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 tlie Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924029541681 
 
Minttt on aEleati(ns. 
 
 A]>DRESS 
 
 JDELIVEKED IN THE 
 
 IPSWICH FEMALE SEMINARY, 
 
 JANUARY 16, 1834. 
 
 BY DANIEL DANA, D. D. 
 
 MINISTER OF THE GOSPEL IK NEWBURVFORT. 
 
 NEWBURYPORT : 
 PUBLISHED BY THE COMMITTEE 
 
 Priated at the Easei-North Register OfSce. 
 1834. 
 
Ipswich, Janpart 16, 1834. 
 
 In behalf of the teachers and young ladies of Ipswich Female Seminary, we' 
 respectfully request for publication, a copy of the Address on the choice of au- 
 thors, which was delivered before the school, this morning. They wish tor 
 the privilege of reading and studying what they heard with so much pleasure. 
 
 C. WASHBURN, 1 Committee of 
 S. C. FAELEY, 5 the Teachers. 
 Rev. Dr. DANA. 
 
 My deah young friemds. 
 
 It is gratifying to find that my views on subjects ef the deepest interest, are 
 honored with approbation in a Seminary in which moral and religious ini' 
 provement holds the first and highest place. The request which you have so 
 kindly communicated, I cannot decline. And with such a sanction, I shall feel 
 an increased confidence in submitting my reflections to the public. 
 
 D. DANA. 
 
 Miss WASHBURN, and > p^^^iff.. fc„ 
 
 Miss FARLEY, I Committee.&c. 
 
ADDRESS.* 
 
 It has been remarked, that men of superior intellectual power 
 have generally appeared in our world, not solitarily, but in clus- 
 ters. If, in this remark, there is something of fancy, there is 
 likewise something of truth. It receives support from facts. 
 Shakspeare, Bacon, Camden and Coke, were contemporaries. 
 So were Tillotson, Boyle, Locke and Dryden. At a somewhat 
 later age, a galaxy of British genius, science and literature was 
 exhibited in the united rays of Newton, Clarke, Addison, Pope, 
 Swift, Ar'buthnot, and many others. In the British parliament, 
 Pitt, Burke, Fox, Sheridan, Windham, and others, formed such 
 a constellation as has not appeared before or since their time. 
 
 Nor are these facts unsusceptible of a rational explanation. 
 Crenius is like the sun. It not only illuminates other bodies by 
 its light, but where it finds a predisposition, it enkindles them 
 by its heat. The generous mutual emulation, and not unfre- 
 quently, the occasional collision, of superior minds, elicits pow- 
 ers which would otherwise hare remained latent. It is the pre- 
 rogative of true greatness to reproduce and multiply itself. A 
 single instance of pre-eminent mental energy has sometimes 
 difiused its conta^on, not only through a whole assembly, but 
 through an extensive community. 
 
 Should the question be asked, whether our own country has 
 as yet exhibited any of those luminous periods ; any of those 
 assemblages of contemporary mental superiority, to which allu- 
 sion has been made, we need not blush to give the answer. 
 The period of our Revolution was rich in men of pre-eminent 
 talents, and of great resources. The papers emitted by Con- 
 gress, in some of the earliest years of our struggle, were marked 
 
 * This discussion was originally prepared for the Newburyport Lyceum. 
 Nor has it since received any very material alterations. On this account, it 
 may seem less appropriate than might be expected, to a literary seminary of 
 females. The same circumstance, however, may possibly conduce to its mare 
 general usefulness. 
 
with a depth and extent of thought, with a force of reasoning, 
 and a fervor Of eloquence, which would have disgraced no era 
 of Greece, of Rome, or of Great Britain. The period of the 
 formation and adoption of our Federal Constitution was scarce- 
 ly less calculated to call forth the talents and energies of the na- 
 tion. TVnd it did effectually call them forth. In all parts of the 
 Union, men were found, equal to the great occasion. Our na- 
 tional charter, the result of their concentrated wisdom and coun- 
 sels, embodies the great principles of rational liberty, of well 
 balanced government, and of social order, expressed with a feli- 
 city, a force, and a luminous conciseness of which it would be 
 difficult to find a parallel. In the interpretation and defence of 
 this wonderful instrument, the talents of our most distinguished 
 citizens were again elicited and displayed. Light has gone 
 forth to the whole civilized world ; and wherever nations, long 
 oppressed, have roused to assert their rights, and to arrange the 
 principles of a free government, they have spontaneously look- 
 ed for information and guidance, to the American model. 
 
 Whether, so far as our country is concerned, the present age 
 is to be deemed an age of great men, is a question of not per- 
 fectly easy solution. When it is considered that in cases of this 
 kind, we are prone to reverse the ordinary laws of vision, and to 
 attribute magnitude to objects, not according to their nearness, 
 but their distance, our ultimate judgment, on the point, ought 
 not, it should seem, to be unfavorable. Doubtless, in all the 
 professions, and in all the departments of science and literature, 
 we have many individuals of distinguished powers and attain- 
 ments. 
 
 Should we turn our attention to the state of knowledge in the 
 community at large, our judgment must be favorable in a high 
 degree- Compared with the common people of nearly every 
 nation in Europe, the common people of the United States, and 
 especially of New-England, are in a cultivated and improved 
 state. The means of knowledge are almost universally accessi- 
 ble ; and the disposition to employ them is almost universal too. 
 Nor is the number small, even of those who do not lead a pro- 
 fessional, or literary life, who aim at considerable attainments in 
 knowledge. 
 
