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LECTURE 
 
 THE STUDY OF HISTORY, 
 
 APPLIED TO 
 
 THE PROG Px, ESS OF CIVILIZATION: 
 
 DELIVERED, BV APPOINTMENT, 
 
 THE UNION LITERARY SOCIETY, 
 
 MAY 2, 1839. 
 
 WASHINGTON : 
 
 BLAIR AND RIVES, PRINTERS. 
 1839. 
 
fl. 't; 
 
 ^\a'^ 
 
Ty. , 
 
 ^ I^ECTURE 
 
 ON THE 
 
 Study of history, applied to the progress of civilization. 
 
 Gentlemen : 
 
 Of all organized beings, man alone enjoys the con- 
 sciousness of ages that have preceded his existence ; 
 and with him dwell upon this earth millions of crea- 
 tures who can trace back the annals of the universe 
 to one day, one hour of antiquity. His is the peculiar 
 power to classify all the events that mark the progress 
 of his species over the earth, in the immense scale of 
 human ages and human destinies; whilst, in his com- 
 plex nature, he feels and acknowledges, within himself, 
 the combined workings of centuries. Alone he knows 
 that, before he was born, beings, similar to himself, 
 unconsciously prepared the place which he occupies in 
 the pageantry of time. Alone he knows that he is 
 fated to die; and that every thing, which surrounds, will 
 survive him — both the universe, in the midst of which 
 he is throned, and humanity itself, of which he is an 
 integral part. What shall be the forms that may be 
 reproduced, and what the individuals who shall come 
 at"ter him, he cannot, with safety, previously determine; 
 but he is sufficiently certain that above those ephemeral 
 forms, and in spite of the efforts of individuals, the 
 power of reason, of justice, and of freedom shall soar, 
 strengtiiening with the strength of each year, and 
 fortified by the exercise of private and public morality. 
 
The offspring of ages, humanity, that ever-moving and 
 ever-changing, niuhiplieJ being, sums up all liuraan 
 existence; and all thisigs earthly, from the empire that 
 crumbles into dust, to the heart that lircaks in its 
 agony, are absorbed in its vast recipients, and modify 
 it with their substances and their energies. Hence, 
 death is but an ascending transformation ; and tiie life 
 of nations a time-mark in r.niversal life — a stray leaf 
 from a majestic tree — a page from a speaking volume, 
 by which we explain the import of the present and 
 the future, through the rcvealings of the jsast. 
 
 Such is the position which man occupies in the pano- 
 rama of history, the philosophy of which, applied to tlie 
 civilization of mankind, we mean to glance at in this 
 disquisition. But before proceeding witii the sniiject, 
 we would bespeak the indulgence of the society for one 
 general remark, wdiich may not be unnecessary to a 
 better understanding of the views which we shall 
 unfold, in the fulfilment of the duty kindly assigned 
 us by the partiality of our associates. That axiom — 
 for it may jusdy be so termed — is, that tiic deveiope- 
 ment of society is v/rought, not in a direct, but in a 
 spiral, line. Humanity, in its ascending course, has, 
 not unfrequently, recoiled upon itself, the more forcibly 
 to act against some sudden and interveniijcr obstacle. 
 It fulfils its destinies by two distinct and aUeriuite 
 movements — one of creation r.isd the oti;er of destruc- 
 tion. The latter — in tiie rni.dst of which (lie former 
 order of things is annulled, wlietlior by reason of its 
 dangers or its insniliciency — obtains till tiic advent of 
 the providential iiour, that reveals a new principle of 
 order to the world. Thus the existence of hnmam'tv, 
 
under changing phases and forms, kindling up but to 
 be quenched, and quenched again to kindle up and 
 reproduce the magnificent phenomena of civilization, 
 is aptly ihustrated by the fabled phoenix of antiquity. 
 It is, in its essence, like the flaming bush of the 
 Genesis, which burned, yet could not be consumed. 
 
 Let us, however, open the vohuxie of history itself — 
 the archives of mankind, and record of their progress 
 and their checks. It is a marvellous book, rife with 
 eloquent and enduring lessons — a great and living 
 work, of the Deity, made manifest through the works 
 of his creatures — a real, yet intelligent, tower of Bel us, 
 where all the nations that had, or have, existence on 
 earth come for their lost centuries and tongues — their 
 morals and their customs — their reverses and their 
 triumphs. One hasty and eagle glance at that great 
 chartulary of the human race, and see how it reveals 
 the work of civilization, successively spreading its in- 
 roads over the world. 
 
