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diff --git a/38022-8.txt b/38022-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5fa1c57 --- /dev/null +++ b/38022-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5043 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Nature and Culture, by Harvey Rice + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Nature and Culture + +Author: Harvey Rice + +Release Date: November 15, 2011 [EBook #38022] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NATURE AND CULTURE *** + + + + +Produced by Roberta Staehlin, David Garcia, Martin Pettit +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images +generously made available by The Internet Archive/American +Libraries.) + + + + + + +NATURE AND CULTURE + +BY + +HARVEY RICE + +SECOND EDITION + +BOSTON 1890 + +LEE AND SHEPARD PUBLISHERS +10 MILK ST. NEXT "THE OLD SOUTH MEETING HOUSE" + +CHARLES T. DILLINGHAM +NEW YORK 718 AND 720 BROADWAY + + +_Copyright, 1889_, +BY HARVEY RICE. + +University Press: +JOHN WILSON AND SON, CAMBRIDGE. + + + + +NOTE. + + +The first edition of "Nature and Culture" was published in 1875. The +degree of favor with which the book was received has induced the author +to publish a second edition, in which he has made a few changes and +additions of such a character as to render the work, he trusts, still +worthier of acceptance. + +CLEVELAND, OHIO, +August 20, 1889. + + + + +CONTENTS. + + + PAGE +NATURE AND HER LESSONS 11 + +EDUCATION OF THE MASSES 53 + +WOMAN AND HER SPHERE 93 + +AIM HIGH 139 + +AMERICA AND HER FUTURE 163 + +CAREER OF REV. JOSEPH BADGER 197 + +MISSION MONUMENT 225 + + + + +NATURE AND HER LESSONS. + +NATURE AND CULTURE. + + + + +NATURE AND HER LESSONS. + + +Nature declares herself in her works. What exists beyond her domain, if +anything, becomes necessarily a matter of faith or imagination; and yet +the origin of the material universe presents a problem which neither the +vagaries of the ancients nor the speculations of the moderns have been +able to solve in a satisfactory manner. + +In modern methods of logic, we reason from cause to effect, from the +known to the unknown; but in attempting to penetrate the region of the +unknown, we are often left without a reliable guide. Analogy may aid, +but cannot assure us. The powers of the human mind, if not infinite, may +admit of infinite culture. What is supposed to be "unknowable" may +therefore become known. However this may be, there is no divine +injunction which prescribes a limit to human possibilities. + +Whatever we may think or believe, the volume of Nature contains nothing +but truth; it is a divine record which is as inexhaustible in its wealth +of knowledge as it is conclusive in its logic. Men of science, in +attempting to read this unerring record, have advanced many plausible +theories in relation to the processes by which the earth acquired its +embodiment, and took its place among the golden orbs of heaven. + +There are reasons for believing that matter has always existed in some +form or other, and that it is infinite in extent as well as in duration. +Nor need we hesitate to infer, from the knowledge we have of the various +forms in which matter exists, that what is true of the earth in its +processes of development is equally true of every other planet. + +Whether the earth in its origin was a fragment thrown off from some +exploded planet which had filled the measure of its destiny, or whether +it arose from the gradual accretion of elementary substances diffused in +infinite space, are questions which cannot be satisfactorily answered. +Either method is not only plausible, but consistent with the known laws +and operations of Nature. + +It seems quite probable that those erratic bodies known as comets are +but incipient planets, which continue, as they revolve in their +mystical flight, to accumulate gaseous matter until they have acquired +and condensed a sufficient amount to become orbs, or worlds; when, by +the influence of physical forces, they take their places in some one or +other of the existing planetary systems. It is thus perhaps that the law +of development constructs a world with as much ease as it constructs a +grain of sand; nor can we doubt that the processes of aggregation and +dissolution are made reciprocal in their relations, and perpetual in +their action. + +In a philosophical sense, "life" and "death" are but conventional terms, +meaning nothing more than a change of matter from one form of existence +to another. Whatever changes may take place, matter can neither be +increased nor diminished. Infinite space, being an immateriality, could +never have been created and cannot therefore be limited or annihilated. +In all probability it still is, and always has been, filled with the +elements of matter,--too subtile, perhaps, to be perceived, yet destined +in the course of eternal ages to be wrought and re-wrought into infinite +varieties of corporeal existences, mineral, vegetal, and animal, ever +progressing from the imperfect to the perfect. Thus Nature teaches us +the lesson that in perfection dwells the central Life, the quickening +power of the universe. + +In accordance with this view, we may regard every particle of matter in +the universe as the germ of a world. And yet what are called original +elements may be such, or may not. Supposed monads, or simple unities, if +they exist at all, may be capable of analysis by the application of +physical agencies or forces as yet unknown to science. Though science +has disclosed much that is wonderful in the mechanism of Nature, there +still lies before us an infinite unknown. Whether ultimately the human +mind will become so enlarged and extended in its powers as to comprehend +the infinite, admits of no positive assurance; yet in the unrevealed +design of the great future, such may be the result. + +It is only in modern times that science has taken the advanced step, and +led philosophy into the beautiful avenues of Nature, where, amid the +infinite, she gazes at the universe, listens to the music of the +spheres, and beholds the golden wealth of the infinite displayed on +every side. It is thus that philosophy has become inspired with a desire +to account for everything, and finds that Nature has written her own +history in the hills and in the rocks, in the depths of the sea, and in +the stars of heaven, leaving nothing for man to do except to read the +record, and accept its truthful teachings. In fact, the material +universe may be regarded as an outspoken revelation of the infinite. + +The elementary substances which compose the earth and its atmosphere are +essentially the same, and are not numerous, so far as ascertained. The +leading vital principle is oxygen, which constitutes at least one half +of all known matter. The earth's crust is estimated to be about fifty +miles thick. This estimate is based on the fact that in penetrating the +earth, the heat uniformly increases at a rate which would fuse all +mineral substances at that depth. + +Hence, the interior of the earth is believed to be a region of molten +substances, fiery billows that roll impatient of restraint, and escape +here and there in the form of volcanic eruptions. Volcanoes are, +therefore, but the outposts of gigantic central forces, and earthquakes +but the spasmodic trials of their strength. It would seem, go where we +will, that "fiery billows" literally roll beneath our feet. What +Nature's ultimate designs are, it is impossible to predict. But it is +pretty certain that her internal fires are working out some mystical +problem. A scientific German has recently ascertained that the surface +of the earth is gradually becoming hotter, and that in five hundred +millions of years it will attain to such a degree of heat as to destroy +human life. And yet there are other scientists equally wise, perhaps, +who assert that the earth's crust is gradually cooling and contracting, +and therefore radiating less heat, the final result of which will be the +destruction of all life and a return of the glacial period. + +Geological science, as well as revelation, impresses us with the belief +that in the beginning "the earth was without form, and void,"--a chaos +of atoms which were gathered, comet-like, from infinite space, and made +to revolve in a globular mass by physical forces, until it became, by +the condensation of its vapory atmosphere, submerged in a flood of dark +and interminable waters. In consequence of the action of the waters on +mineral substances, vast deposits of sediment accumulated, which, with +the aid of pressure and chemical heat, gradually hardened into rocks, +strata upon strata, like solid masonry, and varying in thickness from +the fraction of a mile to thirty miles or more. Nature seems to have +adopted