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 INAUGURAL DISCOURSE 
 
 OF 
 
 HENRY B'ROUGHAM, ESQ., M. P., 
 
 
 
 ON BEING INSTALLED 
 
 LORD RECTOR 
 
 OF THE 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF GLASGOW, 
 
 WEDNESDAY, APRIL 6, 1825. 
 
 GLASGOW: 
 
 tfrintrtr at ti)e nibevsitg 
 
 BY ANDREW AND JOHN M, DUNCAN, 
 
 FOR JOHN SMITH & SON, GLASGOW; 
 
 ARCHIBALD CONSTABLE & CO. EDINBURGH ; 
 
 AND LONGMAN, HURST, REES, ORME, BROWN, & GREEN, 
 
 LONDON. 
 
 M.D.CCC.XXV. 
 
 t
 
 Sfed 
 Annex 
 
 TO 
 
 THE VERY REVEREND THE PRINCIPAL, 
 
 THE PROFESSORS, 
 
 AND THE STUDENTS, 
 
 OF THE 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF GLASGOW. 
 
 I beg leave to inscribe this Discourse to you, in token 
 of my great respect. Although the opinions which it 
 sets forth are the result of mature deliberation, yet, as 
 it was written during the business of the Northern Cir- 
 cuit, it will, I fear, as far as regards the composition, 
 not be deemed very fit to appear before the world. 
 Nevertheless, I have yielded a somewhat reluctant 
 assent to the request of many of your number, who 
 were of opinion that its publication would prove bene- 
 ficial. 
 
 H. BROUGHAM, R. 
 
 20669G6
 
 IT now becomes me to return my very sincere 
 and respectful thanks for the kindness which has 
 placed me in a chair, filled at former times by so 
 many great men, whose names might well make 
 any comparison formidable to a far more worthy 
 successor. 
 
 While I desire you to accept this unexagge- 
 rated expression of gratitude, I am anxious to 
 address you rather in the form which I now adopt, 
 than in the more usual one of an unpremeditat- 
 ed discourse. I shall thus at least prove that the 
 reinarks, which I deem it my duty to make, are 
 the fruit of mature reflection, and J;hat I am un- 
 willing to discharge an important office in a 
 
 perfunctory manner. 
 
 B
 
 6 
 
 I feel very sensibly, that if I shall now urge 
 you by general exhortations, to be instant in the 
 pursuit of the learning, which, in all its branches, 
 flourishes under the kindly shelter of these roofs, 
 I may weary you with the unprofitable repetition 
 of a thrice told tale ; and if I presume to offer 
 my advice touching the conduct of your studies, 
 I may seem to trespass upon the province of 
 those venerable persons, under whose care 
 you have the singular happiness to be placed. 
 But I would nevertheless expose myself to either 
 charge, for the sake of joining my voice with 
 theirs, in anxiously intreating you to believe how 
 incomparably the present season is verily and 
 indeed the most precious of your whole lives. It 
 is not the less true, because it has been oftentimes 
 said, that the period of youth is by far the best 
 fitted for the improvement of the mind, and the 
 retirement of a college almost exclusively adapt- 
 ed to much study. At your enviable age, every 
 thing has the lively interest of novelty and fresh- 
 ness ; attention is perpetually sharpened by cu- 
 riosity j and the memory is tenacious of the deep
 
 impressions it thus receives, to a degree unknown 
 in after life j while the distracting cares of the 
 world, or its beguiling pleasures, cross not the 
 threshold of these calm retreats ; its distant noise 
 and bustle are faintly heard, making the shelter 
 you enjoy more grateful ; and the struggles of 
 anxious mortals embarked upon that troublous 
 sea, are viewed from an eminence, the security 
 of which is rendered more sweet by the pros- 
 pect of the scene below. Yet a little while, and 
 you too will be plunged into those waters of 
 bitterness ; and will cast an eye of regret, as 
 now I 'do, upon the peaceful regions you have 
 quitted for ever. Such is your lot as members of 
 society ; but it will be your own fault if you 
 look back on this place with repentance or with 
 shame ; and be well assured that, whatever time 
 ay, every hour you squander here on unpro- 
 fitable idling, will then rise up against you, and 
 be paid for by years of bitter but unavailing re- 
 grets. Study then, I beseech you, so to store 
 your minds with the exquisite learning of former 
 ages, that you may always possess within your- 
 
 B 2
 
 selves sources of rational and refined enjoyment, 
 which will enable you to set at nought the gross- 
 er pleasures of sense, whereof other men are 
 slaves ; and so imbue yourselves with the sound 
 philosophy of later days, forming yourselves to 
 the virtuous habits which are its legitimate off- 
 spring, that you may walk unhurt through the 
 trials which await you, and may look down upon 
 the ignorance and error that surround you, not 
 with lofty and supercilious contempt, as the sa- 
 ges of old times, but with the vehement desire 
 of enlightening those who wander in darkness, 
 and who are by so much the more endeared to 
 us by how much they want our assistance. 
 
 Assuming the improvement of his own mind 
 and of the lot of his fellow-creatures to be the 
 great end of every man's existence, who is re- 
 moved above the care of providing for his suste- 
 nance, and to be the indispensable duty of every 
 man, as far as his own immediate wants leave him 
 any portion of time unemployed, our attention is 
 naturally directed to the means by which so great
 
 9 
 
 and urgent a work may best be performed ; and 
 as in the limited time allotted to this discourse, I 
 cannot hope to occupy more than a small portion 
 of so wide a field, I shall confine myself to two 
 subjects, or rather to a few observations upon 
 two subjects, both of them appropriate to this 
 place, but either of them affording ample mate- 
 rials for an entire course of Lectures the Study 
 of the Rhetorical Art, by which useful truths are 
 promulgated with effect, and the Purposes to 
 which a Proficiency in this art should be made 
 subservient. 
 
