense of the public danger, and the faculties exerted to repel it^ give a new im- pulse and energy to the national genius,- which is afterwards directed with fresh ac- tivity to other objects. Whether this event was one of the efS- cient causes of that new spring which has recently been given to our literary -enter- prise ; or whether it merely marks the epoch when other causes combining have produced the same effect, is perhaps immaterial : it is certain that much yet remains to be done ; that unless our endeavours are effectually aided and encouraged by ampler endow- ments for the higher branches of education, and by the establishment of more extensive libraries of reference, and more perfect col- lections of scientific instruments — the hopes of those who take an intense interest in our 20 literary prosperity and reputation must be deferred to a more auspicious season. We do not expect or require the magnificence of the Alexandrian and Pergamean^ — of the Bodleian or Vatican collections; but all who have had occasion to investigate any subject beyond the confines of mere pro- fessional learning, or the popular literature and current politics of the day, must have experienced the painful mortification of be- ing arrested in their bourse for want of the books necessary to complete it. The circle of human knowledge is immense ; and though the works of those master minds, who have exercised a decisive influence on opinion in any age, are few in number, yet no subject of science or literature can be thoroughly investigated without taking a wide range. Even the largest libraries in the country fall far short of its literary wants ; — but our own city has been pecu- liarly deficient in this respect, and we con- fidently hope that one of the earliest fruits of our association will be the foundation of a library, which shall be worthy of that libe- ral spirit and munificence which ought to 21 characterize the commercial metropolis of America- No private resources can compass even the new works of science and litera- ture which annually issue from the printing presses of America and Europe ; and there is no institution yet established among us endowed with funds adequate for such an object. But this is indispensably neces- sary, were it for no other purpose than merely to keep pace with the literary and scientific history of the agje. Unless the progress of knowledge is accurately known, how can the man of science or letters, on this side the Atlantic, determine in what direction to pursue his inquiries ? How can he foresee, in treading any of the innumer- able paths which modern science has open- ed, that his steps will not be crossed in some direction, and the interesting disco- veries he fondly supposes he has made, be found to have been anticipated by some more fortunate or better guided adventurer?' Many of those branches of literature which depend upon minute and laborious re- search — upon the collation of authorities, and comparison of testimonies, (such as the 22, science of philology or verbal criticism, and the illustration of antiquities,) will always be best cultivated in the older countries of Europe, where the division and cheapness of literary labour facilitate its operations. But the results of the patient industry, and profound learning of the classical scholars and antiquaries of Germany and England, must ever be an object of interest with our own students of ancient literature. Above all, the piercing eyes which the former have sent into the dark recesses of antiquity, and the sagacity with which they have sought to discover the causes of the grandeur and decay of those nations who have disappeared from the face of the globe, by studying the true spirit of their institutions and manners, must fix on their researches the curiosity of the lover of historical studies — a curiosity which can only be gratified by having ac- cess to their voluminous and constantly in- creasing collections. ^'' But it is not in the wrecks of another world alone, that the activity of human in- tellect is now busying itself. The grand physical features of the globe are explored 23 with an enterprise and courage, and the conquests of science are pursued with an ardour and perseverance, which eminently distinguish the present age above all the generations of men that have preceded it. The rapid progress of these discoveries cannot be followed without the aid of ex- pensive books, 'drawings, engravings, and maps — of models of ancient and foreign buildings ; copies of gems, medals, coins^ statues, and busts : not merely for the pur- poses of art, but in order to illustrate the civil history, the religion, the manners and customs of nations — to facilitate the re- searches of the student of geography, of history, of classical literature, of antiqui- ties — to give precision and life to his know- ledge — to impart reality and vigour to his, eoHceptions of things absent and past. These heljps to the acquisition of know- ledge may be rendered still more effectual by oral instruction