LB 41 
 .n25 
 Copy 1 
 
 ^-^ 
 
 S. HEt^ T'^^^ ^rP-' ^ 
 
 DELIVERED AT THE DEDltlATION 
 
 OF THE 
 
 
 LYCEUM, 
 
 By the Hon. T. !!• M«€aleb, 
 
 DECEMBER 18th, 1849, 
 
 Ml 
 
 i PUBLISHED BY ORDER OF THE 
 
 ^1 COinVCII. OF THE SECO]VI> MU]V ICIP AI.IT Y. 
 
 
 
 
 yj NEW-ORLEANS, 
 
 PRINTED AT THK COMMERCIAL OFFICE, 68 CAMP STREET, 
 
 1850. 
 
 ^M^^B, 
 
 'mppf^^p-fsfs^ 
 
 
 

 DELIVERED AT THE DEDICATION OF THE 
 
 ;v the lloii. T. II, M^'€aIclU« 
 
 DECEMBER 18th. 1819. 
 
 :n 
 
 PUBLISHED BY OROEB OF THE 
 
 COUNCIL OF THE SECOND MUNICIPALITY. 
 
 A NEW-ORLEAN^S. 
 
 nUMIiii AT IHE CO.MMERCIAL OI"lItJ:. 68 CAMi' ^rT. 
 
 1850, 
 
\.3 
 
 A^ 
 
 .\^^ 
 
 ^ 
 
ADDRESS. 
 
 LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, 
 
 There are considerations operating upon my mind, which 
 render me reluctant to appear before you, in the discharge 
 of the duty assigned me by the too flattering resolution of the 
 Council of the Second Municipality of New Orleans. Could 
 I have felt myself at liberty to yield to these considerations, you 
 would this evening have enjoyed the satisfaction of listening 
 to some one far more competent to the duty of spreading before 
 you an intellectual repast. While I feel all the humility of one 
 conscious of inability to array a literary topic in a garb to ren- 
 der it attractive, candor compels me to declare my apprehensions 
 of another obstacle, which, he who attempts to engage the at- 
 tention of an audience in the city of New Orleans on the sub- 
 ject of literature, is but too apt to encounter. With no desire to 
 assume the office of Censor, and certainly with no dis- 
 position -to play the flatterer, " I speak with the freedom of his- 
 tory, and I hope without offence," when I declare, that the citizens 
 of this our boasted Southern Emporium, have rarely, very rarely 
 indeed, subjected themselves to the imputation of being too en- 
 thusiastic in the cause of letters. It is indeed the commonly 
 received opinion, that there is no large commercial city in the 
 Union so coldly indifferent to the means and measures usually 
 resorted to, for the promotion of literary and scientific objects. 
 The consciousness of this almost universal indifference in the 
 public mind to the cause of letters, weighs like an incubus on 
 the hearts, and paralizes the efforts of those, who, warm in 
 their devotion to the intellectually great and beautiful, would 
 lend their»aid in imparting to the city of their home, those tastes 
 and sympathies, which have rendered other cities reno^vned in 
 5tory and in song. 
 
(4) 
 
 Whetlior we sliall contiiiiio to subject ourselves to the Impn- 
 tatiou so long and so commonly cast upon ns, is a question which 
 must be decided by this audience, in this hall. When I look 
 around upon the fair and briliant assemblage, whose presence 
 I have the honor and satisfaction of greeting on this interesting 
 occasion ; when I contemplate the noble and persevering etlorts 
 of the Council of our Municipality in the cause of Education ; 
 1 cannot suppress the hope that the decision will be auspicious. 
 It is our pride, that here in the Second Municipality, the great 
 work of educational reform commenced, and here through the 
 blessing of Almighty God, and the indomitable energy of those 
 Avho have hitherto guided our destinies, we have an abiding 
 confidence that it will at no distant day be brought to a happy and 
 glorious consummation. Through the agency of a few con- 
 trqjing spirits — rari nanles in g-urg'ite vasto — Avho possessed the 
 wisdom to devise, and the courage through good and evil report, 
 to execute what they deemed conducive to the permanent wel- 
 fare of the community, we have had for the last seven years, in 
 successful operation, a system of public education, almost as 
 perfect as ever emanated from the wisdom of time honored 
 New England. The occasion which has called us together this 
 evening, is another evidence of the determination of the praise- 
 worthy few, who have given an irresistible momentum to the 
 current of public sentiment on this great topic, to prosecute to 
 a happy and succesful issue, the noble enterprise in wdiich we 
 are embarked. The opening of this spacious and magnificent 
 hall, for the first time, this evening, for the purpose of presenting 
 in the course of the season, a series of lectures upon difterent 
 branches of literature and the sciences, has naturally suggested 
 the necessity of attracting public attention to the plan proposed, 
 with some general reference to the benefits it is calculated to 
 diffuse. You will excuse me therefore if I present to your con- 
 sideration, some general remarks on the necessity for increased 
 exertions for the promotion of mental and moral excellence. I 
 claim for the subject no merit of novelty ; it is however 
 forced upon my attention by many considerations connected 
 
willi tlie pro.^eut position and future prospects of our country, 
 luo.st ciitiicult to be resisted. I feel too sensibly my own incom- 
 petency to the taslv of creating for it, that warm asid abiding inter- 
 est, which its importance to every community most imperatively 
 demands. In some other cities of our union, the simple announce- 
 ment of our design, would gain for it a heartfelt approval and an 
 active support. With fher)ij such enterprises as the one in which 
 we are nov;^ engaged, have been so long the cherished objects 
 of public favor, so long in succesful prosecution, that they are 
 now regarded as an indispensable ingredient of rational 
 enjoyment — ^as primarily essential to human happiness. They 
 have long ceased to discuss the question whether suchJnstitu- 
 1 ions as Lyceums for the delivery of popular lecture/s, be ncccs- 
 sari/, and are daily and hourly projecting new schemes, and 
 calling into activity new resources, through which they seek 
 to augment their usefulness, and perpetuate the blessings they 
 diffuse. But here, we have been so long the miserable victims 
 of hope deferred — so often known the bitterness of failure, and 
 have so seldom been permitted to catch even the glinmierings 
 of success, that the zealous champions of the good cause have 
 been almost restrained from renewing again the often- 
 times unsuccessful struggle. They have been prompted by 
 repeated defeats to withdraAV from the hopeless strife, and 
 fold their arms in despair. Whether this nielancholjfy 
 indiflerence to intellectual advancement, be the result of exces- 
 sive wisdom in own conceits or of a solemn conviction that there 
 is no height in intellectual excellence to which we liave not al- 
 ready attained ; or whether it be the consequence of a want of 
 taste to appreciate, or of energy to engage in literary and scien- 
 tific pursuits, are also questions which you will decide by your 
 future action in reference to the objects we have in view. 
 
 The building in which we are assembled, and which has 
 been for some some time past in the progress of construction, 
 is now presented to the citizens of the Second Municipality, as 
 the best evidence of the satisfactory manner in which the trust 
 contided to tlieir representatives has ])cen discharged. The ta.*te 
 
(6 ) 
 
 in design of itst original projectors, and theskiJlol tlie Arehilept 
 under whose superintendence it has been erected, need no en- 
 comia from me. The voice of approval from the public at large, 
 has already gone forth in expressions of unqualified gratitication 
 and delight, and this is surely the meed of praise, most accep- 
 table to those interested in receiving it. It stands at once the 
 pride and ornament of our great city ; a city, which, with all its 
 wealth and commercial resources, has rarely been known to 
 unite taste with utility. We watch with interest its beautiful 
 columns rising in massive solidity to their majestic height. In a 
 few days the capitals and the entablature will take their places, 
 and the whole will present to the eye of the beholder, a speci- 
 men OT Ionic architecture on which the eye of a Palladio might 
 rest with admiration and delight. As we shall hereafter walk 
 between the lofty columns, and gaze on the volutes of the capi- 
 tals, we shall require but a slight eftbrt of imagination to trans- 
 port ourselves to the temple of Minerva Polias at Athens, and 
 recall the greatness, the refined and delicate taste of a people, 
 whose genius we have emulated but never equalled. 
 
