LIBRARY ,OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA. Class < THE MORAL AND INTELLECTUAL INFLUENCE OF LIBRARIES SOCIAL PROGRESS. AN ADKRESS DELIVERED BEFORE THE NEW YORK HISTORICAL SOCIETY, ON SIXTY-FIRST ANNIVERSARY, TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 1865. FREDERIC DE PEYSTER, President of the Society. NEW YORK: PUBLISHED FOR THE SOCIETY. M.DCCC.LXVI. T>* At a ftated meeting of the NEW YORK HISTORICAL SOCIETY, held in its Hall, on Tuefday evening, November 2 1 ft, 1865, to celebrate the 6ift Anniverfary of the founding of the Society : The Addrefs was delivered by the Prefident of the Society, FREDERIC DE PEYSTER, Eso^; the fubjecl being, THE MORAL AND INTELLECTUAL INFLUENCE OF LIBRARIES ON SOCIAL PROGRESS. On its conclufion, the Rev. SAMUEL OSGOOD, D. D., after fome remarks, fubmitted the following refolution, which was adopted : RESOLVED, That the thanks of the Society be prefented to its Prefident, FREDERIC DE PEYSTER, Eso^, for his inftruclive and interefting difcourfe before the Society this evening, and that a copy be requefted for its archives. A true extract from the minutes. ANDREW WARNER, Recording Secretary. Officers of the Society, 1866. PRESIDENT, FREDERIC DE PEYSTER. FIRST VICE-PRESIDENT, THOMAS DE WITT, D. D. SECOND VICE-PRESIDENT, BENJAMIN ROBERT WINTHROP. FOREIGN CORRESPONDING SECRETARY, GEORGE BANCROFT, LL. D. DOMESTIC CORRESPONDING SECRETARY, JOHN ROMEYN BRODHEAD, LL. D. RECORDING SECRETARY, ANDREW WARNER. TREASURER, BENJAMIN H. FIELD. LIBRARIAN, GEORGE HENRY MOORE. EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE. FIRST CLASS FOR ONE YEAR, GEORGE FOLSOM, JOHN W. DRAPER, ROBERT L. STUART. SECOND CLASS FOR TWO YEARS. AUGUSTUS SCHELL, ERASTUS C. BENEDICT, BENJAMIN W. BONNEY. THIRD CLASS FOR THREE YZARS. SAMUEL OSGOOD, WILLIAM CHAUNCEY, CHARLES P. KIRKLAND. AUGUSTUS SCHELL, Chairman. GEORGE H. MOORE, Secretary. [The officers of the Society are members, ex officio, of the Executive Com mittee.] COMMITTEE ON THE FINE ARTS. ABRAHAM COZZENS, WILLIAM J. HOPPIN, JONATHAN STURGES, THOMAS J. BRYAN, ANDREW WARNER, EDWARD SATTERLEE. ABRAHAM M. COZZENS, Chairman. ANDREW WARNER, Secretary. [The President, Librarian and Chairman of the Executive Committee are members, ex officio^ of the Committee on the Fine Arts.] ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS. ., MR. VICE-PRESIDENT, AND FELLOW-MEMBERS OF THE NEW YORK HISTORICAL SOCIETY: HE fubject which I purpofe to confider this evening is The Moral and In- telletJual Influence of Libraries upon So cial Progrefs. As this fubject is to be viewed in its fpecial relations to our own country, and to the refponfibilities and duties which in this refpect are impofed upon us, I {hall firft aflc your attention to fome remarks upon the growth of certain great principles and ideas in the hiftory of the nation, and the pofition occupied by this Republic in the focial progrefs of the world. In doing this, I fhall refer more efpecially to fome recent fads which it is eminently fuitable for us, as a Hiftorical Society, to confider. 6 The Moral and Intellectual Influence of Since we laft met, on a fimilar occafion, a year has parted which is indiffblubly connected with the future welfare and happinefs of America. It cannot fail to be forever prominently confpicuous in the annals of our country, and to hold up, not only to our own citizens, but to the people of other lands, the ftand- ard of human liberty and human rights which is def- tined to wave over a world difenthralled. This brief period is crowded with the achievements of a mighty nation, rifing in its confcious ftrength to fubdue a Rebellion at enmity with American princi ples and Democratic freedom, and impelled by a deep fenfe of its imperative obligations to preferve, at every hazard and under all emergencies, the PALLADIUM of its exiftence, the UNION ; its REPUBLICAN INSTI TUTIONS, and the Supremacy of the FEDERAL GOV ERNMENT throughout the length and breadth of THE UNITED STATES. In the face of this gigantic ftrife, of lurking treafon in the loyal States, and of the fympathy and material aid, which the ruling claries in certain portions of Europe covertly or openly extended to the States in rebellion ; moft triumphantly and effectually has the American Republic executed its firm refolve, by the gallantry of its true-hearted people, their exhauftlefs endurance, and their many and fevere facrifices. By the bleffing of the SOVEREIGN RULER of the Univerfe, WHO guides the deftinies of nations, thefe patriotic efforts, and an unflinching devotion to Libraries upon Social Progrefs. j duty, which " a fenfe of juftice" and of " a common "brotherhood" have intenfified, have maintained the caufe of right and of freedom, and eftabliflied, as on a rock of adamant, the great and fundamental prin ciples upon which this Republic refts. And now, in the prefence of thefe great principles and thefe glorious events, with their refulting bene fits, we are here aflembled to celebrate our Sixty-firft Anniverfary. Our thoughts naturally revert to thefe interefting and important circumftances, becaufe with them are connected the future deftiny of our country. These reflections create a juft and national pride which makes the American citizen fenfible that it is a mighty nation which upholds the " Flag of the free heart s only home !" A brief review of the various and eventful facts which are embraced in the recent war, but more efpe- cially of thofe which relate to the prefent year, cannot fail to demonftrate the value of their influence in every portion of this vail continent, where various races are ftruggling for the bleffings of Civil and Reli gious Freedom, as well as in the Old World, where ever its inftitutions, its ufages, and its injuftice to the mattes come in contact with our own free, liberty- loving, and reprefentative form of Republican Gov ernment. " The love of liberty," fays Mr. Webfter, in his Addrefs delivered before this Society, " is a paflion 8 Ike Moral and Intellectual Influence of "or fentiment which exifted in intenfe force in the " Grecian Republics, and in the better ages of Rome. " It exifts now, and, firft of all, on that portion of "the weftern continent in which we live. Here it " burns with heat and with fplendor beyond all "Grecian and all Roman example. It is not a " light in the Temple of Minerva ; it is no.t the "veftal flame of Rome: it is the light of the fun " it is the illumination of all the conftellations. " Earth, air, and ocean, and all the heavens above "us, are filled with its glorious mining; and al- " though the paffion and the fentiment are the fame, " yet he who would reafon from Grecian liberty or " Roman freedom to our intelligent American liberty, "would be holding a farthing candle to the orb of " day." Such a retrofpect is not taken in a fpirit which feeks to depreciate inftitutions eflentially differing from our own, or merely to indulge a fentiment, how ever juft and proper, which derives gratification from this contraft; but from a juftifiable defire to vindi cate the truths and eftablim the rights which have become the prefent property and the future heritage of our countrymen. In the literature and art of every country there breathes a fpirit which is infpired by the patriotifm and patriotic exploits of the people. Hiftory, Poetry and the Fine Arts will impart frefh intereft, and lend a grace to fcenes which are identified with the prefent Libraries upon Social Progrefs. 9 era in our hiftory. Time, as it rolls on, and future generations fucceed the witnefles who have looked upon thofe fcenes and participated in them, will furnifh opportunities to genius and artiftic tafte, to render immortal every diftinctive feature which truth can illuftrate or imagination depict ; in order fully to prefent a faithful portraiture of this eventful period. Before I proceed to confider, however, the opera tion of great Chriftian principles which are the fource of what are known and recognized among us as Amer ican ideas; I defire to pay a merited compliment to our own State for the pofition which me took and gallantly maintained during the whole of the late re bellion. I am aware that the occurrences of the recent civil war are national in their character, and that objection may be made to their introduction in an Addrefs before an Aflbciation of a local defignation ; but it muft be borne in mind that this Society is not exclufively a State organization. Its founders were actuated by patriotic, liberal, and enlarged fenti- ments. They confidered it to be not only their duty, but a duty incumbent on their fucceflbrs, to procure, and preferve for hiftorical inveftigation and illuftration, whatever related to the four departmental objects which were embraced in their well-confidered defign. This effort on their part was feconded by the Legiflature of the State of New York in 1809. In the Act which incorporated this Inftitution, pafled on io The Moral and Intellectual Influence of the loth of February in that year, thefe feveral de partments are defcribed as thofe which embrace, in the following order, "the Natural, Civil, Literary, "and Ecclefiaftical Hiftory of the United States in "general, and of this State in particular." Thus, this Society has a National as well as a State defigna- tion and character in this wide domain of literature. The rebellion, recently fubdued, arofe from conflict ing views, involving queftions and principles not only connected with the United States at large, but with the alleged rights and privileges which appertained to each State; efpecially of thofe whofe object was to fuftain the States in rebellion, in order to juf- tify their attempt to fecede, and thus to overthrow the Union. Againft that gigantic attempt, the State of New York no "wayward fifter" promptly met her obli gations to the Union. She knew well that with the prefervation of it was bound up the national exiftence. Both being thus imperiled, me armed for the conflict, raifed aloft the ftar-fpangled ban ner, and called upon her fons to march to the refcue ; and to mow, by their valor and their devo tion, their determination that the national flag mould wave upon every foot of land, over which the Federal Government ought, by the common com pact, to be and continue fupreme. They nobly re- fponded to her fummons, and heroically, on many a well-fought field, as in the deadly breach, maintained Libraries upon Social Progrejs. 1 1 her plighted faith and honor, and manifefted their own patriotifm and indomitable courage. This loyal State great in all the elements which have given her a diftinguimed pofition among her fifter communities will never forget her furviving, nor ceafe to lament her loft heroes ! Her grief for thofe who have perimed on the battle-field, or by the perils of a foldier s life in aftive fervice, finds expref- fion in a line of the Roman poet, which, in few but touching words, defcribes the anguifh of Orpheus, difconfolate for the lofs of his beloved wife Eury- dice " Te veniente die, te decedente canebat." Inconfolable for her death, caufed " by the bite of " a ferpent," he defcended to the lower world, and, by the charms of his lyre, "won the ear of Pluto" to let her return to earth, on the condition that he would not look round upon her until he had reached it. In the ardency of his love, he looked back, forgetful of his promife, and thus forever loft " His half-regain d Eurydice." But our noble State, ever mindful of the bonds which bind her and her children to the UNION, con- fidered it to be a religious duty on their part to peril their lives in its defenfe, againft foes "more " vengeful than the ferpent s tooth." She looked up to the heavens above in the pious hope that thofe of 1 2 T he Moral and Intellettual Influence of her fons who had fallen in the late flrife had there found an entrance, in the folemn, mortal hour ; whether on the battle-field, the picket, the march, the deck, or when ftretched on a pallet in the lonely hofpital ; by that " watch-word at the gates " of death" " the foul s fmcere defire, "Utter d or unexpreff d, " The motion of a hidden fire " That trembles in the breaft." She calls to mind as who does not that has been a careful obferver? the repeated occurrences where the love of country has triumphed over the pangs of difTolution; and enabled the dying volunteer, as he gathered his remaining ilrength for the effort, to ejaculate a blefling upon the Union " Et dulces, moriens, reminifcitur Argos." Whilft, however, I thus commend my own native State, I am not unmindful of the like patriotic devo tion of the gallant volunteers of every other loyal State. Together they all battled for the fame glori ous Union; together the living mingle their joy for its prefervation ; and together they are aflbciated in that warm fympathy which the calamities of this fad war have awakened in loving and loyal hearts. That devaftating war, which the people of all the States can now fcan in its fearful and yet glorious re- fults, was a war of opinions ! It was a claming of Libraries upon Social Progrefs. 13 prejudices and interefts, intenfified by local peculiari ties, which led ultimately to " the irrepreffible con- " flict." Now, alfo, we can calmly and more clearly eftimate its huge proportions, the vaftnefs of the ma terials required for its vigorous profecution, and the neceflary and innumerable appliances demanded by the rapid ftrides, which emergencies developed in mil itary fcience and the "art of war." Thefe and various other and manifold incidents are aflbciated with the crowning events which decided that conflict. How forcibly in this connection do thofe memorable lines from "The Battle Field," by our own liberty-loving poet, apply to this decifive re- fult. " Truth cruftied to earth fhall rife again : " The eternal years of God are her s ; " But Error, wounded, writhes with pain, " And dies among his worfhippers." All thefe incidents have now patted into hiftory ! When the materials which relate to this rebellion are fully gathered and carefully fyftematized, and from thefe its hiftory is written in a philofophical fpirit, marked by the rare qualities which diftinguimed the " Father of Hiftory" in imitation of Thucydides, who faid of his great work that it was not written " for the entertainment of the moment, but to be a "pofleffion forever;" with the creamy richnefs of Livy " Livii lactea ubertas ;" and, above all, with the pen of truth and the charity that "rejoiceth in 2 14 The Moral and Intellettual Influence of "the truth" and "never faileth," our Republican In- ftitutions may then, with a juft and an ennobling pride, reft their merits and their fame on this graphic, unimpeachable and immortal RECORD. Great and glorious as are the triumphs and military prowefs of the nation, its civil hiftory has alfo its proud record to difplay. In November, 1864, in the minds of many, at home and abroad, whofe " wifti " probably was " father to the thought," a national crifis was at hand, which might change the character of the civil war then reaching its climax. The general election on the eighth day of that month for electors of the Prefident and Vice-Prefident of the United States, was to determine whether the exifting policy of the Federal Government was to be fuftained or changed. Well might the Old World, with its antipathies and antiquated views, from its ftand-point, apprehend dif- aftrous confequences from this exercife of the fupreme will of the people. The loyal men of the country knew better the magnitude of the iflues at ftake, and the refponfibility refting upon them. Without clamor or tumult they depofited their ballots, which by an overwhelming majority decided that ABRAHAM LINCOLN, their tried, {launch, upright and able leader, was to retain command of the ship of State, and that ANDREW JOHNSON, equally reliable, fearlefs, true and juft, mould be next in authority; a refult that afforded conclufive affurance Libraries upon Social Progrefs. \ 5 that with the rebellion mould alfo perifh the caufe of it. This decifive refult is the beft teft that could be afforded of the mind of the people, their intelligent action and firm refolve. Never was an imperative duty fraught with vital refults more patriotically or con- fcientioufly difcharged. This decifion was a moft fig- nificant fact of the law-abiding character of the people upon whom, under God, depended the deftiny of the nation. This event was a noble example of the Union fentiment overlooking all minor differences and considerations, and it infufed frefh vigor in the national councils. In moral grandeur this fcene tranfcends any re corded event in the civil hiftory of any country in ancient or modern times ! It is a proud record of republican inftitutions in their reprefentative com bination, moving harmonioufly in concert in times of eminent peril, as they had in the times previous when the bleffing of peace refted on them. Juftly may America challenge the world for a parallel ! From this commanding eminence the dawn of the coming day becomes more vifible which is to med its noontide of glory upon our vaft national territory bleffed with univerfal freedom, fecured to every por tion of the Republic by the Conftitutional Amend ment (certain of adoption), which is the permanent extinction of flavery. " The liberty of Athens, and "of the other Grecian Republics, being founded in 1 6 The Moral and Intellectual Influence of "pure democracy," Mr. Webfter, in the Addrefs al ready referred to, aflerted, "was fitted only for fmall " States. The exercife of popular power in a purely " democratic form cannot be fpread over countries of "large extent; becaufe in fuch countries all cannot af- " femble in the fame place, to vote directly upon laws "and ordinances, and other public queftions. But " the principle of reprefentation is expanfive it may " be enlarged, if not infinitely, yet indefinitely, to " meet new occasions and embrace new regions. " While, therefore, the love of liberty was the fame, " and its general principle the fame in the Grecian " Republics as with us, yet not only were the forms " effentially different, but that alfo was wanting, which "we have been taught toconfider asindifpenfable to its " fecurity that is, a fixed, fettled, definite, fundamen- " tal law or Constitution, impofing limitations and " reftraints equally on governors and governed. We " may, therefore, inhale all the fullnefs and frefhnefs " of the Grecian fpirit, but we neceffarily give its de- "velopment a different form, and fubject it to new " modifications." Is, then, joy that the Union is preferved, and that this " fundamental law" is to be fixed and definite, which makes no exception to limit freedom, not to find expreffion on an occafion like this ? In the prefence of thefe deeds is it inappropriate for me, in this honored place, to rejoice that liberty at length has become univerfal by the triumph of American ideas ; promul- Libraries upon Social Progrefs. 