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branches, was deposited in the dead languages, and much of it still reposes there. To be ignorant of these languages, is to shut out the lights of former times, or to examine them only through the glimmerings of inadequate 5 translations.

It is often said, that there have been eminent men and eminent writers, to whom the ancient languages were unknown,-men who have risen by the force of their talents, and writers who have written with a purity and ease 10 which hold them up, as models for imitation. On the other hand, it is as often said, that scholars do not always compose either with elegance or chasteness; that their diction is sometimes loose and harsh, and sometimes ponderous and affected.

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Be it so. I am not disposed to call in question the accuracy of either statement. But I would, nevertheless, say that the presence of classical learning was not the cause of the faults of the one class, nor the absence of it, the cause of the excellence of the other. And I would 20 put this fact, as an answer to all such reasonings, that there is not a single language of modern Europe, in which literature has made any considerable advances, which is not directly of Roman origin, or has not incorporated into its very structure many, very many, of the idioms and pe25 culiarities of the ancient tongues. The English language affords a strong illustration of the truth of this remark. It abounds with words and meanings drawn from classical sources. Innumerable phrases retain the symmetry of their ancient dress. Innumerable expressions have re30 ceived their vivid tints from the beautiful dyes of Roman and Grecian roots. If scholars, therefore, do not write our language with ease, or purity, or elegance, the cause must lie somewhat deeper than a conjectural ignorance of its true diction.

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I repeat, there is not a single nation from the north to the south of Europe, from the bleak shores of the Baltic to the bright plains of immortal Italy, whose literature is not imbedded in the very elements of classical learning. The literature of England is, in an emphatic sense, the 40 production of her scholars,-of men who have cultivated letters in her universities, and colleges, and grammarschools, of men who thought any life too short, chiefly because it left some relic of antiquity unmastered, and any other fame humble, because it faded in the presence of

Roman and Grecian genius. He who studies English literature without the lights of classical learning, loses half the charms of its sentiments and style, of its force and feelings, of its delicate touches, of its delightful allusions, 5 of its illustrative associations. Who that reads the poetry of Gray, does not feel that it is the refinement of classical taste, which gives such inexpressible vividness and transparency to his diction? Who that reads the concentrated sense and melodious versification of Dryden and Pope, 10 does not perceive in them the disciples of the old school, whose genius was inflamed by the heroic verse, the terse satire, and the playful wit of antiquity? Who that meditates over the strains of Milton, does not feel that he drank deep

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At "Siloa's brook, that flowed
Fast by the oracle of God;"

that the fires of his magnificent mind were lighted by
coals from ancient altars?

It is no exaggeration to declare, that he who proposes to 20 abolish classical studies, proposes to render, in a great measure, inert and unedifying the mass of English literature for three centuries; to rob us of much of the glory of the past, and much of the instruction of future ages; to blind us to excellences which few may hope to equal, and 25 none to surpass; to annihilate associations which are interwoven with our best sentiments, and give to distant times and countries a presence and reality, as if they were, in fact, our own.

LESSON CLXXXIV.-THE BUNKER HILL MONUMENT.-DANIEL

WEBSTER.

The Bunker Hill Monument is finished. Here it stands. Fortunate in the natural eminence on which it is placed. -higher, infinitely higher, in its objects and purpose, it rises over the land, and over the sea; and visible, at their 5 homes, to three hundred thousand citizens of Massachusetts, it stands, a memorial of the last, and a monitor to the present, and all succeeding generations.

I have spoken of the loftiness of its purpose. If it had been without any other design than the creation of a work 10 of art, the granite, of which it is composed, would have slept in its native bed. It has a purpose; and that pur

pose gives it character. That purpose enrobes it with dignity and moral grandeur. That well known purpose it is, which causes us to look up to it with a feeling of awe. 5 It is itself the orator of this occasion. It is not from my lips, it is not from any human lips, that that strain of eloquence is this day to flow, most competent to move and excite the vast multitudes around. The potent speaker stands motionless before them. It is a plain shaft. It 10 bears no inscriptions, fronting to the rising sun, from which the future antiquarian shall wipe the dust. Nor does the rising sun cause tones of music to issue from its summit. But at the rising of the sun, and at the setting of the sun, in the blaze of noon-day, and beneath the 15 milder effulgence of lunar light, it looks, it speaks, it acts, to the full comprehension of every American mind, and the awakening of glowing enthusiasm in every American heart. Its silent, but awful utterance; its deep pathos, as it brings to our contemplation the 17th of June, 1775, and 20 the consequences which have resulted to us, to our country, and to the world, from the events of that day, and which we know must continue to rain influence on the destinies of mankind, to the end of time; the elevation with which it raises us high above the ordinary feelings 25 of life, surpass all that the study of the closet, or even the inspiration of genius can produce. To-day, it speaks to us. Its future auditories will be through successive generations of men, as they rise up before it, and gather round it. Its speech will be of patriotism and courage; of civil 30 and religious liberty; of free government; of the moral improvement and elevation of mankind; and of the immortal memory of those who, with heroic devotion, have sacrificed their lives for their country.