 It is however the spacious hall in which we are 
 convened, which more immediately commands our atten- 
 tion on the present occasion. Connected as it is with 
 with a Library already numbering toi thousand volumes 
 judiciously selected, we are enabled to offer to the public 
 a source of intellectual recreation, as acceptable as, we 
 trust, it may prove permanently beneficial. Here native 
 talent Avill be invited to unfold its energies and display its 
 power. Here scholars of reputation, from other States of the 
 Union will come to minister at the altar consecrated to Science 
 and Literature ; and we trust that from this Hall there will go 
 forth that devotional love for the grand and beautiful in mind, 
 which will exert a salutary and permanent influence, on the 
 moral destinies of the great State to whose intellectual advance- 
 ment we desire to dedicate the best energies we possess. 
 
 In presenting on this occasion the peculiar motives which 
 should animate u? at this time to renewed exertions for the at- 
 
(7) 
 
 tainniPiil ofa liiglicr degree ofmental and moral excellence, I shall 
 be excused lor addressing myself more immediatelly io young me?i', 
 those who have embarked, or are making preparations to embark 
 on the voyage of active life. The presence of many of the young 
 gentlemen of the Literary society, already numbering between for. 
 ty and fifty members, who hold their regular meetings within the 
 walls of this building; the presence of the young gentlemen, who 
 liave come as strangers to our city, to qualify themselves in our 
 infant University to engage in professional pursuits, as well as 
 the youthof the larger part of my audience, will afford me an 
 apology for indulging the predilections of my own mind. I 
 confess there is more satisfaction in communing with joung, 
 susceptible and ardent spirits, than in assuming the office of 
 counsellor ^' to those, whose seniority in years, places 
 them beyond the pale of admonition from the humble individual 
 who has the honor to appear before you on the present occasion. 
 From the patriarchs of the land — those who should stand forth as 
 leaders in every laudable enterprise, we have, with a few noble 
 exceptions, received nothing, and have nothing to expect. 
 Where we may find one, whose sympathies are enlisted in the pro- 
 motion of the mental and moral excellence of this great city, we 
 shall meet with hundreds as utterly insensible to appeals upon all 
 subjects, except those which relate to pecuniary gain, as the very 
 pavements upon which they tread. An appeal to them, however 
 pathetic, upon any other topic, would fall powerless at their feet. 
 An argument, however cogent^ if it should ever reach them, 
 Avould produce no other effect, than the prostration, by the vio- 
 lence of its rebound, of him who should have the temerity to hurl it. 
 They have witnessed unmoved the desolation which surrounds 
 them for almost half a century. They desire no change, and 
 least of all such change as a mental and moral revolution would 
 produce among them. Nothing but the trump of an arch- 
 angel could rouse them from the stolidity of their cherished re- 
 pose. The time however is coming, and now is, when, in our 
 portion of the Union at least, the order of nature will be rever- 
 sed, and the young will stand forth as examples to the old. 
 
Come theu my yomig friends, whose hearts arc open to thr 
 <?nnoblmg influen(5e of intellectual pursuits, and have not yet 
 caught the contagion of the sordid atmosphere you inhale, it is 
 to you we make our final appeal, it is to you we look for coun- 
 tenance and support in the mental and moral conflict in which 
 we are about to engage. 
 
 Let us turn for a moment to the past, contemplate the present, 
 glance at the future, and seriously consider the duties which 
 are soon to devolve upon you as actors in the great drama 
 of life. 
 
 There is perhaps no period in the life of a young man more 
 interesting or important than that, at which occurs the disrup- 
 tion ofthe ties which have bound him to a venerable Alma Mater. 
 With a heart bounding with hope and longing for novelty, or 
 exulting at the thought of independence and self-reliance, he 
 thinks only of scenes of excitement, which a young and vivid 
 imagination has depicted to his view. Whether these scenes 
 be such as would breath in the harmonious and enchantinj? 
 conceptions — the chiaro oscuro of Corregio, or fire the Avild and 
 terrible fancy of Salvator Rosa, he still draws from them hope to 
 flatter and novelty to cheer. He little dreams how soon the 
 trials and adversities of life, may change his confidence in his 
 own self-sufficiency to encounter the storms of life, into a full 
 conciousness of his weakness; his high and exultant anticipa- 
 tions into despondency and gloom. Like Obidah the son of 
 Abensina in the Oriental tale of the great modern moralist, he 
 commences the journey of life all animated with hope, and in- 
 cited by desire ; all his senses are gratified, and all care is ban- 
 ished from his heart. He is lost in pleasing contemplations 
 and lulled by confidence into security ; he Avandcrs uncons- 
 ciously from the beaten track, till the clouds of disappointment 
 obscure the brightness of his prospects, and the tempest of ad- 
 versity awakens him to a sense of his Aveakness and his danger. 
 He is forced at length to rely upon a superior power, derives 
 consolation from the precepts of venerable experience, reposes 
 sweetly under the calming influence of philosophy, and rises 
 
wiiii renovated .slrenglh "to begin anew hi.s journey and his 
 life." 
 
 These reflections are naturally suggested by the pre- 
 sence of those who have bid adieu to the scenes of their ac- 
 ademical career, have assumed, or are about to assume 
 the performance of duties on a broader and more exten- 
 ded arena. The monitory voice which has hitherto directed 
 their course, and quickened their energies in the prosecution of 
 their intellectual avocations, will be heard no longer. The 
 happy companionship of noble and generous competitors in the 
 same high and honorable career, will be enjoyed no longer. 
 And while I feel that it is doing no violence to the natufral as- 
 pirations of the human mind, to presume that painful regrets of 
 a final separation, are assuaged if not counteracted by that 
 sleepless ambition which looks far beyond the present hour, 
 which sends the thoughts into futurity, and fixes them on the tri- 
 umphs that await it there, the friendly admonitions of experience, 
 may be permitted to remind my young friends, that no changes 
 of time, place, or fortune, can erase from their recollection, those 
 scenes of early mental development and rational enjoyment. The 
 most important incidents of life are the longest cherished in 
 our memories ; the mind can no more lose the remembrance of 
 the theatre of its early triumphs in the empire of Knowledge, 
 than the conqueror of a hundred fields can forget the spot, 
 where, in the presence of embattled legions, the diadem' of 
 laurel first encircled his brow. We can as easily forget the 
 home of our childhood, where we were "rocked by the beating 
 of a mother's heart," and nurtured into strength and maturity 
 beneath her devoted care ; where paternal authority and 
 paternal solicitude were blended for the promotion of our wel- 
 fare and happiness, as we can cease to recur Avith gratitude 
 and delight to the kindly care and virtuous admonitions of a 
 venerated preceptor. The sleepless vigilance which ministers 
 to the wants of helpless infancy ; the voice which prompts us to 
 the pursuits of virtue and honor, and leads us in humble prayer 
 around tliciiunilyultar. to the throne of our creator; like patient 
 
( J-0) 
 
 forbearance with youthful perversity and repugnance to intel- 
 lectual effort, will receive from every refined and deli- 
 cate heart, \gfatitude inspired by long years of devotion 
 which we know and feel, can never be repaid. "Whatever 
 may be our future lot, in whatever land our fortunes 
 may be cast, the voice of affectionate kindness, come 
 from whatever source it may, will fall upon the heart, 
 in the hour of sorrow, like the music of a dream, and 
 the heart itself will respond in the touching numbers of 
 the lord of British song : 
 
 '' Blessed — as the Muezzin's strain from Mecca's wall, 
 ■ To pilgrims pure aud prostrate at his call, 
 Soft — as the melody of youthful days, 
 That steals the trembling tear of speechless praise. 
 Dear — as his native song to exile's ears, 
 Shall be the tones that long loved voice endears." 
 