 Still there are discouragements and obstructions. Within the 
 last half century, the field of human knowledge has enlarged its 
 
boundaries, and the subjects of investigation have been vastly 
 multiplied. Many new branches of science have been absolute- 
 ly invented. Many long received systems have been exploded ; 
 many new theories, established ; and still others put into a train 
 of experiment. In short, the field of knowledge is boundless, 
 while the human mind is finite ; and the objects of human inquiry 
 being thus multiplied, it ha^ become absolutely impossible that 
 each should receive a minute and thorough attention. If these 
 difficulties obstruct the path of the man of leisure, and the pro- 
 fessed student, how much more discouraging must they be to 
 those who are mainly occupied with secular duties ; and with 
 whom study, though a delightful, is still but an occasional em- 
 ployment. 
 
 The advantages of Reviews, when candidly conducted, and 
 judiciously used, will not readily be questioned. But they have 
 their disadvantages too. When pennitted to talce the judgment 
 of the reader into their keeping ; and to relieve him from the 
 burden of thinkmg, they become injuries, rather than helps ; a 
 torpedo, rather than a stimulus to the mind. 
 
 Other obstructions there are to science, which appear in the 
 shape of facilities and aids. I now refer to those abstracts, 
 abridgments and epitomes, which meet us at every turn ; which 
 promise so much, and perform so little. Once they modestly 
 claimed to be mere precursors and pioneers to the regular sys- 
 tems of science ; and there were cases in which they performed 
 this humble ofiice to advantage. Of late, they threaten to be- 
 come their substitutes ; and unless these proud pretensions be 
 re^sted, they will turn our students into mere sciolists, and our 
 scenes of education into nurseries of ignorance and self-conceit. 
 
 In short, it may be doubted whether, at the present day, a 
 principal obstruction to real knowledge is not found (paradoxi- 
 cal as it may seem) in the immense multiplication of books. It 
 was once remarked by the celebrated Hobbes, who, with all his 
 lamentable eccentricities, was a man of genius, that if he had 
 read as much as most other men, he should have been as ignor- 
 ant as they. Doubtless, there is an extravagance couched in 
 the sentiment. Let us then appeal, on the point, to a much 
 safer guide ; to a genuine philosopher. " Nothing," says Du- 
 gald Stewart, " has such a tendency to weaken, not only the 
 powers of invention, but the intellectual powers in general, as a 
 
6 
 
 habit of extensive and various reading, without reflection. Here 
 it is, that the danger lies. Mere reading loads, oppresses, en- 
 feebles, instead of stimulating and strengthening the mind. 
 With multitudes, converse with books, instead of being an incen- 
 tive and aid to thought, is a substitute for thinking, and a refuge 
 from its burden. 
 
 It is generally admitted that the ancient writers of Greece and 
 Rome, (the classics, as they are called) carried the ajt of com- 
 position to a perfection which it has never attained in modern 
 days. Their productions never satiate, nor tire ; but on each 
 new perusal, unfold new beauties, and impart increEising won- 
 der and delight. In tracing their surpassing excellence to its 
 source, is it unnatural to ascribe it in part to the fact, that their 
 authors must have read comparatively little .'' A volume was a 
 serious affair in those days ; and a very moderate library would' 
 absorb a large estate. Of course, those great writers were not, 
 like the writers of modern times, continually burdened, and se- 
 duced, and distracted by thousands of volumes. They retired 
 inward. They drew from their own resources; and by contin- 
 ual reflection and self-chastening, they prepared their minds for 
 their best and loftiest exertions ; and poured upon the world 
 those productions whose solid worth has commanded the admi- 
 ration of ages, and whose lustre is unobscured by the lapse of 
 time. 
 
 " In casting our eyes," say the Eclectic Reviewers, " over a 
 large library, we would wish more than half of the volumes to 
 be committed to the flames, because they are pernicious ; the 
 half of what remain, to be torn up for waste paper, because they 
 contain harmless falsehoods ; a moiety of the residue, to grace the 
 library unopened, because they contain useless truths ; and the 
 small remnant, after all these deductions, to form the regular 
 food of the understanding." It is not needful to adopt this sen- 
 tence in all its unsparing severity. But we may at least borrow 
 a hint from it. Without a breach of candor, we may pronounce 
 that more than one half of the books with which the press is del- 
 uging the community, are utterly unworthy to be opened and 
 read. 
 
 The present age, far more than any which has preceded it, 
 may be pronounced a reading age ; and ours, probably more 
 than any other community, a reading community. The press is 
 
prolific, beyond all former example. Books, on a great variety 
 of subjects, find their way, not only to the parlors of the rich, 
 but to their kitchens too ; and to the humblest abodes of the 
 poor. Yet it will scarcely be asserted that there is a general 
 diffusion of real knowledge ; of mental cultivation and taste, 
 which at all corresponds with these advantages. If, as is highly 
 probable, the cause of this is found in the fact, that the reading 
 of most is indiscriminate and injudicious ; determined by no fix- 
 ed principles, and directed to no definite objects ; it will follow, 
 of course, that the remedy, the revolution, must begin here. 
 Our reading, to he profitable, must he select. It is to this point, 
 that I propose to direct a few observations, which, I doubt not, 
 will receive a candid attention from the young ladies whom I 
 have thfe pleasure to address. They are likewise submitted, with 
 much deference to the teachers ; to whom, as I conceive, it be- 
 longs, not only to prescribe and direct the studies of their pupils 
 while under then eye ; but to superintend the whole course of 
 their reading. 
 
