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 Oration Befopa the Sigaa Phi, at 
 Hamilton College, July 27, 1847 
 
 By 
 
 J. W. Brown 
 
 
 I WJ 
 
 
 

 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA 
 AT LOS ANGELES 
 
 \
 
 SAFEGUARDS OF AMERICAN CIVILISATION. 
 
 ORATION 
 
 BEFORfc 
 
 Til II Si A PHI 
 
 AT 
 
 HAMILTON COLLEGE, JULY 27, 1847. 
 
 BY THE REV. J. W. BROWN, A. 31., 
 
 OP THE ALPHA OF NEW YORK. 
 
 PUBLISHED BY THE SOCIETY. 
 
 NEW YORK : 
 
 STANFORD & S W R D S , 139 BROADWAY 
 
 1847.
 
 
 • * > • 
 
 • • •
 
 6) 
 t- 
 
 to 
 
 CO 
 
 TO 
 
 PROF. GEORGE VT . EATON, D.D., 
 
 OF MADISON UNIVERSITY 
 
 THE INSTRUCTOR OF MY YOUTH, 
 
 
 jaTHE NOBLE AND STEADY FRIEND OF MY MANHOOD 
 
 AND, IN BOTH RELATIONS, HONORED AND BELOVED, 
 
 > 
 
 I 
 
 AS A BROTHER IN THE SIGMA PHI, 
 
 THESE PAGES ARE INSCRIBED. 
 
 \storia, L. I.. Sept. 1847
 
 ORATION. 
 
 Gentlemen \ 
 
 It was in an unguarded moment that I under- 
 took the task which I am this day expected to discharge. 
 Your mandate reached me at too late a period fo? adequate 
 preparation, in the midst of pressing engagements, which 
 could neither he delegated nor set aside. That mandate is 
 one, indeed, which, under all circumstances, I should be proud 
 to obey. But when I look around me and behold so many 
 of those brethren, at whose feet I could desire to sit as 
 a patient listener, and when I feel, as I do feel, how poor is 
 the offering which I am about to lay upon the altar of our 
 brotherhood, when compared with those which worthier and 
 abler hands have heaped upon it, I have no wish but to be 
 silent. But I see around me those upon whose kind consi- 
 deration I can fearlessly throw myself for whatever deficien- 
 cies may demand indulgence. Gladly therefore do I surrender 
 myself to the warm feelings, the generous sympathies, the 
 bright associations of this hour of our reunion, and strive to 
 enter with a free heart into the spirit of the time and of the 
 scene. 
 
 It is our festival day. We have come together from the 
 crowded arena of the world, to drink at the pure fountains 
 which nourished our intellectual youth. We have come from 
 various sections of our country, from various paths through 
 which our steps have sped with various fortune in the race
 
 of life. We meet to brighten anew the golden links forged 
 ring friendships of other days, — and memory, like a 
 . touches every heart with the wand of its beauti- 
 ful enchantments, and brings back the past. We recall the 
 time when, nerved by hope as yet unchastened by experience 
 of the world, wi strove together in the toils of learning, while 
 generous emulation kindled love. .May the spirit which ani- 
 mated us then animate us now ; for well will it be if we can 
 carry it with us from these peaceful retreats into the world : — 
 well would it be if ever in the girded race of life, the bold as- 
 piring mind could move obedient to such impulse, and the 
 cloudlet signet of youth's pure ambition were always visibly 
 im] : upon the sterner brow of manhood. 
 
 Such influences our Fraternity would cherish in the minds 
 and hearts of its members. But there are other aims which it 
 before us, other duties to which it summons us. By the 
 noble emulation enkindled by a generous friendship, it would 
 animate ui to act well our parts in society, knowing that there 
 are true hearts to cheer us onward in our career, earnest sym- 
 pathies to sustain us in our struggles, glorious rewards to greet 
 our triumphs, sweet consolations to soothe even the anguish 
 of defeat. By the pure stimulus of love, it would nerve us to 
 the discbarge of the high duties which, as American scho- 
 lars we owe to our country, and of the higher duties which 
 is Christian men, blessed with rare opportunities of useful- 
 ness, we owe to the world and to God. Let these considera- 
 tions then suggest the theme around which we may gather the 
 meditations of tins hour. 
 