 In the Dedalian fabric of the primitive ages, the 
 historian stands as the solitary pilgrim, journeying 
 through regions unexplored. The darkness of night 
 stoops over the earth — many v/inding paths delude his 
 footsteps — the treacherous ILirc of the marsh nicteor 
 fticlvers before his eyes; while some dim and far-off star 
 iln-ows a reluctant liglit on his dubious road. And, 
 indeed, what do we know of the old human races that 
 have colonised this earth? We, who are ignorant of 
 the precise history of the great moral and social facts, 
 on which the whole structure of our civilization is 
 based? Wo, who gropingly catch at t!ie origin of the 
 three primordial facts — in the absence of which no 
 
others would exist — the institution of property, mar- 
 riage, and individual liberty? What do we know of 
 the jEthiopian civilization of ancient Axuma, the city 
 of granite and of porphyry? What of royal Meroe, 
 who founded Amnion, Memphis, and Thebes ; and 
 whose homeric renown is lost in tlie shadows of ante- 
 diluvian civilization ? What of the protestantism of the 
 primitive world — of the commotions which outbreak 
 with the rearing of Babel, in the confusion of tongues, 
 ideas, religions, individuals, and societies? Who has 
 handed down the deeds of those Nembrods, who super- 
 seded the old, by the new, doctrine — the doctrine of the 
 Serpent — who shivered the tabernacles of God, and 
 reared up the temples of Baal — who, to the age of 
 light, substituted the age of Chronos, with his orgiac 
 worship ? Whose are the ens triplex et os trilinguc, 
 the brazen throat and the three-tongued mouth, that 
 shall fling us this forgotten story across the chasm of 
 aofes and the roar of revolutions? 
 
 Yet, in spite of these drawbacks, no intellectual 
 pursuit, if we except the examination of the laws of 
 reason and of nature, commands a deeper interest tiian 
 the contemplation of the progressive march of mankind 
 over the globe. If philosophy exhibit man, according 
 to the scope and the perfectibility of his individual 
 faculties, and in the enjojaiicnt of the almost ideal hap- 
 piness, wliicli he is destined to attain, history reveals 
 him, according to his innumerable manifestations, in 
 the light of reality, bent on the prosecution of that 
 high and ultimate attainment. If we love to lend an 
 attentive ear to the sublime harmonies of creation — to 
 the ineffable melody of mysterious voices wandering 
 
'twixt heaven and earth, now waihng in gentle iEohan 
 murmurs, and again breaking out in a full chorus of 
 wild accordances — how much more deeply should we 
 dv/ell on the secular voice of humanity sending abroad 
 its cry of civilization; how much more intensely should 
 we linger round the solemn drama of freedom, evolving 
 itself under the providential action of God? From the 
 east to the west — from the Persian conqueror to the 
 Corsican adventurer — we see crowns that topple, and 
 sceptres that break ; form after form of civilization 
 rolling into the abysm of time ; nations, thundering in 
 their majesty or moaning in despair, tottering round the 
 banquet of freedom, or ground down by the car of 
 despotism. 
 
 Viewing history under the aspect of present useful- 
 ness, the science is of unquestionable advantage to all 
 the members of society who aspire at a higher degree 
 of moral and intellectual culture. With the statesman 
 it is a portion of his most essential knowledge; and 
 this because the principles of political philosophy, when 
 all is told, are but the systematised results of the salu- 
 tary or fatal experiences of nations. To the warrior it 
 furnishes the most effective lessons, and holds up the 
 most perfect models of imitation. The churchman 
 derives from it immense treasures of practical wisdom, 
 high morality, and redeeming doctrines. The legist it 
 inspires with holy respect for natural and written right, 
 and for the fundamental maxims of social order. To 
 the law-giver it reveals the arcana and spirit of political 
 institutions — the relations which these institutions bear 
 to the conditions and wants of the people ; and, in the 
 annals of ancient and foreign legislation, supplies him 
 