 It is an extremely common error among young 
 persons, impatient of academical discipline, to 
 turn from the painful study of ancient, and par- 
 ticularly of Attic composition, and solace them- 
 selves with works rendered easy by the Ifamiliari- 
 ty of their own tongue. They plausibly con- 
 tend, that as powerful or captivating diction in 
 a pure English style is, after all, the attainment 
 they are in search of, the study of the best Eng- 
 lish models affords the shortest road to this point} 
 
 B3
 
 10 
 
 and even admitting the ancient examples to 
 have been the great fountains from which all elo- 
 quence is drawn, they would rather profit, as it 
 were, by the classical labours of their English 
 predecessors, than toil over the same path them- 
 selves. In a word, they would treat the perish- 
 able results of those labours as the standard, and 
 give themselves no care about the immortal ori- 
 ginals. This argument, the thin covering which 
 indolence weaves for herself, would speedily sink 
 all the fine arts into barrenness and insignifi- 
 cance. Why, according to such reasoners, should 
 a sculptor or painter encounter the toil of a 
 journey to Athens or to Rome? Far better 
 work at home, and profit by the labour of those 
 who have resorted to the Vatican and the Par- 
 thenon, and founded an English school, adapted 
 to the taste of our own country. Be you assured 
 that the works of the English chisel fall not 
 more short of the wonders of the Acropolis than 
 the best productions of modern pens fall short 
 of the chaste, finished, nervous, and overwhelm- 
 ing compositions of them that " resistless ful-
 
 11 
 
 mined over Greece." Be equally sure that, with 
 hardly any exception, the great things of poetry 
 and of eloquence have been done by men who 
 cultivated the mighty exemplars of Athenian 
 genius with daily and with nightly devotion. 
 Among poets there is hardly an exception to 
 this rule, unless may be so deemed Shakspeare, 
 an exception to all rules, and Dante, familiar as 
 a contemporary with the works of Roman art, 
 composed in his mother tongue, having taken, 
 not so much for his guide as for his " master," 
 Virgil, himself almost a translator from the 
 Greeks. But among orators I know of none 
 among the Romans, and scarce any in our own 
 times. Cicero honoured the Greek masters with 
 such singular observance, that he not only repair- 
 ed to Athens for the sake of finishing his rhetori- 
 cal education, but afterwards continued to prac- 
 tise the art of declaiming in Greek ; and although 
 he afterward fell into a less pure manner through 
 the corrupt blandishments of the Asian taste, 
 yet do we find him ever prone to extol the no- 
 ble perfections of his first masters, as something 
 
 B 4
 
 placed beyond the reach of all imitation. Nay, 
 at a mature period of his life, he occupied him- 
 self in translating the greater orations of the 
 Greeks, which composed almost exclusively his 
 treatise, " De optima genere oratoris ;" as if to 
 write a discourse on oratorical perfection, were 
 merely to present the reader with the two im- 
 mortal speeches upon the Crown. Sometimes 
 we find him imitating, even to a literal version, 
 the beauties of those divine originals, as the 
 beautiful passage of JEschines, in the Timarchus, 
 upon the torments of the guilty, which the Ro- 
 man orator has twice made use of, almost word 
 for word j once in the oration for Sextus Roscius, 
 the earliest he delivered, and again in a more 
 mature effort of his genius, the oration against 
 L. Piso.* 
 
 * M <ya{ oitfffi, TOSS rut a5<*^araiv *$ *fl Slav, XX' v% vir v>- 
 fyvxuv a<rt).y<icts ymfftar ^Si ravs fififimtoras, x.ia.*t t ra~s r^tfy^'tais, 
 Uotta.; 1'A.avHiv xai noKa^fti $etff} ripp'tiai!' XX* al vga#iri7f <rov ffu(i.Krt>s 
 noatat xai ro ftniiv ixittov tiyiTftiar taZia, arXjgo7 TO, tyffrri/iia fuvr (is T> 
 jra*rjo*jX>ira l^/S/jSa^r tttvia. ienti txaffru How- ravra traaxifovirai 
 re~t tiaii, *.. r. X. AiV^i'v. Ka.ro. Tip&gxev, 
 
 Nolite enim putare quemadmodum in fabulis ssepenumero videatis
 
 13 
 
 I have dwelt the rather upon the authority of 
 M. Tullius, because it enables us at once to an- 
 swer the question, Whether a study of the Roman 
 orators be not sufficient for refining the taste ? 
 If the Greeks were the models of an excellence 
 which the first of Roman orators never attained, 
 although ever aspiring after it nay, if so far 
 from being satisfied with his own success, he 
 even in those his masters found something which 
 his ears desiderated (ita avidae et capaces ut 
 
 eos qui aliquid impie scelesteque commiserint, agitari et perterreri 
 Furiarum taedis ardentibus. Sua quemque fraus et suus terror 
 maxime vexat ; suum quemque scelus agitat amentiaque afficit ; suse 
 malae cogitationes conscientiaeque animi terrent. Hae sunt impiis 
 assiduaj domestica3que Furiae ; quae dies noctesque parentum poepas 
 a consceleratissimis filiis repetant. (Pro Sexto Roscio Antenna.) 
 
 Nolite enim putare, ut in scena videtis, homines consceleratos 
 impulsu deorum terreri Furiarum taedis ardentibus. Sua quemque 
 fraus suum facinus suum scelus sua audacia, de sanitate ac 
 mente deturbat. Has sunt impiorum Furiae hae flammas hae 
 faces. (In Liw. Calp. Pisonem.) 
 
 The great improvement in Cicero's taste between the first and 
 the second of these compositions is manifest, and his closer ad- 
 herence to the original. He introduces the same idea, and in very 
 similar language, in the Treatise De Legg. Lib. 1.
 
 semper aliquid immensum infinitumque deside- 
 rent. Orator. 29.) he either fell short while 
 copying them, or he failed by diverting his wor- 
 ship to the false gods of the Asian school. In 
 the one case, were we to rest satisfied with 
 studying the Roman, we should only be imitat- 
 ing the imperfect copy, instead of the pure ori- 
 ginal like him who should endeavour to catch 
 a glimpse of some beauty by her reflection in a 
 glass, that weakened her tints, if it did not dis- 
 tort her features. In the other case, we should 
 not be imitating the same, but some less perfect 
 original, and looking at the wrong beauty j not 
 her whose chaste and simple attractions com- 
 manded the adoration of all Greece, but some 
 garish damsel from Rhodes or Chios, just bril- 
 liant and languishing enough to captivate the 
 less pure taste of half civilized Rome. 
 
 But there are other reasons too weighty to be 
 passed over, which justify the same decided pre- 
 ference. Not to mention the incomparable 
 beauty and power of the Greek language, the 
 
 18
 
 15 
 
 study of which alone affords the means of en- 
 riching our own, the compositions of Cicero, ex- 
 quisite as they are for beauty of diction, often 
 remarkable for ingenious argument and brilliant 
 wit, not seldom excelling in deep pathos, are 
 nevertheless so extremely rhetorical, fashioned 
 by an art so little concealed, and sacrificing the 
 subject to a display of the speaker's powers, ad- 
 mirable as those are, that nothing can be less 
 adapted to the genius of modern elocution, 
 which requires a constant and almost exclusive 
 attention to the business in hand. In all his 
 orations which were spoken (for, singular as it 
 may seem, the remark applies less to those which 
 were only written, as all the Verrine, except the 
 first, all the Philippics, except the first and 
 ninth, and the Pro Milone,) hardly two pages 
 can be found which a modern assembly would 
 bear. Some admirable arguments on evidence, 
 and the credit of witnesses, might be urged to a 
 jury j* several passages, given by him on the me- 
 
 * There is a singular example of this in the remarks on the evi- 
 dence and cross-examination in the oration for L. Flaccus, pointed
 
 16 
 
 rits of the case, and in defence against the charge, 
 might be spoken in mitigation of punishment af- 
 ter a conviction or confession of guilt ; but whe- 
 ther we regard the political or forensic orations, 
 the style, both in respect of the reasoning and the 
 ornaments, is wholly unfit for the more severe and 
 less trifling nature of modern affairs in the senate 
 or at the bar. Now, it is altogether otherwise with 
 the Greek masters: Changing a few phrases, 
 which the difference of religion and of manners 
 
 might render objectionable, moderating, in 
 
 \ 
 
 some degree, the virulence of invective, espe- 
 cially against private character, to suit the chi- 
 valrous courtesy of modern hostility, there is 
 hardly one of the political or forensic orations of 
 the Greeks that might not be delivered in simi- 
 
 out to me by my friend Mr. Scarlett, the mention of whose name 
 affords an illustration of my argument, for, as a more consummate 
 master of the forensic art in all its branches never lived, so no man 
 is more conversant with the works of his predecessors in an- 
 cient times. Lord Erskine, too, perhaps the first of judicial orators, 
 ancient or modern, had well studied the noble remains of the clas- 
 sic age. 
 
 18
 
 17 
 
 lar circumstances before our senate or tribunals ; 
 while their funeral and other panegyrical dis- 
 courses are much less inflated and unsubstantial 
 than those of the most approved masters of the 
 Epideictic style, the French preachers and Aca- 
 demicians. Whence this difference between the 
 masterpieces of Greek and Roman eloquence ? 
 Whence but from the rigid steadiness with which 
 the Greek orator keeps the object of all elo- 
 quence perpetually in view, never speaking for 
 mere speaking's sake j while the Latin rhetori- 
 cian, ingenii sui nimlum amator t and, as though 
 he deemed his occupation a trial of skill, or dis- 
 play of accomplishments, seems ever and anon 
 to lose sight of the subject matter in the attempt 
 to illustrate and adorn it ; and pours forth pas- 
 sages sweet indeed, but unprofitable fitted to 
 tickle the ear, without reaching the heart. 
 Where in all the orations of Cicero, or of him who 
 almost equals him, Livy, mirge facundiae homo, 
 (Quinct.) shall we find any thing like those thick 
 successions of short questions, in which De- 
 mosthenes oftentimes forges, as it were, with a
 
 18 
 
 few rapidly following strokes, the whole massive 
 chain of his argument ; as, in the Chersonese, 
 
 E/ $' aVaf; dtcupQagriffsrtti xcti diotkvdqffsrai, ri TO/^<TO- 
 (ttv, av IT/ Xgppovjjc'OJ' fy ; x^ivov^v A/OTS/^V ; vq A/a. 
 Ka; r/ ra Tgay^ara sWa/ jSeXr/a;; aXX* Iv&zvfa 
 
 ctvro7$ \ uv 
 
 a A/* o% ^|g/. a/ r/g lyyvtirfe Ian rourov ; 
 or, comprising all of a long narrative that suits 
 his argument in a single sentence, presenting a 
 lengthened series of events at a single glance, as 
 
 in the Hagavrg&fffieiot : Tlsvrs yag ygyopacw ^///gga/ ^/o- 
 va/, iv a^ oyro? aT^yyg/Xg ra -v^gy^ y^g?^ gV/<r- 
 s, of <&&>%&($ zvvdovro e/tdaxav iavroug 
 
 But though the more business-like manner of 
 modern debate approaches much nearer the style 
 of the Greek than the Latin compositions, it must 
 be admitted that it falls short of the great originals 
 in the closeness, and, as it were, density of the 
 argument ; in the habitual sacrifice of all orna- 
 ment to use, or rather in the constant union of the 
 two ; so that, while a modern orator too frequent-
 
 19 
 
 ly has his speech parcelled out in compartments, 
 one devoted to argument, another to declama- 
 tion, a third to mere ornament, as if he should 
 say, Now your reason shall be convinced ; now I 
 am going to rouse your passions ; and now you 
 shall see how I can amuse your fancy the more 
 vigorous ancient argued in declaiming, and made 
 his very boldest figures subservient to, or rather 
 an integral part of his reasoning. The most figu- 
 rative and highly wrought passage in all antiquity 
 is the famous oath in Demosthenes, yet, in the 
 most pathetic part of it, and when he seems to 
 have left the furthest behind him the immediate 
 subject of his speech, led away by the prodigious 
 interest of the recollections he has excited ; when 
 he is naming the very tombs where the heroes of 
 Marathon lie buried, he instantly, not abruptly, 
 but by a most felicitous and easy transition, re- 
 turns into the midst of the main argument of his 
 whole defence that the merits of public servants, 
 not the success of their councils, should be the 
 measure of the public gratitude towards them 
 a position that runs through the whole speech,
 
 20 
 
 and to which he makes the funeral honours be- 
 stowed alike on all the heroes, serve as a striking 
 and appropriate support. With the same ease 
 does Virgil manage his celebrated transition in 
 the Georgics ; where, in the midst of the Thra- 
 cian war, and while at an immeasurable dis- 
 tance from agricultural topics, the magician 
 strikes the ground on the field of battle, where hel- 
 mets are buried, and suddenly raises before us the 
 lonely husbandman, in a remote age, peacefully 
 tilling its soil, and driving his plough among the 
 rusty armour and mouldering remains of the 
 warrior.* 
 
 But if a further reason is required for giving 
 the preference to the Greek orators, we may 
 find it in the greater diversity and importance of 
 the subjects upon which their speeches were 
 delivered. Beside the number of admirable ora- 
 tions and of written arguments upon causes mere- 
 ly forensic, we have every subject of public po- 
 licy, all the great affairs of state successively 
 
 * Georg. I. 493.
 
 forming the topics of discussion. Compare 
 them with Cicero in this particular, and the 
 contrast is striking. His finest oration for matter 
 and diction together is in defence of an indivi- 
 'dual charged with murder, and there is nothing 
 in the case to give it a public interest, except 
 that the parties were of opposite factions in the 
 state, and the deceased a personal as well as po- 
 litical adversary of the speaker. His most ex- 
 quisite performance in point of diction, perhaps 
 the most perfect prose composition in the lan- 
 guage, was addressed to one man, in palliation of 
 another's having borne arms against him in a war 
 with a personal rival. Even the Catilinarians, 
 his most splendid declamations, are principally 
 denunciations of a single conspirator ; the Philip- 
 pics, his most brilliant invectives, abuse of a pro- 
 fligate leader ; and the Verrine orations, charges 
 against an individual governor. Many, indeed 
 almost all the subjects of his speeches, rise to the 
 rank of what the French term Causes celebres ; 
 but they seldom rise higher.* Of Demosthenes, 
 
 * The cause of this difference between the Greek and Roman 
 C
 
 on the other hand, we have not only many argu- 
 ments upon cases strictly private, and relating 
 
 Orators has been so strikingly described by a learned friend of mine, 
 in the following note upon the above passage, that the celebrity of 
 his name, were I at liberty to mention it, is not required to at- 
 tract the reader's notice. " In Athens," says he, " an incessant 
 struggle for independence, for power, or for liberty, could not 
 fail to rouse the genius of every citizen to force the highest 
 talent to the highest station to animate her councils with a 
 holy zeal and to afford to her orators all that, according to the 
 profoundest writers of antiquity, is necessary to the sublimest 
 strains of eloquence. " Magna eloquentia sicut flamma materia 
 alitur, a inotibus excitatur, urendo clarescit." Hers were not the 
 holiday contests of men who sought to dazzle by the splendour of 
 their diction, the grace of their delivery, the propriety and richness 
 of their imagery. Her debates were on the most serious business 
 which can agitate men the preservation of national liberty, honour, 
 independence, and glory. The gifts of genius and the perfection of 
 art shed, indeed, a lustre upon the most vigorous exertions of her 
 orators but the object of their thunders was to stir the energies of 
 the men of Athens, and to make tyrants tremble, or rivals despair. 
 Rome, on the other hand, mistress of the world, at the time when 
 she was most distinguished by genius and eloquence, owned no su- 
 perior, hated no rival, dreaded no equal. Nations sought her pro- 
 tection, kings bowed before her majesty, the bosom of her sole do- 
 minion was disturbed by no struggle for national power, no alarm of 
 
 foreign danger. While she maintained the authority of her laws 
 
 18
 
 23 
 
 to pecuniary matters, (those generally called the 
 /) and many upon interesting subjects, 
 
 over the civilized earth, and embraced under the flattering name of 
 allies those who could no longer resist her arms, the revolt of a bar- 
 barian king, or the contests of bordering nations with each other, 
 prolonged only till she had decided between them, served to amuse 
 her citizens or her senate, without affecting their tranquillity. Her 
 government, though essentially free, was not so popular as the Athe- 
 nian. The severity of her discipline, and the gravity of her man- 
 ners disposed her citizens less to those sudden and powerful emo- 
 tions which both excited and followed the efforts of the Greek ora- 
 tors. It seems, therefore, reasonable to conclude, that the charac- 
 ter of Roman eloquence would be distinguished more by art than 
 by passion, by science than by nature. The divisions and animosi- 
 ties of party, no doubt, would operate, and did operate with their 
 accustomed force. But these are not like the generous flame 
 which animates a whole nation to defend its liberty or its honour. 
 The discussion of a law upon which the national safety could not 
 depend, the question whether this or that general should take the 
 command of an army, whether this or that province should be al- 
 lotted to a particular minister, whether the petition of a city to be 
 admitted to the privileges of Roman citizens should be granted, or 
 whethersome concession should be made to a suppliant king; these, 
 with the exception of the debates on the Catiline conspiracy, and 
 one or two of the Philippics, form the subjects of a public nature, 
 on which the mighty genius and consummate art of Cicero were 
 bestowed. We are not, therefore, surprised to find that those of 
 
 his orations, in which he bears the best comparison with his rival De- 
 
 C2
 
 24 
 
 more nearly approaching public questions, as, 
 the speech against Midias, which relates to an 
 assault on the speaker, but excels in spirit and 
 vehemence perhaps all his other efforts ; and 
 some which, though personal, involve high con- 
 siderations of public policy, as that most beauti- 
 ful and energetic speech against Aristocrates ; 
 but we have all his immortal orations upon the 
 state affairs of Greece the ILgi 2rg<pi>oy, embrac- 
 ing the history of a twenty years' administration 
 during the most critical period of Grecian story ; 
 and the Philippics, discussing every question of 
 foreign policy, and of the stand to be made by 
 the civilized world against the encroachments of 
 the barbarians. Those speeches were delivered 
 upon subjects the most important and affecting 
 that could be conceived to the whole communi- 
 
 mosthenes, were delivered in the forum in private causes. In some of 
 these may be found examples of perhaps the very highest perfection 
 to which the art can be carried, of clear, acute, convincing argument, 
 of strong natural feeling, arid of sudden bursts of passion ; always, 
 however, restrained by the predominating influence of a highly cul- 
 tivated art an art little concealed." 
 
 18
 
 ty ; the topics handled in them were of universal 
 application and of perpetual interest. To intro- 
 duce a general observation the Latin orator must 
 quit the immediate course of his argument ; he 
 must for the moment lose sight of the object in 
 view. But the Athenian can hardly hold too 
 lofty a tone, or carry his view too extensively 
 over the map of human affairs, for the vast range 
 of his subject the fates of the whole common- 
 wealth of Greece, and the stand to be made by 
 free and polished nations against barbaric tyrants, 
 
 After forming and chastening the taste by a 
 diligent study of those perfect models, it is ne- 
 cessary to acquire correct habits of composition 
 in our own language, first by studying the best 
 writers, and next by translating copiously into 
 it from the Greek. This is by far the best ex- 
 ercise that I am acquainted with for at once at- 
 taining a pure English diction, and avoiding the 
 tameness and regularity of modern composition. 
 But the English writers who really unlock the 
 rich sources of the language, are those who 
 
 C3
 
 26 
 
 flourished from the end of Elizabeth's to the 
 end of Queen Anne's reign ; who used a good 
 Saxon dialect with ease, but correctness and 
 perspicuity, learned in the ancient classics, but 
 only enriching their mother tongue where the 
 Attic could supply its defects, not overlaying it 
 with a profuse pedantic coinage of foreign 
 words, well practised in the old rules of com- 
 position or rather collocation (avvfaaii) which 
 unite natural ease and variety with absolute har- 
 mony, and give the author's ideas to develope 
 themselves with the more truth and simplicity 
 when clothed in the ample folds of inversion, or 
 run from the exuberant to the elliptical without 
 ever being either redundant or obscure. Those 
 great wits had no foreknowledge of such times 
 as succeeded their brilliant age, when styles 
 should arise, and for a season prevail over both 
 purity, and nature, and antique recollections 
 now meretriciously ornamented, more than half 
 French in the phrase, and to mere figures fantas- 
 tically sacrificing the sense now heavily and 
 regularly fashioned as if by the plumb and rule,
 
 27 
 
 and by the eye rather than the ear, with a need- 
 less profusion of ancient words and flexions, to 
 displace those of our own Saxon, instead of tem- 
 perately supplying its defects. Least of all could 
 those lights of English eloquence have imagined 
 that men should appear amongst us professing 
 to teach composition, and ignorant of the whole 
 of its rules, and incapable of relishing the beau- 
 ties, or indeed apprehending the very genius of 
 
 tt/v>W 
 
 the language, should treat its peculiar terms of 
 expression and flexion, as so many inaccuracies, 
 and practise their pupils in correcting the faulty 
 English of Addison, and training down to the 
 mechanical rhythm of Johnson the lively and 
 inimitable measures of Bolingbroke. 
 
 But in exhorting you deeply to meditate on 
 the beauties of our old English authors, the poets, 
 the moralists, and perhaps more than all these 
 the preachers of the Augustan age of English 
 letters, do not imagine that I would pass over 
 their great defects when compared with the re- 
 nowned standards of severe taste in ancient 
 
 C4
 
 28 
 
 times. Addison may have been pure and ele- 
 gant ; Dryden airy and nervous ; Taylor witty 
 and fanciful ; Hooker weighty and various ; but 
 none of them united force with beauty the 
 perfection of matter with the most refined and 
 chastened style ; and to one charge all, even the 
 most faultless, are exposed the offence un- 
 known in ancient times, but the besetting sin of 
 later days they always overdid never knowing 
 or feeling when they had done enough. In no- 
 thing, not even in beauty of collocation and 
 harmony of rhythm, is the vast superiority of 
 the chaste, vigorous, manly style of the Greek 
 orators and writers more conspicuous than in 
 the abstinent use of their prodigious faculties of 
 expression. A single phrase sometimes a word 
 and the work is done the desired impression 
 is made, as it were, with one stroke, there being 
 nothing superfluous interposed to weaken the 
 blow, or break its fall. The commanding idea 
 is singled out ; it is made to stand forward ; all 
 auxiliaries are rejected ; as the Emperor Napo- 
 leon selected one point in the heart of his ad-
 
 29 
 
 versary's strength, and brought all his power to 
 bear upon that, careless of the other points 
 which he was sure to carry if he won the centre, 
 as sure to have carried in vain if he left the 
 centre unsubdued. Far otherwise do modern 
 writers make their onset ; they resemble rather 
 those campaigners who fit out twenty little ex- 
 peditions at a time, to be a laughing stock if 
 they fail, and useless if they succeed j or if they 
 do attack in the right place, so divide their 
 forces, from the dread of leaving any one point 
 unassailed, that they can make no sensible im- 
 pression where alone it avails them to be felt. 
 It seems the principle of such authors never to 
 leave any thing unsaid that can be said on any 
 one topic ; to run down every idea they start ; 
 to let nothing pass j and leave nothing to the 
 reader, but harass him with anticipating every 
 thing that could possibly strike his mind. Com- 
 pare with this effeminate laxity of speech, the 
 manly severity of ancient eloquence j or of him 
 who approached it, by the happy union of natu- 
 ral genius with learned meditation j or of him
 
 30 
 
 who so marvellously approached still nearer with 
 only the familiar knowledge of its least perfect 
 ensamples. Mark, I do beseech you, the severe 
 simplicity, the subdued tone of the diction, in 
 the most touching parts of the " old man Elo- 
 quent's" loftiest passages. In the oath, when 
 he comes to the burial place where they repose 
 by whom he is swearing, if ever a grand epi- 
 thet were allowable, it is here yet the only one 
 he applies is ay$oy pa, rovg Iv Maga&yw Kgoxtv- 
 rav Kgoywuv #a; <rov$ Iv UKuraioiig ^a- 
 *a/ fovg Iv 2aXa^w vuvfiM'fflGavrug 
 xui rov$ IT' ' Agrs(Ai<Ti&>, a< voKhovg ir&gov? rovg Iv 
 rofg dtjfjtiOfftois (AvqiAuai %&tp&vov$ ' AFA0OT N 2 aVdgaj. 
 When he would compare the effects of the The- 
 ban treaty in dispelling the dangers that com- 
 passed the state round about, to the swift pass- 
 ing away of a stormy cloud, he satisfies himself 
 with two words, aWgg v'xpog the theme of just 
 admiration to succeeding ages ; and when he 
 would paint the sudden approach of overwhelm- 
 ing peril to beset the state, 4 he does it by a stroke 
 the picturesque effect of which has not perhaps
 
 31 
 
 been enough noted likening it to a whirlwind 
 or a winter torrent, aWeg ffwrros % %s/^/appoyj. 
 It is worthy of remark, that in by far the 
 first of all Mr. Burke's orations, the passage 
 which is, I believe, universally allowed to be 
 the most striking, owes its effect to a figure 
 twice introduced in close resemblance to these 
 two great expressions, although certainly not in 
 imitation of either ; for the original is to be found 
 in Livy's description of Fabius's appearance to 
 Hannibal. Hyder's vengeance is likened to " a 
 " black cloud, that hung for a while on the de- 
 " clivities of the mountains," and the people who 
 suffered under its devastations, are described as 
 " enveloped in a whirlwind of cavalry." Who- 
 ever reads the whole passage, will, I think, ad- 
 mit that the effect is almost entirely produced by 
 those two strokes ; that the amplifications which 
 accompany them, as the " blackening of the ho- 
 " rizon"r the " menacing meteor" the "storm 
 " of unusual fire," rather disarm than augment 
 the terrors of the original black cloud ; and that 
 the " goading spears of the drivers," and " the
 
 32 
 
 " trampling of pursuing horses," somewhat abate 
 the fury of the whirlwind of cavalry. Aovtevovci 
 yz puffriyovpivoi xa} ffrgtfiKoupsvoi, says the Grecian 
 master, to describe the wretched lot of those who 
 had yielded to the wiles of the conqueror, in the 
 vain hope of securing their liberties in safety. 
 Compare this with the choicest of Mr. Burke's 
 invectives of derision and pity upon the same sub- 
 ject the sufferings of those who made peace with 
 Regicide France and acknowledge the mighty 
 effect of relying upon a single stroke to produce 
 a great effect if you have the master hand to 
 give it. " The king of Prussia has hypothecated 
 " in trust to the Regicides his rich and fertile 
 " territories on the Rhine, as a pledge of his zeal 
 " and affection to the cause of liberty and equa- 
 '* lity. He has been robbed with unbounded li- 
 " berty and with the most levelling equality. The 
 " woods are wasted j the country is ravaged ; 
 " property is confiscated j and the people are 
 " put to bear a double yoke, in the exactions of 
 " a tyrannical government, and in the contribu- 
 " tions of a hostile conscription." " The grand
 