this method of construction as a prerequisite to the severance +of the land from the waters. In effecting this object, the explosive +forces, long confined in the earth's interior, are supposed to have +burst asunder the walls of their prison-house, suddenly upheaving +continents and mountains from the depths of a dismal and shoreless +ocean. It was then that the "dry land" made its first appearance, and +was baptized in the pure sunlight of heaven. + +The virgin soil of the earth, when thus exposed to the genial influence +of the sun, soon produced vegetal life, and vegetal life animal +life,--the one the food of the other. Thus Nature ever provides for her +guests in advance of their reception. Yet in her formative processes she +"makes haste slowly," though she may sometimes leap to conclusions. Her +work never ceases. A million of years is to her as one day, and one day +as a million of years. Hence everything has its age, and is lost in the +ages. Of this fact we have reliable evidence in the strata of the rocks, +and in the limited field of our own observation. There can be no doubt +the earth has been many times baptized in fire and water, and its crust +broken into fragments and thrown into strange angles and relations. +These grand upheavals have occurred at dates vastly remote from each +other, and are recognized by science as great geological periods. + +The Ages of Nature, so far as relates to the earth, may be classed +briefly as: the primary, or reign of fishes; the secondary, or reign of +reptiles; the tertiary, or reign of mammals; and the modern, or reign of +man. Each of these ages constitutes a grand chapter in the earth's +history, which is easily read and understood by the masters of +geological science. The same agencies which were employed in +constructing the earth's crust are still employed in reconstructing it. +In fact, the work of creation is still going on as in the beginning, if +beginning there ever was in Nature's material processes. We see this +illustrated in the changes which are produced on the earth's surface in +our own time by the action of the rain, the wind, the frost, the flood, +the glacier, the volcano, and the earthquake. + +It is by these agencies that the hills and the mountains are graded +down, and the _detritus_ deposited in the valleys and in the sea; thus +are valleys enriched and broadened, vast plains and deltas created, and +continents enlarged. When the present hills and mountains have been +reduced to plains, and the fertility of the soil exhausted, it is quite +probable that another grand upheaval of the earth's foundations will +occur,--the birth-power by which new hills and mountains are lifted up, +and continents changed to ocean-beds, and ocean-beds to continents. It +is these mighty changes and exchanges that prepare the way, and fit the +earth for the production of higher orders of plants and animals, and +perhaps a higher order of man. + +In the course of unknown ages, Nature has enriched and extended the +valley of the Nile hundreds of miles into the sea, by transporting +thither the pulverized wealth of the Abyssinian mountains. Thus +fertilized, Egypt has for many thousands of years sustained a dense +population. Very justly has she been called not only the cradle of +mankind, but the granary of the world. In like manner, the Ganges +transports from the interior of India a sufficient amount of sediment +annually to cover a township five miles square to the depth of ten feet, +and by this means has extended the land hundreds of miles into the +ocean. The Hoang-Ho, a river of China, by its deposits of alluvium in +the sea has added an entire province to that country, comprising an area +of ninety-six thousand square miles. Indeed, all rivers are tributaries +to the sea, and all seas tributaries to the rivers. This exchange is +effected mainly by the rains and the snows, the exhalations and the +waterspouts. The clouds are but common carriers; this commerce is +therefore a matter of mutual interest, and grows out of the positive +necessities of sea and land. Though the elements appear to move in +conflict, they really move in perfect harmony, and bring order out of +seeming confusion. + +In executing a gigantic work, no river has excelled the Mississippi. +This "Father of Waters" has distinctly indicated in the record of his +career the prehistorical age of the world, and the equally prehistorical +advent of man. In his "march to the sea" he has left enduring landmarks, +and with his battle-axe notched centuries long lost in the mighty past. +The land which this majestic river has formed, by depositing sediment in +the Gulf of Mexico, comprises an area of thirty thousand square miles. +This deposit or delta has a depth exceeding one thousand feet; and the +period required for its accumulation has been estimated by Mr. Lyell, +the renowned geologist, at one hundred thousand years. + +This estimate only embraces the deposits since the river ran in its +present channel. The bluffs along the river rise in many places two +hundred and fifty feet, and contain shells, with the remains of the +mastodon, elephant, tapir, megalonyx, and other huge animals. It is +evident that these bluffs must have belonged to an ancient plain or +valley long anterior to the present level. In several sections of the +valley as it now exists, excavations have been made deeper than the Gulf +of Mexico, and successive growths of cypress-timber found, to the number +of four or five distinct growths, the lowest lying at the depth of six +hundred feet. Some of these trees are ten feet in diameter, and have +from five to six thousand annual rings of growth. + +As the valley of the river from age to age grew in elevation by +deposits of sediment, a new growth of cypress was produced, and is now +supervened by the live-oak plain, so called, which has had an existence, +as estimated by the annual rings of the oaks, of fourteen thousand +years. + +In excavating for gas-works at New Orleans, a human skull was found +beneath the roots of a cypress belonging to the fourth-forest level, in +a good state of preservation, while the other bones of the skeleton +crumbled to dust on exposure to the air. The type of the cranium was +that of the aboriginal American. Now, if we take the period required to +form the live-oak level, and add it to the time required to produce the +next three subterranean growths of cypress, which overlie the fourth +growth, in which the cranium was found, it clearly proves that the human +race existed in the great valley of the Mississippi more than +fifty-seven thousand years ago. + +Not only in the valley of the Mississippi have fossil remains of man and +animals been discovered at depths and in formations that prove their +remote antiquity, but in many other parts of the world. Not many years +ago, a human skull was found in Brazil, embedded in a sandstone rock +overgrown with lofty trees. There is still preserved, in the museum at +Quebec, a human skull which was excavated from the solid schist-rock on +which the citadel now stands. Human skeletons have also been found in +the island of Guadeloupe, embedded in a rock said to be as hard as the +finest statuary marble. Even so recently as the year 1868, while sinking +a well at the Antelope station, on the Union Pacific Railroad, the +workmen penetrated a rock six feet thick, and at eighty feet below the +rock discovered a human skeleton in such a state of preservation as to +be readily recognized as such. + +In another instance it is said that a human skull was discovered in +Calaveras County, Cal., at the bottom of a shaft which had been sunk one +hundred and thirty feet below the surface. It was found deposited in a +bed of gravel with other organic remains, and beneath the eighth +distinct geological layer of earth and gravel, where it must have lain, +according to the estimate of Professor Whitney, the geologist, for a +period of at least one hundred thousand years. This remote antiquity of +man is also confirmed by discoveries in every part of the world of the +fossil remains of domestic animals as well as of man, including +implements of human invention, such as flint arrow-heads, stone axes, +war-weapons, cooking-utensils, in localities which preclude the idea of +their belonging to an age that has a written history. + +It is not unfrequent that fossil remains of human bones and of animals +are found embedded in the coral-reef limestone of Florida. In fact, says +Professor Agassiz, the whole peninsula of Florida has been formed by +successive growths of coral reefs and shells; he estimates the formation +of the southern half of the peninsula as occupying a period of one +hundred and thirty-five thousand years. The sea contains ingredients +which feed innumerable animalcula, especially