17 gated by the founders of our republican form of gov ernment, which in procefs of time have worked out their own folution ? I need not, I feel allured, an ticipate an unfavorable judgment; for the facts ftated furnim no reproach but to difloyalty, whilft the in ferences they ftiggeft are unmingled in intention with party feeling or political bias ! But whilft thefe ideas are entitled to all the ad miration which the remembrance of their folemn pro mulgation on the 4th of July, 1776, never fails to excite ; yet we mould never forget their original fource, and their living inculcation by the Divine Author of Chriftianity. In few but fignificantly im- preffive words He denned the two great principles which were to be the ban s of the religion which He taught, and the rule of action for all thofe who were to be gathered within its vaft fold. Thefe were " Love to God and to man !" Thefe two precepts are the firft and the laft links in a chain on which all the intermediate ones depend. HE dignified human nature in His own perfon, and taught that GOD was no refpecter of perfons for He judged the heart, out of which were the iflues of good and evil. His doc trines and teachings were defigned for the elevation of the mafles : therefore " the common people heard "him gladly." Such was the effence of Chriftianity ! It fought to recover mankind, by its teachings and practice, from ignorance and vice to true knowledge and virtue. 1 8 The Moral and Intellectual Influence of The following defcription, by Bifliop Porteus, of its tendency and refults, is fo admirable, that I cannot deny myfelfthe pleafure of repeating it: "Although Chriftianity has not always been fo " well underftood, nor fo honeftly practiced, as it ought " to have been; although its fpirit has been often mif- " taken, and its precepts mifapplied; yet, under all " thefe difadvantages, it has gradually produced a " vifible change in thofe points which moft materially " concern the peace and quiet of the world. Its benef- " icent fpirit has fpread itfelf through all the different " relations and modifications of life, and communi- " cated its kindly influence to almoft every public " and private concern of mankind. It has infenfibly " worked itfelf into the inmoft frame and conftitution " of civil States. It has given a tinge to the com- " plexion of their Governments, to the temper and " adminiftration of their laws. It has reftrained the " fpirit of the prince and the madnefs of the people. " It has foftened the rigor of defpotifm, and tamed " the infolence of conqueft. It has, in fome degree, " taken away the edge of the fword, and thrown even " over the horrors of war a veil of mercy. It has de- " fcended into families, has diminifhed the prefTure of " private tyranny, improved every domeftic endear- " ment, given tendernefs to the parent, humanity to "the mafter, refpect to fuperiors, to inferiors eafe ; fo " that mankind are upon the whole, even in a tem- " poral view, under infinite obligations to the mild Libraries upon Social Progrefs. 1 9 "and pacific temper of the Gofpel, and have reaped " from it more fubftantial worldly benefits than from " any other inftitution upon earth." At the time that thefe United States fprang into exiftence, like Minerva, full armed, but not, like fiery Mars, heedleffly eager for the combat, it was no fudden impulfe that induced them to put forth that immortal manifefto. They had been trained gradu ally to the adoption of meafures which, by the peace of 1783, fecured their independence, but which had been forced upon them by the ufurpation of the Britifh Government and Parliament, and the indifference and neglect of the Englifh nation to their repeated applications for redrefs. The people of this country walked in the light of civil and religious lib erty, and of that freedom which was* the common privilege of all. Independence was the firft fruit of this " Declara- " tion," and one of its nobleft productions. There remained the fulfillment of their further promulga tion, that among the " unalienable rights" enumer ated in that extraordinary and immortal Document, were thofe of " life, liberty and the purfuit of happi- "nefs." Under the guidance of an All-Wife and All-Seeing Providence thefe truths, deathlefs, and pregnant with ultimate fuccefs, were the fruit of thofe very ideas which years of Colonial fubjection had inftilled into the minds of the leading men of the revolutionary 2O The Moral and Intellectual Influence of aera, as well as into thofe of their progenitors, and which had been tranfmitted by them and their children from generation to generation. Thefe great truths, fub- jefted to every kind of doubtful difputation, have at length, after four fcore and ten years of probation, become triumphant by the " fundamental law" the Conftitutional Amendment which, with the aboli tion of flavery, permanently eftablifhes their vin dication. Thus it has happened that when the "corner ftone" of a new political edifice was attempted to be laid, which was antagoniftic to thefe truths, and to our Re publican form of Government, the ftone itfelf re bounded, and crufhed the very " Inftitution" which it was defigned to perpetuate ! The.feal of the public approbation of that memor able meafure, when finally affixed by the dominant will of the People to the folemn ratification of the principles which thofe ineftimable truths nearly a cen tury fince proclaimed, is the indifputable evidence that Liberty has become like the pure air of heaven a univerfal boon throughout this great Republic. It will prove to be the Polar Star of America, attract to our mores the opprefled of .other lands who pant for the bleflings of conftitutional freedom, which a power ful nation places within their reach ; fubject only to the wholefome reftraints of equal laws, applicable alike to free men. But independently of its home influences, that in- Libraries upon Social Progrefs. 21 valuable meafure, when it mall become a fundamental law of the land, will ftimulate the Republics on this Continent, ftill lying in the darknefs which is not yet irradiated by the light of Civil and Religious Freedom, to follow in the footfteps of this Great Republic, and ftrive to imitate her fuccefsful career. How forcibly does this glorious confummation re call to mind the joy of the Jews, after the Decree of Cyrus had reftored them to liberty and their homes, with permiffion to rebuild their City and Temple, when " the captivity of Zion" was ended. When this news was made known to them, they are reprefented to have been "like them that dream;" like as were the inhabitants of the Grecian cities when Titus Quintius Flamininus, by proclamation, reftored them to liberty, to exemption from taxes, and the privilege of living according to their own laws. This occurred at the time of the Ifthmian Games, about one hundred and ninety-fix years before the Chriftian asra. The Romans were feated to behold them multitudes from all Greece being there aflem- bled, a herald went into the circus to announce the games, none but the Roman general knowing what was to follow. Silence being obtained, the herald folemnly pro nounced the following brief but terfe proclamation : " Senatus Romanus et T. Quinclius, Imperator, " Phillippo rege Macedonibusque devices ; liberos, " immunes, fuis legibus efle jubet Corinthios, Pho- 3 22 The Moral and Intellectual Influence of "cenfes, Locrenfefque omnes, et Infulam Eubceam, "et Magnetas, Theflalos, Perrhaebos, Achaeos, " Phthiotas." The Roman Senate and T. Quintius, the General, having vanquifhed King Phillip and the Macedoni ans, do ordain that the Corinthians, Phocians, all the Locrians, the Euboeans, the Magnefians, Thefla- lians, Perrhaebians, Acheans and Phthiotians, mall . be free, be delivered from all taxes, and live accord ing to their own laws. Livy relates the impreffion which this generous act produced on the aftonimed Grecians in a manner af fecting as it is natural, and in a part of his remarks in words almoft identical with thofe of King David in the hundred and twenty-fixth Pfalm. " This proclama- " tion of the herald being heard, there was fuch "joy that the people in general could not com- " prehend it. Scarcely could any perfon believe " what he had heard. They gazed on each other, " wondering as if it had been Jome illufion, Jimilar " to a dream ; and although all were interefted in " what was fpoken, none could truft his own ears, " but inquired each from him who ftood next to him " what it was that was proclaimed. The herald was " again called, as each exprefled the ftrongeft defire " not only to hear, but fee the meflenger of his own "liberty: the herald therefore repeated the proclama " tion." I now quote from the original " Turn ab "certo jam gaudio tantus cum clamore plaufus eft Libraries upon Social Progrefs. 23 " ortus, totiesque repetitus, ut facile appareret, nihil " omnium bonorum multitudini gratius quam Lib- " ertatem efle." When by this repetition the glad ti dings were confirmed, there arofe fuch a fhout, ac companied with repeated clapping of hands, as plainly mowed that of all good things none is Jo dear to the mul titude as Liberty ! Well might Cicero exclaim, " O ! nomen dulce " libertatis ! O ! jus eximium noftrae civitatis !" " Thefe reminifcences of the paft are vividly repeated in the recent occurrences of our day. The " Eman- "cipation Proclamation" and the martyrdom for Liberty of Abraham Lincoln, have made his name imperimable as hiftory itfelf. To ufe his own words, he was " with malice towards none ; with charity for " all ; with firmnefs in the right, as God gives us "to fee the right." The efforts of his fucceflbr, in a like liberty-loving fpirit, hold out the expectation that Andrew Johnfon may with greater force be confidered, in the words which Cicero applied to Virgil, and Virgil, in the JEneld, to lulus " Magnje fpes altera Romae." For to him is now committed the arduous tafk of carrying into effect the recommendations of his il- luftrious predeceflbr, which were " to finifh the " work we are in ; to bind up the nation s wounds ; "to care for him who mail have borne the bat- " ties, and his widow and orphans ; to do all "which may achieve and cherifh a juft and a 24 The Moral and Intellectual Influence of " lafting peace among ourfelves and with all na tions." When this work is done, and the Union is reftored to its true equipoife, when liberty is made fecure by Conftitutional law, and the bitternefs of the paft is removed by fuch influences as fpring from the teach ings of the martyred Lincoln, then mall all America be enabled fully to refpond to the fentiments of the great Roman orator, " O ! fweet name of Liberty ! CC O ! unparalleled right of our country !" The object of introducing this hiftorical illuftration is not only to trace the deep-rooted fentiment of lib erty, whofe fibres penetrate the inmoft recefles of the human heart, in all clafles and among all races ; but to mow alfo the beneficial refults which flow from a generous and wifely liberal policy. The reconftruction of the States recently in rebel lion calls for magnanimity in action and wifdom in execution of the plans to be devifed, which fhall re- ftore harmony among all the States, ftrengthen anew the bonds of a common Union, and guard with pre cautionary and judicious meafures the reftored rights of the Freedmen. In thefe latter refpects the courfe of Flamininus prefents an inftructive leflbn, deferving the attention which that leflbn invites. " His conduct," remarks Dr. Anthon, in a brief fketch which the learned pro- feflbr has given of Flamininus, " throughout thefe " memorable tranfactions was, marked by a wifdom, Libraries upon Social Progrefs. 2$ " moderation and liberality feldom found united in a "victorious Roman general. He was thus the means " of protradting the independence of the Greek States " for half a century longer." When Flamininus had fettled the affairs of Greece, he prepared to return to Rome (194 B. C.) Before leaving Corinth for this purpofe, he withdrew his gar- rifons from all the Grecian cities, and finally carried out the provifions of his proclamation. Immunity from taxation was included in thofe provifions, but fuch an immunity, where reprefentation exifts, is not ap plicable to our American States. Deputations from thofe cities affembled to take an affectionate leave of him. The Senate, on his return to Rome, decreed him a triumph of three days. The people received their General and his victorious army with great ac clamation. In the rear of the triumphal proceffion followed the Roman prifoners, who had been fold by Hannibal in the fecond Punic war, as (laves, and who had obtained their freedom by the gratitude of the Greeks, for the benefits which they had received from Flamininus. The Achasans alone are reprefented as having paid one hundred talents for the liberation of twelve hun dred of thofe very prifoners from flavery. We may juftly affume that where thefe Greeks participated in thofe confederate and benevolent meafures of the Roman general, the other cities were not backward in largely affifting in the gratifying fpectacle which, on 26 The Moral and Intellectual Influence of thofe three days, was prefented to the martial and im perial city of Rome, by the reunion with its citizens of the victims of the great Carthaginian. In our day, under the influences of Chriftian kind- nefs and a common brotherhood, we may reafonably expect that a like difcerning policy in the fettlement of the various differences of opinion, and the recon cilement of claming interefts and prejudices, which prevail in fome of the States, may refult in more ftrongly cementing the Union of all. The " truths," so long dormant, whofe very exift- ence was queftioned, and whofe growth was deemed impracticable, have by their own innate virtue and vital power become, at length, not only " felf-evi- " dent," but already productive of exhauftlefs good. What Lord Coke said of " Right," in its legal ac ceptation, may be now faid of each right which thefe truths have eftablimed : " that it was of fuch high * " eftimation that the law preferveth it from death and " deftruction ; trodden down it may be, but never " trodden out." The earneft and patriotic men of 1776 fpake well and truly when they pronounced thefe " rights" a- alienable! Trodden down they have been, but never trodden out. They have proved to be like the bag of muftard feed fent by Alexander the Great to Da rius, in return for his barrel full of Jejame. According to eaftern tradition, the active energy of the former nade it as apt " an emblem of the good as the ill." It Libraries upon Social Progrefs. 27 indicated the energy and the biting courage of his fol- diers: the more they were preffed the more fiery were the qualities which the " conflict" produced ; whilft the " fefame" indicated the numbers whom Alexander vanquished. 