 In suggesting the principles of tlie selection in view, I would 
 remark, first, that our choice should fall principally, not on books 
 of mere amusement, but those of solid and permanent utility. 
 The imagination, it is admitted, is a most important faculty. It 
 claims, and justly, both food and cultivation. Well nourished, 
 and well regulated, it is the source of no small portion of our de- 
 light and improvement, our acffWty and usefulness. But why 
 should this faculty have a totally disproportionate share of atten- 
 tion ? Especially, why should it be stimulated to a preternatural 
 action ; or medicined into a morbid sensibility, equally incom- 
 patible with the sober duties, and the best enjoyments of Kfe ? 
 Such is too probably the effect of the greater part of the reading 
 which has become common and fashionable. We do not wish, 
 indeed, that our citizens at large should range the fields of classic 
 knowledge, or plunge into the depths of mathematics, of meta- 
 physics, or antiquities. But what should hinder our respectable 
 mechanics, or manufacturers, or farmers, from gaining such a 
 knowledge of the principles of philosophy, or chemistry, or bota- 
 ny, as may not only afford them materials of ceaseless thought, but 
 turn to the most important practical account .'' And why should 
 not every human being seek some acquaintance with the rules 
 of investigating truth, and of detecting and refuting error ; with 
 
8 
 
 the philosophy of the rnmtl ; with the structure of the frame j 
 with the causes and the cures of the maladies to which it is liable ? 
 Living in a world framed and supported for our use, and richly 
 decorated for our dehght,- shall we not ceaselessly explore its 
 beauties and wonders ? Shall we not ceaselessly explore the 
 laws, the order, the harmony of the numberless worlds with 
 which we are surrounded ? And shall we not in all behold and 
 admire the transcendertt excellencies of Him who is the First 
 Faie, and the Fiest Good ? Shall history unfold to us her ample 
 pages. in vain? Shall we be inattentive to the destinies of those 
 countless millions of fellow-beings who have occupied, before 
 us, -their little moment on the stage of time, and have been suc- 
 cessively summoned away to their long home ? Believing that 
 there is an immortality of bUss awaiting the pious, beyond the 
 grave, shall we not daily meditate that divine Book which can 
 guide us to if ; and intensely study whatever of human compo- 
 sition may help us to understand its meaning, and feel its force ? 
 Surely with these considerations before us, it must be admitted, 
 that for a rational, immortal being to read only, or even princi- 
 pally, for purposes of amusement, is the most egregious and un- 
 worthy trifling. 
 
 My next remark is on the importance of selecting as the prin- 
 cipal subjects of perusal, authors of high rank; I mean, great, 
 standard, original writers. There is a certain class of authors 
 who give us great thoughts ; and in a manner too, which shows 
 that great thoughts are familiar, and not the fruit of mere pains- 
 taking. Not content to beat the vulgar path, they can divert, 
 at will, into new and unusual tracts of contemplation. Or per- 
 haps, without departmg from truth and nature, they can impart 
 the force and attractions of novelty to common and familiar sub- 
 jects. Such are the writers who not only inform, but expand 
 and invigorate the mind ; who not only impart an affluence of 
 ideas, but wake up new trains of thought in our own breasts. 
 These are th6 writers who chiefly claim our perusal. Others 
 may be our occasional companions. These should be our favor- 
 ite and familiar friends. And they are easily distinguished. 
 
 Who can open the volumes of Milton, and not perceive at once 
 that he is taken into the company of a great and elevated mind ; 
 a mind familiar with grand conceptions ; and expatiating at its 
 ease, in a beautiful and magnificent world of its own creation .'' 
 
Shakgpeare was formed on a etill superior scale. He was fai' 
 behind Milton in learning. But, as Dryden beautifully and 
 justly remarks : " Those who accuse him of wanting learning, 
 give him the greatest commendation. He was naturally learn- 
 ed. He needed not the spectacles of books to read nature. He 
 looked inward, and found her there." What is there, of sub- 
 lime and beautiful in the natural world, which he has not des- 
 cribed ? What nook or corner of the human heart has he not 
 ransacked.? What passion, or sentiment: — I had almost said, 
 what thought ever found its way to the mind, which he has not 
 clothed in its aptest and most forcible expressions i* — O that he 
 had been less familiar with what is dark and impure in human 
 nature J or that he had exhibited with less distinctness of color- 
 ing, what is either loathsome, or contaminating.* 
 
 With pleasure we turn from an author so great in his beauties, 
 arid his faults, to another who was great, and almost without a 
 fault ; I mean the Earl of Chatham. That he was really a man 
 of uncommon and transcendent mind, there is unequivocal evi- 
 dence. He was great among his familiar acquaintance and 
 friends. His speeches frequently overpowered and confounded 
 his every-day companions. Mansfield himself, with all his ac- 
 knowledged powers, sometimes trembled before him. Indeed, 
 it has been said that' his presence sometimes overawed majesty 
 itself; and that wie of his Sovereigns, impatient of his superior- 
 ity, adopted measures to remove him from his presence, and his 
 counsels. And when we read his speeches, we perceive a mind 
 pouring out lofty sentiments, and uttering maxims of profound 
 wisdom, apparently without study or effort. Do we inquire for 
 the sources of his commanding eloquence .'' They are found in a 
 mind conscious of its own rectitude ; in an ardent love of coun- 
 try ; in a fixed and fearless pursuit of noble ends, by noble means ; 
 and an unconquerable aversion from every thing flagitious and 
 base. Nowhere, perhaps, have we, so much as in his speeches, 
 an exemplification of the remark of a fine writer. " The heart," 
 says he, " is the true source of intellectual power. All great 
 thoughts come from the heart." 
 
