THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS LIBRARY The Tuttle collection Purchased 1928 C * *v Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2012 with funding from University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign http://archive.org/details/secondannualoratOOmaye THE SECOND ANNUAL ORATION, DELIVERED BEFORE THE BELLES LETTRES AND UNION PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETIES OP DiaZIlTSOlT COLLEGE, w AT THEIR REQUEST, UY THE LUTHERAN CHURCH, IJY CARLISLE, 9JS TUESDAY EVENING THE 28TH PAY OF SEPT.,, 1827. BY CHARLES F. MAYER, A. M^^^ .Of Baltimore, Juil., J\Jtmber cj the ljdtta jLtiirisi 8u CARLISLE! PRINTED AT THE OFFICE OF THE "HERALD/' mi. DICKTNSON COLLEGE, SEPTEMBER 27, 1821. Dear Sir — The Belles Lettres and Union Philosophical Societies return yon their thanks for the excellent Oration delivered before them last evening, and respectfully request a copy of it for publication. With much respect, Sir, we remain yours, &c. John C. Jenkins, Benjamin Patton, Jr. John Jl. Gray, James Vanhorn, f g Baker J. Ross, Augustus 0. Hiester, Uv5 Q> ©is.a^i<©rf< I feel, gentlemen, that this hour is sacred to the cause of the minrl. To unfold its contemplative beauties, to light up the rich area of this classical anniversary, is the office with which you have honoured me. In celebrating the majesty of intellect and the luminous victories of science, I have to perform a duty worthy of the most graceful talent; and it is at once a solemn and an elegant ministry thus to serve within the terse and peaceful precincts of the mind's domain. It is especially arduous, I might almost say ungenial, for me, summoned to it, as I have been, from the strict research, the solicitous toils, and keen collisions of Professional life. However refreshing to one wearied with the contentious realities and vigilant tactics of that life may be the scenery of the regions of thought and of taste, it is not easy for him to attune his mind for the homage the spectacle deserves; for it is the tendency of the Law's ad- amantine studies and elaborate detail to repress the Fan- cy's etherial activity, and arrest the mind's excursiveness above the level of its stern pursuits. I come, nevertheless, to the functions which have been indulgently allotted me, as a tributary to a cherished authority, to offer upon the early theatre of my mental efforts and emulation the hum- ble measure of my service. It is not for my powers to enamel any florid beauties upon the truth of the literary past and present. The occasion is, indeed, worthy of ail that the mind in its energy, and the imagination in its vo- tive harmonies, can invest it with; but that con^um nation belongs to some more ornamental minister of the period, who, with more epic feeling and richer unction, may exult amidst the bloom of Literature and in the spirit of aspiring Science. Still we may admire with one another the healthful air and the soothing temperature, that reign in the Republic of Letters, and commune together on the literariy eminences above the thrifty walks of business. We may mark the 682273 4 SECOND ANNUAL ORATION. culture that reflects its grateful charms from the scene and. makes indeed the "Earth's great altar send up its silent pr rise" — and we may rejoice in the light of intelligence that falls upon it and the happiness that smiles over it. I shall not offer you a studious rehearsal of the triumphs of Science, or the luxuriance of Literature, or propound di- d k tic oracles for your improvement, — all I can aspire to is to elicit from the thoughtful genius of the occasion, and display in as fair proportions as I may, the sentiments with which it is imbued, and which are the common perceptions of us all, I have come hot as the guest of your minds — to enjoy with you a hospitable intellectual communion — and that feast of reason which the occasion furnishes and to which my mind can contribute no luxuries of its own pe- culiar product. It is pleasing to witness the unison of your societies in this celebration. They mingle here their common zeal and aspirations toward their high intelligent purpose, with no irritated rivalry, and with only a fervid emulation in the aim of rational excellence. The mind may well glow in such a career. That ardor, while it propels ambition, kindles genius to its illuminations, and raises the tone and awakens the energies of intellect. In such a temperature we may anticipate all the substantial fertility of mind and the fairest exuberance of imagination. The spirit of Science and Literature is unobtrusive and serene: but it is most per- vading and efficient in the inspired warmth and hues of en- thusiasm. Its reign is that of the golden age, and no bit- ter antipathies are admitted to its limits, or can endure the atmosphere of its territory. Within its borders, and breath- ing the same air of liberal feeling, dwell the two associations I have the honor to address, confederated in one deep and generous interest. Literary genius has thus ever delighted in the climates of peace: in any other it but languidly exists. It flourishes not as the parasite of despotism — or to embroider the vani- ty of aristocracy; but only in the epiiet shelter of order and virtue. And the spirit of science, irrepressible and diffu- sive :is electricity itself, yet shuns the inflamed scenes of contention, and retreats rather to the humblest retirement to work out her stores. For these truths, and only for that purpose, let us recur SECOND ANNUAL ORATION. 5 to the days when the literature of Europe was immured in her convents, ami scarcely threw a ray from its grave seclu- sion upon the dreary face of surrounding society — when all that field was overshadowed by the haughty towers, and convulsed with the turbulence, of feudal bravos — a race of titled ruffians* and chartered libertines, whose point of excel- lence was i\m most consummate tyranny, and the element of whose prowess was the darkness of the public mind. In the midst of this unhallowed tumult, science and learn- ing could not venture forth, and the breath of Heaven reach- ed them only when the distempered visions of the crusades and the enchantments of chivalry with its romantic but sub- duing vagaries fell upon the dull intellect and riotous spirits of the day. I will not, however, take up your time with the oft-told tale of the struggles of Learning, and its long hermitage, nor carry you thro' its cloistered passages or to its narrow cells where its light was not shed beyond the field of the monk's studious lam]}; — nor to its oriental re- treats, wherein scholastic pomp it was more graciously en- tertained — nor to its asylum in the chill solitudes of Iceland. It is not now the peculiar possession of the recluse, — or sometimes perhaps of a prince who, (a generous anomaly,) departing from the fierce ideal of the age descended to the effeminacies of learning — or in a patronizing whim chose to favour the musing of some gifted or pedantic devotee — or the extravagances of some strolling rhapsodist. Let us rejoice that no paltry tyranny of the middle ages, no dark baronial arrogance, now mars the social or- der and frowns upon our social harmonies, leaving the world to desolute ignorance and the wastes of riot. A clearer sky is above us now, and the world glories in intellectual vigour. Learning has enthroned herself in the limits of civilized life ; her sovereignty is adorned with all the charms of taste ; her sway is chastened with all the sen- sibility of genius — the cordial influences of Literature. I need but mention Science and Literature as now expounded and ennobled to suggest at once their beautiful and varied panorama to your minds; — an array at once stupendous and benignant. Instead of a sepulchral seclusion — a light burning in those tombs of active life, — the monasteries of old, — we have learning in