s 
 
 with satisfuciory and lucid points of comparison with 
 modern and domestic laws. Shall 1 advert to the 
 precious and incalculable advantages t!iat professions, 
 foreign to science, properly so called, may derive from 
 history? V/ithont its aid the merchant, himself, the 
 Sanuti, the Medici, the Van tialens, the Ouvrards, the 
 Roscoes, and the Hancocks, could neither duly estimate 
 the supreme influence of commerce on the prosperity 
 and civilization of empires ; nor discriminate the quali- 
 ties that are necessary, and the errors that are fatal, 
 to the permanence of cominercial states. Under its 
 guidance tliey soar above tlic vulgar and narrow spirit 
 of traflic, and conciliate private speculations with the 
 general interests of the community. Free from its 
 wholesonic lessonings, the world, to tlicra, is but a vast 
 empory, a universal mart, where men are destined to 
 buy and sell — their country the counting-house, and 
 lucre their God ! History delights in pouring forth the 
 abundance of its tcaciiings to all, who approach it with 
 a pure spirit and a willing sense. To all it stands as 
 the inexorable judge of nations — the eternal protest of 
 mind against matter — the indefeasible testimony of the 
 progressive triumph of human freedom. 
 
 But take history from the special attributes which 
 we liave assigned to it ; carry it into the more extended 
 bounds of the universe ; and feed the mental eye with 
 the vast and moving panorama of nations and of cen- 
 turies. Active portions of mankind, let us question the 
 annals of history on the destinies of mankind ; and on 
 the sacred Hestia of antiquity — the hearth-stone of the 
 past — kindle up the torch-light of the future ! Con- 
 sidered under this scientific view, history will cease to 
 
be an agreeable pastime, a bare diversion for fancy and 
 for memory. It becomes a l)igh criterion of philosophy, 
 politics, and legislation. It is, at once, the real and 
 snbstantial code of hnmanity; and an immense epic in 
 which each nation enacts, in its tnrn, the part to which 
 it hasj by its nature, been assigned. And, in truth, 
 what care we for tlie noisy discussions of the agora, 
 the turbulent vote of the Pnyx, the stately debate of 
 the senate, the battle tields of Attica and Latium, if 
 we have no opportunity of analysing the ideas which 
 nations represent in the economy of universal life? — if 
 we be deprived of the means of ascertaining whether 
 humanity has lost or won — receded or advanced — iti its 
 journey of untold centuries? 
 
 Noble and great, therefore, is the mission of those 
 who write out the records of history. The true levites 
 of humanity they, whose anointed priesthood may not 
 be shackled by the influences of any predominant sys- 
 tem, wliether political or religious. No spirit of sect 
 may dim, no interest of caste distort, their mental 
 vision, or corrupt their mature judgments; and it is 
 not the least of the privileges and tendencies of the 
 philosophy of history to disuse the mind from the 
 thraldom of petty opinions and hasty awards. Like 
 the Jupiter of Homer, it scans, with an equally serene 
 and equitable eye, the bloody toils of Mars, and the 
 useful labors of Minerva. However irregular the action 
 of human freedom appear, when compared with the 
 relative march of the world, history judges its move- 
 ments with fate-like immutabihty, because its far-reach- 
 ing look descries in the distance the limits of rational 
 freedom, and the bourne of delirious despotism. E j)nr 
 
10 
 
 si onnove! And yet it moves, exclaims Galileo, on the 
 rotation of the earth. And we, too, in the face of skep- 
 tics and tyrants, we exclaim of human freedom : and 
 yet it does move ! For we find somethino; within us 
 that will not yield — somethinof that rejects the yoke of 
 nature and of man — something that acknowleges no 
 allegiance but the allegiance to reason and to the 
 laws — something that admits no truce betv/een itself 
 and fatalism. May the conflict last, and forever last ! 
 It constitutes the dignity of our nature, and the har- 
 mony of the v/orld ; and it will last so long as human 
 will shall tower up against the influences of climate 
 and races combined — so long as the naine of freedom 
 shall be syllabled by the lips of men ! 
 