 33 
 
 " duke of Tuscany, for his early sincerity, for 
 " his love of peace, and for his entire confidence 
 " in the amity of the assassins of his family, has 
 " been complimented with the name of the 
 " ' wisest sovereign in Europe.' This pacific 
 " Solomon, or his philosophic cudgelled minis- 
 " try, cudgelled by English and by French, 
 " whose wisdom and philosophy between them 
 " have placed Leghorn in the hands of the ene- 
 " my of the Austrian family, and driven the 
 " only profitable commerce of Tuscany from its 
 " only port." Turn now for refreshment to the 
 Athenian artist KaXpjv y ol sroXXo/ vvv a 
 
 %ag/v, on roig O/X/Woy <p/Xo/? 
 yV, rov $ Eyipga/bi' wQovv xa\w y o ftrjpos 6 ruv 
 on TOU$ vptTtgoug (MV wgsfffisig 
 ' mfiaxei/ avrov doutevovei ye 
 zal <rrg(3Xoy^g'o/. Phil. 3. Upon some very 
 rare occasions indeed, the orator, not content 
 with a single blow, pours himself all forth in a 
 full torrent of invective, and then we recognise 
 the man who was said of old to eat shields and 
 steel .ffwi$ct<s o ffftqw -fwys^f But still the
 
 34 
 
 effect is produced without repetition or difruse- 
 ness. I am not aware of any such expanded pas- 
 sage as the invective in the TLzgi "Srtpwov against 
 those who had betrayed the various states of 
 Greece to Philip. It is indeed a noble passage; 
 one of the most brilliant, perhaps the most highly 
 coloured, of any in Demosthenes j but it is as 
 condensed and rapid as it is rich and varied. 
 } XKI xohuxsg xa} aXaoroggf, fagatnjgtff- 
 rug iatifWf sxuffroi ffurgiftas, rqv gXgy$gg/av irgo- 
 
 vuv $ 
 
 psrgouvre? xce, roi$ euffjfftoie rv 
 rfjv 5' lXgy^gg/av ou TO (Aqdzva, e-xfiv dsffirorqv uvrav, 
 (a rots wgorsgoig "EKhffftf ogo/ ruv aya&Jv %<ru,v %ai xu- 
 v'ovti) acar&rgoporg?*. This requires no contrast to 
 make its merit shine forth ; but compare it with 
 
 * The object of chief abhorrence to the old Greeks is remarkably 
 expressed in this passage lurrorns is the correlative of SowXay 
 and the meaning of 8irri t%tiv u-rS is, " having an owner or pro- 
 prietor of themselves," that is, " being the property, the chattels 
 of any one," and this they justly deemed the last of human mise- 
 ries. The addition of the cart-whip, and a tropical climate, would 
 not probably have been esteemed an alleviation of the lot of 
 slavery.
 
 35 
 
 any of Cicero's invectives that, for instance, in 
 the third Catilinarian, against the conspira- 
 tors, where he attacks them regularly under six 
 different heads, and in above twenty times as 
 many words ; and ends with the known and very 
 moderate jest of their commander keeping 
 " Scortorum cohortem Praetoriam," 
 
 The great poet of modern Italy, Dante,* ap- 
 
 * This great poet abounds in such master strokes. To give only 
 a few examples. The flight of doves : 
 
 Con P all aperte e ferme al dolce nido 
 Volan per 1'aer, dal voler portate. (Inf. v.) 
 
 The gnawing of a skull by a mortal enemy : 
 
 Co' denti 
 Che furo all' osso, come d'un can, forti. (Inf. xxxiii.) 
 
 The venality and simoniacal practices of the Romish church : 
 La dove Cristo tutto di si merca. (Parad. xvii.) 
 
 The perfidy of a Bourbon : 
 
 Senz' arme n'esce, e solo con la lancia 
 Con la qual giostro Giuda. (Purg. xx.) 
 
 The pains of dependance : 
 
 Tu proverai si come sa di sale 
 
 Lo pane altrui, e com' e duro calle 
 
 Lo scendere e'l salir per 1' altrui scale. (Parad. xvii.)
 
 36 
 
 preached nearest to the ancients in the quality of 
 which I have been speaking. In his finest passages 
 you rarely find an epithet j hardly ever more 
 than one ; and never two efforts to embody one 
 idea. " A guisa di Leon quando si posa" is the 
 single trait by which he compares the dignified 
 air of a stern personage to the expression of the 
 lion slowly laying him down. It is remarkable 
 that Tasso copies the verse entire, but he de- 
 stroys its whole effect by filling up the majestic 
 idea, adding this line, " Girando gli occJii e non 
 movendo ilpasso." A better illustration could not 
 easily be found of the difference between the an- 
 cient and the modern style. Another is furnish- 
 ed by a later imitator of the same great master. 
 I know no passage of the Divina Commedia, more 
 excursive than the description of evening in the 
 Purgatorio ; yet the poet is content with some- 
 what enlarging on a single thought the tender 
 recollections which that hour of meditation gives 
 the traveller, at the fall of the first night he is 
 to pass away from home, when he hears the dis- 
 tant knell of the expiring day. Gray adopts the
 
 37 
 
 idea of the knell in nearly the words of the ori- 
 ginal, and adds eight other circumstances to it, 
 presenting a kind of ground plan, or at least a 
 catalogue, an accurate enumeration (like a na- 
 tural historian's,) of every one particular belong- 
 ing to night-fall, so as wholly to exhaust the sub- 
 ject, and leave nothing to the imagination of the 
 reader. Dante's six verses, too, have but one 
 epithet, dolci, applied to amid. Gray has thirteen 
 or fourteen ; some of them mere repetitions of 
 the same idea which the verb or the substantive 
 conveys as drowsy tinkling lulls, the moping 
 owl complains, the ploughman plods his wea- 
 ry way. Surely when we contrast the simple and 
 commanding majesty of the ancient writers, with 
 the superabundance and diffusion of the exhaust- 
 ive method, we may be tempted to feel that there 
 lurks some alloy of bitterness in the excess of 
 sweets. This was so fully recognized by the 
 wise ancients, that it became a proverb among 
 them, as we learn from an epigram still preserved,
 
 38 
 E/V r 
 
 TO 
 
 #o ro M//ro?, ro Trov g<rr/ 
 
 In forming the taste by much contemplation 
 of those antique models, and acquiring the ha- 
 bits of easy and chaste composition, it must not 
 be imagined that all the labour of the orator is 
 ended, or that he may then dauntless and fluent 
 enter upon his office in the public assembly. 
 Much preparation is still required before each 
 exertion, if rhetorical excellence is aimed at. I 
 should lay it down as a rule, admitting of no ex- 
 ception, that a man will speak well in proportion as 
 he has written much ; and that with equal talents, 
 he will be the finest extempore speaker, when 
 no time for preparing is allowed, who has pre- 
 pared himself the most sedulously when he had 
 an opportunity of delivering a premeditated 
 speech. All the exceptions which I have ever 
 heard cited to this principle, are apparent ones 
 only ; proving nothing more than that some few 
 men, of rare genius, have become great speakers
 
 39 
 
 without preparation; in nowise showing, that 
 with preparation they would not have reached a 
 much higher pitch of excellence. The admitted 
 superiority of the ancients in all oratorical ac- 
 complishments, is the best proof of my position; 
 for their careful preparation is undeniable ; nay, 
 in Demosthenes (of whom Quinctilian says, that 
 his style indicates more premeditation- plus 
 cures than Cicero's,) we can trace, by the re- 
 currence of the same passage, with progressive 
 improvements in different speeches, how nicely 
 he polished the more exquisite parts of his com- 
 positions. I could point out favourite passages, 
 occurring as often as three several times with 
 variations, and manifest amendment. 
 