 We are a brotherhood of American scholars, and as such, 
 charged, each in bis sphere, with grave responsibilities. The 
 Bpot on which we are assembled to-day was, within a century, 
 par' -i wilderness of this western world. It is now 
 
 the heart of a mighty and controlling empire, and all around 
 II-, from the Atlantic coasl to the base of the Rocky Moun- 
 tains— from the bank- nf the Sabine and the chain of North- 
 ern lakes, to the everglades of Florida, and the mountain 
 plains of .Mexico, stretches the glorious domain of a Republic,
 
 which in much less than a century lias sprung up to its pre- 
 sent nohle position among the nations of the earth. With a 
 territory of such extent, unsurpassed in all those resources 
 from which wealth is created, we are rapidly advancing to- 
 wards the highest civilisation attainable hy man : a civilisa- 
 tion which consists in the advancement of knowledge, the 
 culture of the arts, refinement of manners, and the harmoni- 
 ous and complete development of all those means and instru- 
 ments of power, by which nations attain their grandeur, 
 extend their empire, and maintain their sway. The probable 
 destinies of our country are sufficiently shadowed forth even to 
 the most sober and cautious minds, by the experience of the 
 past, and the substantial indications of the real present. For- 
 eign as it would be to the demands of this occasion to dwell 
 upon that which, however true, would only serve to minister 
 to national pride, already perhaps too much inflated, we need 
 not shrink from uttering our proud conviction that a glorious 
 future lies before us ; — a future in which all that is pure, 
 beneficent, and permanent in free institutions, is to earn its final 
 triumph against those antagonist influences, which, among all 
 nations and in all times, have been found to spring from politi- 
 cal degeneracy and social profligacy. We may rejoice with 
 honest pride in the present brilliant promise of that momen- 
 tous experiment which, in. the course of Divine Providence, 
 has been committed to our hands, the ultimate success of 
 which must gloriously establish or finally wreck man's hopes 
 of a pure democracy. But when summoned to the prospect of 
 the glories that await us if we are true to our principles, it is 
 not unwise to estimate also the dangers that lie in our path. 
 For it is against these dangers that education alone, the liberal 
 and harmonious culture of the national mind, and the national 
 heart, can erect a sufficient bulwark. And by the sense of 
 these dangers, involved in and springing from the lofty posi- 
 tion and the high civilization to which we are advancing, may 
 the educated men of the country draw incentives to well- 
 directed and unselfish effort for the common welfare. And if 
 as a brotherhood of scholars, whom society must summon 
 from these retreats of learning to the busy stage of life, we 
 feel that for us there are interests worthy of constant and un-
 
 dyin ir superior to the mere objects of a grovel- 
 
 j far superior to the base ends which the charla- 
 
 and the demagogue would substitute, by party ami per- 
 
 nsideralions, for those results which the enlightened, 
 
 high-minded, virtuous citizen seeks for his country; a few 
 
 i mingled en< ■ ment and caution, however feebly 
 
 iken, may not be without their reward. 
 
 A brief enumeration of some of the dangers which seem to 
 spring from the civilisation that surrounds us, will prepare us 
 for the consideration of the safeguards that may be opposed to 
 
 them. 
 
 '1'hc first characteristic of our civilisation which arrests our 
 attention, is that universal spirit of activity which prevails in 
 all the avenues of life, by which individuals and masses are 
 rushing onwards in pursuit of aggrandisement. The bold, 
 impetuous spirit of progress rules the public mind, and more 
 or less imparts its energy to every citizen. Every American 
 is tempted by bright promises of the future, and lives, and 
 moves, and has his being in an atmosphere of intense activity 
 and excitement. This animates the bold, the aspiring, the am- 
 bitious with constant exhilaration. It arouses the cautious and 
 the timid, and, by a ceaseless impulse, urges forward even 
 honest and prudent mediocrity towards paths over which 
 genius too often hurries, reckless of the cautions of a salutary 
 . and of the wholesome restraints of conscience. And the 
 leading effect of this universal activity, this all-pervading, un- 
 resting spirit of enterprise, is to increase the resources, and 
 multiply the instruments, and enlarge the sphere of physical 
 enjoyments : to amass wealth which is to be diffused again in 
 Luxurious expenditure, or at best to be hoarded as the basis of 
 future schemes of aggrandisement. And the tendency of this 
 spun expended mainly on such objects, unchecked by due 
 intellectual and moral restraints, is to beget that selfishness 
 which militates against all generous love of country, and 
 
 • Sort for the common welfare. This sel- 
 
 fishi If into giant stature in the breast of the 
 
 individual, to the gradual exclusion of a noble patriotism which 
 
 individual happiness m :i inl\ as connected with public
 
 9 
 
 welfare, has in all ages been the bane of republics. It pre- 
 pares them for the dismembering axe of faction, the convul- 
 sions of anarchy, or the iron sceptre of despotism, which rules 
 by a selfishness which at length crushes the fears and hopes 
 of a people beneath a single foot, or concentrates them through 
 
 slavish terror into a single arm. It begets and fosters indi- 
 ct o 
 
 vidual, party and sectional animosities. The one desire which 
 it inspires is to rise, to win, to triumph, by whatever means 
 and through whatever difficulties. Society becomes like one 
 vast battle-field, where every man, like Harry of the Wynd, 
 "fights for his own hand, and disputes success, and strug- 
 gles for happiness as for a trophy against a host of competi- 
 tors." In such a state of things there may be all the outward 
 refinement which results from the universal emulation to shine 
 by the trappings of wealth and station ; — and brilliant ad- 
 vances in civilization are not only probable but certain. 
 " There may be much of the fair exterior of virtue, but the 
 danger is that the spirit of selfishness will silently eat out the 
 very soul of virtue, and that the lower passions and propensi- 
 ties, by becoming everywhere predominant, shall gradually 
 sap the very foundation of the social edifice, and leave it to 
 perish through its own weight and rottenness." I have quot- 
 ed the words of one of the most distinguished philanthropist 
 of our country,* who adds — " Situated as the people of this 
 country are, they cannot too vigilantly guard against the 
 approach of that era of dark and fatal degeneracy, when 
 according to the ironical definition of Fielding, patriot comes 
 to mean a candidate for place ; worth, power, rank and wealth ; 
 and wisdom^ the act of getting all three." Of this species of 
 civilisation, a great poet points out the fatal defects : — 
 