in the form of popular lectures, where the truths of physical science may be explained by experiments, and the theory of Art may be developed by the ex- hibition of its beautiful production^. The 4 24 history of the improvements in mechanical and chymical philosophy, which have pro- duced so great a revolution in the applica- tion of human industry, and have «o much augmented the value of its products, may be illustrated in the same manner. The Cyclopean labours of the steam, engine, with the other wonderful mechanical inventions of the present age^ — the application of chy- mistry to agriculture and the useful arts — the gigantic sublimity of Egyptian, and the simple elegance of Grecian architecture — the splendid creations of sculpture and painting, — may be displayed by models of machines and buildings, by casts and draw- ings, which, combined with experiments and oral explanations, may excite a more intense and lively interest, and produce a more vi- vid impression, than the unassisted elo- quence of language atone can ever impart, even to the most intelligent audience. But even the more abstract sciences — those which are less capable of illustration from sensible objects, may be taught in this man- ner, with more effect and more general usefulness, than in books and private in- 25 structipn. The salutary truths of politi- cal economy may be thus widely diffused throughout the community, and the beau- ties of poetry and the other belles lettres may be set forth with those charms which a graceful and energetic elocution lends to th^ productions of genius. If there are some circumstances in our condition which have hitherto impeded our literary progress, there are other considera- tions which should encourage those amongst us who have devoted themselves to the cause of science, to persevere in their pur- pose of rousing the attention of their country- men to objects so essentially connected with national > grandeur and happiness. Among these considerations may be reckoned the peculiar geographical features of our coun- try, and the free and federative scheme of its government; its division into different republican states connected together by a wise political union; and the consequent emulation among the different members of the confederacy to excel, not only in their political and economical institutions, but in the liberal arts and sciences. Whatever 26 fate is in reserve for our country, we are certain that so long as it retains its liberty, its intellectual energies can never be con- fined within the 'walls of a single capital ; where the exclusive standards of taste are monopolized and applied to repress .the ex- cesses of genius, and check the intellectual freedom of the whole nation — whose lite- rary circles exercise a capricious tyranny over the land — -and to whose critical tribu- nals the unfortunate provincial candidate for literary fame must bow in humble sub- mission. In this respect, our situation may be com- pared to that of modern Italy before the 16th century, and, in some particulars, to the pre- sent condition of Germany ; where the litera- ry rivalship of so many different states and cities has produced such an accumulation of intellectual wealth, and diffused it over the land ; where each city vies with the other in the great men and the beautiful monuments of art of which it can boast ; where individual genius shoots^ forth its luxuriant branches in every direction, and a general activity of circulation is kept alive by this generous 27 spirit of emulation. Had the various states of Italy^ at the epoch to which I have refer- red, been consolidated into one vast em- ; pire/ the emulation between its different provinces would have instantly ceased; there would have been but one school of letters and of art throughout the whole Pe- rtinsula. It would have been supposed, that its graceful language could be spoken and written with purity and taste at Rome alone: Italian poetry would have lost its originality and variety; and every other art would have , felt the palsying influence of the same servile constraint and unbend- ing uniformity. That cluster of great men who gathered round the court of every petty prince, or were collected in every free city, would have been unknown to fame. So too the rich and varied literature of Germany owes much of its originality and energy to the fortunate neglect or con- tempt with which its earliest efforts were treated by the sovereigns of Austria and Prussia, whilst it found a refuge in the free cities and at the polished courts of the less powerful princes. It is not at Berlin or 28 Vienna, but at Weimar, that we are to look for the German Athens : but it is, above all, in the solitary, unaided workings of indivi- dual genius, that we shall find the most splendid creations of her intellect. As one of her own poets has said — " The songs of "the German bards resounded from the " summit of the mountains, and dashed like " a rapid torrent across the vales ; the inde- " pendent poet recognized no other