4 Thefe fame truths have been characterized as " glit- " tering generalities." Time has mown them to be brilliant realities, pregnant with untold advantage to our own nation ; fraught with hope and promife to the multitudinous populations of both worlds, and capable of fecuring by the one the fulfillment of the other. The developments which gradually led to a full recognition of thefe folemn verities, "vindicate the "ways of God to man." But, like all precious and eagerly fought-for acquifitions, they have been ob tained by courageous and perfiftent efforts. In the recent ftruggle, what libations of kindred blood have been made to fecure peace with freedom ! What wounds and mutilated limbs, and perfonal fufferings, have refulted from the heroic devotion of a loyal people ! What facrifices of health and wealth to in- fure victory ! Thefe fadden the heart by recollections which alfo opprefs the memory ; but they furnim us with the aflurance that no fimilar calamity will again aflail our now difenthralled country. Now, that this advance has taken place in ourfocial fyftem, we can more fully contemplate the caufes which occafioned it, and thus we are enabled to trace its origin in the large proprietary clafs, which con- 28 The Moral and Intellectual Influence of trolled the action of the South and guided its move ments. Without formal titles of diftinftion, this clafs enjoyed all the eflentials of a landed ariftocracy ; they held the intermediate dafs, known as " the poor whites," in political fubjection ; and having made labor difgraceful to the white and the only proper employ ment of the loweft clafs, the black ; the contraft be tween the higher and this menial condition rendered the degradation of the poor whites a political confe- quence ; becaufe, though nominally the equals of the lordly planters, virtually they were but as ferfs, in all political matters. Clafs domination governed focial intercourfe, and clafs confervatifm clung to a fyftem that dreaded the refults of ideas, which inculcated the influential opera tion of thofe popular elements of power, inherent in the rights that made men equal in the eye of the law ; and further, when thus encouraged, was deftruftive of the tendencies which virtually had their origin in feu- dalifm. Coleridge is reported to have faid that " the free " clafs in a flave State is always, in one fenfe, the " moft patriotic clafs of people in an empire ; for their " patriotifm is not (imply the patriotifm of other " people, but an aggregate of the luft of power, and " diftinftion, and fupremacy." 5 What was the objed: of this free clafs in the recent rebellion but to build up "an empire," bafed on the irredeemable flavery of the black race, upon Libraries upon Social Progrefs. 29 whofe talked toil it was to fubfift ? What the tend ency of the rule of their chofen chief, but the erection of a military defpotifm ? And what the aim of both, but the threefold "luft" fo aptly defcribed by the acute and philofophic Coleridge ? It is faid of Julius Casfar, " that he had fre- " quently in his mouth a verfe of Euripides, which " exprefled the image of his foul, that, if right and "juftice were ever to be violated, they were to be "violated for the fake of reigning. This was the " chief end and purpofe of his life the fcheme that " he had formed from his early youth fo that, as " Cato truly declared of him, he came with fobriety "and meditation to the fubverfion of the Republic." 5 The coup d etat that overthrew the French Repub lic, and founded in its ftead the prefent empire, was the refult of a Napoleonic idea, fuggefted by the mind of the great Julius. Had the boafted "chivalry of "the South," identical with the dominant clafs to which I have adverted, and which, at the facrifice of right and juftice, madly plunged the fo-called " Confed- " erate States" into rebellion, fucceeded in the attempt, the form of a Republican Government, aflumed for the occafion, would fpeedily have been merged in fuch " an " empire" as Coleridge intimated, with that of France, doubtlefs, as its model, and its ruler an ally. His de clared anxiety for the welfare of Mexico, its neighbor, would have as truly fympathized with the idea as that on which this new empire was avowedly bafed ! 4 30 The Moral and Intellectual Influence of A few months previous to the fuggeftion of Cole ridge, upon which I have commented (January 4, 1833), he made the following remarkable prognoftica- tion, which, had its conclusion been equally correct, would have been juftly confidered an extraordinary prediction. " Naturally," he obferved, " one would "have thought that there would have been greater "fympathy between the northern and north-weft- "ern States of the American Union, than be- " tween England and the fouthern States. There is " ten times as much Englifh blood and fpirit in New " England as in Virginia, the Carolinas, &c. Never- " thelefs, fuch has been the force of the interefls of "commerce, that now, and for fome years paft, the " people of the North hate England with increafing " bitternefs, while, among thofe of the South, who are " Jacobins, the Britifli connection has become popular." His conclufion was that the American Union had no centre, and that it was impomble now to make one. "In fact, the Union will be fhaken almoft to " diflocation whenever a very ferious queftion be- " tween the States arifes." 7 Time, as we have feen, has tefted this very quef tion. That the Union has a " centre," and adequate centripetal and centrifugal forces, has been mown under circumftances of the mqft Jerious character. It has demonftrated that, like his countrymen in general, the inherent power of the American Republic was by him erroneoufly eftimated. Libraries upon Social Progrefs. 3 1 There exift reafons to mow logically, as well as " naturally," that the caufe for this very fympathy arofe, not only from mere intereft, but alfo from a fentiment which the boafted fpirit of chivalry had created, and which the fpirit of the times has compul- fively afluaged. It is well known that the much-vaunted Southern chivalry had created a fentiment of fuch conventional force that it governed public opinion, and fubjected the local laws to its " higher power." Its emblems were the piftol and the bowie-knife! The fpirit of chivalry in the "dark ages," doubtlefs, did, in very many cafes, exert a wholefome reftraint. But after the dawn of modern hiftory, a better civilization was introduced, and events have mown that focial pro- grefs advanced more furely and beneficially where di vine and human laws were made obligatory. " I confefs," faid Dr. Arnold of Rugby, " that if " I were called upon to name what fpirit of evil pre- " dominantly deferved the name of Antichrift, I mould " name the SPIRIT OF CHIVALRY the more deteftable " for the very guife of the Archangel ruined, which " has made it fo feduftive to the moft generous fpirits, " but to me fo hateful, becaufe it is in direct oppofi- " tion to the impartial juftice of the Gofpel, and its " comprehenfi ve feeling of equal brotherhood, and " becaufe it fo foftered a fenfe of honor, rather than a " fenfe of duty." 8 The colonial fettlements on our Atlantic border j 2 Ihe Moral and Intellectual Influence of were made by races chiefly of Anglo-Saxon defcent. In a general fenfe, they were lovers of freedom, of diftributed power, and confcious of the right ; but from bigoted views, political bias, and their mifchie- voufly confequent prejudices, they were often forgetful of the claims of "equal brotherhood," and cherimed a falfe fenfe of honor that, as Arnold further alleged, " was incompatible with the higheft virtue of which " man is capable, and the laft at which he arrives a "fenfe of juftice;" fetting up when the fpirit of chivalry, which he often called feudality, prevailed "perfonal allegiance to the Chief above allegiance to "Goo and LAW !" 9 Between the fouthern and eaftern colonies on our Atlantic border decidedly marked characteristics ex- ifted, refulting from differences in opinion and pecu liarities of temperament. It is not my purpofe to ex patiate upon thefe distinctions ; I can now only notice their exiftence. Political views on the one fide, and hereditary influences on the other, with bigoted opin ions and perfonal confiderations on both, often made them forgetful of the claims of <c equal brotherhood," and " a fenfe of juftice ;" whatever may have been their actual or pretended fupport at other times of that which each, in fact, deemed " a fenfe of duty." Thefe obfervations are now more directly applied to the former colonies, becaufe of their early and known ariftocratic proclivities. Had the fchemes of coloni zation planned in the time of Elizabeth been carried Libraries upon Social Progrefs. 33 into effect, they would have become in fad: feudal principalities, and the idea have been practically real ized which is fuggefted in the Dedication of the Fairy Queen, wherein Spenfer defcribes Elizabeth, " by the Grace of GOD, Queen of England, France and " Ireland and Virginia." At that time " Virginia" embraced a region which contained within its limits moft of the Southern States, as appears from the grant made to Sir Walter Raleigh, which gave alfo prerogatives and jurifdic- tion of a vice-regal character, with an extent of terri tory almoft indefinite. The ruling clafles of England have always fympa- thized with the defcendants of thefe fouthern colonifts. Both claimed to belong to that " chivalric" order which confidered labor the badge " of the lower "clafles," and both regarded themfelves as " fruges "confumere nati." With the Britim government was the feeling of national and commercial rivalry. It had no wim to fee "the poflible deftiny of the Uni- " ted States of America as a nation of a hundred " millions of freemen ftretching from the Atlantic " to the Pacific, living under the laws of Alfred, and " fpeaking the language of Shakefpeare and Milton," which Coleridge added, is "an auguft conception!" He afked, "why mould we not wim to fee it real- " ized ? America would then be England viewed " through a folar microfcope Great Britain in a "ftate of glorious magnification." 10 34 The Moral and Intellectual Influence of The interefts of the commercial community of England inclined them, during the recent rebellion, to favor meafures destructive of fimilar American in terefts "recte," "aut quocunque modo." Thefe influences, and a defire to fee the United States dif- membered, conjointly induced an ancient nation, whofe boaft was that its flag " has braved a thoufand "years," to grant, on the earlieft pretext, belligerent rights to fouthern rebels, to furniui them with ma terial aid, and fo to conftrue their international laws as to make them inftrumental in deftroying, firft, the commerce of a youthful competitor, and then its ftrength its Union. At the fame time it pretended to practice good faith, difpenfe impartial juftice, and obferve a ftrict international comity ! In the Stadium, among the Greeks, a white line marked out the ground to be run over, on which the competitors in the Ifthmian games were to keep their eyes. Thofe who deviated from the courfe within this line ran unlawfully, and though they firft reached the goal, were therefore not crowned. Eng land has long been running in the conteft with Amer ica for commercial fupremacy on a line marked out by herfelf, and recently, in order to obtain the coveted prize, violated her good faith, facrificed her " fenfe of "juftice," and, inftead of fairnefs, ufed deception, by running unlawfully. In the face of open day me un- bluftiingly pretends to have obferved the ftrict rules of the game, and this, too, in order to avoid a forfeit. Libraries upon Social Progrejs. 35 Her conduct reminds me of the anfwer of Diogenes when urged to defift from his labors on account of his age : " Ei So^ix" S^xfui, iffa fta T AI< tin ni ! * M ftZMo* iTw;" If I have run long in the race, will it become me to flaclcen my pace when come near the end : mould I not rather ftretch forward ? That is as if he had faid **T o , along the line, and according to the strict rules of the courfe ! " Had England been as honeft as the old cynic philofopher, me would have avoided the reftitution which in time me will be afhamed to withhold, or be compelled of her own accord to make, in order to prevent others from adopting a courfe fatal to her own interefts, on pretexts as Minify as her prefent weak endeavor to defend a wrong. Southey, in his "argument" prefixed to his Poem entitled " The Poet s Pilgrimage to Waterloo," con tends that "upon the great fcale, the human race "from the beginning has been progreffive," and that " never was a victory fo important to the beft hopes "of human nature" as the battle there "won by " Britifh valor," which left England "at leifure to " purfue the great objects of bettering her own con dition and diffufing the bleflings of civilization and " Chriftianity." It has been the misfortune of the government of that country, in the attempt to accomplim thefe objects, to mingle the one with the other ; fo that, in diffufing thefe bleflings, the defire to better her 36 The Moral and Intellectual Influence of " condition," feems to have had the controlling in fluence. At times England appears wholly to have omitted the latter duty, in order to accomplim that which me deemed moft profitable for her " condition." Our civil war has furnimed abundant evidence of this ftrong propenfity on her part ! It may be fafely, I think, alleged, that more has been accomplimed by America, during the paft four years, to advance focial progrefs, than has been effected by England during the long interval which has elapfed fince her memorable battle was fought. Her foreign policy has, during that period, fought to advance, oftenfibly, the bleffings of civilization and Christianity ; while circumftances have mown that, in the effort, her commerce and love of acquifition have brought, upon the people and lands embraced in her projects, bloodmed, the encouragement of vicious indulgences, and a ftrong diftruft of her de- fire to better their "condition" by any facrifices detrimental to her own, without the admixture of finifter means for felfim purpofes. It is fcarcely neceflary to ftate the circumftances which juftify this view of the improvement me has made of the "leifure" to which Southey ad verts. It is fufficient for my purpofe to introduce, as an inftance, the courfe me purfued while the United States was engaged in putting down the rebel lion againft its government the moft formidable attempt of the kind in modern hiftory. Had the Libraries upon Social Progrefs. 37 ariftocratic and other influential clafles in England looked with as much favor upon the much-needed reforms at home to the claims of the unrepre- fented portions of her population, who are clamoroufly demanding to be heard by their reprefentatives in the national councils and to the redrefs of the fore evils which prefs with cruel infliction upon her loweft and moft degraded clafles, as they did upon the efforts of the Englifh government to aid that rebel lion, they could not have failed to have accomplimed much for the better condition of England herfelf, and with much better fuccefs than has refulted from Britifh interference with the attempt fuccefsfully made by the United States to enforce fubmiflion to the fupremacy of their government. The principal point in which, in my view, England is diftinguifhed from the United States, is that in England there is among the ruling clafles a want, not of kindnefs towards, but of fympathy with, the laboring clafles. Well did Sergeant Talfourd exclaim, juft as he fell in death, "That which is wanting to bind together the burfting " bond of the different clafles of this country, is, not " kindneTs, but fympathy." It is in this fympathy with the loweft clafles of the people that the United States pre-eminently excel. I fubmit thefe remarks in no captious fpirit, but as in ftrong contraft with the "objects and du- "ties" to which Southey refers; and I ftate with pride and a confcioufnefs of the truth, that our repub- 5 38 The Moral and Intellectual Influence of lie, by its noble and refolute courfe, has done more for the future of our race and its focial progrefs than has, during the prefent century, been accomplished by Eng land and France conjointly ; and this through inftru- mentalities demanding immenfe facrifice of life, of treaf- ure and domeftic happinefs, accompanied with a {kill in the direction of public affairs and a devotion to her interefts unfurpafled in the hiftory of any other country. I am not, however, infenfible to the true glory and greatnefs of England. Befides her common law, her language and literature, America has enjoyed the benefits of the examples furnifhed by Hampden and Sidney, to enlarge and enforce principles of republican and conftitutional liberty ; and of Clarkfon and Wil- berforce, in their philanthropic efforts to "blot the " accurfed word of flave" 12 all with joint claims to " The equal honor of enduring fame !" I am not forgetful of the virtues, learning, refine ment and piety of multitudes among the people of England. In this fame poem, Southey s encomium upon them is well deferved and juft : " There, under Freedom s tutelary wing, " Deliberate courage fears no human foe ; " There, undefiled as in their native fpring, " The living waters of Religion flow ; " There, like a beacon, the tranfmitted light " Confpicuous to all nations burneth bright." At the fame time we may well claim that here, rather than there, are realized his other words : Libraries upon Social Progrefs. 39 " From bodily and mental bondage," here " Hath Man his full emancipation gained ; " The viewlefs and illimitable air " Is not more free than thought ; all unreflrained " Nor pined in want, nor funk in fenfual floth," Here "may th immortal mind attain its growth." The political difcuffions which engaged the atten tion of the Englim Colonies a century fince, and in- creafed in intenfity until the feparation from the mother country was effected, feem to have imprefled the minds of thoughtful men in England with the exiftence of the peculiar traits of American char- after. The leclures delivered by Dr. Prieftley, dur ing the laft half of the preceding century, on "Hif- "tory and General Policy," firft appeared from the prefs in 1788, when America had taken her pofition among the nations of the earth. In his forty-third lefture, delivered many years previoufly, he ex- prefled the opinion that, in the monarchical States of Europe, it was "highly improbable that any "form of properly equaf government mould be "eftablifhed for many ages;" but that "on the " contrary, in North America there feems to be no " profpecl of the peaceable eftablimment of any forir "of government, befides one in which the rights of "all mall be equal." In the preceding pages the progrefs of American ideas has been mown, and alfo that their full recognition was accomplifhed by the refults of the recent Rebellion. 