 However ardently then you may have longed for the moment 
 which relieved you from the supposed restraints of college 
 discipline and set you free upon the wide world ; believe mc, you 
 Avill hail with delight the hour when you can revisit the spot 
 where the mind was first taught its powers, first feh its longings 
 after immortaity ; where the fancy plumed its earliest flights ; 
 where the soul first held communion Avith the great of yore, "those 
 dead but sceptered sovereigns, who still rule our spuits from 
 their urns." You will seek agam your academic haunts with 
 the veneration which enspued a devotee of the Druidical supersti- 
 tion upon entering the consecrated groves. Like the young prince 
 of Abyssinia, passing the barriers of the happy valley, to seek 
 in the busy world, and in other lands, to satisfy a longing for hap- 
 piness which that world, with all the philosophical disquisitions 
 of Imlac could not gratify, and returning again to his peaceful 
 abode, you will seek again the quietude and repose, to 
 which you have cheerfully bid adieu. And " ye who listen 
 Avith credulity to the whispers of fancy, who pursue with eager- 
 ness the phantoms of hope, who think that age will perform the 
 promises of youth, that the deficiencies of the pret-cnt day will 
 
( H) 
 
 ha snp])liod ])y the morrow," may atlend with equal benefit and 
 pleasure to the history of Rasselas, prince of Abyssinia. You 
 dream not, that beyond the visible calm of the horizon, there 
 rises the tempest-borne cloud ; and happy Avill you be, if 
 your morning of sunshine be not succeeded by an evening of 
 storms. 
 
 I would not, by these reflections, arrest for a moment the 
 propulsive energies of young and daring hearts; damp the 
 ardor of generous ambition, or throw a cloud of despondency 
 over brilliant hopes and joyful anticipations. You have the 
 bane before you, and it is for you to provide the antidote. The 
 sooner we bring the mind to a close and familiar acquaintance 
 with the difficulties and calamities of life, the sooner do we 
 awaken it to a sense of its power and capacity to engage and 
 overcome them. That which we know must be encountered, is 
 divested of half its terrors, by the fixed determination to over- 
 throw it. Formidable, " as an army with banners," are the ob- 
 stacles, which rise like Alpine barriers to resist your progress ; 
 but to opposing hosts, upheld by resolution, and eager for victory, 
 the sensa.tion of timidity is changed into " stern joy " and " fierce 
 delight," in proportion to the extent of the perils which thicken 
 around the devoted champion. To the ocean-tossed mariner, 
 the deep has lost its horrors, because the severe lessons of ex- 
 perience, aided by the eternal light of science, have enabled him 
 to defy the billows in their wrath, and to bafhe the power of 
 the tempest. 
 
 Permit me then to present to you the peculiar motives which 
 should prompt you, as young Americans, to take courage, and 
 redouble your efforts for the attainment of the only object worthy 
 of human ambition — intellectual and moral excellence. In 
 connection with this subject, I shall freely and Avithout reserve, 
 interchange with you sentiments on the duties which will inevi- 
 tably devolve upon you as good patriots, and as useful mem- 
 bers of society. For the time has past, my young friends, 
 when consistently with the dictates of patriotism, individual 
 
( 12) 
 
 interest or liappincss can be consulted, to tlie exclusion of 
 all that appertains to the common weal. In the prose- 
 cution of the particular profession or avocation you have 
 selected for an honest livelihood, you will not be at liberty, as 
 good citizens, to disregard the duties you owe to your 
 country. 
 
 It should be regarded as an instance of singularly good for- 
 tune, that you are permitted to enter upon the active duties of 
 life, at a period when our country stands proudly erect among 
 the nations of the earth. She has but recently emerged from a 
 foreign war, attended with the usual obstacles, ^trials and cal- 
 amities, with a military escutcheon emblazoned by victories, 
 the most brilliant in modern times, and untarnished by a single 
 defeat. Her banner has been borne triumphant against a nu- 
 merical superiority, unknown since the famous fields of Poicters 
 and Cressy, where the Oriflamme of the House of Valois, fell 
 before the Leopard of England, sustained by those matchless 
 heroes — sire and son — of the House of Plantagenet. Her vic- 
 torious legions, having signally accomplished the purposes for 
 which they took the field, have as easily resumed their private 
 pursuits in the various departments of civil life, as they promptly 
 relinquished those pursuits in obedience to her summons to meet 
 the defiance of her enemies on the embattled plain, or from the 
 bristling ramparts and frowning fortresses of their strength. 
 The sword and the spear have been exchanged for the plough- 
 share and pruning hook — the arts of Avar have been abandoned 
 for the quiet pursuits of the arts of peace. Nor was the progress 
 of war itself, though attended as it necessarily must be with 
 carnage and suffering, characterised on our part, with those 
 cruelties and that moral desolation, Avhich usually follow in its 
 train. Our generals, even in the flush of victory, never forgot 
 the obligations of Christians. They tempered the sternness of 
 necessity with the spirit of humanity. They prosecuted war, 
 not for the sake of blood and conquest, but for the only legiti- 
 mate objects of Avar — the redress of Avrongs, and the re-estab- 
 lishment of peace. With jnalclilcss military skill, they signally 
 
( 1.3 ) 
 combined all ihe altribiito?!, considered by the Roman Orator, 
 in his portraiture of the character of the great Pompey, essential 
 to a consmiimate commander. Non enim solum bellandi virtus in 
 snmmo atque pcrfccto Imperatore qucercnda est : sed multa) 
 sunt artes eximiEe, hujus administrae, comitesque virtutis. Ac 
 primum quanta innocentia debent esse Imperatores I Quanta 
 deinde omnibus in rebus temperantia I Quanta fide ! Quanta 
 facilitate I Quanto ingenio ! Quanta humanitate I ^ 
 
 The fruits and consequences of the war thus happily termi- 
 nated, are presented to our contemplation, in the increased and 
 increasing confidence, Avhich every good patriot must feel in 
 the stability of our political institutions ; in the stronger attach- 
 ment which is everywhere felt for our Federal Union, whose 
 several j^arts have so nobly contributed to the promotion of the 
 national glory ; and in the augmentation of the national wealth 
 and power by the expansion of territory, which has opened the 
 way for the peaceful march of our countrymen across the conti- 
 nent. In this acqusition of vast additional territory, we behold 
 a new and nobler field for the display of American energy and 
 enterprise, in every professional pursuit and in every branch of 
 industrial employment. The demands for physical labor have 
 been encreased, and the incitements to intellectual effort have 
 been multiplied beyond all human calculation. Our almost 
 boundless domain must be covered by an Amercan population, 
 subject to Amercan laws, and acknowledging the supremacy of 
 the great principles of American Republicanism. The axe and 
 the plough-share, are to be accompanied by their inseparable 
 companions and coadjutors in the great work of American civ- 
 ilization—the BIBLE and the FEDERAL CONSTITUTION. 
 In their train will follow the arts and sciences, and aU the bles- 
 sings of civil and religious liberty. To whom, then, can we look 
 to become the standard bearers of our christian faith — the em- 
 issaries of the meek and lowly Jesus ; to whom can we look to 
 become the enactors, expositors and executors of the laws ; to 
 whom can we look to become the ministers to the wants of 
 
 * Oralin prolparR Munilia. » 
 
; 14) 
 
 puftering humanity in the great licaling art ; lo wliom can ^ve 
 look to answer tlie ten thoitsand demands to be made upon hvi- 
 man skill and ingenuity in every branch of mathematical and 
 physical science — if not to the youlk of our cou/dri/, now emer- 
 ging from our seminaries of learning, to take their places upon 
 the stage of active life. Upon them the high hopes of the 
 country must repose. The ark of our political covenant, atten- 
 ded by the trumpets of the jubilee, is borne westward, and it 
 is for you, like the " Beauty of Isreal " to defend it upon your 
 " high places." 
 