 Three writers have specially investigated the organic 
 laws, under the action of which humanity developes its 
 elements. France in her Bossuet, Italy in her Vice, 
 and Germany in her Herder, claim the honor of having 
 settled the bases of the philosophy of history ; for Eng- 
 land, in that branch of human science, is thrown far in 
 the shade, in spite of the essays of her Fergusons and 
 her Dunbars — the observations of Miller, or the dis- 
 courses of Priestley. Ijossuet traces up all Imman 
 events to the secret designs of Providence, and estab- 
 lishes the intervention of the Deity in all the leading 
 actions of mankind. Grasping, in his eagle glance, the 
 succession of ages, he marshals forth the immense train 
 of nations and kings, passing from life to death, under 
 the direction of God himself. Cased in celestial armour, 
 he battles against the interests of earth from the height 
 of religious principles and religious truths. Sounding 
 this terrible lamentation of the Hebrew sase as a war 
 
11 
 
 cry, " vanity of vanities, all is vanity," he compels, 
 before the torrents of his darkly-rushing genius, races 
 and monarchies, with their triumphs and their pomps, 
 and hurls them into one indiscriminate tomb. Empires 
 totter and crumble into ashes — dynasties start up, tyran- 
 nize, and pass away — the highways of mankind are 
 cumbered with ruins — the ruins disappear beneath the 
 dust of nations ; and Bossuet smiles bitterly on the 
 gloomy pageant, and stamps it with the fiat of Heaven ! 
 Vico, supported by the energies of a profound, vigorous, 
 and synthetic intellect, rests the solution of the problem 
 at once on the absolute laws of the mind ; and, in this 
 view, stands as the representative of the spiritualism 
 of history. Herder, sagacious and powerful as is his 
 genius, leans to the opposite extreme, and allows too 
 large a share to the action of nature and to external 
 impressions. Bnt equally as profound as the Neapoli- 
 tan philosopher, he is also as sublime as Bossuet. His 
 philosophy of the history of mankind lulls the soul into 
 a state of mental somnambulism. Its perusal acts with 
 wizard power, and all but translates the reader into 
 an antique and venerable fane, in which the shadowy 
 reminiscences, as of things that have actually been, 
 crowd on his memory from all places and time. The 
 generations of the past press forward in silence, and 
 hang up, on brazen columns, indestructible tablets, on 
 which is chiselled the story of their trials and their 
 conflicts, their sufferings and their hopes. Seated on 
 heaps of bleached bones — the grandia ossa — the 
 gigantic skeletons of nations, the prophet-historian 
 removes the veil that conceals realms destroyed, and 
 points out to the glories of races unborn. First are 
 
12 
 
 arrayed, before the eye, througli mysterious transfig- 
 urations, the patriarchs of PisclidacI, the monarchs 
 of Iran, and the Gods of India, surrounded by count- 
 less vassal tribes. Through the trenriulous and vapory 
 light of primitive history, we follow, with restless 
 curiosity and aching interest, the pompous and solemn 
 march of mankind. Nations hurtle each other ; their 
 destinies are linked and severed in turn ; whilst the 
 almost omnipotent hand of Herder unravels the im- 
 perceptible thread, to which truth binds the traditions 
 of the past. Whether he ascend with you, the mil Io- 
 niums, and drag from their grave the representatives 
 of all time that has been ; whether lie guide you to 
 the religious sanctuaries of Persepohs, or the aristo- 
 cratic citadel of Rome; whether he unfold the Pelasgic 
 origins of Greece, or delve into the mysteries of 
 boding Etruria ; whether he cull rich flowers on the 
 ashes of empires, or foretell the future splendors of 
 favored races ; he every where, and in all cases, holds 
 up and reproduces these eternal formulas of all his- 
 tory — humanity, progress, and regeneration ! 
 
 Following the giant prints, which these great masters 
 have left in the career of historic philosophy, I should 
 like to expound the trinitarian dogma on which they 
 rest the truth of all liistory: God, nature, and mind. 
 History thus viewed would not be inappropriately typi- 
 fied by the harp of the Saxon, mimiesdngers, which 
 warbled on three melodious chords: one for love, which 
 is the mind — the other for nature — and the third for 
 God. But my object is to inquire, for the moment, into 
 the spirit of history itself, not to examine systems, as 
 exponents of human actions and human ideas. History 
 