laws " than the impressions of his own free "soul, — no other sovereign than his own " genius." Well would it have been for these beau- tiful and famous countries, if their splendid genius or happy fortune had enabled them to form a federal league, of sufficient energy to protect them against foreign aggression, whilst it secured their domestic freedom. Many of their loftiest speculations of sci- ence and most beautiful works of literature and art would have been advantageously exchanged for such a discovery. But we miist remember that a well adjusted consti- tution of such a form of government, of sufficient vigour to repel foreign violence, 29 whilst it is not strong enough to crush the individual members of the league, is one of the most refined and abstract speculations of political philosophy ; one of the latest and maturest efforts of human wisdom, en- lightened by the calailiitous experience of ages. The loosest confederacy may answer the purposes of common defence in the in- fancy of society, and in those rude ages when the spirit of freedom first springs up in a nation ; but when civilization, an^ arts, and commerce have advanced, bringing with them luxury and its attendant vices in their train, the adaptation of such a go- vernment to the wants of a great nation presents one of the most difficult questions of political science. Had the countrymen of Machiavel and Guicciardini, with all their political wisdom and sagacity, been able to realize the solution of this problem, the in- dependence of Italy, which was achieved by the turbulent but generous spirits of the twelfth century, might perhaps have been prolonged to our own times : and the pilgrims of other countries, instead of the solitary column which stands before the palace of 30 1/ie Senator at Rome,'*? the feeble repre- sentative of that august body of which he is the shadow, would have found the living soul of that liberty which fired the patriot tribune Rienzi.'^' The traveller who wan- ders over that fair land, covered not only with the wrecks of its former grandeur, but with the still enduring monuments of an- cient and modern genius ; where every ob- ject of art or nature is associated with some heroic r-ecoUection — nullum sine nomine * saxum — ^*' finds man aJone degenerated, lost to all the virtues which constitute the truest dignity of his nature ; the wretched slave of his passibns, his vices, and his foreign, barbarian oppressors. • May heaven avert the omen ! May bur happy union not be torn asunder, eyen be- fore we have gathered its best fruits in the successful cultivation of science and of let- ters, under the shadow. of its protecting wings ; and before we have produced any works of art or genius to command the ad- miration and envy of posterity, and worthy, of that glorious liberty, the choicest of the many blessings which Providence has showered upon us ! 31 Doubtless the true sentiment which ought to be inspired by the calamities of such a country as modern Italy, is that of a generous compassion. To say that every people deserves the fate, however severe, which awaits it, would be a harsher judg- ment than our knowledge of the complica- ted causes of national decline warrant us in pronouncing. It is but recently that Greece has given new signs of life ; and yet the causes which have produced her regenera- tion, have been long since preparing in the wise and patriotic foresight of her chiefs. So too, Italy, chastised and purified by ages of cruel siifFerings, may yet find in the ashes of her former grandeur the fires of freedom, which, like her own Vesuvius, shall burst forth upon her oppressors, and whilst they terrify and desolate all around, re-cre- ate that favoured soil which once bore the noblest fruits of genius. To some, popular government has ap- peared unpropitious to the cultivation of literature. The epochs of its splendour have been distinguished by the names, and ascribed to the patronage of some tyrant of 5 32 Greece — some Ptolemy of Egypt — some Roman emperor or Arabian caliph. Thus a late writer, able and learned no doubt, but a calumniator of Democracy — after giving the previous history of Athens, and espe- cially adverting to the glories which imme- diately succeeded the Persian invasion, thinks it a *' wonderful and singular pheno- " menon in the history of mankind, too " little accounted for by any thing recorded " by ancient, or imagined by modern writers, " that during this period of turbulence, in " a commonwealth whose whole population " in free subjects amounted scarcely to thirty " thousand families, art, science, fine taste, " and politeness, should have risen to that "perfection which has made Athens the " mistress of the world through all suc- " ceeding ages. Some sciences," he adds, " have been carried higher in modern times, "and art has put forth new branches, of " which some have given new helps to sci- " ence : but Athens in that age reached a " perfection of taste that no country hath " since surpassed ; but, on the contrary, " all have