the polypes, or +coral-builders, which have the power of secreting calcareous matter. +These myriads of noiseless architects are ever busy in building for +themselves fairy temples in the depths of the ocean, of the most +delicate and beautiful workmanship, and in erecting pyramids and +islands, and in extending continents. + +In the mean time there are other agencies of a very different character +continually at work, modifying the earth's surface, and preparing it for +sustaining a still higher order of vegetal and animal life. As a result +of these agencies, especially the volcanic, it often happens that +serious calamities befall the human family. In the course of a century, +not less than two thousand volcanic eruptions occur on the globe, equal +to twenty a year, or one every eighteen days. The whole number of +volcanoes known to be active at the present time exceeds three hundred; +and doubtless many times that number have long since become extinct. + +In Europe, Asia, Africa, and America, there are extensive tracts or +belts of country which are volcanic in their character; and especially +is this true of the entire American-Pacific coast, and the ocean-bed +adjoining it. Often have long lines of this coast been elevated or +depressed many feet, as if the whole continent were afloat, and tossing +like a ship on a stormy sea. Neither in the past, nor in the present, +has the earth seemed to rest on a sure foundation. Even in apparent +security there is no positive safety. + +Nature must and will exercise her sterner as well as her milder powers. +In achieving gigantic works, she employs gigantic powers. Her forces are +her own; and when she directs them to execute her mandates, she is +promptly obeyed. She models and remodels the earth's exterior and +interior at pleasure, but never without a beneficent design. Earthquakes +break up the earth's crust. Internal fires melt it. Exploding gases lift +it. Gravitation moulds it. The atmosphere cools it. The sun and the rain +clothe it with verdure; and flowers crown it with beauty. In this way +the earth's surface seems to have been prepared for the advent of man, +and its interior supplied with coal-fields and reservoirs of oil and gas +for his use. + +Though Nature has made for man ample provision, she requires him not +only to help himself, but to take care of himself. Nor does she give him +formal notice to keep out of harm's way when she wishes to break up the +earth's crust and re-cast it, but proceeds at once. She may sink or +elevate a continent at a blow, or she may do it by slow degrees. + +The earliest writers give us accounts of terrific earthquakes. +Thucydides alludes to volcanic eruptions which occurred five hundred +years before the Christian era. In the vicinity of volcanic mountains, +it has happened that city after city, in the course of ages, has been +engulfed, one upon another, in molten lava, or cinders, leaving no +record behind them of their unhappy fate. Herculaneum lies buried a +hundred feet deep beneath the modern city of Portici; and beneath +Herculaneum, a city still more ancient has been discovered, whose name +and history are entirely unknown. How many other cities lie buried at +the foot of the old fire-crowned monarch of Italy, no one can tell; but +doubtless there are several of them. What induced people to occupy a +locality so perilous, it is difficult to say, unless it was the +superior fertility of a volcanic soil. + +No part of the world is exempt from sudden calamities of a similar +character. The earthquake experienced by the city of Antioch in Syria, +in the year 626, destroyed two hundred and fifty thousand people. The +great eruption of Mount Etna, in 1669, overflowed fourteen towns, +containing from three to four thousand inhabitants each. The stream of +lava which issued from the mountain was half a mile wide and forty feet +deep, and swept everything before it, until lost in the sea. The +earthquake at Lisbon, in 1775, killed sixty thousand persons in six +minutes; the shock was felt in Switzerland, in Scotland, in +Massachusetts, and on the shore of Lake Ontario. In 1783, a large river +in Iceland was sunk into the earth by volcanic action, and entirely +obliterated. In 1792, an earthquake in the island of Java sunk a tract +of land fifteen miles long and six miles wide, carrying down with it +forty small villages. In our own country and in our own neighborhood, in +1811, several islands in the Mississippi River, near New Madrid, were +sunk by an earthquake, and the course of the river driven back eighteen +miles, causing it to overflow the adjacent lands; about half the county +of New Madrid, as well as the village, was submerged. Several new lakes +were created, one of which was sixty miles long and several miles wide. +The earth's surface rose in undulations like the billows of the sea, and +with terrific utterances, opened yawning chasms, from which vast columns +of sand and water, and a substance resembling coke, were thrown out. The +whole face of the country in that region was materially changed. And, +what is a little singular, one of the lakes thus created by the +earthquake extended to the river at a point nearly opposite the famous +Island No. 10, thus affording a natural canal by which the Union forces +in the late civil war approached and took the island. + +It is not improbable that the entire chain of our great northwestern +lakes, from Ontario to Superior, were created by the volcanic collapse +of a mountain range that once occupied the same localities. Of this fact +there are plausible, if not irresistible, evidences to be seen in the +volcanic character of the rocks at various points along the entire +coast. Nor can it be very well doubted that subsequent volcanic action +has elevated much of the coast into several corresponding ridges, from +one to two miles apart, which distinctly mark the successive boundaries +of these inland seas. + +Nature removes mountains, or creates them, at pleasure. She also makes +and unmakes lakes and rivers, to say nothing of oceans and continents. +In California, and doubtless in other parts of the world, there are as +many dead as living rivers. The miners of California have already +discovered the old channels of a dozen or more dead rivers, as they call +them, encased and sealed up in the very heart of the mountain ranges, +and extending in some instances hundreds of miles in the general +direction of the ranges, and leaping from mountain to mountain at a +common level or grade. These ancient channels are filled with sand, +gravel, and small bowlders, evidently worn and polished by long +attrition. Some of the channels are a mile wide, or more, and from ten +to one hundred feet deep. In the angles or eddies, the sands are found +to be exceedingly rich in gold, sometimes yielding fifty dollars or more +to the cubic yard. It is estimated that over five hundred millions of +dollars have already been taken from the sands of these dead rivers, and +that they are now yielding at least ten millions a year. It is evident +that these dead rivers must have been living rivers long before the +volcanic era arrived, which elevated the ancient valleys into mountain +ranges, and depressed the ancient mountain ranges into valleys. + +In the South-American earthquake of August, 1868, thirty thousand lives +were lost, several cities entirely obliterated, and three hundred +millions of dollars' worth of property destroyed. A tidal wave, more +than forty feet deep, swept over the land and deposited, high and dry, +and beyond recovery, several first-class ships; the effect of this +earthquake was felt along the coast for a distance of six to seven +thousand miles. In October of the same year, the city of San Francisco +was visited by an earthquake, which shattered many buildings, and +destroyed several lives. It is supposed that this was but a prolongation +of the South-American earthquake. + +In some parts of California and South America, thunder and lightning +seldom occur, while earthquakes are frequent; in regions like these, +earthquakes would seem to be a substitute for thunder and lightning. In +all probability both are but electrical phenomena, differing only in the +fact that the one is an earthquake, the other a skyquake. It is in +plains and valleys that earthquakes prove the most destructive. +Doubtless the solid material composing the mountain ranges affords a +better conductor of electricity than the alluvial soil of the plains and +the valleys; hence, while the one serves as a lightning-rod, the other +becomes the battleground of conflicting elements. It may be that +electrical forces are generated in the earth's interior, as well as in +the atmosphere, and that the earthquake is but the shock produced by the +restoration of an