 I am now requiring, not merely great prepara- 
 tion while the speaker is learning his art, but af- 
 ter he has accomplished his education. The most 
 splendid effort of the most mature orator will 
 be always finer for being previously elaborated 
 with much care. There is, no doubt, a charm 
 in extemporaneous elocution, derived from the 
 
 D2
 
 40 
 
 appearance of artless unpremeditated effusion, 
 called forth by the occasion, and so adapting it- 
 self to its exigences, which may compensate the 
 manifold defects incident to this kind of compo- 
 sition : that which is inspired by the unforeseen 
 circumstances of the moment, will be of neces- 
 sity suited to those circumstances in the choice 
 of the topics, and pitched in the tone of the ex- 
 ecution to the feelings upon which it is to operate. 
 These are great virtues : it is another to avoid 
 the besetting vice of modern oratory the over- 
 doing every thing the exhaustive method 
 which an offhand speaker has no time to fall in- 
 to, and he accordingly will take only the grand 
 and effective view : nevertheless, in oratorical 
 merit, such effusions must needs be very inferior j 
 much of the pleasure they produce depends upon 
 the hearer's surprise, that in such circumstances 
 any thing can be delivered at all, rather than upon 
 his deliberate judgment, that he has heard any 
 thing very excellent in itself. We may rest assur- 
 ed that the highest reaches of the art, and without 
 any necessary sacrifice of natural effect, can only 
 
 IS
 
 41 
 
 be attained by him who well considers, and ma- 
 turely prepares, and often-times sedulously cor- 
 rects and refines his oration. Such preparation is 
 quite consistent with the introduction of passages 
 prompted by the occasion ; nor will the transi- 
 tion from the one to the other be perceptible in 
 the execution of a practised master. I have 
 known attentive and skilful hearers completely 
 deceived in this matter, and taking for ex- 
 temporaneous, passages which previously existed 
 in manuscript, and were pronounced without the 
 variation of a particle or a pause. Thus, too, we 
 are told by Cicero in one of his epistles, that hav- 
 ing to make, in Pompey's presence, a speech af- 
 ter Crassus had very unexpectedly taken a parti- 
 cular line of argument, he exerted himself, and 
 it appears successfully, in a marvellous manner, 
 mightily assisted, in what he said extempore, by his 
 habit of rhetorical preparation, and introducing 
 skilfully, as the inspiration of the moment, all his 
 favourite common places, with some of which, as 
 we gather from a good humoured joke at his own 
 
 expense, Crassus had interfered : " Ego autem ip- 
 
 D s
 
 42 
 
 se, Di JBoni ! quomodo iwnpngtuird(Mi novo audi- 
 tor! Pompeio ! Si unquam mihi Tgg/oo/, si xu[wrai 9 
 si b@u(fit]pci7a t si xarucxwotf, suppeditaverunt, illo 
 tempore. Quid multa ? clamores. Etenim hsec 
 erat vvofaffig, de gravitate ordinis, de equestri con- 
 cordia, de consensione Italiae, de immortuis reli- 
 quiis conjurationis, de vilitate, de otio nosti jam 
 in hac materia sonitus nostros ; tanti fuerunt ut 
 ego eo brevior sim, quod eos usque isthinc exau- 
 ditos putem." (Ad Att. I. 14.) 
 
 If, from contemplating the means of acquiring 
 eloquence, \ve turn to the noble purposes to 
 which it may be made subservient, we at once 
 perceive its prodigious importance to the best 
 interests of mankind. The greatest masters of 
 the art have concurred, and upon the greatest 
 occasion of its display, in pronouncing that its 
 estimation depends on the virtuous and rational 
 use made of it. Let their sentiments be engrav- 
 ed on your memory in their own pure and ap- 
 propriate diction. KXoi> (says ./Eschines) rw 
 pin fadvotav irgoaig&iffQai TO, (S&r/ara, rqv (& 9Tou$tua>
 
 43 
 
 rqv rov p?jrogO xat rov \oyov KiiG&iv rou$ axovovra; 
 si 81 jM/?7, rqv zvyvupoavvriv ah] wgoruxT&ov rov Xoyou 
 (Kara TLrrjfftyuvroi). "E<rr/ (says his illustrious an- 
 tagonist) $ oi% 6 Xo'yo? rou p^rogof rlptog, ouff 6 rovog 
 r?j$ QUVTIS, aXXa TO rayra vgoaigefffdai rdig 
 
 It is but reciting the ordinary praises of the 
 art of persuasion, to remind jrpu how sacred 
 
 fa/^+t^isfa^USj 
 
 truths may be most ardxmtly promulgated at the 
 altar the cause of oppressed innocence be most 
 powerfully defended the march of wicked 
 rulers be most triumphantly resisted defiance 
 the most terrible be hurled at the oppressor's 
 head. In great convulsions of public affairs, or 
 in bringing about salutary changes, every one 
 confesses how important an ally eloquence must 
 be. But in peaceful times, when the progress 
 of events is slow and even as the silent and un- 
 heeded pace of time, and the jars of a mighty 
 tumult in foreign and domestic concerns can no 
 longer he heard, then too she flourishes, pro- 
 tectress of liberty, patroness of improvement, 
 
 D 4
 
 44 
 
 guardian of all the blessings that can be 
 showered upon the mass of human kind j nor is 
 her form ever seen but on ground consecrated 
 to free institutions. " Pacis comes, otiique so- 
 cia, et jam bene constitutse reipublicae alumna 
 eloquentia." To me, calmly revolving these 
 things, such pursuits seem far more noble ob- 
 jects of ambition than any upon which the vul- 
 gar herd of busy men lavish prodigal their restless 
 exertions. To diffuse useful information, to 
 further intellectual refinement, sure forerunner 
 of moral improvement, to hasten the coming of 
 that bright day when the dawn of general know- 
 ledge shall chase away the lazy, lingering 
 mists, even from the base of the great social py- 
 ramid j this indeed is a high calling, in which 
 the most splendid talents and consummate vir- 
 tue may well press onward, eager to bear a part. 
 I know that I speak in a place consecrated by 
 the pious wisdom of ancient times to the instruc- 
 tion of but a select portion of the community. 
 Yet from this classic ground have gone forth 
 those whose genius, not their ancestry, ennobled
 
 45 
 
 them ; whose incredible merits have opened to 
 all ranks the temple of science ; whose illustri- 
 ous example has made the humblest emulous to 
 climb steeps no longer inaccessible, and enter 
 the unfolded gates, burning in the sun. I speak 
 in that city where Black having once taught, 
 and Watt learned, the grand experiment was 
 afterwards made in our day, and with entire 
 success, to demonstrate that the highest intellec- 
 tual cultivation is perfectly compatible with the 
 daily cares and toils of working men ; to show 
 by thousands of living examples that a keen 
 relish for the most sublime truths of science be- 
 longs alike to every class of mankind. 
 