looked up to as a polar star, by 33 " which, after sinking into the deepest bar- "barism, taste has been guided in its re- " storation to splendour, and the observation " of which will probably ever be the surest " preservative against its future corruption "or decay." " Much of these circum- " stances of glory to Athens, and of im- "provement since so extensively spread " over the world," he ascribes to "Pericles. " Peisistratus had nourished the infancy of " Attic genius ; Pericles brought it to ma- " turity. In the age of Peisistratus, books " were scarieely known, science was vague, " art still rude ; but during the turbulent "period which intervened," according to this writer, " things had been so wonder- " fully prepared, that in the age of Pericles, " science and every polite art waited, as it " were, only his magic touch to exhibit them " to the world in meridian splendour." Without dwelling upon the obliquity of mind or disingenuousness which marks this passage, and which could affect not to see the true causes of this intellectual splen- dour ; what, let me ask, was the turbulence of this period ? It was the contest of free- 34 men for their equal rights— ^the conflict of factions and of parties, the inevitable con- comitant of freedom — the rivalship and col- lision of ardent minds, ambitious of every kind of distinction — the lively and intense interest which- every citizen, however hum- ble, felt in all that concerned ihe prosperity and glory of the state, of which he consi- dered himself an efficient member. This was the master-spring which put in motion every faculty of the soul. Eloquence was cultivated as the powerful engine with which to work on public opinion ; and to render this eloquence effectual with ^uch an audi- ence, the most refined graces of action— the most exquisite beauties of language-^every resource of moral and political knowledge were put in requisition. In this turbulent school Pericles himself was disciplined, and caught the inspiration which enabled him to exhibit " that finished model of the simple and sublime in oratory which has been the admiration of all succeeding ages." But he had not the plastic hand which could mould a Phidias from all the marble of Attica, or create a Sophocles or Thucydides — a Plato 35 or a Xenophon, by dispensing his own or the public treasure. They too had dipped in the troubled waters of Democracy ; like himself, they were some of the more vigo- rous plants which "the wilderness of free minds" could furnish. There is something truly admirable in the spectacle of these ancient Republics ; where, although the loosely compacted ma- chinery of government afforded but an imperfect security for the Enjoyment of in- dividual rights, each citizen lived, and moved,' and breathed, only in his country ; where no thought, or, desire, or passion was indulged, but for the prosperity of the state ; and where every selfish and sordid feeling was swallowed up in the all-engross- ing sentiment of patriotism. From the same prolific source — from the shattered repub- lics of Greece, (where the spirit of liberty stiU fondly lingered,) Ptolomy Philadel- phus was enabled to draw arouiid him that constellation of literary and scientific men, . which for ages rendered Alexandria the in- tellectual Pharos of the world. So too at Rome, from the struggles of the Gracchi, 36 to the usurpation of Csesar — it was the light stricken out by the collision of parties, the freedom of discussion, the zeal with which every citizen advocated or opposed the measures of a government-in which he par- ticipated, that sharpened the faculties and directed the studies of her illustrious men — and to which we are indebted for t)ie great- est literary treasure which has descended to us from antiquity, the elegant^ the inva- luable works of Cicero. The majestic lan- guage of Latium was formed, and polished, and all but perfected^ before the usurpa- tion of Octavius. It received its. highest perfection) in point of elegance and grace combined, from the hand of Terence, who was the companion of the younger Scipio and of Leelius. It was the spirit of the " Old Republic" which survived the field of Pharsalia, to which" may be attributed all that we admire in the finished writers of the Augustan age ; while we count as loss and drbss only, the fulsome flattery which stains the immortal pages of Virgil and Horace — rthe price of patronage ! Under the militai-y government which succeeded, 37 when even the semblance of a free govern- ment was no longer observed-— Literature declined — the Muses hid their heads : or if, under the milder reign of a Trajan or an Antonine, " by the rare felicity of the times, a man might thiilk what he pleased, and publish what he thought ;" it was still the epirit of the "Old Republic" which hovered over him, invigora.ted his genius, and guid- ed his pen. If the fine arts had so degene- rated in the age of Obnstantine, that he was compelled to strip the monuments of his predecessors at Rome of the statues and bas-reliefs, the