13 
 
 is the logic of the popular mind — a form of universal 
 judgment — the statement of the successive advances 
 of humanity towards physical, intellectual, and moral 
 improvement. Its progress has necessarily produced a 
 struggle between tv/o hostile and rebellious elements — 
 matter and mind — moral power and brutal force. This 
 struo;gle is coeval with the world. Yet we should not 
 hence infer that it is infinite, though no mortal may 
 predict the period when it shall cease : its duration is 
 folded in the impenetrable veil of the Egyptian Isis. 
 Enough that it has obtained every where, and in all 
 recorded time ; but there is an earnest, to us, of suc- 
 cess — of final success — in the conviction that, on the 
 whole, the conflict is favorable to man. Of the two 
 adversaries one cb anodes not ; the other does, and aains 
 daily accessions of vigor and strength. Nature remains 
 ever the same ; while man is hourly asserting some 
 triumph over her immutability. The Alps — those ice- 
 giants — the eternal wardors of sunny Italy — are the 
 same as when the hand of God first sunk their founda- 
 tions in the earth ; and yet the power of man has 
 humbled their haughty crests, and furrowed their 
 rugged sides with an imperishable monument of his 
 patience and his genius. Wind and wave are as 
 fitful and capricious as when God first called them 
 into action ; but the steam ship devours the capricious 
 wave, and scorns the fitful v/ind. 
 
 This conflict, it has already been observed, has 
 obtained in every age and clime. Follow the human 
 race, in the long and solemn pilgrimage, which it 
 accomplished, from the chains of the Himalaya to the 
 Scandinavian Alps ; from the banks of the Ganges to 
 
14 
 
 the sliores of Iceland ; and you will find it slcnily 
 raging as well among the races, over whose cradle 
 mythology has flung its gold and purple mantle, as 
 among those nations where civilization has stamped its 
 deepest impress: in Hindostan as well as China; in 
 o-loomy and material Egypt, as in laughing and spiritual 
 Greece ; in mercenary and traOlcking CarthagC; as in 
 proud and patrician Home. Among the ancient Medes 
 this duel was, in some measure, represented by the 
 struofofle between Ormuzd and Arhimanes; and, accord- 
 ing to the religious myth of Zoroaster, light must 
 idtimately conquer : that is, ignorance and antagonism 
 shall successively depart, and science and peace achieve 
 the mastery of the world. 
 
 The highest degree of perfection to which man is, 
 by nature, destined, grows out of the free and complete 
 developement of his individuality, under the influences 
 of beauty, goodness, and truth, and of his close and 
 brotherly union with his fellow-laborers on earth. The 
 principle of human perfectibility will, therefore, when 
 fully developed, induce a state in which mind and 
 matter, reconciled to each otlier, will produce a lofty 
 and splendid harmony; in which each special order of 
 mind will find a corresponding object, and a proper 
 sphere of action and usei'ulness ; in which man. instead 
 of wasting his powers in fruitless strifes, will exert them 
 in subjugating material nature; in which the injnry, 
 accruing to one member, and profiling no one, shall be 
 considered, by all, as wrong inflicted on the whole of 
 society; in which the shackling of evil passions will 
 put an end to the conflict between virtue and vice — a 
 conflict which v/ill be survived by a generous emu la- 
 
15 
 
 tion, only, among the worthy, to do the most good ; a 
 state of rest, which will not be indolent inaction, and a 
 stale of action, which shall have ceased to be tnmnl- 
 tuous agitation. Then, and then only, shall the pro- 
 mises of the martyr-God be realized. Then, and then 
 only, shall it be trnly said of man that he loves his 
 neighbor as himself; for he will love him as a part of 
 a whole, of which he himself is but another part. 
 Then, and then only, shall Japheth's daring seed, as the 
 Roman lyrist calls us, reconquer the symbolical Aiden, 
 forfeited by the common ancestor, exulting in the choice 
 spoils which they shall have gathered during their cen- 
 turies of toil in the fields of the arts and the sciences. 
 
 Such is the society which awaits the futurity of the 
 world. Under what combination of circumstance and 
 time it shall be fashioned, cannot be ascertained. But 
 history unerringly points to it — reason sanctions it; 
 while, at the same time, it teaches that it shall be given 
 to man to compass its attainment ; for reason embodies 
 certain invariable principles which, when once asserted 
 and grasped by the people, are used by them as a 
 resting point for further and extended operations, in 
 regard to the principles themselves, their progress will 
 no longer consist in variation, innovation, or change ; 
 but their immutability shall be the basis of all improve- 
 ment, which, out of this condition, would be liable 
 to the same oscillations and doubts, in the midst of 
 which man has hitherto all but fruitlessly consumed 
 his powers and his strength. Now, those principles 
 will obtain so soon as natural law — I mean the law 
 deduced from human reason, as a criterion of truth— 
 the law inherent to our sociable nature, and harmo- 
 
16 
 
 nising with humanity in nil places and time : so soon 
 as that law, in accordance with the moral law of 
 Christianity, shall have every where supplanted the 
 conventional law, which is not based, however we may 
 try to conceal it, upon the ijeneral constitution of 
 human nature, but upon the partial interests of indi- 
 viduals, corporations, cities, provinces, and Slates— 
 upon the necessity of circumstances and the will of 
 the lawmaker. 
 