4O The Moral and Intellectual Influence of In bringing to a clofe the confederation of the events to which I referred in the opening of this addrefs, and which have taken a wider range than I defigned, but which the nature of the fubject demands, we ar rive at the conclufion of the correctnefs of that lead ing truth which Niebuhr, one of the greateft of mod ern hiftorians, thus philofophically ftates : "As in " organic beings the moft perfect life is that which ani- " mates the greateft variety of numbers ; fo among "States, that is the moft perfect in which a number of " inftitutions, originally diftinct, being organized, each "after its kind, into centres of national life, form a " complete whole." This leading principle in his fci- ence is fully exemplified in the formation of the American Republic, with its Federal Government. The idea is embodied in our national motto, " E Plu- "ribus Unum." In view of thefe incomparable refults in our paft hiftory, and with thefe glorious profpects before us, I now pafs to the fpecial confederation of the influence of Libraries upon our future focial progrefs, in order to prefent to you the defign of " The Hiftorical Mu- " feum," which is intended to be erected in the Central Park in this city, under the aufpices of this Society, purfuant to an Act of the Legiflature of the State, under circumftances fo favorable, and with fuch libe ral and extenfive appliances, as to promife great and lafting benefits to the focial interefts not only of our City and State, but of the United States in general. Libraries upon Social Progrejs. 41 The aft referred to is entitled "An Aft to Im- " prove the Central Park in the City of New York," was patted on the 2th of March, 1862, fubmitted to the Commifiioners thereof on the loth of April fol lowing, and is here introduced in order that the na ture of the "appropriation" to this Society, with its privileges, qualifications and provifions, may appear in the very words employed for the purpofe : The People of" the State of New York, reprefented in Senate and Aflembly, do enadl as follows : I. The Commifiioners of the Central Park in the city of New York, are hereby authorized to fet apart and appropriate to the New York Hiftorical Society, the building within faid Park heretofore known as the New York State Arfenal, to gether with fuch grounds adjoining the fame as the faid Com mifiioners may determine to be neceffary and proper for the purpofe of eftablifhing and maintaining therein by the faid fociety, a mufeum of antiquities and fcience, and a gallery of art. 2. The expenfe of arranging and fitting up of the faid arfenal building for the ufe and purpofe aforefaid {hall be borne by the faid New York Hiftorical Society, and the faid fociety {hall have the right, at its own expenfe, to add to, en large, or if need be, to take down the prefent building, and erecl: another on the grounds fo fet apart and appropriated ; the plan of fuch addition, or new building, having been firft fubmitted to, and approved by the Commiflioners of the faid Park. 3. The mufeum and gallery contemplated in the firft fec- tion of this at, when fo eftablifhed, {hall be acceflible to the 42 The Moral and Intellectual Influence of public under proper regulations, to be adopted by the faid fociety, approved by the faid Commiflioners, and not inconfift- ent with the proper adminiftration and management of the faid Park. 4. The evidence of fetting apart and appropriation of the faid arfenal building and grounds within the faid Park, to the faid New York Hiftorical Society, for the purpofe aforefaid, fhall be a refolution to that effet, adopted by the Board of faid Commiflioners, duly acknowledged by its Prefident, and recorded in the office of the Regifter of the city and county of New York. 5. If the faid New York Hiftorical Society fhall fo eftab- lifli their faid mufeum of antiquities and fcience, and gallery of art, then, fo long as they (hall continue there to maintain the fame, they fhall occupy and enjoy the faid building and grounds thus fet apart and appropriated to them for the purpofe aforefaid, free from any rent, aflefiment, or charge whatever therefor, and if the faid fociety fhall at any time hereafter, for any caufe, difcontinue their faid mufeum of antiquities and fcience, and gallery of art, in the faid arfenal building, or on the faid grounds, then the faid arfenal building, and any building whatever erected under the provifions of this ait, and the faid grounds before fet apart and appropriated, fhall revert to the faid Central Park for the general purpofes there of; but the faid fociety fhall in fuch cafe be permitted to re move therefrom the faid mufeum of antiquities and fcience, and gallery of art, and all its other property. 6. The Legiflature may at any time alter, repeal, or amend this aft. 7. This adt fhall take effect immediately. The above enactments furnifh gratifying evidence Libraries upon Social Progrefs. 4j of the intereft manifested by the Reprefentatives of the People of this State in the progrefs and ufefulnefs of our Society, and the endeavour to accomplim the important ends which they have in view. The fame appreciative eftimate of the general defign of this in- ftitution had been mown on previous occafions, when application was made for legiflative affiftance, either for its extrication from a burthenfome debt or for more available efforts to enable it to gather and preferve materials for hiftoric refearch and illuftration, as alfo to refcue from oblivion and the "tooth of Time" the perifhable records of our National, State and mu nicipal hiftory. It will be noticed that the Act in queftion defignates the location of The Hiftorical Mufeum in the Central Park, and contemplates the fetting apart by the Com- miffioners of adequate grounds for its purpofes. It makes it incumbent upon the. Society to obtain the approval by the Commiffioners of the plan of the propofed building ; but fuch appropriation and fuch approval impofe duties as obligatory upon the Com miffioners for their due and prompt performance, as are the obligations refting upon the Society by the pre cautionary meafures which the Legiflature has taken in regard to the proper difcharge of all the conditions impofed on them. This Act was communicated, as has been Stated, to the Commiffioners on the loth of April, 1862, and the Refolution which the Legiflature required the 44 I he Moral and IntelleSfual Influence of Commiffioners to execute and record, as evidence of the authorized appropriation by them of grounds adequate for the purpofes of the Society, was executed on the jd of October, 1865, and recorded in the Register s office in this city on the i6th of the fame month but a little over a month fince. To their Executive Committee the Society dele gated the power to appoint a Building Committee, whofe duty it is to procure and lay before the Com miffioners the required plan of the building to be erected on the fite above defignated, or of the altera tion of the "Arfenal Building;" either of which the act permits. As it was deemed expedient, however, foon after the act was obtained, to afcertain the coft, in either contingency, upon the adoption by the Com miffioners of a plan, before foliciting the neceflary fubfcriptions ; a General Chairman and the fifteen fub- committees were appointed to collect the fame, which were to be paid over to the Treafurer of the Society ; and they were inftructed not to proceed until fuch plan was approved and eftimates obtained. For myfelf, as fuch General Chairman, I aflert, and with a full conviction of the correctnefs of the afler- tion, that, had the fubfcription-committees been per mitted during the year 1864 to proceed with the difcharge of the duties affigned them, fuch was the profperity at that period exifting in this city, notwith- ftanding the war then raging, that the adequate fum could have been collected, and the building commenced. Libraries upon Social Progrefs. 45 But, nqw that the grant of the land is obtained, in anticipation of the action of committees, who, it is to be hoped, will foon be in a pofition to enter upon the difcharge of their important duties, by the early action of the Commiffioners, I have felected the fub- ject, to which I now invite your further attention, as one in connection therewith, and alfo as one of the greateft importance to the future operations and ufe- fulnefs of this Society. This enables me practically to prefent to you and the friends of this inftitution the refults of fimilar efforts in times anterior to as well as during the prefent age, in order to ftimulate the liberality of thofe who are interefted in thefe departments of fcience, literature and the arts, to fecure the benefits which are thus to be placed within the reach of the public at large. No one will queftion the defirablenefs of eftablim- ing in every community depofitories of the treafures of literature, fcience and the arts, and more efpecially in concentrating thefe in a city like ours, which is the commercial emporium of the New World. With the degree of culture which the members of an aflbciation like this are prefumed to poflefs, they cannot but be deeply impreffed with the neceffity of eftablifhing fuch depofitories for the intellectual and focial im provement of the people. But in this, as in all fubjects, there are fpecial afpects, which prefent themfelves only after diligent 6 46 The Moral and Intellectual Influence of fearch and investigation, and which are yet too im portant to be overlooked. By libraries, in this addrefs, are to be underftood de- pofitories of literature, fcience and art; in fhort, of all the products of intellect and imagination which can be brought together for the pleafure and instruction of man. In designating the intended building to be erected in the Central Park as "THE HISTORICAL " MUSEUM," I but follow the authority of the beft lexicographers, who define a mufeum as a repofitory of natural, fcientific and literary curiofities : a place for the mufes or for ftudy ; and this defcription is the fame as that comprehended in the Greek word from which it is derived. In considering the re lation of thefe to facial progrejs, the moft fatisfactory method, and the one moft in harmony with the char acter of this Society, is undoubtedly the hiflorical method. This, then, is the method which, in the treatment of this fubject, I mail adopt. It would be impracticable for me, on this occafion, to enter upon the details connected with American libraries, nor, indeed, is it neceSTary ; for thefe have been to a great degree investigated in the feveral able works published on this fubject. In thefe publications the reading public will find full and fatisfactory details given in a clear and ex planatory manner. The increafing number of thefe libraries furnim facts full of intereft to us, and to the generations to fucceed us, and bear teftimony to the Libraries upon Social Progrejs. 47 beneficial refults which cannot fail to flow from this widely-fpreading ftream, which is to blefs with its pref- ence every portion of our country. As to our own collections in this Library in which we are aflembled, rich in all the materials of Ameri can hiftory, and fo often defcribed and fo highly ap preciated by ftudents of hiftory, it would on this oc- cafion be a work of fupererogation for me to attempt to fpeak in a manner correfponding with their value and importance. Books, manufcripts, maps and charts, as well as the treafures of antiquity, of fcience and of art, in each and all the departments of our varied collections, the gradual accumulations of hif- toric wealth, have been and are pouring in on us, and furnifh demonftrative proof of the incapacity of this edifice for their proper reception and arrangement. In lefs than the lapfe of a decade the prefent build ing, which, at its dedication, was deemed ample for its defign, is furniming evidence of the neceffity of the new ftrufture which it is our intention to ered: in the Central Park, and which the prefent and profpeftive growth of this aflbciation imperatively calls for. This hall and the galleries above will be required for the purpofes to which they are now applied, with the exception of the antiquities, the Audubon draw ings and colleclion of paintings, which can be much more appropriately arranged in the Hiftorical Mu- feum when that is made ready for their reception. Here is the proper place to keep the books, manu- 48 The Moral and Intellectual Influence of fcripts and charts which relate to American hiftory, and thofe efpecially which relate to our city and State. To the ftudent in this field of hiftorical refearch, thefe latter collections furnifh what is defcriptively known as a "Working Library." The mufeum, in its ampli tude, will embrace a wider and more extenfive field, which requires in comparifon accommodations on a colojfaljcale. The fpirit of the age commands us to march for ward. Advance we mujl I we cannot remain ftilll That is ftagnation and ftagnation is death. Let us bear in mind the motto of our great State " Excel- " fior." To keep pace with this onward march we muft rife higher and for loftier ends. This city is expofed to the vices of the great cities abroad which immigration introduces. To counter act the evils, which irreligion, folly and wicked- nefs have thus tranfplanted, it becomes our duty to control their effecls, and then eradicate them, by being prepared to ftem this flood and make it fub- fervient to the purpofes which minifter to focial prog- refs. Thefe combined refults of fuch paramount influence and intereft in their wide and beneficial operation have led me to felect the fubjeft which I am now to fubmit for your fpecial confideration, in the hope that it will not only greatly promote the future welfare of our Society, but have a benign erred: upon the prefent generation and upon the generations to fucceed it. Libraries upon Social Progrefs. 49 The fadl of focial progrefs carried on by inevitable laws, and conftituting God s plan in hiftory, may be laid to be a modern difcovery. It is even now very imperfectly underftood. Vico 13 was the firft who at tempted to elaborate a fcience of this progrefs, and has left fome moft valuable materials for thofe who fucceed him in the fame field. Fichte, 14 Schelling 16 and Hegel, 6 have conftructed ftupendous fyftems of thought, which are likely to have little permanent influence upon fpeculations on this fubject. The moft mafterly attempt, fo far, and that which is at prefent moft influential, is the materialiftic fyftem of Auguft Comte. 17 While we may not accept the theories of any of thefe profound thinkers as to the laws by which focial progrefs is governed, they clearly eftablim the fact of fuch progrefs, and mow that it comes within the domain of fixed and definite law. The thought of our time is ftill ftriving to give fcientific precifion to this fact, which is obfcurely hinted at even by the ancient poets, who fang of the progrefs of the world to a returning golden age. Tennyfon has given expreflion to this in thofe remarkable lines : " I doubt not through the ages an increafing purpofe runs, " And the thoughts of men are widened in the procefs of the funs." Without attempting to analyze the admitted facts ot this progrefs, it is only neceflary to apprehend fome of the more prominent forces, by which it is im pelled, in order to fee the relation to them of Litera- 50 The Moral and IntelleEiual Influence of ture, Science and Art. The moft prominent of thefe forces are: ift. The intellectual and moral impulfe given to the world by works of genius ; 2d. The move ment of Jcientific difcovery refulting from the accumu lation of Jcientific faffs ; jd. The regulating and ele vating influence of Divine Revelation. Thefe are the principal forces by which focial progrefs is carried on. The point which we are to confider, is the bearing upon thefe forces of the accumulation, in fociety, of literary, fcientific, moral and religious influences, as contained efpecially in books. Thefe forces have neceflarily been prefent whenever there has been any development of civilization ; and whenever there has been any fuch development, we find alfo the accumulation of fuch intellectual treaf- ures as were acceffible. I mail in the firft place en deavor to give prominence to this fact, by briefly tracing the parallel hiftories of Libraries and Civil ization. Perhaps the moft ancient library of which we have any notice, is found in connection with one of the moft ancient civilizations of the world. Ofymandyas, one of the early kings of Egypt, made a collection of books in a room in his palace. Over the entrance was in- fcribed : *TXH2 IATPEION "The Difpenfary of the " Soul." Such is the account given by Diodorus. 