equilibrium. The earth and the atmosphere are +essentially the same in their elements, and are ever contributing of +their substance to the requisitions of each other. + +When physical science shall be so far advanced as to explain the true +causes of the earthquake, if it does not make man "master of the +situation," it will doubtless place in his hands the power of avoiding, +to some extent at least, the calamities which now so often befall life +and property. + +There can be no doubt that the earth is a physical necessity not yet +fully developed; only about one-fourth part of its surface is land, the +remainder water. Nearly three times more land lies north of the equator +than south of it. Why this should be so, is not quite clear. In the +course of the earth's future development, however, it is not improbable +that additional continents and islands will appear, and the waters +subside into narrower and deeper channels, thus giving to man, and to +land-life generally, a wider domain. And yet the present seas were not +made in vain, but have always abounded with plant-life and animal-life, +though of an inferior order as compared with land-life. Life in itself +is infinite, and appears in infinite varieties both on land and in the +sea. Whether man needs more land for his use and future development, is +difficult to say. At any rate, everything that exists has its mutual +relations, and adapts itself to the ultimate aim of Nature,--the +perfection of man. + +In the Western Hemisphere, the mountains take the general direction of +north and south; in the Eastern, the general direction of east and west. +In the one hemisphere, the ranges essentially accord with the lines of +longitude; in the other, with the lines of latitude. These mountain +ranges are but continental watersheds, from which flows the elemental +wealth that enriches the plains and the valleys. The rivers and their +tributaries are the commercial agents. The rain and the frost are the +miners whose labors will never cease until the mountains are levelled. +The mountains also attract and guide the storms and modify their force, +condense the mists, the raindrop, and the dewdrop, and thus aid in +refreshing the valleys in connection with the heat of the sunbeams. In +this way the seasons, as well as the elements of the soil, are so +modified and vitalized as to give to man seedtime and harvest, and +needful food to every "living and creeping thing." + +In addition to the world of life that is visible, there is a world of +life that is invisible,--a microscopic realm of animalcula, which "live +and move and have their being" in every element of life, and in every +life, and yet are so minute as to be imperceptible to the naked eye. +These invisibles, or infusoria, abound everywhere and in everything. +They pervade the sea, the land, the air. They swarm in every drop of +water, and revel in every morsel of food. We can neither eat nor drink +without infringing on their domain and consigning myriads of them, +perhaps, to an unprovoked destruction. They are almost as various in +grade, size, and shape, as they are numerous. Some are hideous, while +others are comely. They feed on each other, the superior on the +inferior, and are ever struggling for life and for the mastery. They +engage in the "battle of life" to sustain life, and hold to the doctrine +that "to the victors belong the spoils." It is an ascertained fact that +a speck of potato-rot, the size of a pin-head, contains hundreds of +these little ferocious animals, fighting and devouring each other +without mercy and without cessation. + +What seems still more surprising is that they probably have a perfect +organization,--heart, lungs, stomach, circulation of blood, and are +endowed, perhaps, with all the five senses. Infinite numbers of them, it +is supposed, exist in so minute a form that no microscope, however +great its power, can detect them. Nor need we doubt that even these +living invisibles are beset with parasites vastly minuter than +themselves, which feed and breed on their surfaces. In the very +blood-circulation of the minutest, it is not improbable that other +infusoria, still more minute, swim and prey upon each other. The uses +for which this invisible world of life were created, though doubtless +for a wise purpose, cannot be comprehended. Yet it is evident that every +living thing, however minute, has a destiny of some sort, ever +progressing, it may be, from a lower to a higher sphere,--from the +material to the spiritual, from the finite to the infinite. + + + "All are but parts of one stupendous whole, + Whose body Nature is, and God the soul." + + +The atmosphere, supposed to extend sixty miles in height, surrounds the +earth like an invisible ocean, and gives to it almost entirely its +life-material. In fact, the atmosphere is the great reservoir of the +vital elements, from which is derived the principal part, if not all, +the material, solid or liquid, which enters into the composition of both +plant and animal, whether it be a blade of grass, a leaf, or a tree; an +insect, a fish, or a man. It is true, however, that animal-life is more +directly the outgrowth of plant-life; and yet the vital forces of both +are derived from the air, and return to the air by solar agencies. It is +quite certain that all matter, as seen embodied in various forms, +consists entirely of certain gases condensed or solidified by chemical +laws. The atmosphere itself, and probably infinite space, are filled +with matter in the gaseous form, or in some unknown form, destined to be +condensed, dissolved, and recondensed in a series of changes as +continuous as the infinite ages. + +In this sense, not only the earth, but every other planet, contains +within itself the seeds of its own dissolution. Yet matter, whatever its +form, is still indestructible, and will forever retain its vital forces. +It would seem that life is the soul of matter, and that electricity is +the soul of life,--immaterial, it may be, and if so, then immortal. +Where the material ends, or where the spiritual begins, it is impossible +to say. We know that we are endowed with the five senses at birth. We +also know that they are the media through which we receive all the +impressions and perceptions of our environment; it is from their report +that we learn what is agreeable or disagreeable to our physical needs. +We choose the agreeable, and reject the disagreeable. Here reason +begins, and pronounces judgment. Memory records facts and conclusions. +The physical and the mental grow in strength from infancy to manhood; +they are a living unit. The one is real, and the other ideal. Of spirit +or soul we know nothing, nor can we prove their existence, unless we +accept the proofs as furnished by revelation. It is certain, however, +that our moral character survives us and continues to have an influence +in the world for good or for evil "according to the deeds done in the +body." This fact is something which we can comprehend as constituting +the ideal of our spiritual existence. Nor need we doubt that in +discharging our duties to our fellow-men, we discharge our duties to +God. + +Everywhere about us, and especially in atmospheric phenomena, we see an +epitome of Nature's processes and marvellous formative power. Not a +snowflake falls to the ground that does not bring with it a +crystallization of the most beautiful specimens of artistic embroidery, +far excelling the finest needle-work ever wrought by woman's hand. The +same is true of the silver frostwork traced on the window-pane by the +delicate touch of invisible fingers. In truth, every gem that glitters +in the mine, every flower of the field, and every star in the sky, is +but a crystallized expression of the beautiful, blended with a silent +love that is pure and heartfelt, as if akin to us. In reality they are +our kindred, and we are their kindred. + +Nature seems to delight in creating the wonderful as well as the +beautiful, and often combines both in the same exhibition. Hence she +entertains us occasionally with a magnificent display of fireworks, +known as Northern Lights; or with an apparent shower of falling stars; +or with the sudden descent of an aërolite, all ablaze, as if dropped +from the fiery forge of the sun; or with a brilliant comet, which with +its long and glittering trail sweeps in ladylike style the star-dust +from the pavement of the sky. These singular occurrences, though +sometimes regarded as ominous, are but a part of Nature's systematic +operations. They cannot with any foundation in truth be attributed to +accident; for it is impossible that accidents should happen in the +workshops of Nature, or in the administration of her government. + +How the various meteors are actually formed, or whence they come, is