 'Editions of Shakspeare have been published In England, from which the 
 passages offensive to delicacy are expunged. It is Impossible not to wish that 
 editions of this character might alone prevail in our own country. The inter- 
 ests of virtue and good taste equally demand, it. 
 
 2 
 
iO 
 
 Another writer of great and uncommon power, is Edmund 
 Burke. His speeches, indeed, and sOme of his other works, 
 seem to contain too much of ahnost every thing that goes to con- 
 stitute excellence ; too much genius, and too much learning ; 
 too much matter, and too much ornament. It has been remark- 
 ed of him, and probably with as much justice as it could have 
 been remarked of any man who was so much a politician; that 
 " we rise from the perusal of his writings, satisfied that we have 
 not spent our time in discussions merely applicable to temporary 
 or party interests. There is a conviction of knowing what we 
 did not know before ; of feeling something which we did not be- 
 fore feel, like permanent enlargement of mind ; and this proba- 
 bly arises from the influence of that combination of qualities 
 which constitute his peculiar greatness, by finding genius blend- 
 ed with knowledge; elegance of exposition with depth of 
 thought ; principles with facts ; philosophy with practical poli- 
 tics ; maxims of abstract wisdom with those of his own experi- 
 ence, serving to bear upon, to illustrate, and to explain each 
 other." 
 
 Should it be asked whether, among American statesmen, there 
 can be found a worthy companion of Chatham and Burke, I 
 would reply without hesitation. Yes — Daniel Webster. And 
 unless I mistake, we shall find, in almost all the productions of 
 this distinguished statesman and orator, which have been given 
 to the public, not only decisive indications of genius, but some 
 of its best and choicest attributes. With little of refined specu- 
 lation, of affected novelty, or artificial embellishment, we haVe 
 much extensive and profound thought, much accurate discrimi- 
 nation, much powerful and conclusive reasoning. In short, Mr. 
 Webster's eloquence is the eloquence of good sense, mingled 
 with just as much of ornament as we would expect from a high- 
 ly cultivated intellect, and a brilliant, but chastened imagination. 
 In all his productions, there is a kind of crystalline clearness. 
 The labor which a second-rate orator employs to embellish a 
 subject, or perhaps to shroud it in mystery, Mr. Webster em- 
 ploys to bring it into the broad light of day. Above all, and bet- 
 ter than all, he is almost always in the right. In perusing him, 
 we give him a voluntary surrender of our minds ; and this, in 
 the full conviction that we are not captivated by the art of the 
 oratar, but subdued by the power of truth. — If to any, these re- 
 
11 
 
 iwiarks appear extravagant, let thexn peruse his dispourses deliv- 
 ered at Plymouth, and at Bunker Hill. Let them peruse his 
 speeches in the Convention for altering the Constitution of Mas- 
 sachusetts — a venerable assembly, in which, more than any oth- 
 er man, he was the actuating and presiding genius. Let them 
 peruse his speeches in Congress on the Grepk Revolution, on the 
 Panama Mission; and the speech in 1830, in which he so tri- 
 umphantly refiited the Southern heresy ; and with a kind of 
 mathematical accuracy, though apparently without premedita- 
 tion or effort, marked out the boundaries of federal and state 
 power. In fine, let them peruse his discourse in Faneuil Hall, 
 in commemoration of the two Presidents, in which, while des- 
 cribing the characteristics of genuine eloquence, he has uncon- 
 sciously described his own. " Nothing," says he, " is valuable 
 in speech, farther than it is connected with high intellectual and 
 moral endowments. Clearness, force and earnestness, are the 
 qualities which produce conviction. True eloquence does not 
 consist in speech. It cannot be brought from far. **** It must 
 exist in the man, in the subject, and in the occasion. Affected 
 passion, intense expression, the pomp of declamation, all may 
 aspire after it — they cannot reach it. It comes, if it come at al^ 
 like the outbreaking of a fountain from the earth ; or the burst- 
 ing forth of volcanic fires, with spontaneous, original, native 
 force." 
 
 Of original writers, I will mention but one more ; Dr. Gold- 
 smith. And few have better claims to the character, than he. 
 He wrote on a considerable variety of subjects ; and on almost 
 every subject which came under his pen, he poured the light, 
 not only of a fine taste, arid a splendid, though chastened imag- 
 ination, but of a creative genius. Even his abridgments of his- 
 tory, (though sometimes they bear the marks of haste) instead 
 of being the tame and spiritless things which such writings are 
 often found, rise to the dignity of beautiful and instructive orig- 
 inals. If his prose writings have their rare excellencies, his poe- 
 try is still superior. The " Deserted Village," had it stood alone, 
 would have given him ample claims to immortality. Who has 
 not read that inimitable poem .'' And who that has read it, will 
 not often recur with delight, to the village preacher, and the 
 village school-master, and to the village ale-house with its 
 
 white-wash'd wall, its nicely sanded floor, 
 And varnish'd clock, that click'd behind the door. 
 
13 
 
 But these themes are somewhat too seductive. I close the 
 present topic with a single remark. If, as is undoubtedly the 
 feet, the greater portion of books are mere copies; and in- 
 deed copies of copies, through many successive generations; the 
 obvious and only way to spare ourselves endless trouble and vex- 
 ation, is to repair to the originals. If, as has been ludicrously, but 
 with too much justice remarked, the art of book-making is but the 
 aSair of pouring out of one bottle into another, let us go to the 
 flask which is the prime repository of the liquid ; and thus re- 
 ceive it with its best flavor, and free from the thousand contami- 
 nations it contracts in its progress from vessel to vessel. Sufler 
 me to remark. 
 