 " Egyptian Thebes, 
 
 Tyre, by the margin of the sounding waves, 
 
 Palmyra, central in the desert, fell, 
 
 And the arts died by which they had been raised. 
 
 Call Archimedes from his buried tomb 
 
 Upon the plain of vanished Syracuse, 
 
 And feelingly the sage shall make report 
 
 How insecure, how baseless in itself, 
 
 * The Rt. Rev. Alonzo Potter, D. D.
 
 10 
 
 the philosophy w • ray depen 
 Ooi - bow weak 
 
 Those arts a inveotions, if unpro] 
 
 II, v.. : pensive irrief, 
 
 svould admit 
 That not th 
 Tosavethi from rank forgetfiilnei 
 
 This is one ot the dangers springing from that high form of 
 civilisation t i which our country is advancing. But there is 
 another and perhaps a more imminent one, resulting from t! 
 prevalence of luxurious habits of life, weakening- the restraints 
 of virtue and the salutary bonds of moderation and self-control. 
 Where the means of luxury are generally diffused, and the 
 active spirit of enterprise is ever on the stretch to multiply 
 them, the mere material and sensual enjoyments which wealth 
 can purchase become the objects of the general strife. The 
 more they are possessed, the more eagerly are they valued 
 I sought. In proportion as it is devoted to these objects, 
 ilisation withdraws itself more and more from the influence 
 »f morality and of religious principle, it creates new idols with 
 . -increasing ingenuity and skill, and throws around the 
 old ones a warmer atmosphere of attraction, and invests them 
 with more seducing charms. It thus generates that social 
 recklessness which in the end will not hesitate, if uncontrolled 
 by the r< at which high and holy principle alone can 
 supply, to overthrow, in its mad desires for indulgence, every 
 bulwark of public and private virtue ; to reject all restraint of 
 temperance and modesty ; and to plunge headlong into crime. 
 The annals of the world abound with proofs of the fact that 
 th, ite at which the highest elevations of outward 
 
 .lendor and refinement have been attained, too often conceals 
 within its bosom destructive elements, which the accidents of 
 may combine fur speedy and disastrous action. How 
 many Dal . I irrupt to the core at the period of their highest 
 apparent prosperity, have suddenly fallen into the anarchy of 
 volution, or have been helplessly thrown beneath the ty- 
 ranny oi '. One by one, with a deadly but silent 
 pi id corruption thus engendered lias eradicated 
 the stern and noble virtues which give dignity and penna-
 
 11 
 
 nence to States, and caused the people to forget the whole- 
 some lessons of self-restraint, self-direction and self-govern- 
 ment, until the state of highest prosperity and universal luxu- 
 ry has become a condition of universal profligacy, wherein 
 society, " like the t} r rant of antiquity wearied with the infamy 
 of its excesses, has its crowns always ready, and its trea- 
 sures prepared, for those inventors of new joys," which 
 can most effectually teach it to slumber on the verge of the 
 ruin into which it is about to fall. States there have been, 
 whose overthrow, by such means, has been almost the work of 
 a single day, as rapid and resistless as that which in one night 
 overturned the Assyrian throne ; or whose ruin, like that of 
 imperial Rome, has been slower indeed, but none the less dis- 
 astrous, exhibiting, as it were, in lengthened decline, the throes 
 of the gladiators of her own amphitheatres, protracted, spas- 
 modic, terrific, 
 
 " Spent 'midst rage and blood 
 
 In fiery ebb of nature's mystic flood." 
 
 Since the birth of our own republic what an illustration of 
 this danger has been given in the very heart of Christian Eu- 
 rope, when a whole people distinguished by elegance and re- 
 finement, by the highest civilisation which talent and wealth 
 can create, impelled by an insatiate thirst for pleasure in defi- 
 ance of every principle which ennobles our nature, in contempt 
 of every tie which makes life beautiful, rushed into an insanity 
 of voluptuousness, which was deaf to every warning, until the 
 earthquake of revolution shook the social fabric into ruins, and 
 involved in a common wreck not only the prostituted throne 
 and the polluted altar, but the homes and the hearths of an 
 entire people. 
 