 A common som*ce of despondency among young men who 
 are making preparation to engage in the active business of 
 life, is the fact that they find the ranks of every profession 
 already crowded with competitors. They naturally conclude 
 that in a race of diligence and energy where multitudes 
 engage in a contest for victory, defeat and discomfiture must 
 be the lot of many. They are moreover but too Avell aware 
 that the race is not always to the swift, nor the battle to the 
 strono". They have too often seen impudent mediocrity 
 triumph over real merit. They have too often seen noisy 
 garrulity and presumptuous self-conceit, floating on the full 
 tide of prosperity, while doubting genius has struggled in vain 
 against the Avaves of adversity. They too often literally see 
 fools rush m, where wise men fear to tread. But these are 
 common evils in the lot of humanity, — incidents in the tale of 
 every day life, with which, as we increase in years, we become 
 the more familiar. They remind us of the inequality, with 
 which the favors of fortune ever have been, and ever will be 
 distributed. It is, hoAvever, an inequality for which the 
 philosophic and energetic mind will at all times be prepared. 
 Such a mind regardless of mere pecuniary reward, will rather 
 aspire to those intellectual and moral tritimphs that must 
 •ultimately crown the efforts of its possessor. While it is but 
 too true, that there are many in every profession, who without 
 the gift of great mental endowments, and without any extraor- 
 dinary energy or perseverance, have by dint of officious 
 
( 1^'^ ) 
 
 management and subtle calculation, to wiiich the devoted 
 student is a stranger, rapidly risen to prosjjcrity, and to a 
 species of rank and distinction which the acquisition of wealth 
 rarely fails to command in the judgment of the Avorld, it is 
 equally true, that to that student, tlie man of intellectual 
 research, the laborer in the fields of thought, every profession 
 is indebted for its usefulness, its intellectual achievements, its 
 great moral triumphs, and its salutary influence upon the des- 
 tinies of mankind. 
 
 I would here avail myself of the occasion, to enforce what 
 must be deemed a fundamental principle in the government of 
 our conduct, whilst engaged in the practice of our professions : 
 it is never, in the ardent pursuit of Avealth, to lose sight of the 
 professional dignity and honor we assume and are bound to 
 maintain. We should feel, that it is not enough that we 
 perform our duties in an ordinary manner. We should 
 not be content with common accuracy or such excel- 
 lence as ordinary diligence or rectitude of conduct may 
 acquire. We should aspire to reach a point beyond mere 
 negative goodness or negative respectability. It was the 
 remark of the celebrated Lord Coke, that every man owes a 
 debt to his profession which he is bound to discharge. There 
 are extraordinary duties devolving upon all who embark in a 
 learned and honorable profession, which cannot be performed 
 Avithout the observance of extraordinary diligence and a 
 scrupulous regard for all the amenities of life, for all those 
 social virtues, which diffuse a charm over professional emi- 
 nence. For reputation, however brilliant, if divested of the 
 moral radiance which honor and integrity can alone impart, 
 may command the wonder, but never the admiration of the 
 Avorld. It may conduce to the accomplishment of personal 
 aggrandizement, but never to the promotion of human happi- 
 ness. For 
 
 '• Talents angt;! bright 
 
 ifwautiu:^ worth, are shining instruments 
 In false ambition's hand, to linisli faults 
 lUuslrious, and give infamy renown.'' 
 
{ J-6) 
 
 Let Its ever bear in mind that there is a scrupulous delicacy 
 to be obrfcrved in our intercourse with professional brethren, 
 which cannot with impunity be violated. Do unto others as 
 you would have others do unto you, is a golden maxim in 
 morals, that can never grow old. Its practical application to 
 all the pursuits of life, has done more for the harmony and 
 happiness of society, than all the codes that were ever enacted. 
 How often would a rigid observance of its mandate prevent 
 those bickerings and heart-burnings so commonly the result 
 of envy, malice and all uncharitableness. Among students of 
 Theology we have a stronger guaranty that its benign 
 precept will be followed. It forms one of the fundamental 
 principles of the great code they will be called upon to 
 expound, and any deviation from the line of duty prescribed 
 by an union of precept and example, will sooner and more 
 signally encounter the severe judgment of the worl4. It can- 
 not, however, be denied that there have been many, even in 
 that high and holy calling, who have strangely Avandered 
 from the beaten track pointed out by the lessons, which they 
 themselves habitually inculcate. It cannot be denied that 
 there are noiu, as there were in the tunes of Shakspeare, some 
 who fall Avithin that denomination of "ungracious pastors,'' 
 alluded to in the sisterly admonition of the poor Ophelia— 
 who shoAV to others 
 
 '•' The steep and thorny way to heaven, 
 Whilst still iike putTed and reckless libertines, 
 Themselves the primrose path of dalliance tread, 
 And reck not their own read." 
 
 But it is in the Legal and Medical professions we some- 
 times witness a disposition fraught with deleterious con- 
 sequences. It is a disposition to promote individual success 
 at the expense of personal dignity and professional propriety. 
 It is exhibited in efforts to detract from the reputation for slcill 
 or learning, attributed to others engaged in the same pursuits. 
 Whether this course of conduct be prompted by envy, ambition 
 or a love o{ gain, it tends directly to the interraption of profes- 
 
(17) 
 
 sional harmony, and to the diminution of that general confi- 
 dence which should ever be reposed in professional integrity 
 and skill. It is, I need not say, all radically wrong in principle. 
 It is at Avar with all the virtues which constitute and adorn the 
 character of a gentleman. It should find no countenance from 
 generous and exaUed minds; it can claim no affinity with 
 nobility of soul I am no enemy to a fair and candid criticism. 
 It is absolutely necessary for the protection of society against, 
 the ignorance of pettifoggers and charlatans. It is the surest 
 guaranty for professional improvement, and should be as 
 sacredly mamtained as general freedom of speech, or the 
 freedom of the press. But it is to the acrimonious temper 
 and to the mterested motives which usually prompt it, that 
 objections are seriously and solemnly to be urged. In a 
 country like ours, Avhere opportunities are afforded alike to 
 all — where the field of competition is open to all, ambition 
 should be amenable to the laws of honor, the spirit of 
 emulation should be tempered by generosity; and in the 
 prosecution of the learned professions which are peculiarly the 
 test of intellectual excellence, we should rest our hopes of 
 success upon intellectual superiority alone. Follow then the 
 paternal advice of the venerable Polonius, and 
 Give thy thoughts no tongue, 
 Nor any unproportioncd thought his act. 
 ****** 
 
 Give every man thine ear, but few thy voice. 
 
 Take each man's censure, but reserve thy judgment. 
 
 ****** 
 This above all, — to thine own self be true : 
 And it it must follow as the night the day, 
 Thou canst not then be false to any man. 
 