18 Wilkinfon 19 and Champollion 20 both agree that the pal ace referred to by Diodorus ftill remains in the ruins known as the " Memnonium," or " Ramefium." Libraries upon Social Progrejs. 51 Among the Hebrews, two of the great forces of civilization were constantly prefent and active : works of genius and a divine revelation. Thefe were brought into contact at all times with the life of the nation, by the reading of the Sacred Books in the hearing of the people. The collection of thefe books formed, of courfe, the national library of the Jews. But they had alfo collections of other books, efpecially thofe relating to the hiftory of the nation. Judas Macca beus 21 caufed extracts to be made from thofe contained in the library of Nehemiah; and the reafon for the making of thefe extracts is exprefsly faid to be the multitude of books. One of the towns taken by the Ifraelites in their conqueft of Canaan -was Kirjath- fepher; or, as the words mean, "City of Books." The Targum calls the place Kirjath-arche, or the "City of Archives." This is undoubtedly the fame alluded to afterwards as Kirjath-fanah, 2 " which, in Arabic and Phoenician, means "City of Law." Jofhua called the town Debir, 23 meaning a word or oracle. It is not very creditable to our modern civilization that there is now no city whofe literary treafures are fo confpicuous as to entitle it to the name of the City of Letters, or the City of Books. The effect of this literature, efpecially the facred part of it, was to de velop an intenfely ftrong national and monotheiftic feeling among the Jews; and it is this peculiar de velopment of their civilization which has made them fo influential an element in the hiftory of the world. 52 The Moral and Intellectual Influence of Recent difcoveries are rendering more clear and precife the madowy outlines of the ftupendous mon archies of the Babylonian, Aflyrian and Chaldean kings. Certain it is that in the remote period in which they exifted, they occupied almoft the entire field of hiftory. As might be expected, therefore, we find traces of enormous collections of records or books. In the palace of Nineveh a royal library, confifting of clay-tablets, has been found. About twenty thoufand of thefe have been placed in the Brit- ifh Mufeum. M. Jules Oppert believes thefe to have been prepared by command of Sardanapalus V. (about B. c. 650). He quotes this infcription: "Palace of Sardanapalus, king of the world; king of " Aflyria, to whom the god Nebo and the goddefs " Ourmit have given ears to hear and eyes to fee what " is the foundation of Government. They have re- " vealed to the kings, my predeceflbrs, this cuneiform "writing. The manifeftation of the god Nebo of " the god of fupreme intellect I have written it up " on tablets I have figned it I have put it in " order I have placed it in the midft of my palace " for the instruction of my fubjects." No nation has exercifed a more powerful influence upon the intellectual progrefs of the world than the Greek ; and there are moft conclufive indications that the intellectual treafures of that people were preferved from age to age with the greateft care. Of the in- debtednefs of Homer to the rich ftores of knowledge Libraries upon Social Progrefs. 53 which before his time had been accumulated, I mail have, in another connection, occafion to fpeak. It is ftated on the authority of Aulus Gellius that Pifif- tratus, the tyrant, eftablifhed a public library in Athens, in which he depofited, after great difficulty and expenfe in fecuring them, the works of Homer. It is ftated, however, by Strabo that Ariftotle was the firft to eftablifh a library, and that he fuggefted to the Ptolemies the formation of the renowned collection at Alexandria. According to this account, Ariftotle be queathed his library to Theophraftus, and Theo- phraftus to Neleus. By him it was concealed from the kings of Pergamus in a cave, and after various viciffitudes was taken by Sylla and carried to Rome. 25 There is another account, however, which renders it probable that a part of this library, and perhaps the moft valuable portion of it, was long before bought by Ptolemy Philadelphus and transferred to Alexandria. 26 It is through this wonderful collection at Alexan dria, chiefly, that the products of the Greek mind have entered into the civilization of the modern world. This fplendid library is faid to have been founded about B. c. 290, by Ptolemy Soter. 27 It was greatly increafed by Ptolemy Philadelphus and Ptolemy Euergetes. Its treafures were firft depof ited in a quarter of the city called Bruchion, where there were at laft collected about four hundred thoufand volumes. After that, all additions were 7 54 The Moral and IntelleSlual Influence of placed in the temple of Serapis, and the number of volumes here finally reached three hundred thoufand. In the firft Alexandrian war the part in the Bruchion was accidentally deftroyed by fire. The library in the temple of Serapis, however, re mained, and fubfequently received the addition of the Permagean library, confifting of two hundred thoufand volumes, prefented by Mark Antony to Cleopatra. It was finally deftroyed by the Saracens, under the order of the Caliph Omar, in 642 of the Chriftian era. It is fcarcely poffible to exaggerate the indebted- nefs of the world to this library of Alexandria. It was the great ftorehoufe of learning for nearly a thou fand years. It bore upon its melves all the marvel ous intellectual wealth of Greece. The MSS. of Grecian literature, now depofited in the libraries of Europe, and from which our editions of the Grecian claffics are derived, are to be traced, for the moft part, through a greater or lefs number of tranfcriptions, to their authors, through the library of Alexandria. Its powerful influence was constantly felt in the Roman republic and empire, to which it imparted the prod ucts of the Greek mind. We hear to-day, in the Roman civilization, the voice of literature and fci- ence and art, as well as the clam of arms, becaufe the library of Alexandria exifted. For more than nine centuries, Alexandria was the venerable mother of the intellectual world. Libraries upon Social Progrefs. 55 A tafte for letters having been developed among the Romans, chiefly through the influence of the Alex andrian library, we fhould expect them foon to have libraries of their own. But although there were fome private libraries, there feems to have been no public one, until the time of Julius Caefar. That extraor dinary man, fo wonderfully in advance of his age, faw clearly the neceffity of intellectual culture in the new focial and political fyftem which he was about to in augurate. He committed to Varro the taflc of col lecting a Roman library on a magnificent fcale. This noble defign was partially fruftrated by the aflamna- tion of Casfar ; but there are indications that the work was, at leaft, commenced by Varro. The undertak ing thus conceived by Julius Casfar was referved for Auguftus to complete. The elder Pliny afcribes the honor of the fuggef- tion of public libraries under the Empire to Afinius Pollio, who eftablifhed one on the Aventine Hill. Auguftus erected two public libraries the Octavian and the Palatine. Tiberius and Vefpafian each found ed a library, and Domitian reftored, as far as poffible, the libraries which had been deftroyed in the reign of Nero. The moft fplendid library, however, in Rome was that founded by the Emperor Ulpius Trajanus, and called the Ulpian library. It was erected in Tra jan s forum; but its treafures were afterwards removed to the Baths of Diocletian, the ruins of which ftill form one of the great attractions in the imperial city. 56 The Moral and Intellectual Influence of Thefe magnificent collections, in which the wealth of Greek and Roman literature was mingled, were de- ftroyed by fire, or fmitten by lightning; and after up holding and adorning the mighty civilization which had overfpread the world, were fcattered by the Barba rians, who trampled the Empire itfelf into the duft. The few fragments which floated over the univerfal chaos into which fociety was refolved, found their way at laft into the fecluded retreats of monafteries, and, under the protection of the Church, waited for the revival of learning, when they entered with living power into the vaft developments of modern civili zation. It has been a queftion whether literature is really indebted to monaftic inftitutions, and whether the monks were not in truth its worft enemies. The man ner in which this difcuffion has been carried on feems to proceed upon the fuppofition that all monaftic in ftitutions muft have purfued the fame policy, and all monks been animated by the fame fpirit. The fact evidently is, that there was a vaft difference among them. In fome monafteries there was a fyftematic destruction of the choiceft treafures of antiquity, while in others they were preferved with the moft religious care. But the point which it is important for us to confider is, that in thofe cafes in which this care was exercifed, the incalculable benefit was conferred upon the world of the prefervation of claffic literature. All monaftic inftitutions, it muft be alfo remembered, Libraries upon Social Progrefs. 57 were interefted in the tranfcription and prefervation of the Scriptures and the writings of the Chriftian Fathers. At the fame time, the continuance of the Eaftern Empire until the fifteenth century fecured the protec tion of Greek learning. For many years before the fall of Conftantinople and the overthrow of the Eaft ern Empire, learned men left the Eaft, with their rich ftores of claffic lore, and emigrated to fouthern and weftern Europe. There they became the patrons of learning reviving the tafte for Greek literature, which had become almoft extinct ; gaining accefs themfelves (many of them for the firft time) to the produces of the Latin mind ; encouraging the collection and tran fcription of manufcripts, and contributing power fully to the great revival of Letters which fpeed- ily followed. 28 The Monaftery of Monte-Caffino, which ftill exifts, with its noble patrimony, in fouthern Italy (ex- cepted, as a homage to its venerable hiftory, from the operation of the act of the Government of Victor Emanuel, which is leading to the extinction of mon- afteries), is one of the moft confpicuous examples of the fervices rendered to learning by thefe inftitu- tions. From this ancient and renowned feat of learn ing originated fimilar communities, which fpread them felves over Europe, and efpecially in the Britifh Ifles. Among thefe latter were the monafteries of Yarrow, Wearmouth, Bury St. Edmunds, Croyland, Whitby, 58 The Moral and Intellectual Influence of Reading, and St. Albans in all of which books were moft carefully preferred and tranfcribed. 29 The difcovery of printing opened a new era in the hiftory of libraries and their connection with focial progrefs. Books became exceflively multiplied, and as they were thus brought in contact with a greater number of minds, the confequence was an immenfe increafe in the number of authors. Modern libraries are, therefore, immeafurably more extenfi ve than thofe of antiquity or the Middle Ages. The number of volumes may not indeed be fo much greater ; but that arifes from the fact that a printed volume contains vaftly more than a volume or roll of MS. As we have in all previous hiftory found the growth of libraries always in the line of advancing civilization, fo in our own day we find them prefent and fteadily increafing at all the great centres of in fluence and power. Italy, which has for more than two thoufand years played fo prominent a part in hiftory, is peculiarly rich in libraries. They are, however, greatly deficient in modern works, except fuch as relate to the theology of the Roman Catholic Church. I can only allude to fome of the more prominent among them. In Rome there are feveral remarkable libraries befides the Vati can. The Barberini Collection has about 40,000 printed volumes and 7,000 MSS. The Cafanata Library, named from its donor, Cardinal Cafanate, is in the Dominican Convent in the Piazza della M l- Libraries upon Social Progrejs. 59 nerva, and has more than 200,000 volumes. The Angelica Library contains more than 84,000 volumes and about 4,000 MSS. The Alexandrine Library contains about 80,000 volumes and 3,000 MSS. The Corfini Library has about 60,000 volumes, 3,000 MSS., and 60,000 engravings. The Francifcan Li brary has between 40,000 and 50,000 volumes. The Lancifiana Library has from 30,000 to 40,000. The Library of the Roman College is faid to contain 70,000 volumes. The Library of the Oratory is chiefly remarkable for its MSS. The Ambrofian Library at Milan, which was founded by Cardinal Federigo Borromeo, nephew of St. Charles Borromeo, poflefles about 80,000 printed volumes and 5,500 MSS. The Brera Library con tains about 125,000 volumes and 1,000 MSS. The Library of Bologna is efpecially rich in Ori ental MSS. There are 550 of Arabic alone. It con tains about 105,000 volumes and 6,000 MSS. The celebrated Mezzofanti was for a long time its libra rian. The principal libraries in Florence are the Lauren- tian, the Magliabechiana, the Marucelliana, the Ric- cardiana, and the Library of the Belle Arti. The Mediceo Laurentian, which was founded by Cofmo de Medici, is a fplendid collection of MSS., of which there are about 7,000, and of thefe many are of great rarity and value. Magliabechi, from whom the Magliabechiana is named, was a fervant to a dealer in 60 The Moral and Intellectual Influence of vegetables, but raifed himfelf to the honorable po- fition of librarian to the Grand Duke of Tufcany. It contains about 140,000 printed books and 10,000 MSS. The Marucelliana contains 33,435 volumes and 1,375 MSS. The Ricardiana has about 11,000 volumes. There are four public libraries in Naples. The Royal Library contains about 200,000 volumes and 4,000 MSS. The Univerfity poffeffes 25,000. The Convent of St. Philip Neri has about 18,000. The Brancacciana contains 76,000 volumes and about 1,000 MSS. The libraries of Germany are of great extent and immenfe value. It is impoffible at this time to do more than to glance at fome of the moft extenfive and ufeful. The Imperial Library of Vienna was founded in 1440, by the Emperor Frederic III. It confifts of more than 365,000 volumes and 20,000 MSS. The Univerfity Library of Vienna ranks next to the Im perial Library. In 1848 it contained more than 120,000. The Royal Library of Munich is the largeft in Germany, containing between 400,000 and 500,000 volumes and 22,000 MSS. The King of Saxony s Public Library at Drefden contains 305,000 volumes and 2,800 MSS. The Library of Got- tingen contains 360,000 volumes and 3,000 MSS. The Royal Library at Berlin contains nearly 500,000 volumes and 10,000 MSS. HA Of Trie. Libraries upon Social Progrefs. 61 France is very liberally fupplied with libraries. Among the moft confiderable of the provincial libra ries are thofe of Straflburg with 180,000 books, Lyons with 120,000, Rouen with 110,000, Troyes with 100,000, Aix 95,000, Grenoble and Befan9on each about 80,000, Avignon with 60,000, Verfailles with 56,000, Amiens with 53,000, Marfeilles with 57,000, Touloufe, Dijon and Nifmes each about 50,000, Nantes with 45,000, Caen with 40,000, Arras, Douay, Chaumont, Colmar, Cambray, Orleans, Rheims, Soif- fons, Nancy, Beaune and Montpellier each from 30,000 to 35,000. Thofe of the capital, befides the Biblio- theque Imperiale, are the Mazarine with 132,000 books and 3,000 MSS., the Library of the Arsenal with 202,000 books and 6,000 MSS., the Library of St. Genevieve with 180,000 books and 3,500 MSS., the City Library with 55,000 volumes, the Library of the Luxembourg with 40,000 volumes, the Library of the Sorbonne with 40,000 volumes and 1,000 MSS., and the Library of the Inftitute with about 80,000 volumes. But the moft fplendid library in France, and in the world, is the Bibliotheque Imperiale, in Paris. It was founded by King John, who poflefled only from ten to twenty volumes, but was increafed to 900 by Charles V. The collection was afterwards fcattered and loft. Louis XL, in the latter part of the fifteenth century, laid again the foundation of this library. Great additions were made by Francis I. Subfequent 8 62 The Moral and Intellectual Influence of monarchs enriched the collection, and fcholars added to it their private ftores. At the clofe of the feven- teenth century it numbered 50,000 printed books and 15,000 MSS. In 1784 it had increafed to nearly 200,000 volumes. This increafe was checked for a time by the Revolution; but, in 1797, an addition of 500 MSS. from the Vatican was made, including the ineftimable Codex Vaticanus. In 1858 the library had increafed to the prodigious number of 860,000 printed volumes, 86,000 volumes of MSS., 300,000 charts and deeds, 1,390,000 prints, and a moft perfect collection of maps, charts, &c. It is acceffible to all, and is frequented daily by from 300 to 400 readers. It is the glory of France to have accumulated the largeft and moft valuable library in the world. In the Britifh Ifles there are many libraries of very great value, of which a brief notice will be given. The Library of the Royal Society was founded in 1667, by the noble gift which John Evelyn induced Henry Howard, afterwards Duke of Norfolk, to make to the Society. It contains about 41,000 volumes, and is peculiarly rich in works upon mathematics and the phyfical fciences. Nearly all the cathedrals of England have libraries of greater or lefs value, of which that of Durham, enriched by the benefactions of Dean Sudbury and Bifhop Cofin, is perhaps the moft important. The library founded by Archbiftiop Bancroft, in the reign of James I., and which was placed, until recently, in Libraries upon Social Progrefs. 