 But there is another danger in our path to which I can do 
 no more than briefly allude. In a country where all the ave- 
 nues to wealth, to power, and reputation are open, the pres- 
 tige of a mere worldly, vulgar success, to be gained at all haz- 
 ards, too easily captivates and enthrals. The talent by which 
 this success is won, is found to be indispensable to the demands 
 of the civilisation from which it seeks its rewards. Hence the 
 predilection for mere talent which such a state of society fos-
 
 L2 
 
 ♦ ors hence the disposition to worship talent, — educated ta- 
 lent tally, — irrespective of the principles and moral 
 worth of the individual who is found to possess it. Under 
 whatever forms, and in whatever departments it manifests its 
 power, ami wins its triumphs, it is found to be so essential to 
 ty, so seductive in its necessities, that it everywhere 
 commands and rules ; in political, professional and military 
 Ijfe — in literature, in science, and the arts, from the precincts 
 of the capital to the remotest districts of the republic, talent in 
 this age, ami especially in this country, claims the earth as its 
 throne, and all classes and estates bow down before it, and 
 yield it their homage. Vulgar, superficial and evanescent as 
 may he the success which it wins, that success soon becomes 
 the standard by which its power is tested, and is regarded as 
 its only proper and substantial reward. It fixes the goal be- 
 yond which ambition casts no venture ; it sets the limits within 
 which all effort learns to contract and expend itself as if there 
 were nothing worthy of high exertion or generous self-devo- 
 tion apart from the worldly, material, paltry objects which it 
 offers. Hence comes the general admiration and worship of 
 talent as the instrument of such success; gaining all for its 
 purposes and subjecting all beneath its sway. Hence, too, 
 the willingness with which society in the blindness of its 
 adoration for talent, is fain to look upon it as a substitute for 
 principle and virtue, to regard it as supplying a sufficient pal- 
 liation for moral defects in its gifted possessors, and to permit 
 to it every degree of license. I do not say, gentlemen, that 
 this disposition to exalt talent above principle has as yet gain- 
 ed BO visible an ascendancy over the public mind among our- 
 selves, as to assert its triumph over truth and social and 
 political v;rtue, in such mode or degree as to cause general 
 alarm or humiliation. I know too well how strong is the 
 hold which the noble principles asserted and maintained by 
 th( rs "i this Republic, and by their teaching and exam- 
 ple written in bright and deep characters upon the hearts of 
 their children, yel retains upon the mind of the nation. But 
 human nature is the same at all times, and the evils which 
 threaten bo< iety, from the development of the vicious princi- 
 ples which lurk at the la-art of a material, sensual civilisation,
 
 13 
 
 like that to which we are advancing, are the same in all ages 
 of the world. They will inevitably arise and acquire strength 
 and power where the circumstances which have once been 
 found to produce and foster them, concur to aid their growth, 
 or open channels for their action. When talent is blindly 
 worshipped, society soon learns to view it without reference 
 to the principles which it refuses to recognise or openly dis- 
 cards. When it disdains to excuse itself for its sins against 
 principle, or to palliate its manifest moral delinquencies, the 
 charm of its brilliant achievements is too often regarded as 
 a veil to conceal them. Even when it degrades itself to the 
 lowest purposes, and immortalises impurity in the burning 
 strains of poetry, and invests corruption with a false beauty 
 and dangerous seductive attractions in romance, how eagerly 
 are the intoxicating draughts which it offers raised to the lip, 
 and the poisonous ingredients forgotten in the delirious excite- 
 ment produced by the baneful mixture. How often does 
 society, not only tolerate, but look with a certain kind of 
 complacency and admiration upon that most melancholy spec- 
 tacle, a man of genius who is not a man of character. How 
 many famous examples might be cited from the records of 
 other nations and other times ; how many illustrious charac- 
 ters of our day might be named, in whom it would be diffi- 
 cult to say whether their intellectual attainment or their 
 habitual vices have been most notorious. How often when 
 the applauses of a whole people are poured around their idol, 
 does the conscience of the individual give the lie to the un- 
 bounded adulation, and how many consciences have perhaps 
 been lulled to slumber by these syren melodies, eager to 
 present in mitigation of each sin committed, a triumph offered 
 up as expiation. Well has it been said by Dr. Channing 
 that, u the exaltation of talent above virtue and religion is the 
 curse of this age. Talent is worshipped, but if divorced from 
 rectitude, it will prove more of a demon than a god." 
 