LESSON CLXXXV.-APPEAL IN FAVOR OF THE UNION.

JAMES MADISON.

I submit to you, my fellow-citizens, these considerations, in full confidence that the good sense, which has so often marked your decisions, will allow them their due weight and effect; and that you will never suffer difficulties, how5 ever formidable in appearance, or however fashionable the error on which they may be founded, to drive you into the gloomy and perilous scenes, into which the advocates for disunion would conduct you.

Hearken not to the unnatural voice, which tells you that the people of America, knit together, as they are, by so many cords of affection, can no longer live together, as members of the same family; can no longer continue the 5 mutual guardians of their mutual happiness; can no longer be fellow-citizens of one great, respectable and flourishing empire. Hearken not to the voice, which petulantly tells you, that the form of government, recommended for your adoption, is a novelty in the political world; that 10 it has never yet had a place in the theories of the wildest projectors; that it rashly attempts what it is impossible to accomplish. No, my countrymen; shut your ears against this unhallowed language. Shut your hearts against the poison which it conveys. The kindred blood, which flows 15 in the veins of American citizens, the mingled blood, which they have shed in defence of their sacred rights, consecrates their union, and excites horror at the idea of their becoming aliens, rivals, enemies. And if novelties. are to be shunned, believe me, the most alarming of all 20 novelties, the most wild of all projects, the most rash of all attempts, is that of rending us in pieces, in order to preserve our liberties, and promote our happiness.

But why is the experiment of an extended republic to be rejected, merely because it may comprise what is new? 25 Is it not the glory of the people of America, that, whilst they have paid a decent regard to the opinions of former times, and other nations, they have not suffered a blind veneration for antiquity, for custom, or for names, to overrule the suggestions of their own good sense, the knowl30 edge of their own situation, and the lessons of their own experience? To this manly spirit, posterity will be indebted for the possession, and the world for the example, of the numerous innovations displayed on the American theatre, in favor of private rights, and public happiness. 35 Had no important step been taken by the leaders of the revolution, for which a precedent could not be discovered; had no government been established, of which an exact model did not present itself, the people of the United States might, at this moment, have been numbered among the 40 melancholy victims of misguided councils; must, at best, have been laboring under the weight of some of those forms, which have crushed the liberties of the rest of mankind.

Happily, for America, happily, we trust, for the whole

human race, they pursued a new and more noble course. They accomplished a revolution, which has no parallel in the annals of human society. They reared fabrics of government, which have no model on the face of the globe 5 They formed the design of a great confederacy, which it is incumbent on their successors to improve and perpetu ate. If their works betray imperfections, we wonder a the fewness of them. If they erred most in the structure of the union, this was the work most difficult to be execu10 ted; this is the work which has been new-modelled by the act of your convention; and it is that act, on which you are now to deliberate and decide.

LESSON CLXXXVI.-FRANCE AND ENGLAND.-JOHN C.

CALHOUN.

The love of France, and the hatred of England, have also been assigned as the cause of the present measures. "France has not done us justice," says the gentleman from Virginia; "and how can we, without partiality, resist the 5 aggressions of England?" I know, sir, we have still cause of complaint against France; but it is of a different character from those against England. She professes now to respect our rights, and there cannot be a reasonable doubt, that the most objectionable parts of her decrees, as far 10 as they respect us, are repealed. We have already formally acknowledged this to be a fact.

I, however, protest against the whole of the principles on which this doctrine is founded. It is a novel doctrine, and nowhere to be found out of this house, that you can15 not select your antagonist, without being guilty of partiality. Sir, when two invade your rights, you may resist both, or either, at your pleasure. It is regulated by prudence, and not by right. The stale imputation of partiality to France, is better calculated for the columns of a 20 newspaper, than for the walls of this house. I ask, in this particular, of the gentleman from Virginia, but for the same measure which he claims for himself. That gentleman is at a loss to account for, what he calls, our hatred to England. He asks, "How can we hate the country of 25 Locke, of Newton, Hampden and Chatham; a country having the same language and customs with ourselves, and descending from a common ancestry?" Sir, the laws of human affections are uniform. If we have so much to

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