a +mystery which has induced much speculation among scientific men. Some +say they are volcanic fragments thrown from the moon, or from some +distant planet, or perhaps from a crater of the sun; while others, with +more reason, suppose that they are generated in space, or in the earth's +atmosphere, and are nothing more than condensed gases which constitute +the elements of solid matter, and which become in some instances so +hardened by chemical action as to assume the solidity of stone or iron. + +And hence it often happens that the latter class of these erratic +strangers fall from the sky to the earth with a terrific explosion. In +ancient times their appearance was regarded as portentous of national or +individual calamities. The Chinese have records of meteoric showers, and +the fall of aërolites, which occurred more than six hundred and forty +years before the Christian era. The Greeks and Romans observed and +recorded similar phenomena. Between the years 903 and 1833, not less +than nineteen periodical star-showers have been recorded. The regular +period of their occurrence is once in every thirty-three years, or +thereabout, and usually about the middle of November. But what are +called sporadic meteors, or shooting-stars, are of frequent occurrence, +and may be seen almost every evening in the year. + +The most brilliant meteoric shower on record is that of 1833, when +meteors fell at the rate of two hundred and forty thousand per hour, +creating the impression that all the stars of heaven had been unsphered, +and were falling like a sheet of fire to the earth, and threatening a +universal conflagration. Occurring as it did at midnight, and +continuing for two or more hours, thousands of people, who witnessed the +scene with fear and trembling, supposed the day of judgment had come. In +just thirty-three years after this, Nov. 14, 1866, occurred another +periodical shower of a similar character, which, though less brilliant, +was seen on a more extended scale in Europe than in the United States. +Why this apparent storm of fire should occur every thirty-three years, +is a mystery which science has not yet been able to explain. It may be a +part of the machinery of our planetary system, and is perhaps as regular +in its revolutions as the planets; or it may be a method of dissipating +an over-accumulation in the earth's atmosphere, or in infinite space, of +inflammable gaseous matter, which thus ignites spontaneously, and +presents to the eye the appearance of burning sparks flying off, as it +were, from the broad anvil and ponderous sledge employed in the great +workshop of Nature. Be this as it may, meteoric showers, so far as +known, have always proved harmless in their results. + +But the aërolite assumes a more formidable character. In outline it is a +globular mass heated to intensity, and in its approach comes with a +hissing sound, and usually explodes in the atmosphere or when it strikes +the earth. Its fragments show that it is a solid body, composed mostly +of a ferruginous material. The illumination it creates in its passage +through the atmosphere is sometimes seen at the distance of five or six +hundred miles. Erratic masses of this kind have been known to fall in +all ages and in all countries, and are of frequent occurrence. + +So recent as the year 1867, an aërolite of large dimensions fell in +Tennessee, penetrating a hillside of rocky formation to the depth of +twenty feet. It was seen at a great distance, and came hissing on its +way like a planet on fire, and when it struck the earth, produced a +shock like that of an earthquake. So intensely heated was it, that for +three days after it fell it generated and sent up from the moist earth a +dense column of steam, which rose and floated away like a cloud in the +sky. When excavated, its mass was found to be composed principally of +iron, and measured seven feet from apex to base, and ten feet in +circumference. Fragments of it have been preserved, and may be seen at +Washington, and in several collections of minerals belonging to +scientific individuals. But where did it come from? Did it come from the +sun, the moon, the earth, or from some exploded planet? or was it +generated in the atmosphere? Though the question has not been +satisfactorily answered, there are plausible reasons for believing that +aërolites, and meteors generally, are the spontaneous production of +atmospherical agencies. Physical forces are at work all over the earth, +charging the atmosphere with the identical materials that compose the +meteoric stone, or aërolite. Volcanoes emit their gases, and hurl with +terrific force burning fragments of rock into the depths of the sky. The +tornado, or land-spout, takes up in its grasp sand, with other solid +material, and rotates it with such violence as to produce fusion of the +mass, giving it a globular form and hurling it to an invisible height, +and then leaving it to gravitate brilliantly and rapidly until it +reaches the earth. This theory is confirmed by many facts, and +especially by the occurrence of a land-spout near the village of +Ossonval in France, where, on the 6th of July, 1822, some broken clouds, +coming from different directions, and collecting over the sandy plain, +formed a single cloud, which covered the heavens, when an elongated +nether portion of it descended, presenting its vortex downward, and +having its base in the cloud. It then became violent in its revolutions, +and being driven by the wind, overturned buildings, uprooted trees, +twirling them in the air with liberal quantities of sand and water, +which it had scooped up in its course, when from its centre, amid +sulphurous vapors, globes of fire were seen to issue, as if projected +from an engine of terrific power, attended with a sound like that of +heavy cannon discharged in the distance. Throughout its entire course it +left the fearful traces of its devastation. The globes of fire which +were projected from its centre, it may well be supposed, possessed all +the characteristics of veritable aërolites, and were thus manufactured +by electrical heat and fusion out of the earth-material lifted from the +plain. + +Not long since, there fell near Romney, Ind., an aërolite in a liquid, +or molten state, which flew into fragments the moment it struck the +earth's surface. The spot where it fell was deeply indented and +scorched; and the material of which it was composed was found scattered +about in the vicinity, having the appearance of cinders, yet moulded +into the form of small spherical bodies varying in size from a buckshot +to that of a cannon-ball. It is somewhat remarkable that in subjecting +fractured portions of the cinders to intense heat, no perceptible odor +was emitted, neither was the color nor weight changed. The fact that +these cinders descended in spherical bodies would seem to indicate that +the parent mass approached the earth in a state of fusion, projecting +from its surface, as it revolved, detached fragments, which, taking a +rotatory impulse, became its attendant satellites in accordance with +planetary laws. + +Among many other aërolites that have fallen in different parts of our +country, one of considerable magnitude was seen to fall near Concord, +Muskingum County, Ohio, on the 1st of May, 1860; it approached the earth +with a brilliancy as vivid as the sun, and exploded when it struck. +Several fragments of it were excavated while quite hot, one of which, +weighing eleven pounds, has been deposited in the Historical Rooms at +Cleveland. It is composed of ferruginous matter, and seems almost as +heavy as pure iron. + +It is impossible for us to comprehend, from the standpoint we occupy in +this life, our real relations either to the past or to the present, much +less to the future. Earth has her manifold wonders, yet they are but few +when compared with the infinite wonders of the heavens. Vast as our +solar system truly is, it may still be regarded as but a chandelier +suspended in the entrance-hall of Nature's great temple. When we +consider that infinite space has neither centre nor circumference, and +that it is filled with stars, and that every star is a world inhabited +like our own, and that there are still infinite numbers of stars whose +light, though travelling at the rate of one hundred and eighty-five +thousand miles a second ever since the dawn of creation, has not yet +reached the earth, we are lost,--lost in wonder and amazement, lost in +thought, still wanting a thought broad enough and strong enough to grasp +the infinite. Who is there that would not, if he could, explore the +untrodden yet brilliant domains of infinite space,--the garden of God, +ever blossoming with golden flowers,--and thus acquire for himself +divine wisdom? If we would become as gods, and