work of a better age, in order to adorn with their spoils his new capital on the borders of the Bosphorus, we may easily imagine what-must have been the fate of letters and of eloquence, oppressed under the double yoke of ecclesi- astical and political tyranny. The destruc- tion of ancient art and genius was begun and nearly completed) long before the rude invaders of the north and the east shook the throne of the Caesars. The springs of soci- ety were worn out— a universal torpor and the stillness of death was diffused over its 38 smooth surface, where all was fair and all was deceitful : public spirit and public vir- tue were become extinct — the animating soul of genius had fled. In short, if the internal constitutions of the ancient republics were badly constructed — if they were not proof against the storms and tempests that awaited them — if they did not afford such complete security for private and personal rights as our modern societies ; they' were the nurseries of genius and learning, of bold conception and of manly thought ; to them are we indebted for the developement of the best and noblest faculties of human nature—" for all heroic deeds and fair desires." It may be that the men of those days appear of a more gigan- tic stature in the haze of a distant an- tiquity, or amidst the glare with which the eloquent writers of their own times have surrounded them. But after making these deductions, it must be allowed that there was something in the institutions of Greece and Rome, which, if it contributed less to private happiness and domestic tran- quillity, was even more favourable to the 39 display of great powers of thought and ac- tion, than the most wisely constituted: and nicely balanced goVerhraents. of modern times. _ _ If any additional jproof were wanting, of the' almost inseparable connexion between the growth, of the polite arts, and national independence and civil freedom, it would be found in the simultaneous revival of let- ters and liberty on the favoured soil of Italy. In the midst, of the fierce contentions of the Italian republics of the. middle ages, whilst they struggled against each other in fatal hostility, or league^ to repel the at- tacks of their common enemies ; whilst the bosom, of every state was agitated with the most violent convulsions, and th,e rancour of advdrse factions was transuiitted in deadly hate from generation to generation ; the arts and literature started,/ as it were, from the sepulchres, where they had been shrouded in the darkness of a thousand years, and put on new form^ of life and beauty. The true dignity of human nature was once more asserted in the public councils and acts of these communities, and especially of Flo- 6 40 rence, where three or four thousand , free citizens occupied, in rapid rotation, the first offices of the stattj, sustained' with wisdom , and firmness the rights and honour of their country, and acquired an extent of political knowledge and political acuteness, which baflled the skill of all the courts and cabi- nets of Europe. It was amidst the storms of her " fierce democratie," that the sublime genius of Michael Angelo was nursed. To the agitation of its billows we are indebted for the wonderful poetry of Dante, with all its terrific energy. He had been a leader among the political factions of his coun- try — and the deep tones of his implacable scorn and hate of the base betrayers' of her independence and freedom, powerfully con- trast with the deeper pathos of his allusions to all he had loved and cherished in Arno's sweet vale. Perhaps even Athens, in the brightest days of her glory, did not rival this noble city in the successful cultivation of the arts and learning. They were, indeed, encou- raged and patronized in a different manner, owing to the very different condition of mo- 41 dern, society. Commerce, was the most honourable employment of t|ie Florentine state. Her eminent merchants rose, not only to wealth, hut to political power and influence, by the success of their commer- cial operations. Her artizans, in their dif- ferent guilds or corporations, enjoyed a share of sovereign authority, and were fitted for the exercise of the highest public functions, by the , general, taste for reading and for political discussions, which was diffused among them. ' It was not uncom- mon to see able negociators,, ' and even generals, issue from then-worTc-shop and the compting-house, and retiirn to them again when their country no longer required their seryices. That ease and leisure which was secured to the governing class in the an- cient republics by the labour of slaves, was afforded to that of Florence by the supe- rior skill and ingenuity of her artists and manufacturers, and the diligence, enter- prise, and frugality of her merchants. •, They did not cease from their usual occupations after attaining the most elevated stations of the republic ; and the Medecis continued to 42 carry on the accustomed trade of i:heir an- .cestors long after they had acquired the absolute