 That such a society may be realized in a ^wcn 
 time we are bound to believe with as much certainty 
 as we believe that wc are gifted witli tlic exercise of 
 reason. We must, otherwise, surrender to the har- 
 rowing conviction that our appearance here is but an 
 aimless and fantastic farce ; that some evil genius, after 
 having engraved in our nature an instinct of that 
 which is impossi!)lc, modes at our insatiable appetences 
 and our panting efforts rountl a charmed circle, in 
 which we ever return to the starting point ; that, after 
 all, the tradition of Tantalus is no fable; and that this 
 world is but a vast gehenna, in which perpetual torture 
 and perpetual disappointment are the inevitable lot of 
 man. But bow can we withhold our faith from a 
 doctrine co-extensive widi the mind, and brilliant as 
 hope itself? A doctrine for which the Saviour suffered 
 on earth; and which martyrs and sages have vindicated 
 with their blood and their lives, offered up in testimony 
 of its truth? Many may view these monitions of 
 history as phantasms of the brain ; or brand rational 
 inductions as Utopian dreams. Let them ! When the 
 first troglodyte issued from his cavern into the social 
 world, and returned to his fellow-intelligent brutes with 
 
17 
 
 the story of civilization abroad, they met liis words 
 with derision and scorn ! They, bound in the dark- 
 ness of their caves and the fihh of their clay hovels, 
 could not realize the splendors of the palace and the 
 comforts of its life. They too — had the supercilious 
 word, invented by their imitators, been known — they, 
 too, would have exclaimed, Utopia ! They, whose 
 inch-deep intellect, or whose all-controlling jirejudices, 
 stop at the surface of things, and, viewing the evils 
 only which still afflict society, pronounce the notion of 
 perfectibility to be chimerical and vain, they do not 
 intelligently attend to the sober teachings of reason 
 and truth. Man, as a sensual being, belongs to the 
 world of the senses ; and that is an habitual state of 
 war between his physical powers — a belliua onwium 
 contra omnes — a war of all against all. But, again, 
 man, as a rational being, also belongs to the world of 
 mind ; and, as such, he is destined, by the law of his 
 spiritual nature, to subdue the material world. The 
 complement of that law will be to defeat the belli- 
 gerance of material forces ; and, at some providential 
 period, to assert the full and definite triumph of reason, 
 and the consequent prevalence of happiness and peace. 
 Individuals now enjoy that triumph of reason and 
 blessing of peace. Why should they not extend to 
 the collective being called society? To argue that it 
 cannot, is to argue that there is no essential law that 
 will equally apply to man in his individual and social 
 capacity : it is to advance an unnatural, an anti-social, 
 and a degrading paradox : it is to strike at the vitality 
 of virtue, through the freedom of man's will, and 
 3 
 
18 
 
 madly to insult the superhuman wisdom of Him who 
 made man the proxy of liis power ! 
 
 Though in our day the spirit may flag — the mind 
 shrink — at the prospect of the decisive battle that 
 shakes the globe ; why, the faculties of the mind must 
 be schooled, the daring of the spirit nerved, for the 
 trial of tliat " world-winning battle." The contest is 
 not as fearful as it seems. On one side tlie past, with 
 its rusty shield and broken glaive — the past, with all 
 its antipathies, its Gothic abuses and feudal wrongs, 
 sunmioning, from their leaden cofllns, the shades of 
 eigliteen centuries of efiete ideas and exploded forms, 
 steps down the arena to man the fight; and on the 
 other the future, with its warm-blooded and warm- 
 hearted generations, instinct with snblime hopes and 
 panting with ardent faith, claiming either hemisphere 
 for a battle-ground, stands prepared to strike for the 
 regeneracy of social man. 
 
 The proud result of this meliorating spirit is fiiuil 
 and inevitable. We cannot doubt, where doubt would 
 be irrational. As in the realm of nature light disperses 
 darkness; so in the reahu of intelligence, the broad 
 glare of science will disperse all mental obscurity. 
 We believe in the holy contagion of virtue. Human 
 opinion, that moral lever that moves the world, and 
 which, unknown or unheeded in the former half of the 
 eighteenth century, has for the last sixty years exerted 
 itself, with successful energy, against the decrepid forms 
 of feudal tyranny, will not stop in its onward course of 
 radical reform and social regeneration. 
 
 Those who love man for the intrinsic and innate 
 good, which centuries of bondage, degradation, and 
 
19 
 
 misgovernment have not all obliterated, because its 
 origin is divinely stamped in his heart ; those who 
 cherish an abiding faith in the imperishably glorious 
 destinies of mankind, because they rest on the sanction 
 of a heavenlj^ promise ; they might desire and invoke 
 the reform of nations, without the ordeal of violence, 
 and through the agency of mind alone. But humanity 
 has hitherto failed in the merely peaceful assertion of 
 Its rights. The inauguration of the purest and holiest 
 of doctrines was marked by a sacrifice ; and every 
 transcendent social creation seems doomed to the 
 initiation of strife and the baptism of blood. 
 
 A tendency, notwithstanding, towards a higher scale 
 of perfection, even under the most repulsive circum- 
 stances, is the final end. as it is the primitive and 
 fundamental law, of society. It is the logos — the word 
 for which Socrates died, and which, dying, he be- 
 queathed to the social apostles, who have consecrated 
 it with holocausts of lives. JNow that progress exists ; 
 it is proclaimed by the voice of history and attested by 
 the monuments of time. The principle of antagonism, 
 to which I have adverted, and which was the plague- 
 spot of the institutions of antiquity, is, beyond question, 
 on the decline. Civilization multiplies its forms, and 
 flashes over the universe like a flame of a thousand 
 rays. This fairy of modern days has smitten the 
 Cerberus of despotism with her golden bough ; and the 
 Klepht of Greece and Rayah of Egypt feel the power 
 of her intellectual magnetism. The East, slumbering 
 for ages in the tomb, with its vast knowledge, its vast 
 monuments and vast empires, flings ofi'its hoary shroud 
 and swells the banner-cry of nations. The land of the 
 
20 
 
 Pharaohs, and the home of Demosthenes, start from 
 their secular sleep: around the ruins of the Parthenon, 
 and beneath the shadow of tlie Pyramids, we hear the 
 grateful hum of the public schools. The pen of the 
 writer mocks the sword of the warrior: and we may 
 still exclaim with old Homer: '-We thank the gods that 
 we are better than our sires." We thank the gods ; 
 and we struggle that our children may one day, I trust, 
 exult in the same boast. It is right, however, not to 
 yield too easily to the convictions of a better order of 
 things. The days of happiness are not yet, when eacli 
 one shall be able, according to his wishes and his 
 tastes, to cultivate his allotted fixculties, and to compass 
 the best means of providing for the future and its 
 wants. The catastrophe of the long and bloody drama, 
 which has stained the theatre of the world, it not yet 
 at liand — a drama, bristling with dao-gers and axes, 
 racks and scaiiblds, and other implements of torture, 
 bloodshed, and deoth. IS'ot to us, who have seen so 
 many and glorious hopes cropped in the bloom; not to 
 us, who advance, with the carcass of feodalisra still 
 lumbering our course; viot to us, who, sick with the 
 baseness of the unprincipled and the turpitudes of 
 power, have sometimes looked witii a skeptic eye into 
 the womb of time, and reluctantly, agonizingly shriek- 
 ed, bottomless perdition; not to us belongs, as yet, the 
 l)eaceful security of the llouian's verse : 
 
 "Suave mari magno, tnrbantibns reqiiora ventis, 
 E terra, magnum alterius speciare laborem." 
 
 'Tis sweet, while winds convulse the vasty deep, 
 To view, from off the shore, the laboring bark. 
 
 There, unfortunately, are nations and men who scorn 
 or misapply the lessons of history; disregard the threat- 
 
21 
 
 fill monitions of gone by ages, and violate rights, pur- 
 chased at the price of unmeasured blood ; who sacrifice 
 to personal ambition the public liberties, or uphold, by- 
 force or fraud, worn out and inadequate systems, insti- 
 tutions, and laws ; nations and men, who oppose the 
 introduction of salutary and gradual reforms ; and, 
 with suicidal fatuity, deepen the gulf that ultimately 
 absorbs them. 
 
 Many a great man, no doubt, has been misunderstood 
 by his cotemporaries. Many a reformer has fallen the 
 victim of generous convictions ; and we know that the 
 hemlock and the hyssop are not spared the chosen of 
 Heaven, who lead the front ranks of humanity in the 
 apostleship of civilization. We know that the Redeemer, 
 crucified on Calvary, is the incarnation of every inno- 
 vating idea, of every attempt at progress and emanci- 
 pation ; a living and eternal symbol — mocked with a 
 thorny crown by his cotemporaries, and worshipped 
 with enthusiasm by a devoted posterity. We know that 
 Cato tore his vitals in despair, and that More laid his 
 head on the fatal block ; but we know also that, in the 
 universal bible of history is engraved, in fiery charac- 
 ters, one solacing and prominent truth : that nothing 
 great, beautiful, and good, once enacted, has ever been 
 lost or fruitless to mankind. Posterity clings with 
 noble transport to the truths which its predecessors 
 could not or would not appreciate ; and in other periods, 
 and under other circumstances, we witness the triumph 
 of principles and doctrines which might, once, have 
 brought tortures and death to their advocates. But tlic 
 times are favorably changed. The moral law of 
 humanity is slowly but steadily developing its latent 
 
22 
 
 energies. Prometheus has atoned for his glorious im- 
 piety. He indignantly bursts the sliackles that bound 
 him to the rock of agony. His voice has shouted away 
 the loathsome vultures that preyed upon his heart. 
 The nobly-daring hand, that filched the fire from 
 heaven, has reached the torch of civilization to the 
 new-born generations, who, like tlie competitors in the 
 race of the Panathcncea, will commit it to their suc- 
 cessors, a bright, radiating, and untpienched beacon- 
 light, that shall guide their footsteps through a futurity 
 of all but boundless happiness. 
 
 To those new-born generations — the trustees of the 
 rights and hopes of mankind — specially belongs the 
 better apprehension of the past and the future. 'I'hey 
 have the power, if the will be not inert. But, to all, 
 the task of advancing the cause of freedom, science, 
 virtue, and happiness, is equally and imperatively 
 assigned. For the truth of it -1 attest the ashes of the 
 heroes of humanity in every clime, and the monuments 
 of poj)ular admiration and popular gratitude. To 
 you particularly, who evidence a laudable ambition of 
 knowledge, I would now address myself. Do not 
 despair, should you, in your day, as in the da^'-s of 
 Socrates, hear the language of skepticism and gloom. 
 You will be told that the world is old, and no belter, 
 worse perchance, than when it came fresh and un- 
 warped from the hand of God ; that the divine idea 
 is waning from the earth, and the consummation of 
 time is at Imnd. Repel the inauspicious bodings ; they 
 are the flworite weapons of iniquity and despotism. 
 Amid the variations of mere forms, there is something 
 essential and immutable that remains proud, defying. 
 
23 
 
 and indestructible. The world, in which you Hve, is 
 still the city of God. Civil order and social right, so 
 dearly achieved by ^^-our fathers, are still divine with 
 justice and morality. The flame of patriotic feeling 
 and noble thouglits is not quenched. Ours is not a 
 disinherited world : the eternal fiither, in despite of 
 tyrants, in the treasuries of his wisdom, still reserves 
 for unborn generations undying freedom, the goodly 
 patrimony of mankind. Whatever may be our waver- 
 ings and doubts, in these periods of transition, let us 
 trust in the destinies of man, the progress of mind, and 
 the permanence of liberty. That trust we must pin- 
 nacle on the Herculean pillars of history. When mere 
 ideas flit in confusion before you, turn to the facts of 
 humanity and question their import. Invoke the cen- 
 turies that have been handed to the keeping of time ; 
 spell and examine those prophecies of the past, and 
 you majr perchance in the surrounding darkness catch 
 a dawning ray of the future. We read in Herodotus 
 of an Asiatic tribe, who promised the crown to him 
 who should first see the breaking of day. All looked 
 intently to the east — all but one, who listlessly watched 
 the opposite quarter of the heavens. And, behold, 
 while the east was still wrapped in gloom, the faint 
 glimmerings of morn were already bleaching the sum- 
 mit of a western tower. Let the east, then, the fountain 
 of light and the home of the sunshine, exult in its 
 beaming' glories. Our land, the land of the west — the 
 last asylum of the oppressed — is the watch tower of 
 nations, flooded with the light of mind, freedom, and 
 happiness ! 
 
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