 Thirdly. Our attention should be much confined to those 
 authors to whom we can give our confidence ; and with whom 
 the love of truth is superior to the love of theory, and of every 
 thing else. Even in the sciences, prejudice and prepossession 
 have done incalculable mischief. We are told of a certain Flor- 
 entine philosopher, that he never could be persuaded to look 
 through one of Gahleo's telescopes, lest he should see something 
 in the heavens which might disturb his belief in the Aristotelian 
 philosophy. Other philosophers, ancient and modern, in their 
 attachment to long established and long cherished theories, have 
 closed their eyes against the light of truth ; and thus have pass- 
 ed through lives of much study and labor, in a kind of learned 
 ignorance. Another class of philosophers have vibrated to the 
 opposite extreme. A restless love of novelty ; an insatiable fond- 
 ness for theorizing, has been the ignis fatuus which has seduced 
 and betrayed them. Dr. Priestley was confessedly a man of no 
 mean powers ; and had his judgment and common sense borne 
 any proportion to his learning, he might have proved both a great 
 philosopher, and a great divine. But his excessive and unbridled 
 love of theory spoiled him for a philosopher, and more than spoil- 
 ed him for a theologian. It would be truly amusing, were it 
 not still more humiliating and painful, to see a man of talents 
 and learning, embracing almost every different theory of religion, 
 in rapid succession ; undoubtingly confident that every newly 
 adopted opinion was ri^t ; and even unsparingly condemning 
 others who differed from him less, perhaps, than he had repeat- 
 edly differed from himself. His History of early opinions con- 
 cerning Jesus Christ abounds with the opposite, and yet allied 
 
13 
 
 ■extremes of bigotry and credulity. While his Hutory of the 
 Corruptions of Christianity has been pronounced by an able, 
 und not uncandid judge, to deserve much better to be entitled. 
 Corruptions of the history of Christianity. 
 
 Other histories, which have acquired no small celebrity, have 
 their value much impaired by the prejudices of their authors ; 
 prejudices which have more than neutralized their talents, and 
 rendered their learning more injurious to the cause of truth, than 
 almost any degree of ignorance could have been. Can any 
 one suppose that Hume's elaborate and admired History of 
 England, ^ves a fair and lucid exposition, either of the course 
 of public events, or of the distinguishing excellencies and defects 
 of private character ? Far from this ; wherever the author's big- 
 oted principles in government, or prepossessions against genuine 
 religion, come into operation, they distort and pervert every 
 thing, and render him one of the most dangerous of guides. 
 His history may be useful to those who have the judgment and 
 the leisure to compare it with others, and by the comparison to 
 correct its eccentricities. But to follow him with any degree of 
 implicit confidence, is utterly unsafe. 
 
 Similar remarks may be made on Gibbon's History of the de- 
 cline and fall of the Roman Empire. In this splendid and im- 
 posing work, it is impossible for the intelligent reader not to see, 
 beneath a transparent veil of affected hberality, a systematic and 
 malignant hostility to religion. When he undertakes to account 
 for the early progress and success of Christianity, and its triumph 
 over the estabhshed religions of the earth, he does indeed coldly 
 acknowledge that these effects are attributable to the evidence 
 of the doctrine itself, and the providence of its Author. But in 
 farther developing the subject, he obviously attempts to retract 
 his own acknowledgment, and to leave the impression that 
 Christianity was indebted for its prevalence to the same causes 
 which have aided the progress of other religions, of mere human 
 origin. It is scarcely necessaiy to add, that in pursuing this ob- 
 ject, the author has succeeded in deceiving only himself, and the 
 most unwary of his readers. The very arguments by which he 
 has aimed to prove that the Christian religion, and the means of 
 its advancement, were merely human, prove decisively to every 
 enlightened and candid mind, that both the one and the other 
 were divine. Still, he is a dangerous and seductive writer ; and 
 
14 
 
 to be read, if read at all, with the same suspicion with which we 
 listen to a witness not merely suspected, but discredited. 
 
 With what delight do we turn from a writer of this character, 
 to the fair-minded and virtuous Rollin. With no object or 
 guide, but truth; with no prejudices, but in favor of virtue and 
 goodness, he leads us in a plain path. We converse with him, 
 as a friend ; and we hsten to him, as a kind and faithful coun- 
 sellor. We can trust him in the dark, if needful ; fully assured 
 that our confidence will not be disappointed. 
 
 If candor, and an unshalien adherence to truth are inestima- 
 ble qualities in a historian, America may well value herself upon 
 her Marshall. On this great man was devolved the duty of 
 writing the Ufe of the Father of his country ; embracing not only 
 the stormy period of the revolutionary war, but the scarcely less 
 tempestuous scenes which attended the commencement and the 
 early progress of our Federal Republic. The highest party and 
 political excitements were to be described, by one who was 
 himself no neutral character; and at a period when the great 
 multitude of those concerned, were still living. The task was 
 executed ; fearlessly, thoroughly executed ; yet with such incon- 
 testible truth and accuracy, such scrupulous and delicate impar- 
 tiality, as commanded a tribute of almost universal praise. The 
 British Reviewers have done httle justice to this highly merito- 
 rious work. But it neither needs their praise, nor fears their 
 censure. It stands self-sustained, and sustained by the ap- 
 probation of the most disinterested and competent judges. 
 I pass to 
 
 A fourth remark. To entitle an author to be a favorite, he 
 should certainly possess a presiding spirit of benevolence. 
 We are prone to catch the air, the manner, the spirit of those 
 friends with whom we familiarly associate. Why should not 
 the case be the same, as it regards the writers with whom we 
 frequently converse .? The literary world has abounded, from 
 age to age, with satirists who have lashed the vices of the 
 times with unfeeling, unsparing severity. But neither the lit- 
 erary, nor any other world, has abounded with the good fruits 
 of this species of reforming process. Are not the effects of 
 mtimacy with such writings, at least questionable, even as 
 they regard virtuous minds .? Do they not repress the senti- 
 ments of compassion for the miserable ; that is, the vicious, 
 
15 
 
 *vho are the eminently miserable ? Dd they not cherish feef-' 
 
 ings of harshness, and contempt for our species; perhaps 
 
 too, of pride and self-preference ? How must Pope have felt, 
 
 when he was writing his Dcinciad ? Was he prepared to adopt 
 
 the language of his own prayer ? 
 