control over the'" public councils of their country. . It is to the munificfence, taste, and libe- rality of the first Cosmo de Medeci, that we owe the recovery of many of the most valuable remains of ancient literature. His exquisite taste in the arts, and his deep erudition, enabled him to judge what was most worthy of recovery and preservation among the reipaains pf antiquity, and of patronage among the productions of the dawning genius of his countrymen. He was a merchant, and at the same time, a statesman and a scholar — -who appropriated the gains of his trade, not in selfish sen- suality, or ostentatious display, but in the patronage of learning and the arts — not in embellishing his ovvn pifivate mansion, or in hoarding up inordinate wealth for his chil- drenj but in a.dorning his native city with permanent monuments of .taste and ge- nius^n founding magnificent libraries and museums, which still attest tlie former grandeur pf ^xis country. His inimense 43 wealth and his commercial cohnexions, which embraced every part of the ti^en civi- lized world, were employed in the servicje of lietters. The agents of his commercial houses in every country of Europe, and of the East were instructed to collect all the most precious works of art,, arid the most rare; and valuable' manuscripts. He was saluted in his own life-time with the title of Father of his Country; his praises have been re-echoed by the gratitude of letters in every age ; and his . ilame will be trans- mitted to the latest posterity as one of the most distinguished benefactors of mankind. Such is the return which commerce ishould make for the immense obligations she owes to science. From' the men who first read the stars on the plains of Chaldsea, and guided by their light " the ships of the; desart" in search of the riches of the East — frankincense and myi-rh, "barbaric pearl and gold'-'^until. Vasco de Gama encoun- tered the stormy genius of the African cape, and the Genoese pilot launched his frail barks upon the broad Atlantic ; and still more in our own adventurous and enlight- 44 ened times, has commerce been indebted to science for opening to her view new paths of enterprise, and new sources of wealth. So too, commerce has ever delight- ed to dwell in the haunts of freedom, and under her powerful protection. If the city of Pallas was the first to establish equal laws, she was also the foremost in sending forth her sons to colonize, the barbarous regions of the earth, to diffuse the soft light of Grecian letters and art, and to bind to- gether the most distant nations by the pacific and humanizing ties of civiliza.tion and commerce. But American commerce is above all deeply indebted to freedom and to science— to the enlightened sagacity of the statesmen who looked forward through the darkness of the future, to foresee the triumphs which awaited her enterprise and industry, (more splendid than the" fabled achievements of the Argonauts)^ — of the men who laid the deep and solid foundations of her security in thei constitution of their country, who constructed it as much for commerce as for liberty — for justice — and for security against 45 foreign • aggressibn. If commerce be the surest basis of the maritime power and grandeur of a n"ation, let it also be remem- bered "that national pOwer may become on- ly the instrument of injustice to others, and of self-inflicted misery on its possessors, unless it be enlightened by wisdom and vir- tue ; unless it be chastised and' mitigated ty the propitious influence of taste and learn- ing. The superabundant capital^ j^ccumu- lated by the merchants of this country, are already seeking new channels of employ- ment. They are, in the natural order of sor- ciety, flowing into the reservoirs opened^ for them by the useful arts, and again diffusing themselves and animating every branch of industry. They are rhinistering to the im- provement of the interior, in every thing which contributes to the comforts of Civilized man— making the wilderness to blossom- as the rose— bridging the broad floods, and ex- cavating the lofty barriers, which seem to have been interposed, not to deter, but to excite the persevering courage of man to overcome the difficulties which are insuper- able to all but the eye of genius. Sdon 46 shall these gigantic aqueducts 'overleap the ramparts of the AppaiachiaUj not to bear some future Hannibal or Napoleon, to the conquests of the fertile plains of the west— but (as we fondly hope) to unite the father of floods with the waters of the Atlantic—^ to carry the peaceful triumphs of American industry beyond that other ram.part which stands as if to forbid our approach to the shores of the Pacific. If commerce is already able to spare from her coffers the nieans of construcjting these monuments, grander far than those by which the Eternal City signalized her dominion over the subject world— surely she may, out of her abundance, contribute something to the still nobler object of improving the high- er and better part of bur nature^of adding