Temples of the Most High, the seats of Science, the Courts of Justice, and the Halls of Legislation. Let the palsy of death rest on the tongue of the Priest and Teacher, of the Orator, the Patriot, the Statesman. Let the Angel of peace walk no more abroad, through all our borders, dispensing the mild blessings of national tranquillity, and scattering the treasures of her love, by the fireside of home, and in the circles of friendship. Let such a day come, and the blackness of despair shall be our portion. Then, indeed, would be fulfilled in us, the visions of prophecy. "Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, in the day of darkness and of gloominess, of clouds and of thick darkness." "I will cause the sun to go down at noon, and I will darken the earth in a clear day; and I will turn your feasts into mourning, and all your songs into lamentation and I will make it, as the mourning of an only son." But thanks be to God, faith believes and hope rejoices, that such a day will never come for us. The mind holds fast the conviction, the heart cleaves to the persuasion, that we shall never be otherwise than free, educated, Christian, peaceful.

But what shall be our destiny in Science and Literature? Shall foreigners be the Historians and Philosophers, the Orators and Poets, to record our achievements, analyze our institutions, and consecrate our glory? Shall Cyprus send us a Davila, and Germany a Schiller? Shall Switzerland lend us another De Lolme, and France another Mably? Shall English eloquence speak our praise from the lips of another Brougham, another McIntosh, another Erskine? Shall some future Childe Harold go forth on his pilgrimage of Poetry, to the Black Gates of the Mountains, the Natural Bridge, the Highlands, and the Falls of Niagara? The language of Guicciardini may record our history, in the volumes of Botta. The French may read our Constitution, in the pages of Mably. England may hear our praise, in the eloquence of Fox; and the Emerald Isle, in the verses of Berkeley. But America shall yet be honored and adorned by such Historians as Robertson and Hume; such Philosophers as Newton and Smith; such Orators as Burke and Chatham; such Poets as Milton and Collins. Doubtless, the proud European, ignorant of what we are, and, therefore, blind to what we may be, would turn with the smile of incredulity, or the frown of contempt, from such anticipations. But, shall the American shrink away, timid and incredulous, from such a prospect? Shall he not rather look

with the eye of experience on the past and the present, and with the eye of confiding faith and ardent expectation on the future? The people of this day may gaze, with doubt and trembling, at the fortunes of Science and Literature, in the after ages of our country; but those, who shall cross the threshold of the second century of our national existence, will look with gratitude on the past, with rejoicing on the present, and with the energy and enthusiasm of a prophet's hope, on the future.

Let us pause and reflect on the reasonableness of this belief; for that it is reasonable, is, in my opinion, susceptible of demonstration. My proofs are gathered from three remarks.

First-The moderns, to say nothing more, have shown themselves, not at all inferior to antiquity, in power and originality, in variety and felicity of talent. Indeed, Newton and Leibnitz, Locke, Butler and Bacon, Chatham and Burke, Milton and Shakspeare, Linnæus, Buffon and Lavoisier, are unequaled by any of the ancients. Grant that Hume, Robertson and Gibbon, are not the rivals in style of Thucydides and Herodotus, of Livy and Sallust, and that they are not, is due to the language and not to the author; yet those are every way superior to these, in all that constitutes the highest value of history. Bossuet, Bourdaloue and Massillon, Pitt, Sheridan, Fox, Erskine and Canning, fear no comparison, if liberal and candid, with Demosthenes, Pericles, Isocrates and Cicero. Schlegel has ranked Shakspeare above all the dramatists of antiquity; while the critical judgment and accomplished taste of the Edinburgh Review, has styled Milton, "the first of poets." To say no more, by way of comparison, though the parallel might be advantageously pursued, let us remark, how much has been done by the moderns, almost wholly within the last three centuries, in Art and Science, without any or scarcely any model, among the ancients. The compass, gunpowder, paper, printing, engraving, and oil painting; the whole department of navigation, including ship building; the system of modern tactics by land and by sea, of modern commerce, political economy and banking; algebra, fluxions, and the sublime works of Newton and La Place; anatomy and surgery; chemistry, electricity, magnetism and botany; the telescope and microscope; the time-piece, the air-pump, the steam-engine and galvanism; the true theory and practice of government; the division and subordination of power; the principles of evi

dence and trial; diplomacy, the balance of power and the law of nations; the history of man, of arts and sciences, and of literature; philology and the philosophy of history; and lastly, a nobler and better scheme of morals, and a profound, rational and comprehensive theology-all these and numberless other inventions, discoveries, and improvements, are the work of the modern world. Whenever that world shall judge boldly, independently, candidly, liberally, the decision must be in favor of the masters in Literature and Science, who have arisen since the 15th century. Whether in abstruse and comprehensive, or in refined and elegant speculation; in profound, energetic, logical reasoning; in powerful, commanding, persuasive eloquence; in the intellectual and imaginative poetry, in the descriptive and pathetic; in practical wisdom, moral, international, or political, civil, social or domestic; in those arts, which employ, while they improve and bless the people; in a word, in all that makes man industrious and useful, virtuous and happy, and prepares him for the service of God, of his fellow men and of posterity-if, with a view to these things, we contemplate the great men, who have arisen since the year 1500, we must acknowledge them, unrivaled by the ancients. This is my creed, I glory in it: and this, I speak it with triumphant confidence, this, before the close of the 19th century, will be the creed of my country.