 That mercy I to othei-s show, 
 That mercy show to me. 
 
 It is true, that on another occasion, he could say, and with 
 
 strong symptoms of self-satisfaction : 
 
 Ask you what provocation I have had ? 
 — The strong antipathy of good to bad. 
 
 But could this have been the prompting motive, when he 
 
 contemplated giving a place in the Dunciad to Dr. Watts ; 
 
 and was prevented only, by the expostulations of a friend who 
 
 urged him first to read the writings of that excellent man, 
 
 vvhich, it should seem, he had not read before. 
 
 In perusing the celebrated letters of the Eritish Junius, wo 
 are instructed by the writer's luminous views of liberty and 
 government; we are delighted with his fine taste, and fre- 
 quent classic allusions ; we are amused with his details of 
 political intrigue and tergiversation; we are sometimes en-, 
 kindled by the ardor of his patriotism. Still, from the ac- 
 knowledged merits of this wonderful Unknown, there are 
 great and serious deductions. His cold-blooded, merciless 
 attacks on private character are, to the benevolent mind, 
 painful and disgusting. His severity is not only extreme, 
 but partial and capricious. Not a few of its objects were 
 persons of real worth.. Others had their follies, and their 
 vices too. But probably few or none were those monsters of 
 depravity and crime which he has represented. Unless, 
 therefore, we would expunge from the code of criticism, its 
 best maxim ; that nothing is beautiful, which is not true ; we 
 must divest this distinguished writer of a portion of that ad- 
 miration which he has -not been backward to arrogate, nor 
 the reading public backward to bestow. 
 
 There are few works which the literary world could so ill 
 spare, as Dr. Johnson's Lives,of the Poets. Yet who does 
 not wish a wdrk on many accounts so valuable, divested of its 
 extreme severity .'' It cannot, indeed, be sufficiently regret- 
 ted, that this ungracious attribute so thoroughly pervades the 
 piece, that to remove it, would be to destroy the whole tex- 
 
1& 
 
 turer, and leave only a collection of fragments. So avaricious-' 
 ]y stinted is the measure of praise ; so abundant the distribu- 
 tion of censure; so sparing the illustratron of beauties; so 
 keen the detection, and so merciless, often, the exhibition 
 of faults ; that we can neither witness the scene without pain,, 
 nor quit it without a degree of disgust. Yet Dr. Johnson 
 was indisputably a great man ; and when not misled by pre- 
 judice or partiality, a most instructive critic. 
 
 What a striking and delightful reverse do we find, in pass- 
 ing to the pages of Addison. Would we acquaint ourselves 
 with the distinguishing qualities of this excellent man, we 
 must pferuse the Spectator. It is his writings principally, 
 which give character and interest to that iniriiitable work.* 
 Here we see a great, original, independent thinker. We 
 perceive a highly cultivated intellect, a brilliant and active 
 imagination, a judgment delicately correct, a "hiind rich in 
 the stores of ancient and modern literature, and a heart still 
 richer in the kindest and best sensibilities. With him, noth- 
 ing is odious, but vice; nothing ridiculous, but folly. And 
 even vice and folly, are constrained to blush at their own der 
 ibrmity, and to kiss the hand that would so gently chastise 
 them into wisdom and goodness. 
 
 My fifth remark is more important than any which have 
 preceded it. In selecting authors for frequent and familial' 
 perusal, we should have a primary regard to their moral pu- 
 rity. Were we angels, we might converse with infected air, 
 without inhaling it ; and return uncontaminated, from objects 
 and scenes of pollution. But such is not the lot of mortali- 
 ty. To creatures imperfect and depraved as we, the very 
 vicinity of vice is dangerous ; its touch, almost certainly fa- 
 tal. The process of mental contamination is described by 
 Pope with his usual felicity and accuracy. 
 
 Vice is a monster of so frightful mein, 
 As to be hated, needs but to be seen. 
 But Been too oft, familiar with her face, 
 We fipst endure, then pity, then embrace. 
 
 It is the grand approbrium of polite literature, ancient and 
 
 modern, that it has so often been the vehicle of sentiments 
 
 * It cannot, indeed, be denied, that the remarks made on ths writings of 
 Shakspeare, apply, in a degree, to some portions of the Spectator. But the pa- 
 pers of Addison are generally the least infested with these exceptionable things. 
 