her graceful courts with her col- onnades of taste, her fountains of salutary thought, her b SECOND ANNUAL ORATION. light dispersing itself wide as human conception, her envi- rons enticing with their fragrance and invigorating with their vital air tht\ wayward or the dispirited, — her firmament the picture of omnipotence,— the banner of Heaven. Such in- deed is tlie hallowed temple of reason, — the gradual growth of well regulated intelligence — not the shrine of spurious Philosophy and a recreant spirit of independence. We do not recognize that Philosophy Which, blind to the confines of human reason, in its insurgent aim and infatuated flight mistakes the mysterious grandeur and remoteness of the Divinity for the darkness of chance. Then visions of law- less imagination fill up the void, and these in turn are deem- ed revelations of independent intellects and dictated as les- sons of practical philosophy. But I will not dwell on these profanations of the rebellious mind, nor figure scenes which dared the Heavens, and a madness that sought to obliterate the Divinity. It is indeed true that this age may exult in its superb scientific advancement. The spirit of the period is literary and scientific, especially in those countries, emphatically in this, where the liberty of the press circulates thought and solicits research; — where political freedom requires the paths of state to be ever lighted, that the seats and conduct of the servants of our power may be ever in view — and that the entrenchments of our political rights may be effectually preserved. The spirit of the period is scientific; — for its practical results are ever re aching the business and bosoms Li men, as well as (he high concernment of states. ry day brings to your view, almost every move- ment of active life intimates to you, this bountiful, this im- perial agency of science. Our whole economy has been i shioned and quickened by % audit is the aid and discipline of all our industry. It enriches and animates all those arts that tend to hu- man comfort or aggrandizement; — from those that supply individual pro perity, or minister to private elegance, to those that sustain the schemes of empire: — from those that bo le fcaal serVe the battle-field and en- I i of ambition, fl braves the stormy pride of I . — the rivers Row in its channels — the retired jpur^oses. The Earth and the Heav- itial secrets and detect- SECOND ANNUAL ORATION. 7 ftd worlds in the recesses of the universe, and brought down the stars to the service of earth and made them the auxili- aries of men. Chemistry lias explored the material world and given mankind the useful triumphs of analysis. It has pryed in- to the affections, and read the very heart of matter — its various alliances and elective tendencies, and, learning its repugnancies, it has reached the elemental forms of things so far as human reason may test material substances, or scan the texture of mysteries. Thus has chemistry gained a plastic authority over all the dispositions of matter, dictat- ing its combinations to suit the fancies and enhance the com- fort of men. It is the allv of Medicine, the universal a2:ent V 7 tJ of Manufactures, and organizing and instructing Agricul- ture, it charms from the earth a more fertile tribute and en- livens its empire with the bounteous green of plenty. Geology and Mineralogy have told us, too, of the var rious constituents of our planet, and inferred from its rocky legends its strange vicissitudes — while chemistry has gone down into its deep bosom, to give sure light to those, who for profit or fame, grope through her silent domain, and ransack her sequestered treasury. All the physical sciences have been growing in strength and wealth, and are endued with new faculties. Mechanical philosophy has exemplified the transcend- ant power of human intellect, in rousing the inertness, and conquering the impediments, of the inanimate world. By her progress we see in magnificent illustration that it is by the nerve of mind that the lever rises, and that the wheel but revolves with the resoluteness and urgency of in- tellect. The mind of man presides in the motions of the industrious mill, as in the impetuous energies of the Steam- boat. Passing from the mind in its embodied life in me- chanical philosophy, we shall see it no less pre-eminent in that field of its abstract glories, the range of Mathematical science. Here that science with severe simplicity, and the most intense analysis, denotes the enduring and im- pregnable force of mind. It has been cultivated until its principles are so devel- oped that problems apparently the most recondite are solved with little trouble beyond the enunciation of a few maxims; 8 SECOND ANNUAL ORATION. and the mystery of quantities and numbers has been simp- lified to the perspicuous array of demonstration. Political Economy the philosophy of national interest and the science of wealth* receives its frequent tributes in treatises of vigorous and original thought, and is referred to principles of practical purport, and illustrated and tested by practical results. It is a science that, without any narrow spirit or sor- did complexion, delivers to nations the precepts of the 1 highest prudence and pecuniary polity, and provides them with a financial armament equivalent to martial genius and military array. It is the contemplation of the most marked and essen- tial effects of our social system, and the positive institutions of property, and society is reflected in its organized indus- try and in all its civilized machinery. It is the science of society in reference to the great rallying principles of interest and social strength and expediency; the burden of its exposition is the complex harmonies of the association of men ; and its disquisition tends to the central and con- troling principles and schemes that may regulate and en- rich the collective interest of the community. Much space in this science has been occupied with the discussion of the force of terms and the effect of definitions. But their ex- aminations are not merely verbal, although they regard the nomenclature of the subject, since the terms indicate and involve the cardinal principles of the study, and their con- sideration opens for debate the theories of wealth and finan- cial wisdom. The science, however, in its more recent speculations, deals less with these controversies on terms, details operations and effects, and infers principles of sound prudential & lucrative policy. It is the associate of the moral science of Government; — and is emphatically the study for Republics, whose peculiar and consummate aim, & natural beauty, it is to unite efficiency with economy, and to whom profuse experiments in finance cannot be allowed. And it is grateful to find the study intently and profoundly pursued in this country, in the works of our Raymonds and Coopers; while we have the liirht of England in her llicardos and M'Cullochs, and others, with genius worthy of a concern with the financial grandeur of that country, and the stupen- dous phenomena of British industry. SECOND ANNUAL ORATION. V The science of duty, in Ethics, like the science of inter- est in Political Economy, has also heen enlightened by the unsophisticated writings of more modern enquiries. Theo- rists in this sphere once raised their various standards of moral obligation, & patronized them with industrious argu- ment and lavish illustration as the points of tendency of all our moral impulses, and the solidity of all our moral senti- ment. To vindicate to one common, undisguised, and co- gent principle all these standards, is the aim of our Moral Philosophy. And the result is to challenge the reasons against the rules of moral obligation, rather than to raise theories to enforce it, or erect sanctions to which, by the charm of ingenious logic, all moral action may be