to the gratification of those wants which na- ture and civilization have created^, the im- provement of our intellectual faculties — the embellishment' of life by all those arts which give to polished society its chief ornament and ^race — and the exaltation of the national character, by that superiority which the general sentiment of mankind 47 has regarded as the chief title to distinc- tion. In the decline of national greatness, freedom may fade-^agriculture may lan- guish and decays-riches and the useful arts may take to themsetyes \yings, and fly to some more genial clime: tut the glory of science and letters will survive the general wreck, and command for. the nation whom they once" illustrated, the admiration and sympathy of the Vorld.' Every object of art or nature with which the achievements of such a nation are associated, — the mountain streams of her poetry — the battle plains on which her freedpm was lost or won^ — the vestiges of her ruined temples and senate houses— the places where her patriots stood forth to avert her doom with the warning, prophetic voice of wisdom — all these are sa- cred in the eyes of the generous and the free? who throng from every clime to tread- her "haunted, holy ground." What is it but this that lends such an irresistible charm to that country in whose struggles for a new existence, the wise and the good, in every region, take such anjntense interest? There are other skies as fair — other fruits as 7 48 golden — and other mountains with forms as romantic and graceful as those of Hellas. But hers is the, land of gods and godlike men. -, In that fair clime, the lonely herdsman, stretch'd On the soft grass, through half a summer's day, With music lulled his indolent repose : And in some fit of weariness, if- he. When his own breath was silent, chaac'd to hear , A distant strain, far sweeter than the sounds Which his poor skill cotild make, his fancy fetch'd. Even from the blazing chariot of the sun, A beardless youth, who touched a golden lute, And filled th' illumined groves with ravishnient. ; This sacred light, which the imagination of the Greeks thus brought frOm above, has been since transmitted to, and found a wel- come in, every clime where there were hearts capable of feeling its influence : it has shot across the universe, and cheered the nations with its rays : it has left a bright track be- hind it, and points to man the path to that heaven whence it came. The Greeks thus became lihe parents and instructors of man- kind in poetry, in philosophy, in eloquence, in art, in all that contributed to the true dig- 49 nity of ^uman nature, For these gifts, the grateful benedictions of their fellow men^in every region of the civilized globe, ascend and wait upon their holy conflict. Strike, sons of Hellas, for freedom and for ven- geance! -Arise, Pallas, and guard thy be- loved walls with the terror of that Mgis, which frighted ,the stern sbul of Alaric from his barbarous intent ! ^^^ ^ Such are the high incentives which should impel us in the career of intellectual im- provement, and such the bright anticipations we may iiidolge from the peculiar advan- tages of our situation as a nation. But the progress of society has been so rapid ; the improvements and . discoveries in politics, in morals, in arts> and in manners, have been so great; and such, above all, is the vantage ground that we have gained as a nation, that even if the lights of history should fail us in the novelty of our peculiar situation, and a review of other times and other countries should afford us no ana- logies on which we could certainly rely, we should still have a right to look forward with cheerful confidence to the future. We 50 inherit from our ancestors a government of law and liberty, which we feel and know to be favourable to the developeraerit of every liberal talent. We may rely upon its perr manency with the stronger assurance, be- cause no other form of rule is suited to our habits, our manners, and our condition ; and because it has already endured the test of two hundred years' experience* The poli- tical institutions and genius of our people have always been essentially republican from the first settlement of the country. Our ancestors were the cotemporaries of the .great men whose free spirit, bursting forth in the first reign of the Stuarts, pre- pared the glories of the English Qommon- wealth^ and by the final expulsion of that infatuated race, laid the foundations of that pre-eminence Great Britain . has since en- joyed in arts, in letters, and in national power; This confirmed stability of our in- stitutions is a cpnspiing reflection, since the constitution of a government is not the in- vention of a day; it must be the living offspring of time and experience ; it must grow with the growth, and strengthen with 51 the strength of a nation : it must entwine itseli" with eyefy fibre of its existence ; and become incorporated with its other institu- tions, with its manners arid nsages, its feel- ings, and its opinions. - From am: