regarded as one of their proudest distinctions. The science of Politics, in the words of Aristotle, is the supreme, and master-workman of the rest ; Ἡ Πολιτική κυριωτάτη καὶ ἀρχι TEXTOVIŃ. To form a state "wisely constituted, and skilfully administered," may well call into action the brightest talents and noblest energies of our nature. If our studies and exertions should, in the first instance centre in the happiness and improvement of domestic life, we should still keep in view the higher and nobler purpose of conferring benefit upon our country. If powerful emotion constitutes the happiness of great minds, there is an object upon which the feelings may be honorably engaged, there is a career in which the loftiest ambition may not disdain to fly. Do you ask if political science can afford you excitement and employment as men of letters? You surely cannot forget that it comes in contact with every pursuit and employment in life; you cannot fail to exclaim with Cicero, "Quid porro tam regium, tam liberale, tam munificum, quám retinere homines in civitate!" I need only recall your attention, gentlemen, to some of your own number, to prove that talents, and learning, and eloquence may find adequate and honorable employment in the councils of the nation.

I hope you will not accuse me of a love of paradox, if I enumerate among the advantages of our country, that it has not yet attained the height of what is called civilization and refinement. Perhaps I may not be understood without explanation. In the progress of society, the increase of wealth and luxury generates a love of the arts, and collects men together in crowded cities; where wealth

may be best displayed, and luxury find its appropriate enjoyments. The necessity of amusement obliges them to cultivate the arts of conversation (I am speaking of men of intelligence), and to derive from a rapid succession of company, and a live discussion of literary topics, that excitement, which others receive from regular application and stated employments. They become, almost necessarily, acute and penetrating, quick in discernment, and fastidious in taste; but they become, at the same time, impatient of labor, and desirous rather of pleasure, than improvement. Besides, the love of ridicule, which is always generated in large societies, is directly opposed to the enthusiasm which leads to great undertakings. It is chiefly in retirement and solitary meditation, that you can collect vigor for noble exertions.

I may congratulate you, too, that as a nation, you are just entering upon the career of glory. The people, from whom you derive your origin, have consummated their national greatness upon the waves of Trafalgar and the field of Waterloo. Henceforth they can derive pleasure only from the recollections of the past; you may be happy in proud anticipations of the future. They can live in memory, you may rejoice in hope. They can look back upon a long line of illustrious ancestors, and feel conscious that they have not tarnished their glory; you may consider yourselves as the founders of a new race, and may deliver your fame as a sacred inheritance to be cherished by posterity. They may celebrate the praises of others, you may yourselves be the subject of eulogy.

It has been remarked by those who have reasoned most profoundly upon the constitution of society, that the human mind has never, in modern times, attained its full and perfect maturity but among the Protestant nations of Christendom. In reviewing the splendid career of human intelligence, during the last three centuries, it is impossible not to ascribe much of its progress to the reformation of Luther. That great man gave an impulse to society which it has ever since preserved. He taught men to examine, to reason, to inquire. He unfolded to their wondering gaze, a form of moral beauty, which had been too long shrouded from their eyes by the timid dogmatism of the Papal church. It is to Protestant Christianity, gentlemen, that you are indebted for the noblest exercise of your rational powers. It is to Protestant Christianity, that you owe the vigor of your intellectual exertions and the purity of your moral sentiments. I could easily show you how much the manliness of English literature, and the fearless intrepidity of German speculation, and how much even of the accurate science of France, may be ascribed to the spirit of Protestant Christianity. It is from the influence of this spirit, that the sublime astronomy of La Place has not been, like that of Galileo, condemned as heretical. It is to Protestant Christianity, that you owe the English Bible; a volume, that has done more to correct and refine the taste, to elevate the imagination, to fill the mind with splendid and glowing images, than all the literature which the stream of time has brought down to the present age. I hope I am not laying an unhallowed hand upon the Ark of God, if I presume to recommend the

Bible to you, as an object of literary enthusiasm. The Bible !-Where in the compass of human literature, can the fancy be so elevated by sublime description, can the heart be so warmed by simple, unaffected tenderness?-Men of genius! who delight in bold and magnificent speculation, in the Bible you have a new world of ideas opened to your range. Votaries of eloquence! in the Bible you find the grandest thoughts clothed in a simple majesty, worthy of the subject and the Author.-Servants of God! I need not tell you that the glories of immortality are revealed in language, which mortal lips had never before employed!-But I forbear. The Bible is in your hands; and even now, while I am speaking its praise, "it is silently fulfilling its destined course, it is raising many a heart to the throne of

God. 3 The prevalence of religious controversies may be regarded as another advantage, in estimating the intellectual condition of our countrymen. Though much evil has arisen, and from the nature of things must arise, from the asperity of party contest, yet subjects of so awful a nature, and so interesting to the feelings and happiness of all, can hardly be discussed without producing some elevation of mind and seriousness of temper. In our country, the maxims and doctrines of the higher philosophy, discourses on the being and attributes of the Deity, and on the nature and destination of the human soul, subjects which among the ancient philosophers were revealed only to the initiated, are matter of daily and hourly conversation. I appeal to the records of past experience, to the general history of mankind, to

illustrate the effect of religious freedom. Why is all the literature of Germany at this day confined to her Protestant provinces? Why has Catholic Switzerland never produced a single man, eminent in any art or science, while the Protestant Cantons have been, for two centuries, enlarging the boundaries of human knowledge? Why, in fine, was Catholic France always superior in intelligence to the nations around her, to Spain, to Sicily, to Naples? Because Catholic France was never without heretics; because, even after the revocation of the edict of Nantz, subjects of religious controversy were kept alive by books from Switzerland and Holland, by the manly sense of Grotius, and the subtle infidelity of Bayle. It is impossible that men should be dull and sordid in their feelings, or low and grovelling in their desires, who are familiar with the sublime conceptions of Christian philosophy. And where many minds are ardently engaged in the pursuit of knowledge, on subjects most interesting to their happiness, the impulse is gradually communicated to other classes in the community, and extended to other subjects of research. I have thus, gentlemen, enumerated a few of the circumstances which distinguish us from other nations, and they are all favorable to the cultivation of letters. I could add many other particulars. I could dwell upon the influence of climate, which renders us susceptible of more moral tenderness, of more deep feeling, and permanent emotion, than the lively nations of the South ever experience. could call your attention to the natural scenery of our country, to her lofty mountains and spreading vales, to her rapid rivers, to her lakes and forests, fitted to excite and cherish

I