 To promote this, of all objects the most im- 
 portant, men of talents and of influence I re- 
 joice to behold pressing forward in every part of 
 the empire ; but I wait with impatient anxiety 
 to see the same course pursued by men of high 
 station in society, and by men of rank in the 
 world of letters. It should seem as if these felt 
 some little lurking jealousy, and those were
 
 46 
 
 somewhat scared by feelings of alarm the one 
 and the other surely alike groundless. No man 
 of science needs fear to see the day when scien- 
 tific excellence shall be too vulgar a commodity 
 to bear a high price. The more widely know- 
 ledge is spread, the more will they be prized 
 whose happy lot it is to extend its bounds by 
 discovering new truths, or multiply its uses by 
 inventing new modes of applying it in practice. 
 Their numbers will indeed be increased, and 
 among them more Watts and more Franklins 
 will be enrolled among the lights of the world, 
 in proportion as more thousands of the working 
 classes, to which Franklin and Watt belonged, 
 have their thoughts turned towards philosophy ; 
 but the order of discoverers and inventors will 
 still be a select few, and the only material varia- 
 tion in their proportion to the bulk of mankind 
 will be, that the mass of the ignorant multitude 
 being progressively diminished, the body of 
 those will be incalculably increased who are 
 worthy to admire genius, and able to bestow 
 upon its possessors an immortal fame.
 
 47 
 
 To those, too, who feel alarmed as statesmen, 
 and friends of existing establishments, I would 
 address a few words of comfort. Real know- 
 ledge never promoted either turbulence or un- 
 belief 5 but its progress is the forerunner of li- 
 berality and enlightened toleration. Whoso 
 dreads these, let him tremble j for he may be 
 well assured that their day is at length come 
 and must put to sudden flight the evil spirits of 
 tyranny and persecution, which haunted the long 
 night now gone down the sky. As men will no 
 longer suffer themselves to be led blindfold in 
 ignorance, so will they no more yield to the vile 
 principle of judging and treating their fellow 
 creatures, not according to the intrinsic merit of 
 their actions, but according to the accidental and 
 involuntary coincidence of their opinions. The 
 Great Truth has finally gone forth to all the ends 
 of the earth, THAT MAN SHALL NO MORE RENDER 
 
 ACCOUNT TO MAN FOR HIS BELIEF, OVER WHICH HE 
 
 HAS HIMSELF NO CONTROL. Henceforward, no- 
 thing shall prevail upon us to praise or to blame 
 any one for that which he can no more change
 
 48 
 
 than he can the hue of his skin or the height of 
 his stature. Henceforward, treating with entire 
 respect those who conscientiously differ from 
 ourselves, the only practical effect of the differ- 
 ence will be, to make us enlighten the ignorance 
 on one side or the other from which it springs, 
 by instructing them, if it be theirs ; ourselves, 
 if it be our own, to the end that the only kind of 
 unanimity may be produced which is desirable 
 among rational beings the agreement proceed- 
 ing from full conviction after the freest discussion. 
 Far then, very far r from the universal spread of 
 knowledge being the object of just apprehension 
 to those who watch over the peace of the country, 
 or have a deep interest in the permanence of her 
 institutions, its sure effect will be the removal of 
 the only dangers that threaten the public tran- 
 quillity, and the addition of all that is wanting 
 
 to confirm her internal strength. 
 
 
 
 Let me therefore indulge in the hope, that, 
 among the illustrious youths whom this ancient 
 kingdom, famed alike for its nobility and its
 
 49 
 
 learning, has produced, to continue her fame 
 through after ages, possibly among those I now 
 address, there may be found some one I ask no 
 more willing to give a bright example to other 
 nations in a path yet untrodden, by taking the 
 lead of his fellow citizens, not in frivolous 
 amusements, nor in the degrading pursuits of 
 the ambitious vulgar, but in the truly noble 
 task of enlightening the mass of his country- 
 men, and of leaving his own name no longer 
 encircled, as heretofore, with barbaric splen- 
 dour, or attached to courtly gewgaws, but 
 illustrated by the honours most worthy of our 
 rational nature coupled with the diffusion of 
 knowledge and gratefully pronounced through 
 all ages by millions whom his wise beneficence 
 has rescued from ignorance and vice. To him 
 I will say, " Homines ad Deos nulla re propius 
 accedunt quam salutem hominibus dando : 
 nihil habet nee fortuna tua majus quam ut 
 possis, nee natura tua melius quam ut velis 
 servare quamplurimos." This is the true mark 
 for the aim of all who either prize the enjoy-
 
 50 
 
 ment of pure happiness, or set a right value 
 upon a high and unsullied renown. And if 
 the benefactors of mankind, when they rest 
 from their pious labours, shall be permitted to 
 enjoy hereafter, as an appropriate reward of their 
 virtue, the privilege of looking down upon the 
 blessings with which their toils and sufferings have 
 clothed the scene of their former existence ; do 
 not vainly imagine that, in a state of exalted puri- 
 ty and wisdom, the founders of mighty dynasties, 
 
 U-ffi4/'L~ 
 
 the conquerors of ew empires, or the more vulgar 
 crowd of evil-doers, who have sacrificed to their 
 own aggrandisement the good of their fellow- 
 creatures, will be gratified by contemplating the 
 monuments of their inglorious fame : theirs will 
 be the delight theirs the triumph who can 
 trace the remote effects of their enlightened bene- 
 volence in the improved condition of their species, 
 and exult in the reflection, that the prodigious 
 change they now survey, with eyes that age and 
 sorrow can make dim no more of knowledge 
 become power virtue sharing in the dominion 
 superstition trampled under foot tyranny
 
 driven from the world are the fruits, precious, 
 though costly, and though late reaped, yet long 
 enduring, of all the hardships and all the hazards 
 they encountered here below ! 
 
 THE END. 
 
 GLASGOW: 
 ANDREW & JOHN M. DUNCAN, 
 
 Printers to the University.
 
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