 This exhibition, gentlemen, is a very brief and imperfect 
 one. But I trust the suggestions I have made are sufficient 
 to encourage the enquiry to which I would now invite your 
 attention. What are the safeguards which may be opposed 
 f.o the dangers that environ us, safeguards which we as among
 
 14 
 
 those upon whom, under God, our country has bestowed the 
 of liberal education] may in our sphere, assist in 
 agthening and extendin 
 
 I need scarcely mention, a general, diffusive education, 
 through whose beneficent moral effect must come the all- 
 encircling, all-controlling safeguards of whatever is valuable 
 or glorious in our institutions; of whatever is worth preserv- 
 ing or defending in American civilisation. The discussions 
 of the last fifty years, to which so much intellectual power 
 and noble philanthropic effort have been devoted by the best 
 and ifted citizens of our Republic, sufficiently attest the 
 
 universal conviction of its importance. And it is cheering to 
 observe that the great principles so long advocated and esta- 
 blished here, are now proclaimed with one voice from the 
 pulpit and the press of England. Before such an audience 
 as is here assembled, and on such an occasion, it is neither 
 necessary that I should state those principles in detail, nor 
 urge their application. Our earnest convictions outrun all 
 argument on the question as to how much our country must 
 owe to that generous and comprehensive culture, which aims 
 at the education of the whole man ; that culture which, while 
 it rears him as an individual to high intellectual and moral 
 stature, and inspires him with an ambition of living for truth, 
 for virtue, and for heaven, teaches him, as a citizen to per. 
 form every duty which his country demands at his hands, 
 with wisdom, fortitude and fidelity. For such culture is the 
 most glorious characteristic, the noblest and most enviable 
 possession of any people ; and to a people with democratic in- 
 stitutions, indispensable. Nothing else can confer that force 
 oi character, that strength of principle, which will enable men 
 ' and firm against the suggestions of that selfishness which 
 would sacrifice our country's sacred interests for those of per- 
 parties; against the seductions of a luxurious civi- 
 lisation to cany us blindly beyond the bounds of moderation 
 and self-control ; against the inlluence of gifted profligacy, 
 which flatters while il misleads the people, and uses against 
 public welfare and rirtue tin 1 power which a dazzled, mis- 
 guided populace confers upon it. This will enable men to 
 ight the cant of demagogues, who would lull them
 
 15 
 
 to sleep by the syren song of popular infallibility, asserting - on 
 all occasions, " Vox populi est vox Dei." This will give 
 them heart and energy to resist the tyranny of an unhallowed 
 public opinion, and to uphold in the midst of clamor and 
 abuse the sacred interests of truth. It will keep before them 
 the vast responsibilities with which they arc charged; warn 
 them against the blind impulses of faction, and at all times 
 and in all circumstances, urge upon them the necessity of 
 vigilance, lest they should be found to contribute, each in his 
 sphere, towards repeating again before the world, the awful 
 lesson of the folly and peril of republican institutions, when 
 not based on intelligence and virtue. 
 
 From this source we have the safe-guard of moral 
 motives and restraints, flowing from the sense of relio-i- 
 ous obligation as the basis of them all. " Whatever," says 
 Washington, " may be conceded "to a refined education, rea- 
 son and experience both forbid us to expect that national 
 morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle." 
 Speaking of the essence of Freedom, Mr. Burke said — " He 
 that fears God fears nothing else." It is not the assertion of 
 parties or of sects, but of that venerable, catholic wisdom 
 which is above them all, that religion is essential to national 
 greatness. It alone truly exalts the hearts of men and of na- 
 tions out of selfishness into true disinterestedness, prompting 
 the noble deeds which spring from noble hearts, and consecrat- 
 ing alike every act of private virtue and public beneficence. 
 
 And with it we have the safeguard of that generous intel- 
 lectual training, which not only imparts knowledge, but con- 
 fers the wisdom to use it to noblest ends, giving habits of pa- 
 tient thought, and calm, caieful enquiry, by which, as by the 
 touch of Ithuriel's spear, the glittering disguise is stript off from 
 false and ruinous projects, and difficulties in the way of honor- 
 able enterprise revealed; which teaches all that is essential 
 for success and dignity to the man, and arms the citizen with 
 those truths which guided our fathers through times of trial, 
 and which alone can give strength and enduring glory to our 
 institutions and our freedom. And with it comes also the safe- 
 guard of " elegant humanising culture," which gives pure and 
 salutary employment to leisure, throws a softening influence
 
 L6 
 
 ii.l makes letters and music, and sculpture and 
 Qting, the beautiful sisterhood of the creative intellect com- 
 bine to relieve the toils of life, to soothe its cares, and dignify 
 i its seasons of recreation. 
 
 I cannot in better language sum up, in one view, what such 
 culture must do for a people, mid the consequent responsibili- 
 ty which rests upon all classes of citizens, and especially upon 
 the liberally educated, than in the words of an English 
 scholar, showing the tendency of all knowledge to form the 
 heart of a nation : 
 