walk with God, we must +learn to partake the food, and drink the beverage, of the gods. + +In physical science there is much that has a direct influence on the +growth and vigor of moral science. In fact, Nature does much more for +the welfare and education of man than he does for himself. The mountains +elevate his thoughts, and teach him moral sublimity. The vast ocean, +apparently shoreless, suggests to him the idea of eternity and a future +life. The earthquake, the hurricane, and the lightning inspire him with +a belief in the existence of a supreme Power, a divine Governor of the +universe. Thus impressed with a sense of his own weakness and +dependence, man naturally implores protection, and trusts in the +beneficence and in the clemency of the great Invisible. Hence his faith, +his hope, his aspirations. In this way was laid the primitive +foundation of his creed and religious tendencies. And yet his weakest +passion would seem to be his strongest,--a desire not only to perpetuate +himself beyond this life, but to acquire superhuman power. It is for +this that he struggles, erects altars, and solicits aid from visionary +as well as from divine sources. + +Whether the perfection of mankind be the end and aim of Nature, need not +be questioned. It is evident that she regards man as a favorite, and for +this reason solicits him to accept the lessons of wisdom which are ever +falling from her lips. In the plenitude of her love she attempts to lead +him upward into a broader and a holier sphere. If man was able to trace +his descent and ascertain his origin, do you think he would find it in +the ape, as Darwin affirms, or in the dust of the earth? Revelation +replies, In the dust; and a sound philosophy confirms the fact. + +Nature never stultifies herself, nor does she develop a new species of +animal or plant from an existing species, but doubtless encourages +"natural selection" in the line of each distinct species, and by so +doing promotes progress in her grand scheme of attaining perfection; nor +can it be doubted that from new conditions a new species may appear. In +fact, every living thing is born of its appropriate conditions, and +will continue to propagate its kind so long as its appropriate +conditions exist. When conditions change, results change. In this way a +new species of plant or animal may be, and perhaps often is, generated. +The process is simply one of change in the relation of the requisite +life-elements,--a process which results from the unceasing operation of +a great natural law. In Nature there is nothing constant but change. + +Life, in all its varieties, whether vegetal or animal, has a rudimental +origin, traceable perhaps to a minute egg, cell, or spore, call it what +you will, from which is evolved in due time a perfect plant or animal. +But if asked whence is derived the egg, cell, or spore, we can only +reply that they have their origin in certain primitive life-elements, +which are brought into contact in a way so subtile as to elude the +investigations of science. This life-law, whatever it may be, acts in +reference to kind, and produces its kind. Nearly all forms of life have +resemblances; and though we accept the doctrine of evolution, it does +not follow that man was developed from an ape, or the bird from a +flying-fish. + +Everything that lives, whether plant or animal, has its leading +characteristics. Nearly all plants, as well as animals, evince a degree +of intelligence in their choice of nutriment and in their methods of +obtaining it. Some plants, like animals, shrink at the touch; while +others have the power of locomotion. Some seek the sunlight; while +others prefer the shade. Some imprison and appropriate insects as food; +while others extend themselves in this or that direction in search of +favorite companionship. It is doubtless true that plants, as well as +animals, however low their grade, have sensation, perhaps consciousness, +and if so, a ray of reason. It would seem that mind is but an outgrowth +of matter, and that every living thing has a degree of intelligence. +Indeed, every particle of matter, organic or inorganic, has motive +power, and is therefore endowed with a living principle, however +sluggish or inert it may appear. An intelligent vitality seems to +pervade the entire material of the universe. Hence it has been said with +some degree of plausibility that "matter thinks." However this may be, +it is certain that its motive power acts in reference to adapting means +to ends, and is therefore controlled by reason,--a reason that is +infinitely superior to human reason. In other words, all matter is the +subject of law. The one is manifestly the condition of the other. The +law cannot exist without the matter, nor can the matter exist without +the law. Both are therefore co-existent, and doubtless co-eternal. + +Nature is ever active in working "wonders in the heavens and in the +earth." Her domain includes both. In the beam of every star she sends us +a messenger revealing the fact that the stars are constructed of the +same materials as the earth. In like manner we have assurance that the +same is true of the nebulous masses, which seem to float, like +continents, in infinite space, awaiting the slow processes which are +destined to mould them into golden orbs. And thus from the depths of the +infinite comes world after world, system after system, ever sweeping +onward in the "eternal dances of the sky," until lost in the infinite. +And thus it is that the work of creation has neither beginning nor +ending, but is ever progressing in its subtile methods of combining, +dissolving, and recombining the entire matter of the universe. +Everything, whether orb or atom, moves in a circle, because there is a +divinity that stirs within it. + +Philosophize as we may, it is certain that we are surrounded by the +infinite, and are of the infinite. All that is terrestrial in us, all +individualities, are evanescent, passing from one form into another. +Nothing remains identical. Yet in her experiments, Nature never fails +of success. In dissolving pearls, she creates others of higher value; +in extinguishing stars, she lights up others of greater brilliancy and +magnitude. And yet nothing becomes extinct; elements never die. Every +plant and every animal is but the fruitage of the inherent life that +pervades the material world. + +In some form or other we always have existed and always will exist. It +has been well said that man in his nature is "half dust and half deity." +His life does not begin with his birth, nor does it end with his death; +he is immortal. And so is everything, whether animate or inanimate, +immortal. Even death survives itself. Nor is there a particle of matter +in the universe that has not lived and breathed; nor is there a drop of +water in the ocean that has not slaked the thirst of some living thing. +Every star that glitters in the fathomless depths of space swarms with +life, and every life achieves its aim. In a word, everything is +infinite, and subserves an infinite purpose. We need neither go nor come +to reach heaven. It is here; it is everywhere,--not a place, but a +state. It is only the moral atmosphere of our social and individual life +that requires purification,--a work that must begin in the head and in +the heart in order to be effective. When this purification has been +achieved, then with our earth-life will come moral elevation, and with +moral elevation, harmony with heaven. The God of Nature is the God in +Nature, who not only reveals himself in her lessons, but takes us by the +hand, and with the love and patience of a parent leads us onward and +upward-- + + + "Along the line of limitless desires." + + + + +EDUCATION OF THE MASSES. + + +It is the welfare of society, rather than that of the individual, which +is sought to be promoted by a system of popular education. Every part of +the social fabric should be fitted to its place, and go into place like +the materials in Solomon's temple, without the sound of the hammer; yet +a refined civilization cannot be attained without first securing a +liberal mental culture of the masses. + +Nature, as if inspired by a divine instinct, is ever engaged in refining +her materials. The laws by which she works are as applicable to mind as +to matter. In man we see both mind and matter combined,--two natures, +the intellectual and the physical. But in order to learn what we are and +what we should be, we must first understand the relations in which we +are placed. In attempting to do this, we must study man as well as +Nature, and advance step by step, if we would achieve the highest +attainments of which we are capable. + +He only is a man in the true sense whose mental, moral, and physical +capacities have been fully developed. To