 There is another topic to which I will here briefly allude' 
 and which indeed cannot be wholly omitted on an occasion 
 like this. In our aspirations for political or official distinction, 
 let us ever bear in mind that the question of merit is, and 
 always must be, a matter to be decided by the general voice 
 of the community in which we live, and can never with 
 
( 18) 
 propriety be the subject of our own personal appeal There 
 is certainly nothing censurable in a desire to occupy a promi- 
 nent official or political position. It should be regarded rather 
 as the evidence of a laudable ambition. We should, however, 
 religiously act upon the principle, that offices are created for 
 the welfare and convenience of the public, and not for the 
 personal benefit of those who may be chosen to fill them. As 
 these offices must be supplied, it is the primary object of every 
 enlightened community to supply them with incumbents, 
 recommended by considerations of moral and intellectual 
 excellence. These considerations are assuredly not matters 
 determinable by the aspirant himself. He cannot consistently 
 with modesty, one of the highest evidences of that excellence 
 which qualifies an individual for a public station, urge his own 
 claims by setting forth his own peculiar virtues. This would 
 be combining insult with arrogance. It is arrogance to assume 
 the exclusive knowledge of one's own qualifications, and the 
 right to decide upon their sufficiency ; it is an insult offered to 
 the community at large, thus to remind them of their ignorance 
 of merit, and their incapacity to discover where it really 
 exists. And herein consists one of the most glaring and 
 flagrant inconsistencies in the characters of the presumptuous 
 demagogues with whom every community is bomitifully 
 provided. They are perpetually clamoring about the virtue 
 and intelligence of the people ; their capacity for self-govern- 
 ment ; their unerring wisdom in the choice of their rulers and 
 representatives; in all which, they with the utmost sincerity 
 believe, but ever with the important mental reservation that 
 they themselves, the peculiar friends of the people, are made 
 the special objects of the peoples' favor. 
 
 If we would become exemplary citizens, and useful public 
 servants, we must pursue the track diverging farthest from 
 that most commonly followed by these boisterous, pragmatical 
 disturbers of social order. We could pardon a Coriolanus, 
 who 
 
 ■' Would not flatter Neptune for hi;- +rideiU. 
 Or Jove for hi? power to thunder."-' 
 
( 19 ) 
 
 but who could, when occasion demanded, " flutter" the 
 enemies of his country in their citadels, " like an eagle in a 
 dovecote ;" who " talked like a knell, and whose hum was a 
 battery ; who sat in his state, as a thing made for Alexander, 
 and what he bade be done, was finished Avith his bidding ; who 
 v/anted nothing of a God but eternity, and a heaven to throne 
 in." The contemptuous indifference of such a hero to popular 
 sentiment, is lost in our admiration of his lion-hearted valor, 
 and his lofty elevation above the hypocritical wiles of ther 
 obsequious demagogues, who "shout forth" the people, 
 In acclamations hyperbolical, 
 As if they loved their little should be dieted 
 In praises sauced with lies. 
 There have been periods in the history of governments, and 
 especially of free governments, when these restless aspirants 
 for individual aggrandizement, were the most dangerous 
 enemies to the peace and security of the State, with whom 
 patriotism was called upon to contend. They usually com- 
 bined with an utter destitution of moral principle, the posses- 
 sion of great mental endowments. The success of their 
 political machinations, was rendered more certain by superior 
 powers of persuasion operating upon feebler minds. Their 
 great capacity to combine and control the mighty elements 
 they pvit in motion, was to be met by the highest abilities the 
 State could summon to its aid. The utmost vigilance for- 
 tified by the noblest powers of eloquence, was invoked, to coun- 
 teract their pernicious designs. It required all the eloquence 
 and activity of Demosthenes, to defeat the treasonable pur- 
 poses of Demades, and to baffle the intrigues of the mercenary 
 emissaries of Philip, in the very heart of Athens. The 
 corruptions of Cataline and his followers, could only be 
 detected and exposed through the noblest exertions of Cicero ; 
 and even the eloquence of that godlike patriot, could not 
 ultimately rescue the liberties of the Republic from the grasp 
 of the most accomplished demagogue the world ever saw. 
 
 But from their numerical strength, these panders to popular 
 prejudice and lovers of popular commotion, may, in our 
 
( 20 ) 
 
 country, be regarded rather as a pest and a source of annoy 
 ance, than, as they were in the olden time, a cause of danger 
 to the State. Here, 1 am inclined to believe, we derive 
 security from their very numbers. Their aims are generally 
 frustrated by the counteracting efforts of opposing spirits 
 striving for the accomplishment of the same objects. The 
 are never willing that more than one orb should glitter in the 
 same firmament, and their political frauds are more effectually 
 exposed by competitors familiar with the arts, by which those 
 frauds can be most successfully perpetrated. In all this there 
 is nothing strange or extraordinary ; on the contrary, it is 
 strictly in accordance with the well recognized principle of 
 setting a gambler, to unmask the designs of one of the like 
 profession, upon the credulity of an unsuspecting novice, — or 
 of placing a thief, to detect an adept in the arts of his own 
 peculiar calling. 
 
 Thus, we perceive, that under our admirable form of 
 government, by a peculiar operation of circumstances,, 
 even demagogues may be made subservient to the well- 
 being of society, and the security of the State. That they 
 are, however, a source of more annoyance than actual benefit, 
 must be evident to all, Avho have seen them in our halls of legis- 
 lation. For it cannot be denied, that through a criminal indiffer- 
 ence to the sacred right of suffrage — through the instrumentality 
 of a too credulous public virtue or exhausted public patience 
 yielding to ceaseless importunity, they are literally thronging 
 the high places which were once exclusively designed for the 
 calm deliberation of wisdom and patriotism, but which by 
 them are converted into arenas for the conflict of political 
 gladiators. It is there, we have seen them relax the wonted 
 vigilance of their espionage on the maneuvres of each other, 
 and with all the impudence of ignorance, assail those venera- 
 ble statesmen, whom long years of noble service have elevated 
 to the pinnacle of fame, and established in the confidence of 
 their country. Yea, we have seen these noisy, newly fledged 
 
(21) 
 
 birds of ill-omen, — the more noisy, because the more nen-^iy 
 fledged, — borne by the popular gale, to an unwonted elevation, 
 soar and wheel in their pride of place, and caw and croak 
 defiance to the eagle on his mountain throne. 
 
 The surest guaranty for the success of these suppli- 
 ants for popular favor, is popular ignorance. And there is, 
 my young friends, in the long catalogue of moral obligations we 
 are called upon to discharge, not one more important than tl\al 
 which requires us to aid in extending the empire of knowledge ; 
 and there is perhaps not one, which so bountifully remu- 
 nerates in earthly happiness, the devoted champion, who 
 engages his energies in its faithful performance. Whether 
 we regard it as the means of increasing our own literary and 
 scientific store, or of imparting its enjoyment to others, it is 
 replete with that mental gratification, which the world can 
 neither give nor take away. We have learned little 
 indeed, if the extent of our acquisitions has not rendered 
 us deeply sensible of the narrow limits, by which our 
 learning is bounded ; if, in our own estimation, we have 
 advanced further than the elevation, Avhich commands the 
 boundless prospect before and around us. But is there 
 one of U9, as he contemplates this boundless prospect, 
 prepared to pause and sit down in despair ? Are we 
 not rather prompted by the recollection of pleasures, which 
 past triumphs, however insignificant, afforded, to continue a 
 journey presenting new scenes of delight, new objects of 
 attraction, at every step of our progress. Is there one of us, 
 who would for any earthly consideration, surrender the little 
 he has acquired? Could we be tempted to close our eyes 
 forever on that eternal light of science, which has already 
 revealed to us so many of the recondite truths of nature ; and 
 which still charms us onward, to other and more glorious 
 discoveries, on other and more glorious fields of observation. 
 There is not a planet that blazes along its orbit ; there is not 
 a star that glitters in the firmament, from the luminous 
 nebuloE in the galaxy which spans tKe heavens, to the constel- 
 
{22) 
 
 lations of Orion and the Pleiades, 1 hat does not attract us upward 
 — upward, to that glowing field, where nobler conquests still, 
 await the march of astronomical science. Other and bolder tele- 
 scopes, with lenses more powerful than any that yet hath 
 aided the natural vision, must sweep these glowing tracks of 
 space. 
 