 " We will venture to say, how in the mercy of God to man 
 this heart comes to a nation, and how its exercise or affection 
 appears. It comes by priests, by lawyers, by philosophers, 
 schools, by education, by the nurse's care, the mother's 
 anxiety, the father's severe brow. It comes by letters, by 
 science, by every art, by sculpture, by painting, by poetry, 
 by the song on war, on peace, on domestic virtue, on a be- 
 loved and magnanimous ruler, by the Iliad, by the Odyssey, 
 l>\ tragedy, by comedy. It comes by sympathy, by love, by 
 the marriage union, by friendship, generosity, meekness, tem- 
 perance, by virtue and example of virtue. It comes by senti- 
 ments of chivalry, by romance, by music, by decorations and 
 magnificence of buildings, by the culture of the body, by com- 
 fortable clothing, by fashions in dress, by luxury and com- 
 merce. It comes by the severity, the melancholy, the be- 
 nignity of countenance, by rules of politeness, ceremonies, 
 formalities, solemnities. It comes by rights attendant on law, 
 by religion, by the oath of office, by the venerable assembly, 
 by the disgrace and punishment of crimes, by public fastsj 
 public prayer, by meditation, by the bible, by the consecra- 
 tion of churches, by the sacred festival, by the cathedral's 
 gloom and choir. Whence the heart of a nation com.-, we 
 have perhaps sufficiently explained. And it must appear-to 
 what most awful obligation and duty we hold all those from 
 whom this heart takes its nature and shape, our rulers, and 
 all who bear the badges of office or honor, all priests, judges, 
 senators, pleaders, interpreters of law, all instructors of youth, 
 all seminaries of education, all parents, all learned men, all
 
 17 
 
 professors of science and art, all teachers of manners. Upon 
 them depends the fashion of the nation's heart. By them it 
 is to be chastised, refined, and purified. By them is the State 
 to lose the character and the title of the beasts of prey. By 
 them are the iron scales to fall, and a skin of youth, beauty, 
 freshness, and polish, to come upon it. By them it is to be 
 made so tame and gentle as that a child may lead it. 5 
 
 5J# 
 
 To the first danger then to which our attention has been 
 directed, what safeguard may be opposed with better hope, 
 than the noble, unselfish disposition which by such culture 
 as we have spoken of comes to the heart of a people, the dis- 
 position to allow our neighbor as fair a field as we claim for 
 ourselves ; the spirit which disdains all jealous rivalry, and 
 rejoices in all success worthily obtained for the sake of the 
 common welfare to which it contributes. We, gentlemen, 
 can carry this spirit with us. We may bring into the walks 
 of enterprise, and the paths in which honorable distinction is 
 won, something of that magnanimity before which the petty 
 combats of selfishness and faction shall shrink rebuked, and of 
 that charity which only will temper the fierce contentions of 
 society. And by the influence which the humblest among us 
 may exert in his sphere, we can aid in opposing the safeguards 
 of temperance, modesty and integrity, against the irruption of 
 worldly passions, the ebb and flow of those vices which civili- 
 sation, unchecked by knowledge, morality and piety, always 
 threatens to let loose upon society. And when the voice of 
 popular opinion, blinded by the splendor of prostituted talent, 
 demands the sacrifice of principle at its shrine, can we do a 
 nobler thing than to raise against such an unholy worship, the 
 majestic voice which proclaims with the authority of heaven, 
 that talent and genius are sacred gifts which men are bound to 
 use for the good of their brother men, and the honor of their 
 Creator : the abuse of which deserves contempt and shame in 
 this world, as it will inevitably draw down a deeper condem- 
 nation at the bar of Divine justice. 
 
 And as literary men — as a brotherhood to whom the pur- 
 suits 'of literature must be the solace and recreation, if not the 
 
 * Dr. Ramsden's Sermons, Cambridge, England.
 
 L8 
 
 tion of life — who are likely, directly or indirectly, to ex- 
 .tii influence in giving tone to that literature which tells 
 ■ immediately and powerfullj upon the public mind; Let 
 me suggest as another safeguard against the dangers and 
 corrupting influences resulting from the civilisation of our day 
 and country, the influence of a pure, high-toned American 
 literature. The press is the great instructor of this age and 
 this land ; the literature which emanates from it to a nation 
 of readers, is the most powerful and constant stimulus to action. 
 And what is the literature we demand, which all our educated 
 men should aim at creating or encouraging? 
 
 What Bhould be recognised as its genuine spirit? Its im- 
 pul-r- -hall ever he in sympathy with the destinies, the wants, 
 and the hopes of man as man. We have cut ourselves loose 
 from the old regime. We have nothing to do with those trap- 
 pings and formulas of state, those modes ©f life, those habits 
 of thought and currents of feeling, which refuse to deal with 
 man as free and as noble as God made him. 
 
 Our empire is founded upon the rights and duties, and 
 wants of the people, that sovereign whose sceptre is the con- 
 stitution, whose throne is the forum, whose every fireside of 
 domestic dignity, virtue and peace, is brighter than kingly 
 halls ar aristocratic saloons. 
 
 The literature that owes its birth to a democratic people 
 worthy of the name, must be such as men everywhere will re- 
 joice to hail. Its mission will be with the common heart of 
 humanity, with its earnest aspirations, its never-satisfied long- 
 ings after the good, the true, and the perfect, its anxious ques- 
 tionings into the mystery of its own nature and destiny. 
 
