the growth of Grecian democracy with the passions of Roman ambition; the fervor of plebeian zeal with the pride of aristocratic power; the blood of Marius with the genius of Cæsar; the opening of a nobler hemisphere to the enterprize of Columbus, with the rise of a social agent as mighty as the press or the powers of steam.

"But if new elements were called into action in the social world, of surpassing strength and energy, in the course of this memorable reign, still more remarkable were the characters which rose to eminence during its continuance. The military genius, unconquerable courage, and enduring constancy of Frederic; the ardent mind, burning eloquence, and lofty patriotism of Chatham; the incorruptible integrity, sagacious intellect, and philosophic spirit of Franklin; the disinterested virtue, prophetic wisdom, and imperturbable fortitude of WASHINGTON; the masculine understanding, feminine passions, and blood-stained ambition of Catharine, would alone have been sufficient to cast a radiance over any other age of the world. But bright as were the stars of its morning light, more brilliant still was the constellation which shone forth in its meridian splendor, or cast a glow over the twilight of its evening shades. Then were to be seen the rival genius of Pitt and Fox, which, emblematic of the antagonist powers which then convulsed mankind, shook the British Senate by their vehemence, and roused the spirit destined, ere long, for the dearest interests of humanity, to array the world in arms; then the great soul of Burke cast off the unworldly fetters of ambition or party, and, fraught with a giant's force and a prophet's wisdom, regained its destiny

in the cause of mankind; then the arm of Nelson cast its thunderbolts on every shore, and preserved unscath ed in the deep the ark of European freedom; and, ere his reign expired, the wisdom of Wellington had erected an impassible barrier to Gallic ambition, and said, even to the deluge of imperial power, "Hitherto shalt thou come and no farther, and here shall thy proud waves be stayed." Nor were splendid genius, heroic virtue, gigantic wickedness, wanting on the opposite side of this heart-stirring conflict. Mirabeau had thrown over the morning of the French Revolution the brilliant but deceitful light of Democratic genius; Danton had colored its noontide glow with the passions and the energy of tribunitian power; Carnot had exhibited the combination, rare in a corrupted age, of Republican energy with private virtue; Robespierre had darkened its evening days by the blood and agony of selfish ambition; Napoleon had risen like a meteor over its midnight darkness, dazzled the world by the brightness of his genius and the lustre of his deeds, and ured its votaries, by the deceitful. blaze of glory, to perdition.

"In calmer pursuits in the tranquil walks of science and literature, the same age was, beyond all others, fruit ful in illustrious men. Doctor Johnson, the strongest intellect and the most profound observer of the eighteenth century; Gibbon the architect of a bridge over the dark gulf which separates ancient from modern times, whose vivid genius has tinged with brilliant colors the greatest historical work in existence; Hume, whose simple but profound history will be coeval with the long and eventful thread of English story; Robertson, who first threw

over the maze of human events the light of philosophic genius and the spirit of enlightened reflection; Gray, whose burning thoughts had been condensed in words of more than classic beauty; Burns, whose lofty soul spread its own pathos and dignity over the "short and simple annals of the poor;" Smith, who called into existence a new science, fraught with the dearest interests of humanity, and nearly brought it to perfection in a single life-time; Reid, who carried into the recesses of the human mind the torch of cool and sagacious inquiry; Stewart, who cast a luminous glance over the philosophy of mind, and warmed the inmost recesses of metaphysical inquiry by the delicacy of taste and the glow of eloquence; Watt, who added an unknown power to the resources of art, and in the regulated force of steam, discovered the means of approximating the most distant parts of the earth, and spreading in the wilderness of nature the wonders of European enterprise and the blessings of Christian civilization; these formed some of the ornaments of the period, during its earlier and more pacific times, forever memorable in the annals. of scientific acquisition and literary greatness."

The colonial and revolutionary history in this country comported with the intellectual character of the age just sketched. The founders of our colonies, the Winthrops, the Smiths, the Raleighs, the Penns, the Oglethorpes, were among the most accomplished scholars and elegant writers, as well as the most elevated and pure spirits of their time. They were men of severe morality and unblemished integrity, as distinguished for private purity as for public virtue. Being driven into war, they

drew their swords for opinion's sake; having entered the contest on conscientious grounds, they deemed no sacrifice too great to be made in defence of their rights

"Such were the men of old, whose tempered blades
Dispersed the shackles of usurped control,

And hewed them link from link: then Albion's sons
Were sons indeed; they felt a filial heart
Beat high within them at a mother's wrongs;
And shining each in his domestic sphere

Shone brighter still when called to public view."

Diodorus Siculus tells us that the forest of the Pyrenean mountains being set on fire, and the heat penetrating the soil, a pure stream of silver gushed forth from the earth's bosom, and revealed for the first time the existence of those mines afterwards so celebrated. So, in circumstances of severe trial, intellectual resources are developed in copious and splendid profusion.

The heroical pioneers of freedom in our land were not only conscious of the dignity and importance of the immediate consequences of their acts, but they were prophetic of the future grandeur which their country was destined to attain. The spirit of lofty and wise patriotism was diffused through all classes, and the resolute determination to resist oppression was shared by all. Ameri. can mothers early learned, like the Spartan matron, to say to their sons marching to battle, "Return victorious, or return no more.”

Another striking feature in our primitive annals was the unanimity of purpose and action which subsisted among all the early patriots. The parent colonies teem with charms "unborrowed from the eye." They abound

with scenes which memory has sanctified, history com memorated, and poetry adorned; every rivulet has its hallowed associations, every secluded lake and untamed forest haunts the imagination with reminiscences of savage times; every field has its tale of blood, every shore its record of suffering, and "not a mountain lifts its head unsung," or unworthy of heroic strains. Although the external aspect of nature is becoming rapidly changed by the inroads of unexampled enterprise, and many vestiges of primitive wildness are swept away, still

"A spirit hangs,

Beautiful region! o'er thy towns and farms,

Statues and temples, and memorial tombs."

But one impulse moved our fathers in the great work they were commissioned to perform. Each one was full of the sentiment of Grattan, "I never will be satisfied so long as the meanest of mortals has a link of the British chain clanking on his limbs; and the declaration is planted, and though great men should apostatize, yet the cause shall live; and though the public speaker should die, yet the immortal fire shall outlast the organ that conveyed it, and the breath of liberty, like the word of the holy man, will not die with the prophet, but survive him."

That spirit has survived its first propagators, enhanced in value, if possible, by the recollection that, equally in the remotest sections, there was unanimous promptitude for a common defence, and not one recreant among avowed patriots to disgrace their toil.

The blood that was shed in the war of the Revolution