constrained to re- fer itself. In the advancement of the Medical art, too, Science has given its guardian care to man. Medicine no longer deals in a blind catalogue of experimental or random appliances, but it stands organized under a luminous and comprehen- sive Philosophy. The reign of empiricism has passed away; the adventures of quackery are soon baffled; and the counterfeit interlopers in this hallowed science are in- dustriously discovered and proscribed. The scope of Medical study has in various aspects been enlarged, and new auxiliary sciences have become essential accomplish- ments of the Physician. It is in a great degree the eminent honour of our modern times to have thus vindicated this beneficent science to its due dignity ; to have thus entrench- ed an art appendant, it might almost be said, to divinity, and sharing the solemnity of the human destiny, against the mockery of magical artifices, and every species of pre- ternatural deceit, and idle or reckless intermeddling. Thus universally propitious has Learning been, and so magnificent is her opulence, in these periods; and thus grandly has science triumphed, as now exemplified in only a few chapters of her glory. But let us retire now into the sublime dome of the mind herself, and take the index of our Intellectual Philosophers to the powers that there dwell, and mark the profound con- ference of mind with mind itself. The Philosophy of the mind, engaged with our supreme peculiarities — the points of our regal excellence — is pursued under a sense of fcheif august nature, and to ends of substantial utility and beauti- 2 10 SECOND ANNUAL ORATION, ful development. It is no longer a quest after fue-itivo mysteries, or a futile tracking of the thought o detect inac- cessible essences that are hid in the depths of eternity, and consecrated in the awful intelligence of the Deity. It no longer leaves the solid data of experience and distinct unerr- ing consciousness, to follow, on the honest premises of Berk- ley, or the less pious errors of Hume, their speculative phantoms — leading into a world of ideality and flitting theo- ries, where skepticism, with its bewildering apparitions, dis- solves the material world into a mere phantasy; cheats the mind of its conscious existence, and the heart of a home, and banishes it to a desert. Our Intellectual Philosophy dis- tinguishes between mere verbal forms and diflerences, and mental creations, movements, and affections : and, precise in its definition, and tenacious in its use of terms, it looks for the mind in the midst of her conceptions and as she there rules and glows. It regards the mind in its actual and use- ful economy, in its connexion with the material tilings and with an aspect toward them. It treats words but as the, messengers of the intellect to the external world, and deems that the thoughts are therefore to be vested in material anal- ogies and exhibited in a material mould. It dc-es not look at the mind's abstractions as a sort of ethereal emanation from its intrinsic nature; an impalpable tissue of airy nega- tives, that no definition can embody; but it views the mind as the agent of powers of high, though mysterious, kindred; dealing in this world of sense with material objects, and not as the mere sanctuary of ideas chanc ng to be introduced into it in methodical and intelligent succession. In short, the Philosophy of the Mind, no longer a grave game of the fancy and a torture or seducer of the intellect, is but a s^ s- tem of intent and assiduous self-inquiry; an earnest survey, by the explicit tests of consciousness, of the intellectual scheme and habitudes and action. Noting the mind's vari- ous combinations and analysis, and the faculties that sustain its pursuits and obey its dictates as they come from the throne of will, it observes the impulses that press the mind to its aim, and its wakeful elasticity and its universal ex^ cursiveness. Its tendency is ever to intimate "the secret moral of the mystic show;" and th<> height of its fair argument reach- es Heaven itself. Stizii^ the imagination, alert una eiu« SECOND ANNUAL ORATION. ll sive as she is, it presents her to us as the useful as well as decorative ally of stricter reason ; figuring to that its con- ceptions; colouring the resolutions that reason sternly en- graves; maintaining the flow and continuity of thought by the succession of her semblances. It does not represent reason as a sort of recluse faculty, prosaically bigotted and intent upon its surly drift of drudgery; but as moving with imagination ever in its train, active even though latent in her agency ; having its progressive developments illumin- ated by her; and a scenic effect given by her to all its po- sitions. In every operation of intellect exists this figurative agency; and the celestial faculty of which I speak min- gles in all the conceptions and elicitings of the severest lo- gician — however, in the apparent tenor of his mind, he may be the very antithesis of all that is i naginative. In im- agination the intellectual Philosopher discerns the raptur- ous argument of immortality, the testimonial of divine de- scent, and in its vivid versatility and infinite picturings the sublimest analogies of eternity. It lights the star of hope; and at its benignant visitations visions of happy vicissitude dawn upon our hearts. It is not, however, in its tender offices as the alluring spirit of cheerfulness and consolation that we are taught to regard it with the deepest interest; but as it elates us above the pressure of cumbrous mortality, and ever opens the prison of reality, it seems to be the emblem of Divinity — a herald from the skies of a destiny beyond the frontiers of sense — connecting us in its ascension upon its high themes, with the asylum of perpetual quiet and un- tiring delight — encouraging and dignifying us with the as- surance of our immortal consecration. Philosophy, as now mitigated, traces imagination through all these influences and verifies all these indications of which I have been speaking, dwelling on the fancy's spiritual power and ethe- rial creations, and seeing in its scope and supremacy the seraphic signet of Heaven. It marks, however, the guardi- an rights of reason over it, and the salutary discipline that must sober its attire and restrain its range. It does not hold it up for your admiration and delusion in its gorgeous sorcery; or with its fantastic plu nige as a bird of Paradise; nor in its indolent dreamy sauntering; nor would it have you court the shades that it casts upon the human energies in morbid fantasies and scowling perversions and discontent, 12 SECOND ANNUAL ORATION. But the Philosophy of mind views imagination and cele- brates it as Useful in its ennohled aspects, in its intellectual alliance, its cheering illustration, its embassies of hop* and inspiration ; while from the hallowed heights to which imagination carries us, Philosophy elicits the glorious in- ferences of our nature, and proudly claims the fancy's min- istry as auxiliary of our reason and the missionary of hea- ven. Memory, too, who in all her suggestions proclaims the triumph of mind over time, and in her temple of images spiritualizes all experience, and shows that our life is es- sentially intellectual, though not, as skeptics have it, ideal — is a wide theme for intellectual Philosophy. It exhibits memory as one of the dependancies of imagination; in th* spectacles it invokes exercising a power akin to it, and, in- deed, having imagination to confirm and vivify the scenes it awakens. By Philosophy memory is presented to us in all her varied recurrences, as the field of our sorrow where she opens her solemn receptacles ; or as she leads us into her halls of regulated cheerfulness, gay hospitality and nimble wit ; as she breathes around us the familiar air of our domestic life and lire-side comforts, though