63 Lambeth Palace, now occupies a noble hall built by Archbifhop Juxon. This library contains about 25,000 MSS., which are divided into feven fets, diftinguifhed as Codices, Lambethiani, Whartoniani, Carewani, Tenifoniani, Gibfoniani, Miscellanei and Suttonniani. The Bodleian Library was founded by Sir Thomas Bodley in the reign of Elizabeth. It has been in- creafed by numerous and princely benefactions, efpe- cially by Sir Robert Cotton; Sir Henry Seville; Arch bifhop Laud ; John Selden ; Sir Kenelmn Digby ; Thomas, Lord Fairfax; Dr. Thomas Barlow, Bifhop of Lincoln; Richard Gough ; Francis Douce, and Robert Mafon. It is eftimated to contain upwards of 256,000 volumes of printed books, and about 22,000 volumes MSS. It is particularly rich in Oriental MSS. The Britifh Mufeum, which takes the precedence of all libraries in the Britifh Empire, may be faid to have been formed by the union of four libraries : the Royal, the Cottonian, the Harleian and the Sloanian. The Royal Library dates back to the time of Henry VII. It was increafed by the collections of Cranmer and Cafaubon. Edward VI. added to it the important MSS. of Martin Bucer. The rich collection of the MSS. belonging to the Earl of Arundel was alfo added. George II. conveyed the library to the Britifh Mufeum. The Cottonian Library was founded by Sir Robert Bruce Cotton, who collected MSS. 64 The Moral and Intellectual Influence of illuftrating the early hiftory of England. His fon, Sir Thomas Cotton, and his grandfon, Sir John Cotton, added greatly to the collection. In 1700 this library became the property of the nation, by act of Parliament, and was opened for public ufe. The Sloanian Library was founded by Sir Hans Sloan. At his death he bequeathed it to the Britim nation, on condition that 20,000 be paid to his executors a fum lefs than one fourth of the value of the col lection. In 1753 Parliament came into pofleffion of this noble library, and alfo of the Harleian MSS. The Cottonian Library was added, and the Montagu Houfe purchafed for their reception. In 1759 tne Royal Library was added by George II. Since that time the additions to this fplendid foundation have been enormous. The buildings alone, fince 1823, have coft nearly 700,000, and the whole expenditure has been upwards of 1,100,000. The books occupy more than forty miles of fhelves. The libraries of Scotland, Ireland, Spain, Portugal, Switzerland, Holland, Belgium, Bohemia, Hungary, Poland, Ruffia and Turkey are, in many inftances, extenfive and valuable, but it is impracticable, at prefent, to give any detailed notice of them. 30 In reviewing thefe enormous collections of books and MSS. the reflection may occur to fome minds that vaftly the greater proportion of them are utterly ufelefs, and that there is no adequate reafon for their accumulation and prefervation. But there could be Libraries upon Social Progrefs. 65 no greater miftake than fuch an eftimate as this. No one can tell what value may finally come to be at tached to that which is apparently the moft infignifi- cant book or MS. A very fingular and interefting illuflration of this is furnifhed by the hiftory of libra ries. This illuftration is found in the fact of the prefervation for feveral centuries in one of the libra ries of Rome of the Report of Pontius Pilate of the crucifixion of our Saviour. That fuch was the fact there can be no reafonable doubt, from the following confederations : in the firft place, Pilate was required by law to report all his official acts to the emperor, and that he did fo in this particular cafe cannot be queftioned. That this Report was depofited in the public archives, would be alfo unquestionable, even if no pofitive evidence exifted that fuch was the cafe. Such a report would undoubtedly be depofited in the library of the houfe of Tiberius, which was in ex- iftence, with that of Trajan, in the Baths of Diocle tian, early in the fourth century, as we learn from the incidental teftimony of Vopifcus. The only great fires by which thefe records could have been en dangered were in the reigns of Nero and Titus. But after thefe fires it is certain, from the teftimony of Suetonius, that the Commentaries and Acts of Tibe rius Caefar exifted. From that time no caufe likely to have occafioned their deftruction is known to have occurred until the incurfions of the Barbarians. Thefe records were open to public examination, and 66 The Moral and Intellectual Influence of were appealed to by the early Chriftians as furnifhing the evidence of the truth of their ftatements as to the circumftances of the crucifixion of CHRIST. At the very time when we know that the Acts of Ti berius were in exiftence, and when beyond a queftion the reports fent to him from the governors of the provinces were in exiftence alfo, we find this ftate- ment in the firft Apology of Juftin Martyr prefented to Antoninus Pius and the fenate of Rome about the year A. D. 140. "That thefe things" (referring to the crucifixion) "were fo done, you may know from the " Acts made in the time of Pontius Pilate." 31 After wards, having mentioned fome of our Lord s mira cles, he adds, "and that thefe things were done by " Him, you may know from the Acts made in the " time of Pontius Pilate." 32 Tertullian, in his Apol ogy, about the year A. D. 200, appeals alfo to thefe records as exifting and well known in his time. "Of all thefe things," he fays, "relating to Chrift, " Pilate, in his confcience a Chriftian, fent an account " to Tiberius, then emperor." 33 In another place, fpeaking of the darknefs of the fky at the crucifixion, he fays, "you have in your archives the relation of "that phenomenon !" 34 In the fixteehth chapter of "The Decline and Fall "of the Roman Empire," Gibbon queftions the tefti- mony of Tertullian as to this Report of Pontius Pilate. His language is " We are required to be- * c lieve that Pontius Pilate informed the emperor of Libraries upon Social Progrefs. 67 " the unjuft fentence of death which he had pro- " nounced againft an innocent, and, as it appeared, a "divine Perfon, and that without acquiring the merit " he expofed himfelf to the claims of martyrdom." The fimple point to be eftablifhed is this, that fuch a report from Pontius Pilate was in exiftence in the Roman archives in the time of Tertullian, or about two hundred years after the birth of Chrift. The firft thing to be confidered is the fact that the gov ernors of the provinces reported their official acts to the government at Rome. This is evident from Pliny s letters to Trajan, and from Philo s ftatement that the Acts or Memoirs of Alexandria were fent to Caligula. 35 The circumftances of Pilate s courfe were fuch as to render it more than ordinarily neceflary that fuch a report mould be made. His hefitation in paffing fentence upon Jefus was moft likely to give an occafion to the Jews of criticifm and complaint. Some explanation would therefore be required from Pilate, who could give no better juftification of his courfe than his eflimate of the character of Jefus, the wonderful phenomena of the crucifixion, and the fact that he condemned him to be crucified, only becaufe he was unable to refift the demands of the Jews. The circumftances of the cafe, therefore, would render it ia the higheft degree probable, independently of any other confideration, that a report on this fubject was fent by Pilate to Tiberius. When received, this report would, of courfe, be 68 The Moral and Intelleftual Influence of depofited among the Commentaries and Acts of Tibe rius. Thefe documents, under the name of the Library of the Houfe of Tiberius, feem, from the teftimony of Suetonius, to have been firft depofited in the Apollineum. 36 In the time of Aulus Gellius, a contemporary of Juftin Martyr, they were in the Temple of Trajan. 37 Vopifcus, early in the fourth century, ftates that he made ufe of books from the Library of the Houfe of Tiberius, which, in his time, was in the Baths of Diocletian. 38 It is certain, there fore, that the library in which this Report would really have been depofited, and of which it would form a part, was in exiftence in the time of Juftin Martyr and of Tertullian, and until the fourth century. The next point to be confidered, is that the tefti mony of Juftin Martyr and Tertullian is not to be difcredited by the ftatements by which it is accompa nied, or by the additions to the ftory which were fub- fequently made, or by the pretended acts of Pilate, which are extant at the prefent day. Tertullian ftates that Tiberius, on the receipt of the account of our Saviour s death, propofed to the Senate that he fhould be placed among the gods. 3 J Whether this is true or not, it does not affect the credibility of the teftimony under confederation. In the cafe of this ftatementas to the propofal of Tiberius, Tertullian may or may not be fpeaking of fomething within his own know ledge. In the cafe of the Report of Pilate, he fpeaks as if of his own knowledge of a then exifting fact. Libraries upon Social Progrefs. 69 The account, as we have it in Juftin Martyr and Tertullian, is amplified with the addition, doubtlefs, of fome incorrect ftatements, by Eufebius, 10 Chryfof- tom, 41 Orofius, 42 Zonares, 43 and Nichephorus ; 44 but thefe additions, even if incorrect:, do not affect the credibility of the original witnefles ; neither is their credibility affected, or the ftatements which they make rendered, in any degree, lefs probable by the various documents purporting to be "Acts of Pilate" which fubfequently appeared. Some of thefc are now extant, having been collected by Fabricius and Tifchendorf. The fact of thefe forgeries rather indicates the exiftence of a true original, upon the credit of which they ob tained circulation. But whatever opinion may be entertained as to the truftworthinefs of Juftin Martyr and Tertullian, it is to be remembered that each prefented to the Roman Government a vindication of the Chriftian faith, and in this vindication aflerts, as a fact, than which nothing could have been more eafily difproved, if it were not true, that Pilate made a report of the crucifixion of JESUS to Tiberius, and that this report was in the archives of the State. It is incredible that fuch a ftatement would have been hazarded, under fuch circumftances, unlefs it had been known to be true. It is a fignificant fact that Tacitus connects the name of Chrift with that of Pontius Pilate. 45 This is referred to by Frederic von Schlegel, who receives the ftatement of Tertullian as true. 46 jo The Moral and Intellectual Influence of Now, fince Pontius Pilate muft have made fuch a report to Tiberius, fince the library in which it would moft naturally have been depofited was in exiftence in the fourth century, fince the Commentaries and Acts of Tiberius were in exiftence in the time of Do- mitian, in the latter part of the firft century, and no caufe adequate to their deftruction is known to have occurred from that time until the inroads of the Bar- barianSj and fince this report is appealed to by Juftin Martyr about A. D. 140, and by Tertullian about A. D. 200, each in an addrefs to the very perfons in whofe cuftody fuch a record, if there were one, would be kept, the fact of its exiftence is beyond reafonable difpute, and furnifhes a moft interesting and conclu- five proof of the important fervices which the col lection and prefervation of public records have ren dered to the world. Works of genius have been referred to as confti- tuting one of the great moving forces in human progrefs. A common idea in regard to genius is that it is an original power, to a great extent independent of the intellectual ftores which have previoufly been accumulated. A moment s confideration of thofe great works of genius, which have commanded the admiration and elevated the character of the world, will fatisfy us of the high degree in which they are dependent upon the whole previous intellectual devel opment of the race. If we go far back in the hiftory of the world, to the Libraries upon Social Progrefs. 71 time when Homer fang his immortal Epic, in the early morning of Grecian poetry, philofophy and art, we mail find that the materials of this wonderful work are not newly created. They exift in the thought and life of the previous ages, and Homer has only tranf- fufed them with the vital power of his immortal genius, and thus made them a living energy for all coming time. Mr. Gladftone 47 has traced, with won derful analytic power, the development, from the great primeval revelation, of the focial, philofophical and religious fyftems of the Homeric age. The refults of this development Homer muft have had at his com mand ; and the perfect familiarity with them, by which he was enabled to enter into the advancing thought of his age, was the condition upon which he obtained his overmaftering influence and his immortal fame. Take the cafe of Dante, whofe Divina Commedia marks the refurrection-morning of Italian and, indeed, of European literature. There is no ifolation on his part from the great paft. On the contrary, it is only becaufe he gathered it up in all its vaft details into himfelf, that he has been able fo marveloufly to en rich the world. The very fact that Virgil appears as his guide through the invifible world, is a fignificant indication of the links which bind him to the realm of letters in the Roman and the Grecian ages ; while the ecclefiaftical learning, which is apparent on every page, and the whole metaphyfical fyftem of mediaeval 72 The Moral and Intellectual Influence of philofophy, which he has condenfed in his extraor dinary poem, fhow that he followed the thread of thought from ancient down to modern times. Turn your thoughts now to Shakefpeare ! Here you would expect, perhaps, to find almoft an intel lectual creation ex nihilo, an original force aflerting itfelf in entire independence of previous thought. But an examination of his marvelous works, which have exercifed fuch a ftupendous influence upon the Anglo-Saxon mind, will mow us the innumerable points at which they are linked in with the previous intellectual development of the world. At the touch of this magician, the hiftory and the poetry, the phi lofophy and the art of claffic ages reappear ; the old traditions and mythologies of northern barbarians come forth from the darknefs of their fepulchres, and the new philofophy, into which all previous growth had finally flowed, moves everywhere in the two-fold form of revealed religion and inductive fcience, deter mining the character and progrefs of the modern world. There is, it is true, a power of intuition in genius ; but no intuition can make one familiar with the intellectual ftores of the paft, unlefs thofe ftores are collected and explored. It is the intuition of genius which enables one to perceive what ideas, in all this vaft accumulation, are living and eternal ; and thefe ideas are wrought into new and captivating forms, in which, henceforth, they lead in the progrefs of mankind. It was only becaufe the capacious mind Libraries upon Social Progrefs. 73 of Shakefpeare became, to fuch an extent, the recep tacle of univerfal knowledge, that he is, in fo great a degree, a univerfal man. Take but one more example, in the cafe of Goethe. Poflefled of the moft wonderful genius of any man fince Shakefpeare, he had attained, alfo, the wideft culture. There is fcarcely any field of literature, fci- ence or art which he had not explored. His works are an epitome of German, and, indeed, of all phi- lofophy. The principles of all previous criticifm are analyzed and reduced to a fyftem and fcience. The controling ideas of the age have clearer expreflion given to them, and enter upon a new era of influence in fociety. The materials which he has wrought into his marvelous creations were fcattered everywhere throughout all hiftory, and in every department of thought. He finds them in the majeftic intellectual repofe of Egypt and the Eaft ; in the multitudinous activity of the Grecian mind ; in the Roman poetry, oratory, ethics and ftatemanmip ; in the dreamy fpeculations of the middle ages ; and in the vaft con tinents of mental wealth which modern refearch has difcovered and explored. The rich accumulations of the paft enabled him to give a new impulfe to the future. There is thus evident a moft intimate rela tion between the accumulation of literary ftores in libraries, the development of genius, and the pro viding of it with the inftruments of its mighty in fluence. 