 It will cease to dwell upon the outw 7 ard and the conven- 
 tional, and direct itself to that which is inward, spiritual, un- 
 changingly desirable. It will explore those depths in the 
 immaterial nature of man, where lies the springs of his noblest 
 capabilities. It will seek to evolve from this " wondrous ob- 
 i. woven of contrasts, of greatness and littleness infinite, 
 of in' loom, and of amazing brightness" — a being capa- 
 
 ble of self-help and self-control, a worth}- denizen of time, a 
 'hless heir of heaven. Thus it will unite in favor of our 
 institutions, the best aspirations and noblest sympathies. It
 
 19 
 
 will link us for ever to the great ;md holy cause of political, 
 intellectual and religious freedom. Grasping the destinies of 
 man as its theme, and ever aiming to develope his essential 
 nohleness and his true moral strength, it will inspire a gen- 
 erous enthusiasm in the attainment of the highest moral good. 
 Into the practical engagements and never-ceasing toil, 
 whose tendency is to bind the soul exclusively to earthly and 
 sensual objects, it will infuse that free and generous spirit of 
 hope and patient trust, which is as the hidden nerve which 
 gives vigor to the frame. It will send into the common heart 
 the will to do all, and to suffer all, for principle, for freedom, 
 and the rights of man. It will inspire the ardor of living 
 nobly, and acting nobly for our country, for the world, for 
 God. As one of our own poets has sung, it will ^incite each 
 to be — 
 
 " In our country's field of battle, 
 
 In the bivouac of life, 
 Not like dumb and driven cattle, 
 
 But a hero in the strife." 
 
 The most encouraging feature in the present aspect of our 
 literature, including under the term only those results of men- 
 tal effort which exhibit their claims to a national designation, 
 by their sympathy with our social and political developments 
 and condition, is the animating and hopeful spirit which it 
 breathes in regard to the great future which lies before us. 
 
 While it enters warmly into the toils and struggles of the 
 present, it looks beyond to the infinitely wider and stronger 
 action of our prospective condition, and it dwells with eagle 
 vision upon the brilliant destiny which that action is to accom- 
 plish. It aims to nerve the heart amidst the stern battlings 
 and thick-coming discouragements which yet environ and 
 occupy us, by presenting the magnificent image of a time 
 when all disturbing powers shall be vanquished, and our 
 prosperity shall be commensurate with the freedom of our in- 
 stitutions, and the extent of our territory. Its aim has been to 
 inspire a generous, self-sacrificing patriotism. 
 
 It has breathed the Spartan's love of country with more 
 than the Spartan's solicitude for the purity of that country's
 
 20 
 
 honor. It has Bought to instil by motives, which are in them- 
 selves rewards, enerous contempt, of everything selfish, 
 tional ami expedient, and a deep love of all that is glori- 
 ous in public spirit, of all that is pure in the advancement of 
 the genera] good, of all that is lovely in moral worth, of all 
 that is holy and venerable in principle. 
 
 And it there is one thing of which we may he justly proud, 
 it is the 1 1 i u: 1 1 moral tone and tmcontaminated patriotic spirit 
 of onr poetry. We may open its volumes almost at random, 
 and we shall be enabled to trace on their pages, evidence of 
 the hiirh-souled integrity which animated the founders of this 
 Republic, and nerved the hearts of the heroes of the Revolution. 
 This harp of the West strung by " the pure in heart, and 
 great in soul," yet thrills to kindred hands with those that 
 swept it in the " old stormy times ;" and on many a glorious 
 battle-field, and in many a memorable council-hall, awoke 
 strains which caused the ears of men to tingle. What heart 
 has not thrilled to the " song of Marion's men," and beat 
 responsive to the inspired strains of Halleck ; strains which, 
 whether they breathe of our own triumphs, or the struggles of 
 other lands, breathe still the soul of " our own green land 
 forever?" Who has not caught some animating glimpse of 
 the grand and solemn destiny before us, from the already 
 classic strains of Bryant, Percival, and Longfellow? Who 
 lias not lingered w T ith Sprague, Dana, Whit tier and Henry 
 Ware, over the vast and awful promise which broods as a glory 
 over the ark of our freedom ? 
 
 Nor are these cheering tokens confined to our poetry alone. 
 Whose patriotism has not been aroused and deepened by the 
 essays of our earlier statesmen, by the truly great productions 
 of later years, by the political discourses of Channing and 
 Everett— by the classic histories of Prescott — by the pure 
 ethics and sound political philosophy of Wayland, and Potter, 
 by the magnificent oratory of Webster. These are the true 
 exponents of our infant literature, and to these we point with 
 pride and hope ;is prophetic of much. 
 