near theru- fned hearth and amid our desolate reality; or as she revives i)iQ friends who have long lain in the tranquil depths of our hearts, and restores the sweet converse and buoyant activity now absorbed by the grave: or as she unveils the haunts of early days when the world lay before us in all its speci- ous perspective, and keeping the scene yet bright with the joyous sun that won our youthful hours : or as she presents remorse in all its bitter life and rankling vigor still solicit- ously sustained by memory, and still struggling to escape the dungeon she knows full well to guard. Through scenes and alternations like these our modern intellectual Philoso- phy has occasion to mark the memory; to learn her power and argue her temperament and her relations, while it illus- trates her high office and incessant agency in all the men- tal operations, all the deductions of judgment, and the ef- ficiency of pure reason. It is not with mere logical tenacity, and heartless ab* Btrs iion, but with an edifying and a moral grace that Iiir tellectual Philosophy explores and details our mental pow^ ers and peculiarities; shedding on the subject an endearing SECOND ANNUAL ORATION. 13 unction. From this spirit of modern Philosophy it is, that we have the embellished logic and eloquent suavity of Stew- art; the manly decomposition and lucid discursiveness of Reid; the decided diction and resistless analysis of Brown; all of whom, with the rich resources of erudition, have pur- sued their science without obsequious faith in previous systems, and full of the intrepidity of true Philosophical scrutiny. Our intellectual Philosophy arrests, too, subtile & evan- escent genius. It finds it to be no substantive endowment and to have no prerogative exemption from the rules of the ordinary faculties of the mind; but that in all its lightning glance, its prompt responsiveness, and brilliant rapidity, it is but an intellectual vigor quickened to a livelier measure, and an imagination more luminous and alert. It is not an intuitively transcendant faculty, a species of inspiration; but the regular action of the common mind in splendid vigi- lance and towering efficiency. The moral we thence educe is that vagrancy is neither the beauty, nor the worthy habit of genius, as is the abandoned idea so flattering to vanity and inertness, into which too many have been betrayed, who have the elastic aptitudes of genius. Irregularity is not its attribute, and no genial accompaniment; and its highest honors are not to be won in devious paths, and moods of remissness. Order is its appropriate law — -its most useful sphere — its graceful vestment. Let us then admire and cherish the Philosophy of the human mind as a system of self-knowledge ; a revelation of our mental grandeur and real worth; tendering us the deep- est enjoyments of thought and winning us to the most digni- fied ambition; while it instils the lesson of our infirmities and holds its lamp to the dangers that lurk in ourselves ; to the engrossing power of habit ; to the seductive vice of a sinister imagination ; to the stupor and abjectness that await the neglected intellect. Duly noting the tendencies and the imperfection of our faculties, & appreciating their utility, it vindicates the cause of science, and the cultivation of all our powers to the tempered pleasures of reason and instructed fancy. It does not lament that the progress of education lias given a limited monarchy to the imagination, and inter- dicted her riotous exuberancies ; and with logical sobriety narrowed her excursions to the bounds of scientific decorums / 14 SECOND ANNUAL ORATION. and in proper accordance with our mental advancement and social institutions, placed her under the more positive dis- cipline of truth. If imagination can no longer overshadow us with her superstitious mystery, and find her ominous phantasms in exhibitions which science now has approached and made the obedient examples of her own laws; if her stupendous en- ormities, her dazzling fallacies are no more; we have a hap- py equivalent in her chastened vigor, her temperate sug- gestions, impressive because they carry no defiance to rea- son and consistency; the solemn silence of her pathos ; her sportive throng of fine wit and gay intelligence. Amidst the gladness of cultivation we may well dis- pense with the frowning Scandinavian grandeur and the is splendor of oriental redundancies; and we have a surer and a deeper pleasure from the Italian charms, the velvet lawns, and roseate precision, of cultivated imagina* iion, even with all the classical retrenchments it may have undergone. Philosophy and the genius of our advanced science, in- culcate the sense of the moral with that of the natural beau- ties; they shade the landscape with instructive thought, or augment its lustre with enlivening associations; thus make- tug nature the text of mind; seeing in it the informing wis- dom of a higher sphere as well as the resources of human improvement. I have dwelt thus long, gentlemen, on this department of refined learning, because it seems to be more immediate- <.%t?d to those abstract exercises in which your societies delight; and as it holds the rank of a reigning power in the contemplation of all that science, and that wealth of learn- wh'vdi the mind that is its subject has explored and created. With you it must be of direct and cardinal inter- est isi your daily suit at the great shrine of thought — taught truly to look at your minds as the sources of all your advan- ■■> the agents of all your future usefulness and legitimate renown. It is not, gentlemen, merely in reference to the com- of life, or the increased resources of society or of gov- ernments that I would extol the progress? and have you re- idancy of learning and science. But it is for their high moral ehects. their exaltation of the tone and SECOND ANNUAL ORATION. 15 industry of the public mind, that I would greet their marclu So far as they inspire intellectual courage, energy of judg- ment, persevering inventiveness, and the ambition for the sovereignty of mind, and shed a thoughtful tranquility up* on society, and sublimate the standard of justice; learning and science bless the earth and honor heaven. To instil and produce all this is their benignant consummation, how- ever nobly even their sensible and immediate results may gladden and embellish humanity. While science deals with her strict realities and learn- ing notes her labors, governs her progress and supplies her materials, literature opens her recreations and hospitable bowers to the kindly taste, and purified sensibilities. Paci- fying our perverse temperament with her balmy persuasion, her melodies elate the declining energies and excite the con- scious dignity ; her inviting verdure arrests us in the fervid course and dusty paths of business, assuaging us to thought and sympathy; her pensive dews and sunny haunts nour- ish and brighten the spirit of the morbid, the disappointed, and the sorrowing. This period is most fruitful of literature, and boldly marked by the enterprize of talent. It is not the beauties of a mere flower-garden — the mere horticulture of genius — that our literature presents ; but it offers us a substantial product for grave edification, as well as its gay efflorescence to enliven our leisure. Eve- ry species of talent has its field and its incentive, and en- joys the munificent freedom of the literary republic. It is not the course of modern genius to luxuriate and waste its fragrance in solitude; but it may be said that the spirit of our times invites it to exhibit, diffuse, and record itself: and hence the varied and teeming contributions to our liter- ary mass. It would be idle to say that all this coinage has the stamp of genius, or is the chastened "efflux divine" of salutary talent. In the productions of our motley intellect