17 
 
 polluting to the imagination, and subversive of every reli- 
 gious and moral principle. With this flagitious character we 
 are compelled to brand, almost without distinction, the mass of 
 productions prepared for the stage. No small portion of their 
 authors must be acknowledged as the enemies and pests of their 
 species ; if to have poisoned thousands of minds, and to have 
 destroyed thousands of souls, can entitle them to this guilty pre- 
 eminence. Who can deny, that throughout the great mass of 
 English dramatic writings, libertinism, impurity, profaneness, 
 and other flagitious vices and crimes are frequently attached to 
 characters held up to admiration and applause.^ While all that 
 is lovely in virtue, or venerable in piety, is as frequently dis- 
 graced by the most degfading associations. The same sentence 
 of condemnation applies with almost equal force, to a great por- 
 tion of English romances and novels. The admired novels of 
 Fielding and Smollett, stamped as they confessedly are, with 
 the signatures of genius, cannot be justly exempted from the 
 general censure. And Sterne, whose exquisite touches of na- 
 ture lifted up his writings, notwithstanding their disgusting in- 
 delicacy, ta a temporary popularity, seems at leiigth, by the 
 force of gravitation, and by general consent, to have sunk to his 
 proper level of ignominy. , 
 
 It is readily admitted, that in Great Britain, the style of ficti- 
 tious history has, within the last half century, been greatly im- 
 proved ; that, both in a moral and intellectual view, it has as- 
 sumed an altered and superior character. But it admits of much 
 improvement still ; and loudly demands it. Many of the most 
 admired productions of this class, are not only wretchedly wast- 
 ing the time, but powerfully perverting the taste, and depraving 
 the morals of our youth. There is one writer in this depart- 
 ment, to whom the pubUc sufirage seems to have assigned a high 
 and undisputed pre-eminence. And most unquestionably, Sir 
 Walter Scott possessed a portion of real genius ; a mind of large 
 resources ; uncommon powers of description ; a fruitfulness of 
 thought, and versatility of pen, almost beyond example. Nor 
 can it be denied that the moral tendency of his writings is far 
 less exceptionable than that of most productions of the same 
 class. If there is any thing to regret, it is, that moral effect is 
 not a more decisive and prominent object ; that the morality 
 
 3 
 
18 
 
 presented is often equivocal ; that the virtues exhibited are al- 
 most exclusively those of the constitutional and good-humored 
 kind; that vice itself is too frequently allied with great and 
 splendid qualities ; and that those characters which will be al- 
 most inevitably and universally admired, are often such as can- 
 not with safety be imitated. Is there not, indeed, reason to 
 complain, that while characters of questionable virtue are so fre- 
 quently clothed in the most attractive dress, piety itself should 
 so often be disfigured and degraded by a fictitious alliance with 
 weakness, enthusiasm, superstition, or hypocrisy ? 
 
 The remarii which has been made respecting fictitious writ- 
 ings, applies in a degree to British poetry at large. It has ac- 
 quired a chaster, purer character. The grossnesses frequently 
 found in Dryden and Swift, and sometimes even in Pope, would 
 in our day, be scarcely tolerated. Indeed, it is a delightful fcict ; 
 it is a maxim of indisputable truth; that no writer will retain a 
 lasting hold on the public mind, who does not pay homage to 
 virtue. Accidental circumstances may give him a temporary 
 elevation ; but time^ the great leveler; the test of truth, and of 
 merit; will bring him down. Who does not remember the 
 period when the public gaze was irresistibly attracted to Byron j 
 and when a new work of his, long before it could escape from 
 the press, was awaited with a breathless kind of impatience T 
 And now, when his ashes are scarcely cold, his writings, with 
 all their unquestionable power, their meretricious beauties, and 
 unpardonable faults, are rapidly on the way to the gulf of obliv- 
 ion. While Cowper, whose modest merit made its way so slow- 
 ly to the public notice, has, after having been more than thirty 
 years in his grave, a cherished remembrance in a million hearts, 
 and a fame which extends and brightens with the lapse of ages. 
 
 I feel myself strongly tempted to offer, in this connection, a 
 few thoughts on the poetry and poets of our own growth. But 
 it is a temptation which I shall resist. To speak of living char- 
 acters, especially those at home, is a task of great delicacy. 
 And it can hardly, be questioned that our best poetry. is, witha 
 few exceptions, the growth of the last twenty or thjrty years. 
 But this is not the only difficulty. Where considerable num- 
 bers have claims to notice, it might seem invidious tp distinguish- 
 Without descending to particulars, I may be permitted to re- 
 
19 
 
 mark, that though our ctountry has produced, as yet, no lenglhr 
 ened poem of the higher order, and of universaJly acknowledg- 
 ed excellence, it has given birth to a variety of minor poems 
 which claim no small share of praise. Indeed, without assum- 
 ing the character of the judge, or the eulogist,! will venture the 
 opinion, that in this departrhent, America has contributed its 
 full proportion with the mother country, to the stores of English 
 polite literature ; and still further, that while our own poetry of 
 this description equals that of Great Britain in point of genius, 
 it even exceeds it in purity, and moral effect. 
 
 Though I have already made large use of your patience, there 
 is one additional remark which J cannot suppress. While wri- 
 ters hostile to religion, deserve nothing from us but our repro- 
 bation, those have eminent claims to our preference and love, 
 who obviously derive their inspiration from that sacred and di- 
 vine Source. " I light my lamp at the sun," said an eminent 
 French writer, when signifying to a friend, that he prepared 
 himself for the task of composition, by first sitting down to a 
 page of fiomer. Other great men have enkindled their genius 
 at an infinitely brighter sun ; while another class still, have em- 
 ployed all their powers in the impious and abortive attempt to 
 blot it out of the firmament. In all the creation of God, there 
 is not a" more horrible anomaly, than a man of brilliant mind, and 
 a dark, cold, infidel, atheistic heart ; of gr§at powers, and those 
 powers directed in impious hostility against th^ throne of God, 
 and the happiness of man. Such a guilty and wretched being 
 was Voltaire. And when it is considered that he devoted his 
 life to a virulent, systematic, incessant attack on the Christian 
 teligion ; that he was an author for more than half a century ; 
 that he had no small share of genius and learning, with uncom- 
 mon powers of wit and sarcasm ; that he wrote on a great varie- 
 ty of subjects, and diffused his poison through all ; that he wrote 
 prose and poetry — ^ponderous volumes and fugitive tracts ; that 
 he wrote in a language which was not only the language of 
 France, but of Europe, and the civilized world ; and finally, that 
 he was admired almost as extensively as he was read — when all 
 this is considered, who can calculate the immense number of 
 minds which he perverted, or of souls which he destroyed ? 
 