 In the sciences of geology and mineralogy, the enthusiast 
 Avill find in his rambles through our wide domain, objects 
 upon which the appetite of curiosity may feast itself to satiety, 
 irom the steril sands of the desert, to the inexhanstible alluvion 
 of our own great valley — from the silica of the brook to 
 the marble and granite of the everlasting hills — from momitains 
 of iron to whole valleys filled with lumps of that precious 
 metal, which is more than realizing to the Hercules of 
 modern cupidity the ancient fable of the golden apples in tiMfc^. 
 gardens of the Hesperides. 
 
 We witness with admiration the triumphs of chemistry, not 
 only in promoting the many useful purposes to which it has, 
 from time immemorial, been directed, but in the advancement 
 of the great interests of commerce and agriculture. 
 
 Need I pause with you in the regions of electricity, in 
 which the great American philosopher performed such bold 
 exploits. He little dreamed perhaps, while he played with the 
 lightning, disarmed it of its terrors, and reduced it to submis- 
 sion, that the subtle fluid would ere long become the more 
 than winged messenger of nations, — the Ariel of the air, 
 obedient to the magic wand of the Prospero of science, and 
 prompt to peform his bidding. 
 
 We turn from the Avalks of science to the bowers of literary 
 repose. We hold communion with the mighty intellects who 
 have gone before us. Is there any earthly consideration that 
 would induce us to abandon them forever ? He who derives 
 no enjoyment from such society, is devoid of every noble sympa- 
 thy of our nature. It is surely a most inestimable privilege 
 to be permitted to hold communion with their departed- 
 spirits, through the medium of their immortal productions. 
 
(2:j) 
 
 Happy is he, who can withdraw himself from a sordid, 
 utilitarian world, and enjoy the companionship of Shakspeare 
 and Milton. Happy is he, who can roam with Temple in the 
 gardens of Sheen ; or retire to the shades of Twickenham and 
 Dawley, and in the society of Pope and Bolingbrokc, listen 
 while they indulge in literary and philosophical speculations. 
 Happy is he, who can become with Addison and Steele, a 
 spectator of the virtues and follies of men, or join in the 
 adventures of Hawkesworth, and the rambles of Johnson, 
 and imbibe the noble precepts which breathe in their pure and 
 elegant essays, so practically illustrative of the principles of 
 the only philosophy, that can harmonize the intercourse of 
 man with his fellow man, in every variety of pursuit, and in 
 all the relations of life. Sad indeed is the reflection, that the 
 glorious effusions of intellects such as these, are almost lost 
 under the chaotic mass of ephemeral productions, which a 
 prolific press is annually pouring upon the Avorld. 
 
 But, my young friends, if the intellectual efforts of modern 
 genius be necessary to our happiness, or to our progress in 
 mental and moral excellence, let us never forget the source, 
 from whence the real greatness and glory of that genius were 
 derived. Let us never forget the master spirits of antiquity. 
 Amid the arduous toils of professional life, we can find no 
 recreation more congenial than a close and familiar com- 
 munion with their ol3rmpic minds. Over the pages of the 
 Iliad, we are still permitted to approach the presence, and hear 
 the very tones of the " blind old man of Scio's rocky isle,' 
 wlio yet reigns monarch on Parnassus ; who is still, in the 
 language of one of his noblest disciples in the epic muse — the 
 great Florentine who sung of liell, — 
 
 Quel signor dell, allissimo canto, 
 Clie sovii gli altri, com^ aquila, vola.* 
 
 We can still wander with Thucydides and Plutarch, over 
 the battle-fields of Greece, and contemplate the deeds of her 
 
 * ''• That Lord of highest song, who like an eagle soars above the rest." 
 
 Dante's Inferno Canto iv. 
 
(24) 
 
 statesmen and heroes. We can walk in imagination amid 
 the ornamented temples of Athens in the palmy days of her 
 glory, during the administration of Pericles. We can gaze 
 on the lofty form of the great minister as he rises on the 
 bema to address that fierce democracy on the affairs of the 
 State. We see huTi descend amid thunders of applause, and 
 repair to the Parthenon or the Psecile, where we may almost 
 hear his criticisms on the magnificent works of sculpture from 
 the chisel of his favorite Phidias, or the celebrated representa- 
 tion of the great battle of Marathon, from the pencil of 
 Pananus. Over the pages of the Anabasis, we love to be 
 transported to the groves of Scillus, and in the society of 
 Xenophon, hear the elegant historian recount the incidents of 
 the famous retreat of the ten thousand, conducted under his 
 own matchless generalship. We turn to the pages of the 
 Cyropoedia, and our admiration of the miliary hero is lost 
 in love for the moralist, as we imbibe the ennobling principles 
 imparted by his vivid delineation of the character of a wise 
 and virtuous monarch. Over his Memorabilia of Socrates, we 
 catch from a favorite disciple, the pure precepts of morality 
 living as they fell from the mouth of that venerable and almost 
 divine philosopher. We. return to Athens, and join the crowd 
 of Athenian youth assembled in the gardens of the Academy, 
 to listen to a glowing lecture from Plato, — or that throng of 
 Peripatetics we see entering for a morning's walk with Aris- 
 totle or Theophrastus, the olive groves of the Lyceum. Over 
 the orations of Demosthenes, we hear in imagination, not what 
 we are usually compelled to tolerate, the " cheap extempora- 
 neous rant of modern demagogues " but what the Athenian 
 democracy were accustomed to hear,-the most elaborate, the 
 most nobly conceived and closely studied efforts of the human 
 mind, which in the whole range of oratorical productions, 
 have been transmitted for the admiration of mankind. We 
 hear with the generous impulses of patriotism, the denuncia- 
 tions of the orator, bursting like the delegated wrath of 
 heaven, against the monarch of Macedonia. We hear him 
 
( ^5 ) 
 oa ihe l"ainoii.:j occa.sioii ol the proseculiGu against Cieiiiphoit 
 for his proposition to award the golden crown, — an occasion 
 which, assembled at Athens a multitude from all parts of 
 Greece, and when the orator was called to encounter an adver- 
 sary worthy of his own great fame. At the close of that celebrated 
 debate, — and whether regarded as a strictly legal discussion, 
 or as a magnificent specimen of forensic eloquence, it still stands 
 unequalled, — we join in the applause which follows the deci- 
 sion in favor of Demosthenes, but we also shed a tear on the 
 announcement of the sentence, which sends his brilliant rival 
 into exile. 
 
 But passing from Athens to Rome, — from the Areopagus 
 and the assemblages of the people, to the Senate House and 
 the Forum, — we still move amid scenes where the mind may 
 ever wander with melancholy delight. From the society of 
 Xenophon and Plato, Demosthenes and ^Eschines, we pass to 
 that of Cicero and Cato and Brutus and Csesar. Over the 
 pages of Cicero and Sallust, we may even hear the memor- 
 able debate on the punishment to be inflicted on the associates 
 of Cataline. We pause and enter the Senate House on the 
 interesting occasion. Silanus has introduced his proposition 
 for the immediate execution of the conspirators, and Caesar is on 
 the floor, delivering his elegant, elaborate and philosophical a r= 
 gument against capital punishment. The previously formed 
 opinions of Senators are shaken by the ingenious and masterly 
 effort of a man skilled in all the arts of an accomplished oratoi" 
 Even Silanus himself, in a tone of apology, would modify his 
 proposition, when we see the imposing form of the Consul4^ 
 Cicero himself, rising to respond. Behold the civic victor of many 
 a well fought field ! Listen to those tones so often heard in the 
 Forum, in vindication of persecuted innocence ; in the Senate 
 House, in defence of suffering freedom ;— and heard but a few 
 days before, swelling in strains of burning indignation against 
 these same conspirators, along the lofty dome of the Temple of 
 Concord, His noble countenance beams with the fire of pa- 
 triotism and with 
 
 That stern joy whicli warriois feel 
 
 lu foemeii worthy of their steel. 
 
{ 2(1 ) 
 
 He has encomilercd an adversary before whom, in the arts 
 of eloquence, he alone could stand erect, and before wliom, in 
 iuiotlier art and on another field, even he was destined to stand 
 powerless, and contemplate in silence and sorrow the crum- 
 bling fabric of a once glorious republic. 
 