74 The Moral and Intellectual Influence of There is danger, however, that we mall not have any adequate idea of the importance of collecting and preferving books, apparently the mod worthlefs, as well as thofe which have vindicated their claim to be regarded as ftandard works. We may admit that the works of the great poets, philofophers and ftatefmen of the world mould be preferved in all our libraries, but we may not unreafonably inquire of what poffible ufe it can be to perpetuate the exiftence of that which is evidently utterly unworthy to exift ? In reply to this inquiry it may be faid, that, without taking into ac count the fact that we may be miilaken in our eftimate, and that which we pronounce worthlefs, the future may find to be of unfpeakable value; I fay, without taking this into account, the very worthleffhefs o f fuch pro ductions may be a fact, which it will be at fome time, moft important to know. In eftimating the effects of various fyftems, focial, political or intellectual, upon the mind or character, the difcovery of fome obfcure pamphlet, written under certain influences which may be under confideration, will oftentimes prove a very important witnefs, and throw unex pected light upon the queftion involved. Every re flecting reader of Buckle, who has made, perhaps, the moft elaborate attempt to treat the Hiftory of Civili zation inductively, 48 muft have noticed how con- ftantly he appeals to evidence furnifhed by what is ufually confidered the mere rubbifh of our great li braries. Upon this evidence, thus collected from the Libraries upon Social Progrefs. 75 moft obfcure fources, the character of epochs is in a great meafure determined, and the foundations of focial fyftems laid. If his conclufions are not always logically drawn, or his theories found, he has ftill incidentally eftablifhed the value, at leaft in his de partment of philofophical hiftory, of every product of thought in every age. Their importance in the department efpecially of phyfical fcience, we mail fee as we proceed. The inductive method of inveftigation has difclofed the true fecret of the progrefs of the phyfical fciences. Two things are abfolutely requifite in this progrefs fads and ideas. According to the conception preva lent down to the time of Lord Bacon, the obferva- tion of fads was deemed of but little confequence, and even unworthy of a philofopher. The difcovery of natural laws was to be attained by an effort of the mind, occupied alone with the ideas and principles of nature. As an inevitable confequence, fcience was fterile, and no increafe was realized. If difcoveries were made at all, they were the refults of a happy ac cident. But juft fo foon as the true method of in veftigation came to be clearly underftood, the prog refs of fcience became wonderfully rapid, and has at laft culminated in the brilliant and beneficent dif coveries of the prefent age. It is to be remembered, alfo, that there muft be the obfervation of fads, not only in order that fcientific theories may be fuggefted to the mind, but that they may alfo be verified. It 7 6 The Moral and Intellectual Influence of is in the conftant obfervation of phenomena that the true progrefs of fcience is to be found. The more extenfive the induction of facts, the wider its fweep, and the more comprehenfive its details in relation to any fubject, the more probable is the attainment of fatisfactory refults. Every new obfervation is there fore fo much added to the treafury of fcience, and the fcientific achievements of to-day reft upon innumer able obfervations of nature in the paft. It is impof- fible, therefore, to exaggerate the importance of pre- ferving all the records of obfervations which at any time have been made in the realm of nature. If they are not needed now, they may be needed, and no one can tell how greatly, in the future. The time may come, and is moft likely to come, when fome earneft feeker after truth will find in an obfcure work, in one of our great libraries, fome recorded obfervation of phenomena that will reveal to him the fecret of a natural law which it is of the higheft importance for fociety to underftand. Take any of the great difcov- eries of the laws of nature which have been made. They are not due chiefly to the genius of thofe who made them. The accumulation of facts, which had become the pofleffion of fociety, rendered the difcov- eries of Kepler and Newton inevitable, and they be came the difcoverers only becaufe they were able to interpret thefe facts more quickly than others. If the knowledge of facts is within reach, there will always be men who will penetrate to the laws which control Libraries upon Social Progrefs. 77 them. Nothing then can conduce more greatly to the progrefs of fcience, and therefore to the ma terial welfare of fociety, than the accumulation and prefervation of books which contain the records of obferved phenomena. Every department of fcience furnifhes abundant il- luftrations of this ; but perhaps it is nowhere more beautifully illuftrated than in the hiftory of difcov- eries in optics. As we trace this wonderful courfe of fteadily-progreffing difcovery up to the moft bril liant and ftartling refults, we fee how each ftep refts upon the whole previous accumulation of obferved fads. Notwithftanding the averfion of ancient philofophy to the inductive method, Ptolemy had made obferva- tions upon the angles of the refraction and incidence of light. Thefe obfervations were carefully confidered, and in certain points corrected, by the Arabian ma thematician Alhazen. He alfo gives directions for making experimental meafures of refraction. Thefe obfervations and hints as to experiments led Vitello, who lived in the thirteenth century, to thofe inveftiga- tions which are to be found in his work on optics ; but ftill the true law of refraction was not difcovered. Kepler wrote a fupplement to Vitello, and attempted to reduce his obfervations to a law, but while making progrefs in the right direction, reached only an ap proximately correct refult. From this point, how ever, Willebrod Snell conducted his inveftigations 10 78 The Moral and Intellectual Influence of until he difcovered the law, as it is called, of the fines. This led to the difcovery of the true expla nation of the rainbow by Defcartes. Thefe obferva- tions and refults further led to the difcovery of the law of difperfion by refraction, and fo to the wonder ful difcovery, by Sir Ifaac Newton, of the unequal refrangibility of different rays of light. The difcuf- fion of the Newtonian theories, by Sir David Brew- fter and the celebrated Goethe, 49 laid the foundations of thofe wonderful refults which have been reached by more modern laborers in the fame field Young and Frefnel and Biot and Faraday and Wollafton and Frauenhofer, not to mention many others in the fame departments who have obtained honorable dif- tinction. Thefe refults are to be feen in the brilliant difcoveries in photography, which have added fo much to the beauty and effectivenefs of fcience and art in our day. They are to be feen alfo in the wonderful conclufions to which the afcertained fad; of the polari zation of light has led as to the ultimate conftitution of matter. And more aftonifhing and ftartling than all, is the recent difcovery of fpectral analyfis, which detects with unfailing accuracy the prefence of the moft minute fubftances, enables us to tell the ele ments of which funs and ftars are compofed, and to refolve the mighty nebulae upon the far-off" confines of creation ! 50 Now, all this progrefs has been due to the accumu lation of facts in this one department of fcience. Libraries upon Social Progrefs. 70 Every recorded obfervation, even when made the bafis of a falfe theory, has yet been a ftep in this on ward march, and has contributed to the final refult. But we are to remember that this is but one of the in numerable departments of fcience, and by no means the moft fertile in practical and beneficial application. The fame principle holds good in relation to all. The accumulation and prefervation of obferved fads and experiments alone infure that rapid development of fcience which is conferring fuch benefit and glory upon the prefent age. The extent to which our interefts are affected by fcientific inveftigation is in calculable. There is no avenue to wealth which is not within the domain of fcience. Whatever relates to navigation, to agriculture, to mining operations, to the various tranfactions of trade ; all that belongs to focial inftitutions and to civil government ; what ever is involved in fanitary reform, the prevention and cure of difeafe, and the promotion of phyfical vigor ; the whole fcheme of charitable efforts for the amelioration of the evils of pauperifm and the focial and moral elevation of mankind ; all thefe, in all their vaft extent and relations, are dependent upon the progrefs of fcience, and are directly promoted in their efficiency and excellence by the collection and prefervation of recorded facts in all the departments to which they relate. Having thus confidered the influence of works of genius and of fcientific inveftigation in focial prog- 8o The Moral and Intellettual Influence of refs, we have only to confider, in conclufion, the in fluence of moral and religious ideas, and the bearing upon them of collections of intellectual wealth in li braries. This will require only a brief confederation. Moral and religious ideas conftitute the permanent and ftationary influences in focial progrefs, juft as fcientific difcoveries conftitute the progreffive. It is not true, however, that morals and religion are not alfo in a very high fenfe progreffive. The difference is this fcience depends entirely upon difcovery, whereas difcovery is a very inferior element in morals and religion. Moral and religious ideas proceed from intuition and revelation. They are more clearly ap prehended from one generation to another ; but ftill the elements out of which moral and religious fyftems are formed are always prefent in the intuitive opera tions of the mind, and in the revelation which we have from God. But while this is fo, there is need of conftant influences in fociety to lead men to the recognition and acceptance of thefe moral and re ligious principles. Thefe influences are of various kinds, but not the leaft powerful among them is the effect, in a community, of a library on a large and liberal fcale, comprifing the intellectual wealth of all generations. The moral and religious influence ex erted by fuch a library is manifold. It fubftitutes a falutary pleafure for grofs and vicious indulgences, and confers a moral benefit by propofing intellectual inftead o^fenfual gratification. Scarcely anything is Libraries upon Social Progrefs. 81 more calculated to confer pleafure, and at the fame time to elevate the foul, than familiarity with the works of the great writers of the world. If a community can be educated into a tafte for literary culture and the beautiful productions of art, and the halls of a great metropolitan library be thrown open to the young, a powerful influence will be exer- cifed to reftrain diffipation and to raife the tone of public thought and feeling. Moral and religious impreffions in a community are exceedingly dependent upon the influence of books, and the cultivation of a tafte for the fine arts. Books bring to bear upon us the example of the great and good. The record of their virtues, achievements and facrifices, in all ages, imprefles the imagination, excites emulation and roufes action. But, befides thefe general impreflions and influences, the literature of the world is full of pofitive teftimonies to the power and renovating effect of Chriftianity upon man and the focial ftate. No one can atten tively ftudy the hiftory of the Chriftian centuries without difcerning a force in human affairs, which is wielded by no human arm, which is the product of no mere natural laws, but which is divinely originated and divinely directed for the higheft welfare of man kind. Moft certain is it, to the hiftorical ftudent, that the progrefs of the race is inevitably towards the adoption and univerfal application of the great funda- ^mental Chriftain ideas. The clearer, however, is the 82 The Moral and Intellectual Influence of underftanding of this in the world, the more rapidly will this progrefs be accomplifhed. Whatever, there fore, illuftrates the hiftory and influence of Chriftian- ity whatever ferves as a bulwark to the evidences of Chriftain faith whatever elevates and fpiritualizes the tone of thought and feeling, exercifes a moft falutary effect upon the moral and religious character of the community. Now it is amazing to what extent Chriftian ideas pervade the literature of the Chriftian world! No one would imagine it, had it not been made a fpecial fubject of inquiry. To fuch a degree is this true, that it has been aflerted, and without doubt on good foundation, that if the Scriptures of the Old and New Teftamant were deftroyed, they could be replaced from the writings of the firft four centuries of the Chriftian era. And not only is this fo, but hiftory, poetry and art are full to repletion of Chriftian fenti- ments and ideas ; fo that it is fcarcely poffible to come in contact anywhere with modern thought and invefti- gation without finding ourfelves in the prefence of the great verities of the Chriftian faith. It is not eafy, therefore, to exaggerate the influence of libraries in contributing to that force in focial prog refs, which proceeds from the moral and religious ideas, which are bafed upon a divine revelation. If, therefore, we would ftrengthen the influences of thefe ideas in all their manifold applications to the duties ^of honefty, integrity and benevolence, of loyalty to Libraries upon Social Progrefs. 85 government and law, and of univerfal brotherhood we mall do well to bring that intellectual wealth which furvives the deftroying influence of time, be- caufe it has truth in it, to bear, in large meafure, upon the thought and feeling of our age. I have thus prefented the various departments of the fubject which has been under confideration. We have feen the hiftory of libraries running parallel with the hiftory of civilization. We have feen their influ ence upon the great moving forces of focial progrefs, works of genius, fcientific difcovery, and moral and religious ideas, as bafed upon a divine revelation. The legiflative action, previoufly referred to, gives a practical importance to thefe confederations which it is not eafy to exaggerate. The propofition is before us to avail ourfelves of the liberal appropriation of land, &c., in the Central Park, which the Commiflioners thereof have fet apart, for the eftablifhment of the Hif- torical Mufeum of Antiquities and Science, and a Gal lery of Art. 51 It is to be remembered that the chief object for which this Society was eftablifhed is the col lection of books and manufcripts relating to the hif tory of the United States, and efpecially of the State of New York. In purfuance of this object, the archives of this Society, as has been ftated, already contain rich collections of materials which throw light, not only upon our early focial and political pofition and char acter, but alfo upon the hiftory of fome of the moft ancient kingdoms heretofore alluded to, which exifted 84 The Moral and Intellectual Influence of in ages long antecedent to the dawn of Chriftianity, and are interwoven with the general hiftory of all fubfequent times. Thefe collections are, year after year, illuftrated and enriched by the difquifitions, inveftigations and con tributions of the honorary, correfponding and refident members of this Society, and its friends and fup- porters at home and abroad. We have thus accumu lated, and are conftantly engaged in accumulating, treafures of ineftimable value for the great hiftorians of our own day, and for thofe by whom they are to be fucceeded. All that has been faid of the import ance of libraries in general, to the literary and fcien- tific culture of a nation, applies with equal force to the relation and importance of hiftorical documents and books to the hiftory of any people. And this concurrence of events favorable to the eftablimment on a large fcale of a Hiftorical Library and Mufeum of Science and Art fummons us to the enjoyment of this great privilege, and the performance of this im perative duty. But this library need not and mould not be exclu- fively a Hiftorical Library. It may, and mould, in connection with this prominent idea, embrace all the departments of literature and fcience and arts indi rectly, as well as directly, relating to its chief defign, and be a centre and fource of intellectual light for this city, State and nation. The opportunity for us now to inaugurate a new Libraries upon Social Progrefs. 