it is permitted to us, in the exercise of a reasonable hope, to anticipate the speedy coming of that bright day, whose pitying beams already "Do lace the severing clouds in yonder East." I speak for that heroic State who was baptized in her infancy with the sprinkling of revolutionary blood on King's Mountain; who five years afterwards struck again for independence under the banner of the daring young State of Franklin; who grappled single-handed and alone, for fifty years, with the dusky warriors. of the forest, in all their battles from the Kentucky line to the Southern Gulf; who beat back the British legions at New Orleans; who smote the false Spaniard at Pensacola; who rushed with Taylor into the breach at Monterey, and shared in the triumphal march from Vera Cruz to Mexico! She treads once more the high path of her career as a free State, charged with the peace, the happiness, the prosperity and the liberties of a great people. She calls the roll of her children, and bids them gather beneath the folds of her peaceful banner, and to join in the onward march, as she sweeps grandly to her high destiny. May no son of hers refuse the call. Scattered though they may be across the continent, from ocean to ocean; whether in the remotest West, where the weary sun sinks nightly to his dewy bed, or in the golden East, where the gates of the morning unbar their shining folds to let in the day-god's flashing beams — everywhere, let their grateful hearts respond to their mother's appeal with such mighty voice as when "Jura answers from her misty shroud, Back to the joyous Alps, who call to her aloud." CHARACTERISTICS OF THE AGE. The following is an extract from an address by Judge Story, delivered, August 31, 1826, before the Phi Beta Kappa Society of Harvard University. ET me not be misunderstood. I advert to these considera not to disparage our country, ve its institutions, means of extensive - I had almost said of universal education. But we should not deceive ourselves with the notion, that, because education is liberally provided for, the highest learning is within the scope of that education. Our schools neither aim at, nor accomplish such objects. There is not a more dangerous error than that which would soothe us into indolence, by encouraging the belief that our literature is all it can or ought to be; that all beyond is shadowy and unsubstantial, the vain theories of the scientific, or the reveries of mere scholars. The admonition which addresses itself to my countrymen respecting their deficiencies, ought to awaken new energy to overcome them. They are accustomed to grapple with difficulties. They should hold nothing which human genius or human enterprise has yet attained, as beyond their reach. The motto on their literary banner should be "Nec timeo nec sperno." I have no fears for the future. It may not be our lot to see our celebrity in letters rival that of our public polity and free institutions. But the time cannot be far distant. It is scarcely prophecy to declare, that our children must and will enjoy it. They will see, not merely the breathing marble, and the speaking picture among their arts, but science and learning everywhere paying a voluntary homage to American genius. There is, indeed, enough in our past history to flatter our pride, and encourage our exertions. We are of the lineage of the Saxons, the countrymen of Bacon, Locke, and Newton, as well as of Washington, Franklin, and Fulton. We have read the history of our forefathers. They were men full of piety and zeal, and an unconquerable love of liberty. They also loved human learning, and deemed it second only to divine. Here, on this very spot, in the bosom of the wilderness, within ten short years after their voluntary exile, in the midst of cares, and privations, and sufferings, they found time to rear a little school, and dedicate it to God and the church. It has grown; it has flourished; it is the venerable university, to whose walls her grateful children annually come with more than filial affection.. The sons of such ancestors can never dishonor their memories; the pupils of such schools can never be indifferent to the cause of letters. There is yet more in our present circumstances to inspire us with a wholesome consciousness of our powers and our destiny. We have just passed the jubilee of our Independence, and witnessed the prayers and gratitude of millions ascending to heaven for our public and private blessings. That independence was the achievement, not of faction and ignorance, but of hearts as pure, and minds as enlightened, and judgments as sound, as ever graced the annals of mankind. Among the leaders were statesmen and scholars, as well as heroes and patriots. We have followed many of them to the tomb, blest with the honors of their country. We have been privileged yet more; we have lived to witness an almost miraculous event, in the departure of two great authors of our independence on that memorable and blessed day of jubilee. I may not, in this place, presume to pronounce the funeral panegyric of these extraordinary men. It has been already done by some of the master-spirits of our country, by men worthy of the task, worthy as Pericles to pronounce the honors of the Athenian dead. It was a beautiful saying of the Grecian orator, that "This whole earth is the sepulchre of illustrious men. Nor is it the inscriptions on the columns in their native soil alone, that show their merit; but the memorial of them, better than all inscriptions, in every foreign nation, reposited more durably in universal remembrance than on their own tomb." THE LIVES OF LITERARY MEN. ERHAPS the greatest lesson which the lives of literary.men PERHA teach us, is told in a single word: Wait! Every man must patiently bide his time; he must wait. More particularly in lands like my native land, where the pulse of life beats with such feverish and impatient throbs, is the lesson needful. Our national character wants the dignity of repose. We seem to live in the midst of a battle, there is such a din, such a hurrying to and fro. In the streets of a crowded city it is difficult to walk slowly. You feel the rushing of the crowd, and rush with it onward. In the press of our life it is difficult to be calm. In this stress of wind and tide, all professions seem to drag their anchors, and are swept out into the main. The voices of the Present say, "Come!" But the voices of the Past say, "Wait!" With calm and solemn footsteps the rising tide bears against the rushing torrent upstream, and pushes back the hurrying waters. With no less calm and solemn footsteps, nor less certainty, does a great mind bear up against public opinion, and push back its hurrying stream. Therefore should every man wait,- should bide his time. Not in listless idleness, not in useless pastime, not in querulous dejection, but in constant, steady, cheerful endeavors, always willing and fulfilling, and accomplishing his task, that, when the occasion comes, he may be equal to the occasion. And if it never comes, what matters it? What matters it to the world, whether I, or you, or another man did such a deed, or wrote such a book, so be it the deed and the book were well done? It is the part of an indiscreet and troublesome ambition to care too much about fame, about what the world says of us; to be always looking into the faces of others for approval; to be always anxious for the effect of what we do and say; to be always shouting to hear the echo of our own voices. If you look about you, you will see men who are wearing life away in feverish anxiety of fame, and the last we shall ever hear of them will be the funeral bell that tolls them to their early graves! Unhappy men, and unsuccessful! because their purpose is, not to accomplish well their task, but to clutch the "trick and fantasy of fame," and they go to their graves with purposes unaccomplished, and wishes unfulfilled. Better for them and for the world in their example, had they known how to wait! Believe me, the talent of success is nothing more than doing what you can do well; and doing well whatever you do, without a thought of fame. If it come at all, it will come because it is deserved, not because it is sought after. And, moreover, there will be no misgivings, no disappointment, no hasty, feverish, exhausting excitement. |