 Here his victory is complete. He sits down amid the applause 
 of that venerable band of patriots, and the stern voice of Cato 
 sustaining the opinion of Cicero, closes the debate. The Senate 
 adjourns. — The conspirators pay with their lives the penalty of 
 iheir crimes. — Rome is saved. — The Consul is triumphant. — 
 The City is illuminated in honor of her deliverance ; we hear 
 the shouts of the multitude, who follow the footsteps of their 
 venerated Consul to his home. The wives and daughters of 
 the citizens come forth on the lofty porticos, to attest by their 
 smiles and their tears, their gratitude to their country's deliverer. 
 We gaze on the placid brow of the god-like man, as Avith 
 measured tread, in his robes of office, and surrounded with the 
 simple insignia of authority, he moves in the midst of that re- 
 joicing throng. We join that triumphal procession — we swell 
 those notes of acclamation in honor of the noblest champion of 
 Libert}', the Avorld ever saw. 
 
 But let us visit him in his moments of release from the cares 
 of state and the pursuits of the forum, in the peaceful shades of 
 Tusculanum. Let us hear hirn taliv Avith Atticus on let- 
 ters and philosophy, or lament Avith Sulpicius over the Ava- 
 iling glories of the Republic, Let us behold him again in his 
 venerable age, Avhen that Republic Avas no more, repairing to 
 ilie Senate House, to plead, in the presence of the Dictator, the 
 cause of the exiled Marcellus ; or, let us hear him Avhile beset 
 by the daggers of assassins, scourge as Avith a Avhip of scorpions 
 the vices of the profligate Antony, and mark his solemn tones 
 while he gives utterance to those sentiments of patriotic dcA'otion, 
 Avhich alone should "canonize his memory in the hearts of the 
 champions of republican liberty :" " Quin etiam corpus libenter 
 obtulerim, si reprsesentari morte mea libertas civitatis potest ; ut 
 aliquando dolor populi Roniani pariat quod jamdiu parturit. 
 
{ 27) 
 Mihi vcro, patres eonscriptl, jam etiam optanda morsf^st, per= 
 i'ancto rebus iis, quas adeptus sum, quasque gessi. Duo modo 
 haec opto: unum, ut moriens populuin Romanum liberum relin- 
 quam; hoc mihi majus a diis immortalibus dari nihil potest: 
 aherum, ut ila cuique eveniat, ut de republica quisque 
 mereatur." 
 
 We throw a pall over the fallen republic. Wc enlor tlie 
 imperial palace in the golden era of Augustus. Our wan= 
 derings are no longer cheered by the light of republican 
 liberty; but as lovers of learning, we have our meed of 
 praise, even for an absolute monarch, if that monarch be a pat- 
 ron of letters. We pay our court to Augustus, to gaze on the 
 brilliant literary constellation, that glitters around the imperial 
 throne. We sympathise with him even in his predilections for the 
 pleasures of the banquet, while he reclines between the sighs ot 
 Horace and the tears of Virgil ; while he listens at one moment 
 to an adulatory song from Ovid, or an elegy from Propertius 
 or Tibullus, and at another to an account of their travels from 
 Diodorus Siculus and Strabo, to a chapter of his elegant 
 history from Livy, or the Biography of a Greek or Roman 
 general from Cornelius Nepos. 
 
 We follow with our imprecations the sanguinary Nero, 
 for the death of the stern old Seneca. We honor the em- 
 peror Vespasian for his friendship to the elder Pliny, and we can 
 ahnost pardon the cruelties of Domitian, when we remember the 
 favors he bestowed on the accomplished Qumtillian. We vail 
 our plumes like loyal courtiers, before the diadem of the virtuous 
 Trajan, for his noble liberality to Plutarch. We linger in 
 the imperial halls to gain an introduction to Tacitus and the 
 younger Pliny, that we may gaze on the beautiful spectacle they 
 present, of intellectual excellence, elevated and refined by the 
 charms of a pure and devoted friendship. In the former we re- 
 cognize the stern republicanism of the days of Cicero and Brutus ; 
 and while,for^the elegant adulation bestowed by the latter upon 
 the Emperor, we can find an apology in the kindness and con- 
 fidence of his sovereign, we love also to record our gratitude for 
 
( 28 ) 
 
 the humanity and magnanimity he displayed while Froconsuf 
 of Pontus and Bythinia, in rebuking the fell spirit of persecution 
 against the early Christians, ere the benignant light of their holy 
 and self-sacrificing faith had shone through the mists of Pa- 
 ganism on the throne of the Cajsars. 
 
 Even at a later and more barbarous period of imperial Rome, 
 we can follow the triumphal car of the victorious Aurelian; but 
 not to gaze on the spoils of his Oriental conquests. In the 
 Jong and magnificent procession that adorns his triumph, there 
 moves in sad and solemn but collected dignity, and arrayed iri 
 all the attractions of Oriental loveliness, a captive female. She 
 is manacled with a golden chain, and led by a slave before the 
 glittering chariot of the imperial victor. We turn from the 
 conqueror to the conquered. Amid the blaze of trumphant 
 power, we are lost in the contemplation of the radiance whicli 
 power cannot dim — the radiance of immortal mind. We gaze 
 on the young, the beautiful Zenobia; Queen of Palmyra, — the 
 learned and accomplished pupil of the celebrated Longinus. 
 
 But I leave you to indulge in your hours of literary repose, 
 these imaginary wanderings ; and if we have already lingered 
 too long amid the ruins of Athens and of Rome, we can 
 find an apology in the interest inspired by the important 
 events which have recently been passing in the last men- 
 tioned home of ancient freedom. In the contemplation of 
 those events, what American Republican does not pray for 
 the restoration of her ancient glory ? Who of us, would not 
 in the place of the Pontifical government, combining spiritual 
 and temporal power, behold once more the Consular authority 
 reposing on the popular will, and securing in its origmal effi- 
 ciency, the popular freedom ? Who would not, in the place of 
 the Vatican, with all its magnificence and grandeur, restore the 
 JSenate House in its ancient majesty and glory ? What lover 
 of Picpublican liberty, as he dwells in imagination on the 
 procession in honor of the civic triumph of a Consul, would not 
 contemplate with melancholy emotions, the senseless pageant 
 of the representative of spiritual and tt-mporal Huthority, sur- 
 
( ^i^ ) 
 
 romuled by the gaudy paraphernalia of office, moving over ih? 
 very scenes once consecrated by the footsteps of Cicero, — to 
 attract, not the gaze of enlightened freemen, but the servile 
 worshippers of the splendors of despotism, 
 
 Alas ! the lofty city ! and alas ! 
 
 The trebly hundred triumphs ! and the day 
 
 When Brutus made the daggers edge surpass 
 
 The conqueror's sword in bearing fame away 1 
 
 Alas for Tully's voice, and VirgiFs lay, 
 
 And Livy's pictured page ! — but these shall be 
 
 Her resurrection — all beside — decay. 
 
 Alas for earth ! for never shall we see 
 
 That brightness in her eye, slie bore, when Rome was free ! 
 