be "twenty-one years of age +and six feet high" does not of itself constitute a man. He must attain +to something more than this,--he must have the head and the heart and +the soul of a man. He must appreciate the true character of his +position, and have the moral courage to discharge his duties,--in short, +he must live for others as well as for himself, act from generous +impulses, and in all he does, yield to "the divinity that stirs within +him," if he would comprehend the import of his godlike destiny. + +The highway to knowledge, though rugged, is equally free and open to +all. Whoever will, may enter the temple of Nature, interrogate her face +to face, unlock her treasures, appropriate her wealth, and subject her +subtle agencies to human service. This the nineteenth century has +already done to a considerable extent. Thus far it has been a bold +century, and has taken many bold steps. It has "knocked holes through +the blind walls" of the last ten centuries, and exposed to daylight the +"moles and the bats" of antiquity; and still it demands more light. Such +is the spirit of the age,--a demand for naked truth in all its beautiful +proportions. Never, until this nineteenth century, have the masses +really discovered their mission,--the great fact that they were created +to think as well as work, and to govern as well as be governed. And yet +the world may be regarded as still in its infancy; nor has the human +mind, as compared with its possibilities, emerged from its cradle, or +even thrown off its swaddling garments. + +Though capable of sublime achievements, man at birth is not only one of +the most helpless, but one of the most ignorant, specimens of animal +existence. It is said by physiologists that an infant can neither smile +nor shed a tear until forty days old. In his infancy the world to him is +but a panorama of strange objects. In due time, however, he discovers +that he has everything to learn, and needs to learn everything before he +can comprehend himself or wield the power which Heaven has assigned him. + +The degree of culture required to render man what he should be--godlike +in his character--admits of no compromise with ignorance, superstition, +or sectarianism, but on the contrary, involves the necessity of +establishing and sustaining such an educational system as will be +adapted to the needs of the masses, and work in accordance with the laws +of matter and of mind. + +It is to the masses that our country must look for her best material, +and for her future intellectual giants. In every age of the world more +or less great men have been produced. At a time when most needed, our +own country produced a Washington, a Jefferson, and a Franklin, who +distinguished themselves and the age in which they lived,--the age which +gave birth to human rights. At a later period appeared a Jackson, a +Clay, and a Webster,--the defenders of the Constitution and of the +Union,--who have left behind them a brilliant record; but +notwithstanding their conservative efforts, there came a spirit of +reform, sowing dragon-teeth, which soon sprang to life and filled the +land with armed heroes, who bravely met in deadly conflict and decided +forever the great question of human freedom; and consequently we now +have, instead of a few, a great many men of world-wide renown, who have +made for themselves and for their country a proud history. + +In order to preserve our liberties we must have men of large hearts and +wise heads,--men who can wear the armor of giants because they are +giants. In short, we must recognize the great fact that every child in +the land has a God-given right to an education,--a right which no parent +should be allowed to sell for "a mess of pottage." Our national +watchword should be "Education;" and the system should be so +constructed as to reach all classes of youth by methods not only +efficient but attractive. + +It will be said by some, perhaps, that it is quite impossible to educate +the masses in the higher branches of learning, unless they be withdrawn +from the indispensable labors of the field and the workshop, and thus be +compelled to neglect the industrial pursuits on which they must depend +for their physical comforts,--bread, raiment, and shelter. However +plausible this objection may seem, it certainly does not afford a +sufficient reason why the facilities of acquiring a good education +should not be equally extended to all classes. + +Manual labor and a high degree of intelligence are by no means +incompatible, but on the contrary, must be associated, in order to +achieve great or brilliant results. It is true, however, that the +physical wants of man must first be supplied before you can proceed +successfully with the cultivation of his intellectual powers. The fact +is every day exemplified that bread is much easier gained by an +intelligent than by an ignorant laborer. Whatever faith may do, it is +certain that science and labor must be combined if we would either +tunnel or "remove mountains;" and though native talent may have been +distributed with more liberality to some than to others, all are under +the highest obligations to improve such as they have, whether it be one +talent or twenty talents. + +The farmer, the mechanic, the merchant, and even the busy housewife, +have more or less leisure hours,--long winter evenings, holidays, and +sabbath days, amounting to nearly half a lifetime,--which might with +great profit be employed in the acquisition of useful knowledge through +the medium of choice books and interchange of thought. Indeed, almost +every one who has received a common-school education may so improve the +fragments of time which fall in his way as to acquire in the course of +an ordinary lifetime a pretty thorough acquaintance with the sciences, +and with general literature. + +Though our leisure hours may seem too few to be worth improving, yet it +is by saving pennies that we accumulate wealth. Surprising as it may +seem, there are within the allotted age of man ten years of sabbaths +when taken in the aggregate,--ample time, one would suppose, for +perfecting, in a good degree at least, his intellectual and moral +culture. If mankind were as orthodox in their actions as they profess to +be in their creeds, the moral regeneration of the world would soon be +accomplished. One of the most formidable barriers in the way of human +advancement is the faith we have derived, not from revelation, but from +the blind interpretation of it. A true theology and a sound philosophy +can never come in conflict. In this enlightened age, it is absurd to +expect that Science will confine her inquiries within the circumference +of a circle, or so modify her annunciations of truth as to coincide with +the mystical traditions which have been handed down to us from a remote +antiquity. + +As an encouragement to the friends of popular education, the fact should +not be overlooked that the masses have been to a great extent relieved +from the necessity of constant toil by the introduction of modern +machinery. In fact, genius has conquered time, and given time to the +masses. It has broken the fetters that bound them, and thus afforded +them leisure for self-culture, social intercourse, and the investigation +of truth. + +It is the magic power of genius which has given life and brain to +machinery, and which compels it to perform the hard work of the factory, +of the workshop, of the farm, and of the household. In almost every +department of industry, machinery does the hard work. It spins and +weaves and knits. It saws and planes and wields the hammer. It reaps and +mows and thrashes. It churns and washes and plies the needle. In fact, +it does nearly everything else for us, except to breathe, eat, and +digest our food. It was the inventive genius of our Northern people--the +legitimate outgrowth of our common-school system--that produced, at the +moment when wanted, iron-clads, monster cannon, and Greek fire, and in +the sequel, saved the Union, and overawed the powers of Europe. It was +these warlike inventions which secured us the elements of a lasting +peace, and the respect of the civilized world. + +It may be truly said that we now live longer in ten years than our +ancestors did in twenty, and accomplish twenty times as much. Still it +is not possible for any one man to know and do everything. Men of genius +are specialties, seldom or never universalities. Hence, a diversity of +talent naturally dictates a division of labor. And yet American genius, +if not universal, must be acknowledged eminently inventive and +practical. The Americans have made, we may venture to assert, more +valuable discoveries in the last half century than all the world +besides. The reason why this is so may be attributed to the operation of +a