there is much of truant imagination, perverse conceit, and romantic froth, and every variety of strange obliquity. We have all the quaint diversities and affected phases of the literary creation, from the most shadowy fantasies and hideous majesty, to the primly sedate & scrupulously shorn, illustration, witli the due concord of sentences and syllables, to suit the balanced propriety of the style j and then a fu* 16 SECOND ANNUAL OttATlOtf. ncrcal procession of stalking ideas contrasted by another style of measured and emphatic gait, with its proportion of" sententious condiments; and then we are aroused by the ab- rupt and startling, or quickened by the electric style, cover- ing us with epigrammatic Hashes. We have, however, a vast proportion of writing sig- nalized by strenuous thought and judicious research, and useful and exact discrimination; or vivid with the boldest conceptions, and captivating with the most terse and delight- ful originality. There is indeed, abroad in the literature of the day, a self-sustaining style and reach of thought; a talent, that, while it reveres, as it is right they should be cherished, tin* works of Greek or Roman fame; yet looks, by the standard of that taste which those -authorities sanction and illustrate, to its own resources; and revolts at servility to models, however they may be crowned with classical honors when- ever they are held up as absolutely imperative, and enforc- ed with a sort of monarchical rule upon the energies of the reason, or of the fancy. The consecrated galleries of oft-quoted metaphors and classical imagery and sentiment, are not now again and again recurred to for the decorations of composition ; but, leaving all the beautiful rhetorical sculpture of ancient or modern classics, and courting only the taste and spirit they elucidate, men choose to express their thoughts and diffuse the warmth of their themes, by pictures which their own living fancies raise, and by vigorous allusions fresh and peculiar. This originality is often affected and leads to re- mote and ambitious research to be novel ; and the hard wrought fabric in the result, is as unwelcome as must b* any elaborate singularity put in place of the spontaneous grace of nature. Sometimes this passion of originality bounds into the most vehement extravagancies; often ar- rays its dreary or its gaudy novelties and tinsel jewelry as the pageant of fancy's imperial enchantments ; and often mistakes the most grotesque visions for the conceptions of melancholy sublimity. With all the deviousness, however, of this temperament, we cannot but value the independence, it involves, that disclaims implicit subserviency to the pre- cedents of earlier literature, and commends their cultivation only to regulate the liberties of our fancy; and thus imbued. SECOND ANNUAL ORATION* 17 bids us rely upon our own views for the communication of our thoughts, sending us abroad into the natural and moral world for illustration and ornament. Thus prepared, it is thither we should go for the tissues of imagination, and not refer ourselves, as obsequious retainers of ancient or modern classics, to their repositories of fancy or of thought. It is better, sometimes, to be annoyed with insipid affectation ; to bear the penalty of having all nature sometimes eclipsed by some imposing absurdity, and all taste sunk in a depth of novel horrors, than to have the alertness of the general mind daunted, and its powers levelled to tame correctness and timid research, and stinted diction, and to pall on the re- petition of oft- spread literary repasts. The spirit of letters acknowledges no vassalage to precedents; no monopolies of excellence in any age or people. To correct, too, the digressions of literary talent, and rebuke the inordinate inventiveness of literary aspirants and their false ideality, we have our wholesome Senate and Ju- diciary of Reviewers; with the powers of a concentrated so- vereignty as keepers of the literary seals, and guardians of the credentials of the literary republic; and as the standard- bearers of taste asserting its dictates and keeping immacu- late its statutes. They rally the intellect and challenge the genius and reflect the various mind of the country. Our United States can now boast two of these mirrors of the passing literature and science; one the converging point of our Northern lights, and the other catching the radiance of our Southern talent. Exercising as they do, an imperi- al sway in the literary sphere, it may be that undue senti- ments are often indulged and a corrosive criticism and des- potic denunciation. But these ungracious instances of sur- ly rebuke are rare, and it cannot be denied that in this country, especially, it is of the first importance to our intel- lectual honour, (and thence in a great degree to our political dignity) that these literary folds should exist within which American intellect may be gathered. Open to all varieties of knowledge, each niche of science or letters is there at- tractive with all the enticements of honourable fame, and the assurance of the just regards and rewards of public opinion. They elicit the fruits of private study, and turn to a social good the researches that would otherwise have slept in obscurity, and embody useful thoughts that might 3 18 SECOND ANNUAL ORATION, else have been lavished on the speculative retirement of the student. It is not only as mere censors or critical anatom- ists, or as holding the ensign of correct taste, that these literary marshals are useful; but chiefly so as they afford a home to our genius and its tributes, a repository to the toils of our intellectual labourers. It is not in ascertaining the equilibrium of styles, or the symmetry of sentences, or in scanning and weighing words, that reviewers now busy themselves; but the subject and all its riches and depend- ancies are explored, its elements developed, its various systems canvassed — and often its minutest principles and particulars abstracted and elucidated. A review being thus a discussion of the sense and merits of the subject, the writer must be imbued with its learning, invigorated with its spirit, and graced with all its accomplishments. It is true that sometimes, though seldom, pretenders, in the consequential attire of proficients, usurp in these works the functions of the endowed, and in a style of stately exposition, and with a varnished surface of wisdom and erudition, challenge re- spect by the authoritative frown of their strictures. But when this happens, these magisterial intruders are in turn put to the question, and themselves tested by the equal and infallible principles of taste and sounddisquisition. It is, gentlemen, because the establishment of these literary tribunals in our country argues and substantiates our intellectual independence, that I have so much dwelt upon their influence and their dignity. They are the evi- dences of our literary emancipation as well as of our litera- ry advancement — manifestos, and testimonials too, that we may of right sit in the Congress of the literary republic ; that the taste and intellect of our country has not remained in the ruggedness of our early mountains; that we have lived for the cultivation of our minds as well as of our fields and our commerce. They show that the American mind no longer acknowledges Edinburgh or London as its seat of Government, or figures tlie intellectual throne of the liter- ary realm in England or in Scotland. We need no longer delay welcoming our productions until they shall have been authenticated by the reluctant and gracious seal of En- gl)ah or Scotch approval. We throw off our colonial sub- serviency to a foreign literary stamp-act, and thinking and feeling for ourselves, we proclaim that as learning and taste SBCQND ANNUAL ORATION. 