 I speak nothing repugnant to the sentiments of a genuine Re- 
 publican, whatever may be his religious faith, when I declare that 
 I cannot contemplate an union of the powers which are still regar- 
 ded as essential to Papal supremacy, without recurring to that 
 gloomyperiod in the history of the world, when^-overnments claim- 
 ed the peculiar privilege of binding alike the human frame and the 
 human mind ; when the tortures of the body were resorted to, to 
 bend and fashion the faith of the immortal soul; and when that soul 
 aspiring to a closer communion with its God was subdued and 
 fettered by manacles forged by the bloody artificers of cruelty, 
 in the workshops of Bigotry and Superstition. It is difficult to 
 forget that dark epoch in the history of Italy, when her l-earned 
 men "did nothing but bemoan the servile condition into which 
 learning amongst them was brought;" -v^^hen tyrannical restraints 
 upon the liberty of the press and the liberty of thought "had 
 damped the glory of Italian wits, and nothing was written for 
 years but flattery and fustian ;" when not a scholar could send 
 forth a "single Enchiridion, without the Castle of St. Angelo 
 of an imprimatur ;" and when the bold champion of English 
 liberty "found and visited the famous Galileo grown old, a pris- 
 oner to the Inquisition, for thinking in astronomy otherwise than 
 the Franciscan and Dominican licensers thought.'"=^ I would 
 
 * Miltori's Areopaglfioa. 
 
( ^0 ) 
 
 ask for llio land of Cicero and Brulus, a final dellvrrance from a 
 government, whichever sanctioned either in theory or practice 
 such abominable outrages upon human rights, such horrible refine- 
 ment upon human suffering. Let the representative of St. Peter 
 enjoy all the rights which appertain to the sanctity of his position. 
 Let him have the keys, and all other appendages of his holy office. 
 Let him have the mitre, — but without the golden circles, — and 
 all other emblems of spiritual and Apostolical dominion ; but 
 let him surrender to his subjects all claims to sovereign politi- 
 cal power ; and God grant that the day may shortly arrive 
 when from the rising to the setting sun, there may be no fealty 
 acknowledged to any earthly sovereignty, save the sovereignty 
 of the people I 
 
 To the mind of the Republican philosopher there are presented 
 many cogent reasons to hope for the realization of this prayer 
 in the popular convulsions which have recently agitated the 
 monarchies of continental Europe. Whether these convulsions 
 have been the result of Republican examples in our own land 
 or of the more general and efficient cliffiision of intelligence by 
 the more liberal and enlarged'"systems of education enjoyed by 
 the subjects of many of the potentates of Europe, their ultimate 
 effects and consequences cannot otherwise than prove favora- 
 ble to a wider and more uniform dissemination of the principles 
 of constitutional liberty. Those of us who have watched with 
 interest the progress of educational reform in the old world, are 
 struck with the salutary and momentous changes effected within 
 a limited period. 
 
 We know that during the middle ages learning was confined 
 to monasteries and colleges, which, acting in subserviency to 
 the mandates of despotism, fixed bounds to the aspirations of 
 the human mind. Almost everywhere, they were the pliant, 
 submissive instruments to accomplish the purposes of tyranny. 
 Within a very recent period, and in Prussia too, w^here the sys- 
 tem of education is now the most liberal and the most perfect, 
 history, we are told, was not permitted to be studied in the 
 schools, until pruned and modified, to fit it for the unsuspecting 
 
( oi ) 
 
 recipients of the doctrines of passive obedience. There were 
 startling facts in the long career of monarchies, Avhich could not 
 with security be divulged to their faithful subjects. The records 
 of despotism required obliteration. The past was too terrible for 
 the hopes of the future. The bold chroniclers of oppression 
 had told their tales in language too plain and comprehensible 
 for the stability of thrones. 
 
 As American republicans we hail these European revolutions 
 as harbingers of a far brighter and happier era in European 
 civilization. Although " the riders of the winds" and " stirrers 
 of the storms" of revolution have in some instances, at least, 
 been inadequate to the control of the elements they put in mo- 
 tion, it is not for us, as Americans, to despair of the ultimate 
 triumph of the great principles of civil and religious liberty 
 throughout the world. In Haynau and his butcheries, we in- 
 deed behold revived those periods in the history of nations* 
 when the axe and the block, the faggot and the stake were the 
 cherished instruments of enforcing obedience to the mandates 
 of power. They were periods of horror Avhich the Apostles of 
 freedom had believed could never again be witnessed in a civi- 
 lized land or a Christian age. But as sure as " Truth is the 
 body of God, a?id light is Ms shadow,^' a day of retribution will 
 come. As the head of Orpheus torn from his bleeding form 
 and cast upon the waters of the Hebrus, still poured upon the 
 mystic air his melancholy wail for the lost Eurydice, so* shall 
 the cry for freedom from the Hungarian martyr, rise upon 
 every wind of Heaven and be borne to every Christian clime, 
 long after the axe of the executioner has obeyed the sanguinary 
 behests of Austrian justice. 
 
 When we remember that the political bigotry and oppression 
 Avhich have aroused the spirit of revolution in other lands, are 
 unfelt and unseen throughout our broad American domain, we 
 cannot be too grateful for llie happy and elevated position now 
 occupied by our country in the eyes of the world. To that 
 country and her free institutions we are indebted for all the 
 blessings of intellectual exi.-<tence. Here the human mind 
 
( 32 ) 
 
 Fange;^ with a full coiiscioasiJie.ss of ils iadepeiRleiicc, overall 
 the works of creation, uncontrolled by the spirit of iniolerance 
 unawed by the mandates of power. The niaxuii of tyrants 
 from the times of Caligula to the present hour, — oderinl diim 
 mduanl-^'ias no terrors for us. Here the factitious splendor of 
 royal diadems, must fade into insignificance before the moral 
 effulgence of Liberty. " A strip of velvet decked with jewels," 
 can never be associated in our imaginations with anything sa- 
 cred or venerable. Its divine antiquity so often appealed to 
 with reverential awe, by the minions of despotism, can never 
 ereate in our mhids ought else than melancholy regret that 
 mankind shovild have slumbered so long in ignorance and de- 
 lusion, — so long have remained unconscious of their own digni- 
 ty and moral destiny. 
 
 It becomes us gratefully to acknowledge and faithfully to 
 repay the blessings we enjoy, by an ardent devotion to duty in 
 whatever capacity or position we may be called upon to act. 
 There are none too humble 1o perform a good deed or to say 
 a good word for the spirit of Liberty. 
 
 Upon you, my young friends, Avill soon devolve the high com- 
 mission entrusted to every American. It will be your duty to 
 aid, not only in preserving, but improving and extending this 
 rich inheritance of a glorious ancestry. It will be your duty 
 not only to advocate the diffusion of knowledge among all 
 classes of our fellow-men, but to strive to elevate far higher the 
 standard of learning in every art and every profession. Let 
 literature and the sciences be studied on a much higher and 
 nobler scale. Let intellectual superiority, where it is accom- 
 panied by moral excellence, be the only test of distinction 
 among men. In the discharge of the momentous obligations 
 you are shortly to assume, you have nothing to rely on for suc- 
 cess but individual energy, fortified by dauntless hearts. Yon 
 have no Augustus to bestow upon you patronage, or to lift n])on 
 you the light ol' an imperial countenance. You have no Ha- 
 roun, al Raschid, to call you from the shades of obscarity, to 
 '^ summon you lo speak upon doublful questicnsj and to stand 
 
(33) 
 
 in the presence of the Caliph." You have no Lorenzo the 
 Magnificent, to lavish upon you revvrards to stimulate you to 
 intellectual effort. Less favored than your young brethren in 
 our American Athens, you have no Lawrences and Appletons, 
 to provide with almost princely munificence, and with 
 motives and objects far more pure and patriotic than ever ani- 
 mated the breasts of princes, extensive libraries, in which the 
 mind may clothe itself in the armor that will enable it to engage 
 successfully in the conflicts of life. But to this Hall which we 
 dedicate to the cause of Literature and Science, we bid you 
 ever welcome. Here you may gather strength for the trials 
 that await you. Here upon the altar consecrated to Learning, 
 you may swear eternal hostility to the powers of Ignorance. 
 The cause of learning is the cause of your country ; and re- 
 member that true national greatness and true national glory can 
 only be preserved and perpetuated by the promotion of mental 
 and moral excelknce. 
 
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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
 019 793 153 A 
 
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