 Let us have a literature like this, and the influences it will 
 beget, and the pure, ennobling motives it will inspire, will 
 bind us for ever in mind and heart to the country and the
 
 21 
 
 home, of whose principles, aspirations and destinies, there are 
 at once the present manifestation, and the prophetic utterance. 
 The purity and grandeur of motive, based upon, and en- 
 kindled by the essential nobleness of the work in which we 
 are engaged, and of which not our writers only, but our whole 
 people shall feel themselves to be partakers, will keep the in- 
 tellectual and moral life of the Republic true to its first pulsa- 
 tions. And hence will come under God's blessing, that spirit 
 of humane and generous enterprise, that simple, unaffected 
 integrity, and above all, those feelings of profound devotion 
 to the best interests of man, of our land, and of our race, 
 which ought to combine in harmony in the national character. 
 Gentlemen, — If these hints, crude as they are in conception, 
 and imperfectly expressed, should seem to you to imply too 
 strong coloring on the dark side of the subject I have brought 
 before you, or a glow of hope too sanguine on the other ; either 
 magnifying the dangers, or over-estimating the strength of the 
 safeguards to be erected against them, the error is one which 
 experience will teach us all, soon enough, to correct. In the 
 field which lies before us, it is safer to exaggerate than to 
 undervalue the power of the foe, and a spirit hopeful of suc- 
 cess, will win the victory by honorable battle, where craven 
 fear would perish amidst the apparatus of a less glorious war- 
 fare. I utter no vain boast, but a cherished and proud con- 
 viction to which I am sure every heart before me responds, 
 when I say, that the spirit of our fraternity is such as to ani- 
 imate its members to noble effort, by setting before them lofti- 
 est objects, the attainment of which is worthily achieved only 
 when achieved through unselfish struggle for truth and for 
 right, with a single eye to duty, " pro Deo, pro patria, pro 
 hominum salute." Not as an effete maxim of the schools to 
 be forgotten amidst the severe toils and stirring contests of life, 
 but as the living utterance of a living, abiding, actuating prin- 
 ciple it speaks to us ; macte virtute. That lesson was writ- 
 ten upon our hearts in hours when the kindling aspirations, 
 and the warm friendships of early youth, gave it power 
 to thrill every nerve with the enthusiasm of living nobly. It 
 sprang from the soul, and burned upon the lip, and ran like 
 the electric current, from spirit to spirit, as we encircled our
 
 22 
 
 altar of brotherhood, till one glorious impulse animated us all. 
 That impulse, gentlemen-, is here revived to-day. It brings 
 bark again in all it-; majesty and beauty that noble lesson. I 
 I that lesson in the open brews, in the kindling eyes 
 around me. We have not forgotten it, we will not forget it. 
 \\ i will make its enunciation our watchword in every strug- 
 gle, we will cling to it as our guiding principle, ever present, 
 ever helpful through the power which God gives to every 
 law of virtuous action, when sincerely obeyed ; — ever present, 
 ever helpful, and bringing ever its own exceeding great re- 
 ward. 
 
 Indulge me, brothers, a moment longer. To these hours 
 of pure and sweet communion, I am sure memory will again 
 and again recur as a season precious to the heart. To him 
 who addresses you amidst the grateful feelings which it awa- 
 kens, sorrowful reminiscences come unbidden, and the strain 
 of joyous gratulation has its own mournful undertone of sad- 
 ness. He remembers two of our fraternity who then stood 
 side by side, in the vigor of manhood, two its oldest, most 
 honored, best beloved members, under whose auspices it was 
 his privilege to enter the society.* One of these, a noble and 
 gifted brother, whose commanding intellect was to us as a 
 tower of strength, arrested him on the threshold of his aca- 
 demic life, and amidst the dreams of boyish frivolity, spake 
 words which were as a charm to his spirit, in many an hour 
 of temptation, in many an hour of lonely study, silencing the 
 voice of seducing pleasures, summoning him to useful toils, 
 and nerving him to grapple with the difficulties which beset 
 the path of the student. That brother sleeps in his honored 
 grave. The other who was also to him that speaks to you, 
 as a counsellor and friend, is here. The memorv of Averill 
 will be for ever fragrant in our hearts, and his eulogy has 
 n fitly spoken by that bosom-friend who is with us here, 
 and whom we all regard with love and pride as one who can 
 best supph to us, bis younger brethren, that which, in Ave. 
 rill we have lost. Let then the memory of the dead, and the 
 
 * The allusion is to the late Professor Averill, of Union College, and to 
 Professor Eaton, of Madison University, who was present.
 
 23 
 
 example of the living, unite to cheer us onward, to attest as 
 they have attested, the principles we avow, by living as they 
 have lived, nobly and usefully, by dying, as died the gifted 
 and pure-minded Averill, as only a noble Christian man can 
 die, when his work on earth is done. 
 
 We complete to day another lustrum in the existence of 
 our fraternity. Hitherto each one, as it has rolled over us, 
 has been brighter and more auspicious than that which pre- 
 ceded it. May it ever be thus ! May our noble institution 
 ever be what its founders intended it to be, a nursery of high- 
 minded patriotic, Christian men : an institution which our 
 country in her trial-day, need not be ashamed nor afraid to 
 own. And when called upon to exhibit to the world the 
 fruits of her civilisation, the treasures of her culture, may "she 
 be enabled, like the mother of the Gracchi, to point to its 
 members as among her true children, with the proud reply, 
 "these are my jewels." 
 
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