1& have no Royal way, so all men may assert the right of liter- ary judgment, whose studies have yielded them the elegant knowledge and refined tact to relish the excellencies and detect the errors of literary productions. In our reviews, as on Capitoline eminences, we have erected these stand- ards of independent opinion; and they preserve and em- body that spirit of free judgment, and conscious mental power. While they are the registry of our learning, and the counsellors of our taste, these reviews are themselves the proof that letters have here been installed, and that we do not nourish our social prosperity and sustain our civil life merely from the resources of untutored sagacity and desultory shrewdness. Keeping, too, before us the progressive science and literature of Europe, while our reviews remonstrate with foreign prejudice and maintain the integrity of our intellec- tual fame, they recount the proofs of foreign excellence and improve us with foreign contributions. And thus they re- buke and discourage that vanity which pre-eminent politi- cal privileges and rapid national advancement tend to in- fuse into communities $o distinguished in these respects as ours is. Looking at our sudden and solid growth, and our conspicuous rank among the states of the world, we are too apt to ascribe our signal speed to sovereign genius; lifting us above, or making a breach through, the ordinary difficul- ties of social improvement and aggrandizement, and carry- ing us with a magical rapidity to our actual illustrious sum- mit. This pernicious conceit of peculiar endowment has sometimes insinuated itself into our political views and sen- timents, and conduces to bias us in our literary estimate of ourselves and others. It is a republican weakness; and we cannot expect to be entirely free from it. Its best correc- tion is in the diffusion of sound knowledge, and, where ex- tensive study otherwise is not practicable, in the exposi- tions and contrasts which reviews present of the foreign in- tellect and our own. We shall thus be taught that it is to no peculiar native excellence, to no anticipating talent or fore- stalling genius, to no wider horizon of the American mind, that our sudden national stature is to be attributed; that it is only because the mind has here its free scope and liberal charter and the soul is not darkened by an imperious bigot- ry and locked up in any prescribed creed, and that poiiti- 20 SECOND ANNUAL ORATION. cal power is but the force of the public will, and the con- centration of the general opinion, that these states, upon a soil of such varied bounty, and long in the profitable calm of political peace, have reached so quickly so brilliant a dignity. The human mind was formed to improve the elements that the material and social worlds present, and to enrich and enliven the probation we have to toil through. With an equal range, and an equally propitious view of Heaven, It will in all periods carry us to the same consummations; dispensing the same benefits and penetrating with the same intensity of purpose, and urging its achievements with- the same lofty and unceasing impulse to the points of the same glorious industry. Wliile we have much to congratulate, rather than to jpraise ourselves for, we have much yet to acquire, which the populousness, wealth, and leisure of other countries have given them facilities for attaining, and that in this our laborious national youth we cannot be expected to have acquired. We keep parallel however, with the literary spirit of foreign countries. In them, as with us, diversified in character and object as are literary efforts, the adventu- rous zeal of letters is kept up by the busy effusion of mind. The world at large has its attention won to letters, and, occupied with the topic, learns to seek the resort for its leisure from curiosity or for instruction. And if many works appear, which are not models of immortality, the public taste under the admonitions of private or public criticism, soon gives them a becoming rank. In no way can the general taste be purified, and the public feeling be worthily directed so effectually; as by en- gaging the imagination of the reading community, and mak- ing the fancy a mediator with the heart — to charm the sym- pathies from their indolence, and temper it to the sense of the virtuous and the useful. And this may indeed be said to be the age of ingenuous and lofty fancy, of interesting and impressive fiction. While there abounds in all departments of literature, in the aspect of real life or serious speculation, a fund of beautiful descant and engaging narrative, Imagination in her novels and her poems has seldom been so active, to such agreeable and magnificent results. SECOND ANNUAL ORATION. 21 It was with the pleasures of fancy that letters entered the world anew after their feudal suppression. The morn- ing of literature broke to the melody of poetry; and the progress of letters has ever had its harmonious accompani- ment. At first it issued in the gay dalliance, and voluptu- ous exuberance, suited to the gallant infatuation of the cru- sade, and to lull the rugged spirits of the age, and sustain the martial fascinations and the religious dreams of Pales- tine. Advancing with the learning and taste of the period, its genius was courted in tho.se classical prototypes in which all taste was enshrined, and livid in its fresh enduring charms — authenticated as are those classical memorials, by unchanging principles of nature to every age, and the cher- ished tests and examples in every reign of taste. Not then, as before, did only scholastic disquisition assume, in pe- dantic fashion, the robes of verse ; but poesy expatiated over all that was tender, and votive, and exulting. To our latter times the song of imagination lias continued ; and in these it has been prodigal of its harmony in all the orders of its nobility, the sublime aspiration — the superb action of dignified epic — tuneful lyrics — the gloomy grandeur and melancholy desultoriness and discontent of genius — gay wit and racy satire. No one will say at this day, after poetry has illustrated so many departments of learning and taste, that its plea- sures are proper only for the languid idler, or the effemin- ate votary of mere dainty literature. Its stirring appeals, its high incantations, the scenes it summons from the vast deep of imagination, the censure it kindles for the vices of men, and the stern satire it compounds for their frivolities, its cogent exhortation, its mellowing narratives and conquer- ing solicitations, cannot but elate, improve, and rule every lover of tasteful delicacy and moral beauty. Much of wise views of man is invested in the amiable phrase of pcetry, and truths of profound practical moment are wreathed with its agreeable allusions, and enforced in its solemn harmonies. Its symphonies seem suited to the beauties of the moral world, as well as they accord with those of nature; and it is by the charm of this association that the student dwells with delight on the supreme moral speculations that are the burden of poetry; on the pictures that throb with poetic pulsation, of the passions and the sorrows of men; his chiv- 22 SECOND ANNUAL ORATION. alrous sacrifices; his extravagancies and his sufferings — on the unambitious retirement whose tranquil dignity and in- genuous content, poetry explores in its seclusion from the world's busy throng and interested strife. Poetry is not the mere toy of intellect, to beguile our leisure with a trivial concord of sweet sounds, a spectacle of harmonious adjustment, and of the curious unison of sound and sense, worthy only to speed the perfume of ob- sequious flattery, or the fervour of amatory transports; but it is honoured as the language of a refined majesty; of the imagination in her purest tendencies — the voice of the heart in its charity and magnanimity — the impressive elegance of morals, and the sublime