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Secondly-If then the moderns thus rank in a comparison with antiquity, if there never has been, since the Reformation, a deficiency of talents, in any department of Science and Art, of Literature and Knowledge; what reason have we to fear, that the time will ever come, when such a deficiency shall exist? For myself, I cling with the energy and enthusiasm of religion, philanthropy, and patriotism, to the belief, that such a period shall never exist. • While the earth remaineth, while seed-time and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer, and winter, and day and night, shall not cease," I believe that the human mind shall never again be enslaved; that the Protestant nations shall never again sit in darkness; that the bright career of improvement, begun by the Reformation, shall never terminate; till all the nations shall be gathered into the fold of the one Shepherd, and all sects shall be embosomed, in the holy Sanctuary of the Millenial Church. Then shall the triumph of the principles of the Reformation be complete. Then shall the Christian religion have become, the only standard of public

and private conduct. Then shall the New Testament have established its dominion every where, substantially and practically, as the only fountain of all rights, international, civil and social, as the moral constitution of a world of nations. Thirdly-My last remark relates to ourselves. If the expectations of Protestant countries, individually, and above all as a community, be thus bright, what hopes of future excellence in Science and Literature, may not our country reasonably indulge? I answer a more glorious hope than any other people, that ever lived. In the daily progress, even "from rise of morn, to set of sun," of popular education, of individual usefulness, of social blessings, of public happiness; in all the materials of national power and aggrandizement; in the prospect of an influence over the fortunes of the world, more wise, more moral, more commanding, than ever state enjoyed; in all that invests a people, with the authority and majesty, the beauty and attractiveness of virtue and justice, of wisdom and knowledge; I know that this Union has no rival, among the nations, ancient or modern. And shall not we, in like manner, surpass them, in Science and Literature and Art? We may disparage ourselves, as the timidity of Domenichino, and the humility of Newton undervalued their own genius. Our cotemporaries in the great school for the education of States, instituted by the Reformers, may contemn us, even as the fellow-students of the Italian painter and of the English philosopher, ridiculed and despised them. But the great masters of the school of the Reformers, in our day, in our own, as well as in other countries, already anticipate for these United States, a destiny more glorious and happy, than the world has ever witnessed. And well may they predict such fortunes for America, when, besides all that constitutes us the first of free, educated, Christian, peaceful States, we enjoy advantages, even in relation to Science, Literature and Art, such as no other people ever possessed. We have laid the foundations of improvement in all knowledge, broader and deeper, than ever people did. In all other nations, these have been the result of accident and violence, of singular and often fortuitous occurrences; but, with us, they are the fruits of system in choice, and concentration in effort. In other nations, the monarch, the statesman, the philosopher, the patron, has labored almost single-handed; but with us, the People have arisen as one Man, to lay these foundations, in the fear of God, and in the presence of the

world. Besides the privilege, that we commenced even our colonial existence, with the principles of the Reformers, and, that they have grown with our growth, and strengthened with our strength, we enjoy a further advantage, consequent on the triumph of the Reformation. The whole body of British Literature, more profound in Science, more sublime in Genius, and more accomplished in Taste: more substantial, useful, rational and various than that, which any other people has ever produced, constitutes the basis of our structure. And, as the scholars of the British Isles have built on the foundations of Classic antiquity, an edifice more perfect in majesty and loveliness, than the fairy temple of Greece, so, shall our America raise, on the foundations of English Literature, a structure more admirable in "the sublime, the wonderful, the fair," than poet's fancy has ever imaged forth.

In every department of knowledge, whether theoretical or practical, where THINKING AND REASONING are the means and the criterion of excellence, our country must, IF THERE

BE TRUTH AND POWER IN THE PRINCIPLES OF THE REF

ORMATION, surpass every people that ever existed. I fear not the great names of Archimedes, Aristotle, and Plato, of Demosthenes and Cicero, of Tacitus and Thucydides. I know that we must excel them. I fear not the greater names of Bacon and Newton, of Locke, Butler, Hume and Robertson, of Chatham, Burke and Pitt. I know that we shall surpass them also. The landmarks of human excellence seemed to have been set, as for an eternal state of Man, when Archimedes, Aristotle and Plato, Thucydides and Demosthenes constructed the noble edifice of ancient history, philosophy and eloquence. But greater men than these have arisen, and built anew the Holy City of knowledge, placing its foundations amidst a better state of society, on the double bases of the Classic and Christian systems. We have appeared in our turn, and the structures of former ages, and of other nations, have become the basis of ours. Instead, therefore, of despairing, let us feel the strongest assurance, that the present day is to our people, as it were but the primary school of education : and that "eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of Man to conceive" the honors, in Science and Literature, reserved for us. I know that hundreds, perhaps thousands, will regard these sentiments, as visionary in thought, and enthusiatic in feeling. But I would not exchange such delightful anticipations of my