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ORATIONS AND ADDRESSES.

THE CIRCUMSTANCES FAVORABLE TO LITERARY IMPROVEMENT IN AMERICA.*

MR. PRESIDENT, AND GENTLEMEN,-IN discharging the honorable trust, which you have assigned to me, on this occasion, I am anxious, that the hour, which we pass together, should be exclusively occupied with those reflections, which belong to us, as scholars. Our association in this fraternity is academical; we entered it, before our Alma Mater dismissed us from her venerable roof; and we have now come together, in the holydays, from every variety of pursuit, and every part of the Country, to meet on common ground, as the brethren of one literary household. The duties and cares of life, like the Grecian states, in times of war, have proclaimed to us a short armistice, that we may come up, in peace, to our Olympia.

On this occasion, it has seemed proper to me, that we should turn our thoughts, not merely to some topic of literary interest, but to one which concerns us, as American scholars. I have accordingly selected, as the subject of our inquiry, THE CIRCUMSTANCES PECULIARLY

CALCULATED TO PROMOTE THE PROGRESS OF IMPROVEMENT, AND TO FURNISH THE MOTIVES TO INTELLECTUAL EXERTION, IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

In

* An Oration, pronounced at Cambridge, before the Society of Phi Beta Kappa, August 26, 1824.

the discussion of this subject, that curiosity, which every scholar naturally feels, in tracing and comparing the character of the higher civilization of different countries, is dignified and rendered practical, by the important connexion of the inquiry, with the condition and prospects of his Native Land.

I am aware that such inquiries are apt to degenerate into fanciful speculations, and doubtful refinements. Why Asia has, almost without exception, been the abode of some form of despotism, and Europe more propitious to liberty;—why the civilization of the Egyptians was of a character so melancholy and perishable; that of the Greeks so elegant, versatile, and life-giving; that of the Romans so stern and tardy, till they became the imitators of a people, whom they conquered and despised, but never equalled;—why tribes of barbarians, from the North and East, not supposed to differ, essentially, from each other, at the time of their settlement in Europe, should have laid the foundation of national characters so dissimilar, as those of the Spaniards, French, Germans, and English ;-are questions, to which such answers, only, can be given, as will be just and safe, in proportion as they are general and comprehensive. It is difficult, even in the case of the individual man, to point out precisely the causes, under the operation of which, members of the same community, and even of the same family, grow up, with characters the most diverse. It must, of course, be much more difficult to perform the same analysis on a subject so vast as a nation, composed of communities and individuals, greatly differing from each other, all subjected to innumerable external influences, and working out the final result, not less by mutual counteraction, than coöperation.

But as, in the formation of individual character, there are causes of undisputed and powerful operation, so, in national character, there are causes, equally undisputed, of growth and excellence, on the one hand, and of degeneracy and ruin, on the other. It belongs to the philosophy of history, to investigate these causes; and, if

possible, to point out the circumstances, which, as furnishing the motives, and giving the direction, to intellectual effort in different nations, have had a chief agency in making them what they were, or are. Where it is done judiciously, it is in the highest degree curious, thus to trace physical or political facts into moral and intellectual consequences, and great historical results; and to show, how climate, geographical position, local topography, institutions, single events, and the influence of the characters of individuals, have fixed the pursuits and decided the destiny of nations.

In pursuing such inquiries, we may be led to the con-clusion, that the physical effect of a tropical climate enervates a people, and fits them to become the subjects of despotism; though it may render them, also, formidable instruments of desolating but transitory con-quest, under the lead of able and daring chiefs. We may find that a broad river, or a lofty chain of mountains, by stopping the march of war or of emigration, becomes the boundary, not merely of governments, but of languages and literature, of institutions and charac

ter.

We may sometimes think we can trace extraordinary skill, in the liberal arts, to the existence of a quarry of fine marble. We may see popular eloquence springing out of popular institutions, and, in its turn, greatly instrumental in affecting the fortunes of free states. We may behold the spirit of a lawgiver or reformer perpetuated by codes and institutions, for ages. We may trace the career of colonial settlements, insular states, tribes fortified within Alpine battlements, or scattered over a smiling region of olive gardens and vineyards: and deduce the political and historical ef fects of these physical causes.

These topics of rational curiosity and liberal speculation, as I have already intimated, acquire practical im-portance, when the land in which we live is the subject of investigation. When we turn the inquiry to our own Country; when we survey its natural features, search its history, and examine its institutions, to see, what are

the circumstances which are to excite and guide the popular mind; it then becomes an inquiry of the highest interest, and worthy the attention of every patriotic scholar. We then dwell, not on a distant, uncertain, perhaps fabulous, past, but on an impending future, teeming with life, and action, and public fortune; a future, toward which we are daily and rapidly swept forward, and with which we stand in the dearest connexion, that can bind the generations of men together; a future, which our own characters, actions, and principles, may influence, for good or evil, for lasting glory or shame. We then strive, as far as our poor philosophy can do it, to read the Country's reverend auspices; to cast its great horoscope in the national sky, where some stars are waning, and some have set. We endeavor to ascertain, whether the soil, which we love, as that where our fathers are laid, and we shall presently be laid with them, is likely to be trod, in times to come, by an enlightened, virtuous, and free, people.

I. The first circumstance, of which I shall speak, as influencing the progress of improvement, and furnishing the motives to intellectual effort among us, is the new form of political society, established in the United States. It is not my purpose to detain you with so trite a topic, as the praises of free political institutions; but to ask your attention to the natural operation of a representative republican system, on the character of a people. I call this, a new form of political society. The ancient Grecian republics, indeed, were free enough, within the walls of the single cities, of which many of them were wholly or chiefly composed; while, toward the confederate or tributary states, the government too often assumed the form of a despotism, more capricious, and not less arbitrary, than that of a single tyrant. Rome was never the abode of genuine, well-regulated liberty. The remark just made of the Grecian republics extends to the Roman, for the greater portion of its history; while, within the walls of the city, the state of the Commonwealth fluctuated between the evils of

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