ornament of wisdom itself. With all these engaging beauties literary pleasures have come largely in vogue, and are the habitual enjoy- ment of great portions of the civilized communities of our age. This country particularly seems destined to be en- listed most loyally in the train of literature. The manly liberty which we so peculiarly enjoy is the fit vehicle of letters, while they in turn temper and sustain our liber- ties. Man must be enticed within the orbit of peace, and lured to sedate sympathies, and the ever-monitory sense of right. The paths of social life must pass through scenes and be bordered with resources that engage his mind and involve his better feelings; or else he will soon range into the wilds of his selfish nature. It is only the palliative spirit of letters that can effectually mitigate the tumultuous propensities of men; and general intelligence and habitual reading compose the sure pledge of order in a republic. By the pressure of despotic government it is true that a stupid calm, an arbitrary peace, may be obtained; but the pressure must be unabated and cruelty must watch it; and often the effervescence of nature, independence, is active under the iron weight, and explodes the best forged schemes of despotic rule. It is only where the public mind is captivated by the high considerations of the social weal; where its opinions assist in the adjustments of right and power, of ascendan- cy and submissiveness; that the fruitful peace of a commu- nity is ensured. But the tone of that public mind must be mellowed to gentle aims; the public intellect must be train- ed to haunts of useful occupation, before it can be won to SECOND ANNUAL ORATION. 23 the enactments of social order. To engage the attention is the essential preliminary to the improvement of the feelings, and to allure the thought to innocent themes is the only re- course for dislodging seditious passions. If we attain but the negative effect of excluding unworthy resolutions and vicious conceptions from the mass of the world, we should be pleased with the consummation; but knowledge diffused, the mind habitually filled with objects for reflection or for its industry, and with pacific images, leads to positive en- joyment and useful products. It is the nature of contem- plation itself to fertilize as well as tranquilize the intellect; and of even the faintest instruction to nurture the faculties and enamour the mind of the pursuit. In a republican government, however, it is not enough to estrange the public thought from inordinate objects, and decoy or divert the public taste from inflamed indulgences; but the mind must actively deal with healthful labours, and have its riches increased, its capacities enlarged and quick- ened, and the sensibilities must turn to objects of positive, energetic excellence. It is the instructed, the assenting mind of the people that is the safeguard of the republic, the life of its power. It is idle to proclaim mere hollow abstract political equality; the boast is a pernicious delusion — a mere theo- retical grace over actual licentiousness and coarse arrogance and obtrusiveness. We must have more than that measure of equality to make our liberty either useful or glorious, or our republic perpe ual. Without that which may en- surer to us our civil liberty — the essential end of all political liberty — political liberty is but a noisy privilege and a spe- cious idea. Such is the dominant tendency of talent, the imposing strength of knowledge, that where intelligence is not distributed with proportional equ?Jity, and the mind of the mass of the people is in dark contrast with that of the few in authority or without it; there must be anarchy and finally debased servility in the ranks of the ignorant. Such must be the inevitable case of a community having political power to administer; national interests and nation- al operations to observe; and momentous civil privileges under their direct guardianship. In such a condition of things, intellectual superiority instigated to schemes of au- gust wickedness, employing either the deceitful splendour 24 SECOND ANNUAL ORATION. of military success, or the eloquence of seductive sophistry, and the pomp and art of diplomacy, seeks, not the innocent crown of mental honours, but political dominion and the prerogative of oppression. Hence the varied annals, I had almost said diaries, of ancient republics; embarked as they all were on a fluctuat- ing fate, upon the fitful temperament, the riotous caprices of an ignorant multitude. These republics hovered on the uncertain wave — now in the calm of their civic lustre — and then driven in the implacable tempest of public passion. Look to those periods for the power of mind; and to the sceptre of intellect as it departed from one to another class of philosophers; and as alternate theories gained the blind applause, and provoked the factious zeal of the people. These were not factions lighted with the empyreal flame; but the very influence of these men of mind, the royal pre- eminence they swayed, shows the inferiority of the obsequi- ous and tractable crowd. This may argue the majesty of mind; but it indicates the obscurity of the intellect that could yield such abject deference, and be so humbly flexible, to the humours of those artists of theories; no matter whether of substantial wisdom, or of painted sophistry and sententious conceits. It is not, therefore, to be understood, that when antiquity is extolled for its exemplary intellect — that the people of antiquity may share in the eulogy. It is not thus with our republic and our people. The value of our liberty was measured and signalized in the grievances that led our early pilgrims to the sullen solitudes of the unconquered wilderness; and prompted them, even for such a refuge, to yield themselves to the dark perils of their wayfaring; but they were urged by the free winds of the sea, and the drea- ry spirit of the storm accorded with the genius of their own gloomy energies. The necessities of early settlements with rigorous impulse, excited invention and gave action to the mind; the tenets of old English wisdom were treasured to advance social order and personal dignity; while the sober joys of the native fire-side consecrated by early recollection brightened the bleak retreat of the stern worshippers of freedom. The scenery around them was the memorial of their vicissitudes, the linage of their quiet liberty, the tablet of their political attainments; and the exhortation to value SECOND ANNUAL ORATION. 25 them. Thus trained to freedom, and observant of its rights, this country was ready for the sovereign iudependence it achieved; and which we cherish for the noble principles that incited the pursuit, and that adorned the banner ol the contest. But there is no genuine efi.cacious republicanism without universal education; and the informed and temper- ed and tenacious sense of our rights — the equable distribu- tion of intellectual power. W ith such qualification, the American people will stand endued with a celestial ar- moury; their liberty will have a guaranty as indissoluble as mind itself. They need then fear no insidious mining of their privileges; and military power, with all her I reto- rian guards, her victorious plumage, and ostentatious blan- dishments, shall neither over-awe nor seduce them while they have their minds as their entrenchments; and their wary sense of their dignity for the sanctuary of their liberty. With a diffusive intelligence regulating, invigorating, warming, and exalting all — then and then only, does a permanent and harmonious equality and a cordial and in- fallible republicanism exist. It is not among the least of their auspicious results^ that diffused knowledge and general habit of thinking, tend to keep to wholesome principles the standard of eminence, in social life. In communities