 And now, where is the reader who would not turn in disgust 
 
20 
 
 from the seductive, but detestable writings of such a foe of God 
 and man ? And where is the reader who would not delight to 
 give days and nights to the pages of a Pascal, bending his great 
 mind, with the simplicity of a child, to the eternal word of God 
 — of a Fenelon, distilling the truths of Inspiration from " lips 
 wet with Castalian dews" — of a Young, celebrating, in the sub- 
 limest strains, the mysteries of Redemption — of a Cowper, chant- 
 ing the love of his Savior in the sweetest tones of simplicity 
 and grace — of a Wilberforce, with classic, but unstudied elo- 
 quence, alternately vindicating the claims of Christianity, and 
 the rights of an injured race ? 
 
 It would be unpardonable, young ladies, not to call your at- 
 tention emphatically to a distinguished individual of your own 
 sex, who has lately taken her upward flight ; I mean the ven- 
 erable Hannah More. Rarely has such an assemblage of in- 
 tellectual and moral excellence appeared. The native vigor of 
 her mind ; the amplitude and variety of her knowledge ; the 
 versatiUty of her pen; her exemplary virtue; her uniform pie- 
 ty ; her long Ufe, efficiently devoted to the service of God and 
 man — all combined to place her almost alone in the world. Her 
 writings embrace a great variety of the most interesting topics. 
 And generally speaking, they deserve not only to be read, but 
 studied. Nor will their repeated perusal fail to furnish a rich 
 reward ; for they are instinct with the sublime truths, and ihe 
 heavenly spirit of Christianity. Their style is hkewise eminent- 
 ly elegant and rich ; and with a few exceptions, deserves to be 
 recommended as a model for imitation.* 
 
 We owe much to those philosophic writers who, while un- 
 folding the laws and the phenomena of nature, have traced them 
 to the power and wisdom of the Eternal ; and thus have caus- 
 ed philosophy to pay a direct tribute to Christianity. Such 
 writers are Ray and Derham. And such, in more recent time, 
 is Dr. Paley. 
 
 Among the poets, Thompson claims the same distinguished 
 praise. Hov/ delightfully has he looked, and caused his readers 
 to " look, through nature, up to nature's God." We may safely 
 
 * The principal error of Mrs. More's style seems to be, that it is somewhat 
 too learned and Johnsonian. 
 
-21 
 
 challenge all the boasted writers of antiquity ; all the distinguish- 
 ed orators and poets of Greece and Rome, to furnish us with 
 strains which approach in beauty and sublimity, ithose Jines in 
 the Hymn on the Seasons. 
 
 These, as they change, Almighty Fathec, these 
 Are but the varied God. The rolling year 
 Is full of THEE. Forth in the pleasing Spring, 
 Thy beauty walks. Thy tenderness and love. 
 
 Then comes thy glory in the Summer months, 
 With light and heat refulgent. « • « • 
 
 Thy bounty shines in Autumn, unconfined. 
 And spreads a common feast for all that lives. 
 In Winter, «wful Thou ! with clouds and storms 
 Around thee thrown * • » 
 "****** thou bidst the world adore. 
 And humblest nature with thy northern blast. 
 
 I am not willing to clese this discussion without warmly re- 
 commending to all who hear me, the incessant study of one 
 BOOK, which infinitely more than all others, tends at once to en- 
 large the understanding, to sublimate the sentiments, to purify 
 the soul, and thus prepare it for ithe everlasting presence and 
 communion of its God. The Bible, my friends, may be under- 
 valued by the prosperous and the gay ; but to the afflicted, it is 
 the balm of every woe. It may be neglected in health ; but it 
 is the only friend to the dying pillow,. It may be despised by 
 the vain, and hated by the impious ; but wi& all the wise, and 
 great, and excellent of the race, it has been an object of unmin- 
 gled admiration and love. " Every sentence of the fiible," says 
 Bishop Horsley, " is from God ; and every man is interested in 
 the meaning of it." " We account," says Sir Isaac Newton, 
 " the Scriptures of God, the most sublime philosophy." " Those 
 passages,". says Boyle, "which are so obscure, that they teach 
 us nothing else, may at least teach us humility." ' " In the first 
 page of this sacred Book," says Home, " a child may learn 
 more in an hour, than all the philosophers in the world learned 
 without it, in a thousand years." " Study," says Locke, " the 
 Holy Scriptures. Therein are contained the words of eternal 
 life. It has God for its Author ; salvation for its end ; and truth 
 without any mixture of error, for its matter." " This book," says 
 Mrs. Huntington, " has done more for me, than all the men on 
 
22 
 
 fearth, and all the angels in heaven could have done." " By the 
 Scriptures," says Jay, " we can associate with Paul and Isaiah ; 
 with Moses and the Patriarchs ;>andcan sit down with Abraham, 
 Isaac and Jacob, in the king^lom of God." 
 
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