85 power in the focial progrefs of the nation is one of the grandeft that has ever been offered. We fhall be greatly wanting in duty, and infenfible to the high privilege beftowed upon us, if we do not embrace it. The peculiar characteriftics of the age and of our own pofition prefent claims upon us in this refpect which have never before been fo impera tively urged in the hiftory of the world. This nation is governed not by force, but by ideas. The hiftory of the laft four years mows us the tremendous force and fupremacy efpecially of moral ideas. The fphere of thefe ideas is to be widened, and they are to be impreffed more and more deeply upon the public mind. And this can be done in no more effectual way than by eftablifhing well-felected Libraries throughout the land. Our country, more than any other in the world, is dependent upon the virtue of the people ; and their virtue is largely dependent upon their intelligence and education ; and thefe depend upon the intellectual ftimulus which they receive. "Thefenfe of the people, as we call it," fays Dr. Prieft- ley, "though no nominal part of the conftitution, is " often felt to be a real check upon public meafures, by " whomfoever they are conducted ; and, though it is " only expreffed by talking, writing and petitioning, " yet tumult and infurrection fo often arife, when the " voice of the people is loud, that the moft arbitrary "governments dread the effects of them." How 1 1 86 The Moral and Intellettual Influence of potent, then, is that "voice" when it is the ut terance of the people themfelves, who, in this country, are the governing power. The city of New York is fo fituated as to exercife a vaft influence upon the deftinies of the nation. Its geographical pofition is fuch as to place the whole country under contribution. The cotton and rice of the South, the grain and cattle of the Weft, the prod ucts of New England farms, the oil and iron and coal of the Middle States, the mineral wealth, the filver and the gold upon thofe diftant mores which are warned by the waves of the Pacific, find their way to this metropolis, and from this point, as a radiating centre, are poured forth to every portion of the world. It is impoffible to deny that this fact beftows un bounded influence upon this great and rapidly ex panding city. The traders and merchants and profef- fional men who are called here on bufinefs or pleafure come in contact with the great ideas of the age, are imbued with them, and aid, wherever they go, in their diffufion. Whatever intellectual influences are domi nant here whatever fyftem of thought prevails here will exercife a ftupendous power throughout the whole extent of our country. It is a circumftance moft worthy of our confidera- tion that the future profperity and glory of this city depend upon laws of nature, or, rather, upon nature s GOD. The parallel of latitude upon which we are fituated is that which is, perhaps, more than any other, Libraries upon Social Progrefs. 87 favorable to the development of the agricultural wealth of the country. And, if \ve follow that par allel from the Atlantic to the Pacific coaft, we mall find that it wonderfully coincides with the great routes necflarily followed by commerce and travel. At the fame time, this line of communication is acceflible at almoft every point from the extreme northern and fouthern portions of the country. There is another remarkable fact in our pofition which confers an extraordinary advantage. This fame parallel of latitude, while it is the moft favorable, fo far as the great interior is concerned, would be too far north were it not for a wonderful provifion of nature, by which the heated waters of the Mexican Gulf flow in one mighty ftream through the Atlantic Ocean, moderating the feverity of the weather on our coaft, and making it eafily acceflible in the moft wintry ftorms. Thus thefe and other influential facts and circumftances, as by a decree of Heaven, feem to have marked out this fpot as the central radiating point of commercial influence, of accumulative facili ties of intercourfe and combined controling power, which can iot fail to make the port of New York the chief ent vpot of this hemifphere, and the city itfelf the great diftributive emporium for every portion of the New as well as of the principal marts of the Old World. Now, when we reflect upon the probable future of this Republic, we fliall fee how vaft is the refponfibility 88 The Moral and Intellectual Influence of which is impofed upon us. We are juft entering upon a new era in our hiftory. A fierce and fanguinary ftruggle, through which we have juft parted, and which would have proftrated any other nation, leaves us vaftly ftronger and more confcious of our ftrength than before. There are certain peculiarities in our cafe which, in the Providence of God, have fecured this refult. For the firft time in the hiftory of the world, a government is eftablifhed whofe theory it is to protect no interefts and to feek no good but thofe of the people at large ; and this government has for its fphere a vaft territory, lying upon two oceans, and embracing every variety of climate and foil. A new and irrefiiftible moral power has been added to this government by the fanction which it has given to uni- verfal freedom. God has provided everything here neceflary to the grandeft development. The fources of our wealth are inexhauftible. They prefs upon us in every valley, by every ftream, on the mountains, through the pathlefs forefts, in the funlefs mines. The bracing airs of the temperate zone breath ftrength and vigor into the frame, and fit man for the tafk of fubjecting to himfelf the power and riches of nature. The Old World is pouring its millions of population upon our mores, filling up our wafte territories and furniftiing the wonderfully varied materials which our inftitutions are to mould and fafhion. A ftupendous development here of power and grandeur, beyond anything that the world has ever feen, is certain. Libraries upon Social Progrefs. 89 Whether it fhall be for good or evil depends upon the intelligence and virtue of the people. We might almoft fancy the Genius of the Republic, with eye fixed upon the yet diftant and uncertain, but fwiftly coming future, declaring our poffible glory, but warn ing us of our imminent peril. We may difregard her pleadings, as the deluded Trojans did thofe of the frenzied CafTandra. If that is fo, nothing can be before us but ruin all the more appalling becaufe of the gigantic fcale of the cataftrophe. But if we heed her warnings, or, rather, if we liften to the voice of hiftory, confult the oracles of philofophy, above all, follow the path that is marked out for nations in Divine Revelation, we fhall be the means of conferring the moft glorious bleffings upon man kind, and reach the fummit of human greatnefs and power. How wonderfully appropriate to thefe United States, with their emblematic fhield-bearer, and fingu- larly prophetic of the future deftiny of our Re public, are thofe eloquent words of Milton in regard to England : " Methinks I fee in my mind a noble <f and puiflant nation, roufing herfelf like a ftrong " man after fleep, and making her invincible locks ; " methinks I fee her as an EAGLE, mewing her mighty "youth, and kindling her undazzled eyes at the full " mid-day beam ; purging and unfealing her long- " abufed fight at the fountain itfelf of heavenly " radiance ; while the whole noife of timorous and go The Moral and IntelleSfual Influence of " flocking birds, with thofe alfo that love the twilight, " flutter about, amazed at what fhe means." Taking thefe two thoughts, the vaft influence of the city upon the intellectual and moral character of the nation, and the wonderful deftiny which is before it, is there not impofed upon us a moft folemn re- fponfibility to make this city a fource of intelligence and virtue for the whole land ? And what can we in our fphere do towards accomplishing this refult bet ter than to lay the foundations of a Library, Mu- feum of Antiquities and Science, and Gallery of Art, fuch as that which I am now advocating a Libra ry, Mufeum and Gallery for the whole people, fuch as is commenfurate with our greatnefs and unrivaled profperity, one which mail furnifh every facility for the ftudent in every department of his inveftigations, which mall roufe the public mind to noble impulfes by the magic influence of genius, which mall ftimu- late fcientific difcovery, which mall add ftrength to all moral and religious inftitutions and ideas, which mall be a home for the poor, for whofe elevation our very fyftem of government is defigned, where they who are fhut out from fo many of the refining effects of focial intercourfe may filently commune with the great intellects of all ages of the world. The large-hearted and liberal-minded merchants, the men of wealth, literary, antiquarian and profef- fional men, the men of fcience and the lovers of art, citizens of New York, and all wherefoever refident, Libraries upon Social Progrefs. 91 who are interefted in the great work which this Soci ety eartieftly recommends to their patronage and liberality, could not well perform a grander act or attain a higher glory than by laying the founda tion of fuch a metropolitan, or rather cofmopolitan LIBRARY, MUSEUM AND GALLERY, with all the ap pliances which fuch an inftitution can poffibly enjoy. Thofe who mall accomplifh it will need no other memorial. In the coming generations, fhould their monument be fought, the hiftorian might point to the material profperity, the boundlefs charity and moral greatnefs of this city and nation, fo largely re- fulting from their far-reaching wifdom and liberality, and fay, as was faid of CHRISTOPHER WREN, amid the glories of St. Paul s Cathedral, " Si monumentum "quaeris, circumfpice." NOTES. 1. T. L\v. Hift. lib. xxxiii., c. 32. 2. Cicero in Ver., ?, n. 161 and 162. 3. Article " Flamininus," " Claflical Dictionary," by Charles Anthon, LL. D. 4. The feeds referred to are of the muftard tree, known, commonly, among natu- ralifts as the " Salvadora Perfica." In Syria it is called "khardal." See Dr. Royle s Paper, in the Athenzum of March 28, 1 844, and the Gentleman s Magazine, June, 1844. Alfo, Plin. H. N., I, 20, C. B. j, and D Herbelot, Biblioth. Orient., S.V. Efcander. 5. "Table Talk " of S. T. Coleridge, Harper & Bro. s Ed., under date of April 10, 1833. 6. The Life of M. Tullius Cicero, by Conyers Middleton. Vol. II., p. 186. London, 1823. The following is the verfe referred to in the text : iJor irifi Eurip. Phueniffa, 524-5. "For if it behooves one to be unjuft, it is moft glorious to be unjuft concerning empire, but in all other things it is right to be juft." See alfo Suet. Jul. 53, " Verbum M. Catonis eft, unum ex omnibus Czfarem ad evertendam republican! Sobrium accefiifie." j. Coleridge s "Table Talk," Harper & Bro. s Ed., p. 53. 8. The Life and Correfpondence of Thomas Arnold, D. D. Appleton s Ed., pp. 1 60, 161. 9. See note by Dean Stanley, at foot of above, p. 161 of Arnold s Life, &c. 10. Coleridge s " Table Talk." Same edition, pp. 78, 79. 11. Diog. La;rt., lib. vi., cap. 2, fee. 6. 12. The Poet s Pilgrimage, ftanza Ivii., Robert Southey, Poet Laureate. Lec tures on Hiftory, &c., by Dr. Jofeph Prieftley, LL. D., F. R. S. London, 1826. On page 403 the author remarks that, "In modern times, though an end has been put to fervitude in the Chriftian countries of Europe, it has been greatly extended in our Colonies, flaves being purchafed in Africa and tranfported, in order to their 12 94 Notes. being employed in America. But both the injuftice and the ill-policy of this fyf- tem is now pretty generally acknowledged." Had not the Royal ear of England been deaf to the remonftrances of fome of thofe Colonies, the civil war drawing to a clofe, which ilavery occafioned, and which that war has aboliflied, had probably never occurred. " Man propofes, GOD difpofes." By the Roman laws, flaves, as in our South, were confidered not as men, but as res, the property of their matters ; and the Romans, as Montefquieu obferves, " being accuftomed to trample upon mankind in the perfons of their children and (laves, could know but very little of that virtue which we diftinguiih by the name of humanity." A chained flave for a porter was a common fight at Rome; and Vedius Pollio ufed to throw his flaves, who had difobeyed him, into his fifti-ponds to be preyed upon by the mullets. The following obfervation, it has been well faid, argues that increafe of population was lit tle encouraged by the Romans among their flaves. " It is an univerfal obfervation, which we may form upon language, that when two related parts of a whole bear any proportion to each other, in numbers, rank or consideration, there are always co-relative terms invented, which anfwer to both parts and exprefs their mutual rela tion. If they bear no proportion to each other, the term is only invented for the lefs, and marks its diftinftion from the whole. Thus, man and woman, mafler and fcrvant, father and /on, prince and fubjefl, fir anger and citizen, are co-relative terms in all languages indicating that each part fignified by them bears a considerable pro portion to one another, and are often compared together. But verna, the Latin name of ajlave born in the family, has no co-relative." Hume s Eflays, xi., 1777, I, 555. Ibid., pp. 407, 556. There is an illuftration of this curious obfervation of Hume in the XXVII. Ode of Horace, " Ad Sodales : " " QiJite cunque domat Venus, Non erubefcendis adurit Ignibus, ingenuoque femper Amore peccas." Francis, in his edition of Horace, comments, in a note, upon the laft words thus : "They who had an intrigue with a flave were branded with the name of Ancilla- rio/i, as men of fordid and infamous paffions fuch paffions as the poet here calls erubcjcendi igncs" The South, cut off from the "flave trade" with Africa, encouraged home pro- ducYion, and this mode of adding to their flave population no doubt occafioned great demoralization, and helped to precipitate it into the late favage and difaftrous rebellion. 13. Principi di Scienza-Nuova. G. B. Vico. Milano, 1831. 14. Die Beftimmung desMenfchen, dargeftellt von Johann Gottlieb Fichte, Erfte Notes. 95 Aufgabe. Berlin Vofs fche Buchhandlung, 1800. Zweite unveranderte Aufgabe Ebendafelbft, 1838. 15. Ucber die Gottheiten von Samothrace, vorgelefer in der " orTentlichen Sitzung der Bayrifcher Akademie der Wiffenfchaften am Nafmcnftage des Konigs der 12 Oft., 1815. Beylafe zu der Veltaltern von Fr. V. J. Schilling. 1 6. Georg. Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel s vorlefunger iiber die Philofophie der Religion, Nebft einer Schrift iiber die Beweife von Dafein Gottes, heraufgegeben von Dr. Phillipp Marheinekc, Erfte Theil. Zweite verbeflerte Auflage. Ber lin, 1840. Georg. Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel s Vorlefunger iiber die Philofophie der Ge- fchichte heraufgegeben von Dr. Edward Gans. Berlin, 1837. 17. Cours de Philofophie Pofitive par M. Auguft Comte. Paris, Bachelier, Libraire Pour Les Mathematiques, 1830. 18. Diodorus Siculus, lib. I, c. 2. 19. Manners and Cuftoms of Ancient Egyptians, vol. I, pp. m-ii6. 20. Lettres, 285, quoted by Kenrick, Ancient Egypt, vol. i, p. 155. 21. Machab., lib. u, c. n, v. 13. 22. Judges xv., v. 15. 23. Ib., v. 49. 24. Rapport a le Miniftre de 1 Inftruftion Publique, in the Archives des Mif- fions Scientifiques. Mai, 1856. Vol. v., p. 179. 25. Strabo, lib. xiii., pp. 608, 609. 26. Athenjeus, Deipnofophiftarum libri xv. lib. 1-4. 27. Jofeph, Ant. Jud., lib. i, c. 2. 28. Enc. Brit., Art Libraries. 29. This and the following rtatements in regard to modern libraries are derived, in great part, from the article on Libraries in the Encyclopaedia Britannica. 30. Confult fame article. 3 - xat ravrit (in yiyovf, SvittrOe I*.a6ia ex Tat tifi flairix HiAaTx yfv/usv ccxTat. ] M. Ap. i, p. 76, C. Paris, 1636. Num. 36, p. 65, Bened. 32- OTI it xai rvra. net ma-it , ex -ran tiri nT/!! Utters yetefumt ux rui fialtit Svtctrtc. Ib., p. 84, C. Paris. Num. 48, p. 72, Bened. 33. Ea omni.i fuper Chrifto, Pilatus, et ipfe jam pro sua conlcientia Chriftianus, Caefari tune Tiberio nuntiavit. Tertull. Ap., c. 21, p. 22, C. 34. Et tamen eum mundi cafum relatum in arcanis veftris habetis. Ib., c. 21. 35. Philo de Legetj ad Caium, p. 1016, A. 36. Sueton., Tiber., c. 74, torn. I, p. 324. 37. Aulus Gellius Hift. Alt., lib. xiii., c. 19. 38. Vopifci Hift. Aug. Scriptores, p. 233. 9 6 Notes. 39. Apol., cap. 5, p. 6. 40. Eufeb. H. E., 1. 2, cap. 2. 41. Chrys. Horn. 26, in 2 Cor., t. x, p. 624, A. 42. P. Ores., 1. 7, c. 4. 43. Zonar, Ann., t. 2, p. 176. 44. Niceph., 1. 2, cap. 8. 45. Chriftus Tiberio imperatore, per procuratorem Pentium Pilatum fuppliclo idfedlus erft. Tacit., Ann. xv., 44. 46. Philofophy of Hiftory, Vol. I., p. 352. 47. Studies on Homer and the Homeric Age: by the Rt. Hon. W. E. Gladftone, D. C. L. Oxford, at the Univerfity Prefs, 1857. 48. Hiftory of Civilization in England : by Henry Thomas Buckle. 2 vols. New York, D. Appleton & Co., 1858. 49. Zur Farbenlehre von Goethe, Tiibingen, 1810. 50. Hiftory of the Inductive Sciences: by Wm. Whewell, D.D. 2 vols. New York, D. Appleton & Co., 1858. 51. The following is a defcription of the premifes fet apart by the Commifiioners for The Hiftorical Mufeum : " The building within faid Park, heretofore known as the New York State " Arfenal, together with the grounds under, around, and adjoining the fame, " bounded as follows, to wit : commencing at a point where the northerly line of " Sixty-third Street, if continued in the fame line north-wefterly, would interfeQ " the wefterly line of Fifth Avenue ; thence north-wefterly on a line at right " angles with the Fifth Avenue two hundred and fixty feet ; thence north-eafterly " on a line parallel with the Fifth Avenue two hundred feet ; thence north-wefterly " on a line at right angles with faid avenue one hundred and ninety feet ; thence " north-eafterly on a line parallel with the faid avenue two hundred and fixty feet ; " thence fouth-eafterly on a line at right angles with the faid avenue four hundred " and fifty feet to the wefterly line of faid avenue j and thence along the wefterly " line of faid avenue four hundred and fixty feet to the place of beginning.** LIBRABT This book is due on the last date stamped below, or on the date to which renewed. Renewed books are subject to immediate recall. MAY 2 2 1962 DEC 7- 1966 AUG 4 1171 MUW |g( | ^laurtoAn Univer ^{ y r ^ el ^ fl rnia 101472 wn