thus rectified, and alive to all undue assumption of either social or political ascendan- cy, the aristocracy of wealth cannot raise itself to its arro- gant pedestal; and "the proud man's contumely" is recip- rocated with the dauntless ridicule and intrepid scorn that soon drives it back to the retreat of its paltry spirit. In a country where political inequality is unknown, and where the only inequality of obvious note and sorest pressure, is that of fortune; private interest inclines indivi- duals to a subduing deference to wealth; and pecuniary re- sources inflate the successful few who wear the order of the pecuniary star. Without any of the traditionary graces and the artificial brightness of lineage that attend and con- tent aristocracy of birth; the aristocracy of wealth is more baleful, because it sedulously aims at an engrossing promin- ency in civil life, its presumptuous summit and only hope of distinction, and seeks to bribe the independence of the pub- lic mind by the fascinating coinage of interest and the mere metallic virtues of its condition. When that independence 4 2G SECOND ANNUAL ORATION. is once gone, and the golden calf has established its wor- ship, republics may tremble for their privileges and facul- ties; and they tremble in weakness and despair. What began in puny ambition and frivolous arrogance ends in political relaxation; and in the fatal though gradual lapse of civil and political liberty. But let us contemplate the prevalence of knowledge, and the reign of intellect, in a relation of sacred force and profound utility. When the public mind is thus enlighten- ed, religious liberty in celestial expansion, in its most effec- tive sense, descends upon a community. Then is announced the principle, cheered and hallowed with the smile of Hea- ven, that it is impious to torture the souls and wound the hearts of men to engraft upon their minds a particular creed; but that the feelings are to be composed to contemplation, and the intellect left to be refined by knowledge, and to know Heaven as Heaven shall then, lighted with all its revelations, reflect itself into the soul. I speak not of the concession of a mere legal toleration, but of the liberality which disposes individuals to defer to the holy rights of religious judgment, and presumes not to intrude on the com- munion, in the soul's seclusion, between God and man ; which acknowledges the Omnipotent as the mind's sole sovereign — the avenger of his indignities — and does not therefore allow trivial man to come a halting supplement in aid of the Divinity's vindication. It is not enough that the infamous fires of a Smithfield are quenched; that the ashes of its martyrs have long been cold; that the law has framed no rack to agonize the human nerves and break down the human judgment; but there is a jealous and pro- voking malignity; a rancorous love of authority, that con- vert the human heart i nto a hall of torture and a den of bitter vengeance, for tb-3 dissentients in religion from our- selves; which transfuses its poison surely, though in grovel- ing silence, into all oui concerns and relations with those who cannot goad their judgments into compulsive accord with our own. It is this persecution, insidious, vigilant and pervading, that embitters the heart that entertains it; and is scarcely less injurious for being unarmed with politi- cal sanctions; for such a spirit seeks the opportunity of re- ligious monopoly, and glories in t\v> prospect of having the license of its tyranny written in characters of insatiate hatred. SECOND ANNUAL ORATION. 27 It is only education, of generous and luminous scope, that can subdue this inquisitorial pride of opinion, and avert such profane usurpation of the ro\ xlties of Heaven for the insignificant interests of human passion. Then it is indeed fit, gentlemen, that in the religious light of these holy walls, Ave should celebrate the excellen- cies of literature and all her mitigating power; and place the pure structure of refined republicanism under the auspices of Heaven itself. It is the pride of legitimate learning to bring the pursuits of literary taste into persuasion and confirming concord with the corrollaries of morals and the injunctions of religion. And religion no longer folded in reverend austerity and mysterious enigmas, and fostering ecclesiasti- cal tyranny in saintly dogmas, shows in moral colouring and rational transparancy the truth of hermessages, and seals them with the convictions of judgment. In your condition, gentlemen, you have the rich con- course of all those resources and all that utility, and beau- ty and delight of which I ventured my desultory rehearsal. To you is signally given the proud privilege of intellectual improvement — the opportunity of intellectual sway. Ac- cording to peculiarities of talent or the force of circumstan- ces, you have various destinations in the lights and shadows of the practical world; but in whatever departments of ac- tive life it may be your fortunes to serve the science and literature of which you have acquired the elementary views in these tranquil academic retirements, will ever aid your toils and ennoble your progress. It is an idle notion on which men rest in their inert compromise with their sense of duty that the devoted study of the science of their particular profession is all that is ab- stractly required of them, withou regard to collateral ac- complishments or illustrative pim'iits. We may, indeed, by that plan become safe and laborious adepts within the narrow bounds of our vocation an A for its microscopic min- utice; but we cannot thus advance the authoritative influ- ence of our science, or the useful dignity of our profession and its exalted efficiency. We may deserve the iron crown of drudges; but the world will find little in our labours for praise, and nothing for the claims of ambition, or the starry honours of the tomb. Knowledge in all its divisions, literature in all its refreshing and elegant miscellany, should 23 SECOND ANXUAL ORATION. be ever your fond and habitual pursuits. I will not detain you by any exhortation in the cause of ancient classical literature, daily so cog^frtly inculcated, and, in its peculiar department, so eloquenuy exemplified to you, its utility and imperative claims on your minds make a fixed article of your literary faith. It is of no importance to show why it is, or weaken our admiration by skeptical queries why it should so specially be, that ancient classical literature pre- sents us these unimpeachable models of taste, as well as a treasury of excellencies of various thought and tersest gaie- ties. As examplars of dense and sententious diction and concentrated brilliancy as well as of melodious fluency and of excursive and heroic majesty, the pre-eminence of these works is established by the tasteful suffrage of every suc- cession of literary votaries, and is every day reflected in the mental victories or embellished pageant of all who are militant in the field of argument or of fancy. They are not therefore, obsolete memorials worthy only of pedantic del- vers; but transcripts of mind that have their honours yet fresh upon them and a radiance never to be extinguished. I will now disengage you, gentlemen, from the durance in which my rambling remarks have so long held you. A world of contingencies, and a field of intellect is before you — resources that spread their wealth and charms to a pure moral day, solicit your minds. Use them with all the zeal of intelligence. Remember that the purified liberties of our republic are consecrated not only by theoretical sanc- tions of conveniance, but by principles morally imperative, and religiously sublime: that the excellencies of a good citizen involve the improved mind and the charities of the soul as well as the care of the social interest and the quick sense of political rights