physical law, in connection with the effect of a liberal system of +popular education. The Americans are a mixed race, made up of all +nations, and have been improved and elevated as a race by transfusion of +blood, which has resulted in producing increased activity of brain, +with new modes of thought and new exhibitions of intellectual power. + +But notwithstanding this peculiarity of character, there still remains, +as it seems to me, one great and glaring error in the prevailing system +of American education. This error consists in our neglecting to develop +more fully the physical man, through the instrumentalities of systematic +labor combined with systematic study. In many of the German States, if +not in all, the plan of educating youth is much more sensible and +philosophical than in this country. There they combine daily labor with +daily study; and the result is that the youth of Germany acquire vigor +of body and vigor of mind at the same time. From youth to manhood they +are taught to regard labor as honorable, and they feel that it is so. +Hence the Germans are characterized as a race by the possession of an +iron constitution, and by a mental energy which enables them to meet the +stern realities of life not only with fortitude, but with a spirit that +never yields to adversity. No country has ever produced a more athletic +or a more enduring race than Germany; nor has any country produced finer +scholars in every branch of human learning, especially in philosophy and +in classical literature. + +But in this country it may be difficult, perhaps impracticable, to +establish an educational system of this character, to any considerable +extent, for the reason that we are for the most part an agricultural +people, who do not concentrate in hamlets, like the peasantry of Europe, +but prefer to occupy many acres and to distribute ourselves over a vast +expanse of territory,--and what is more, have a way of our own in all we +do. The truth is, Young America does not like work. He prefers fine +clothes and fast horses, and apes the man before he is a man. And yet he +assumes to know everything, and to do everything,--except work. These +peculiarities in the character of Young America seem to have been +generated by the spirit of our free institutions. Whether too much +freedom or too little freedom is the greater evil, presents a grave +question. Whatever may be the cause, it is evident that we as a people +are degenerating into a nation of speculators. + +Almost every man nowadays seeks to acquire wealth by some grand +speculation,--by some other means than by the honest "sweat of his +brow." Even mental acquisitions are often sought as a means of +speculation,--as a means of living without work; and hence we see the +learned professions crowded to overflowing. Go into the main streets of +our cities and villages, and you will see the fronts of nearly all the +buildings on either side of the way shingled over with the signs of +lawyers and doctors, who in the estimation of the populace lead lives of +little work and great dignity. Doubtless a foreigner, with such an +exhibition before his eyes, would think us a nation of lawyers and +doctors, living on the misfortunes of each other; nor would his +conclusion be very wide of the mark. + +Nor can it be doubted that there are thousands in the clerical +profession who, if they do not subsist on each other, subsist in a +"mysterious way" on salaries entirely inadequate to their support. It +would seem that the supply of professional men in this country exceeds +the demand. For this there may be no remedy. Yet a step in the right +direction should be taken by advancing the standard of professional +attainments so as to exclude mediocrity and shallow pretence from +registration on the "roll of honor." Wide as the world is, it has no +room for idlers or pretenders. + +This over-supply of professional men not only indicates a false estimate +of what really constitutes a true manhood, but clearly proves that in +American education and in American public sentiment there are prevalent +errors which are inconsistent with the welfare of man and the democratic +character of our institutions. These errors can be corrected only +through the influence of a well-directed course of popular education; +but nothing is more difficult than the correction of popular errors. It +is a task the reformer often attempts, but seldom accomplishes. In most +cases it must be a work of time, perhaps of ages. In every school there +should be a regular system of physical as well as mental exercises +established. Health and strength of body are pre-requisites to health +and strength of mind. + +In most of our colleges and boarding-schools the physical development of +the pupil receives but little attention; and consequently he is +enfeebled in body if not in mind, and is then sent out into the world to +endure its hardships without the physical ability to take care of +himself. All this is radically wrong, and calls loudly for reform. An +exclusive culture of the mental powers can never produce a strong man or +woman. This fact is painfully illustrated in all our large towns and +cities. The kind of education, therefore, which attempts to refine our +young men and young ladies by giving them an artificial nature too +delicate to endure soiled hands will never do. The coarse as well as the +fine work of practical life must be done by somebody. Though some may be +too proud, none are too good to work, however elevated may be their +social position. There is really nothing in our daily routine of +duty--in the coarse work of the world--from which an enlightened mind +should shrink. + +It is to be hoped the time will soon come when all our public schools, +colleges, and universities will have their workshops and gardens, +affording the necessary facilities for instructing our youth, male and +female, in some industrial art or trade, as well as in books, and thus +give them a relish for labor, and the physical ability to endure it. + +If such a method were adopted, the women of our country would soon +become practically fitted to compete with the men in many, if not all, +the channels of a business life. If it be true that the women have been +deprived of their rights, it is certainly not the fault of the men, but +a fault of education,--a radical error which should be remedied. If +parents will not apply the remedy in the early education of their +daughters, then there is no relief. Let a course of education make it as +fashionable for a woman to pursue some industrial art or trade as it is +to be a lily that neither "toils nor spins," and you would soon see +American women not only capable of taking care of themselves, but more +generally solicited than they now are to assume the endearing cares of +their appropriate sphere. + +The true mission of woman is divine. To her belongs the post of +honor,--that of a wife and mother,--a position which she prefers to +occupy when yielding to the impulses of her nature. In educating her, +therefore, this great fact should be kept in view. There is no knowledge +she needs more than a correct knowledge of human character. This she can +only acquire by coming in contact with the world as it is, in childhood +as well as in womanhood; in the public school as well as in the social +circle. The old puritanic idea that the sexes must be schooled +separately in order to secure them from exposure to moral dangers, seems +to me not only erroneous, but absurd. The public school, when made up of +both sexes, is in fact an epitome of the world, where its good and its +evil are seen, and where the child should be taught to accept the good +and reject the evil under the guidance of correct moral principles. It +is in a pure home influence, however, that a primary education should +begin. Indeed, mothers must take the initiatory step in giving to +youthful impulse the right direction. + + + "Just as the twig is bent, the tree's inclined." + + +But in order to appreciate the full import of their duties and +responsibilities, mothers themselves must first be properly educated. +Where, then, is this all-important work to be commenced? Where can it +be commenced, except in our common schools? It is in the common schools +only that the masses can be educated. It is to the common schools only +that we can look for the proper education of the future fathers and +mothers of the land, and for the correction of popular errors. It is to +this class of schools, more than to any other, that we must look for our +future patriots and scholars, statesmen and philosophers, and last, not +least, for our future school-teachers. + +The mission of a school-teacher is truly a mission of divine import. It +is the school-teacher who moulds the youthful mind, and converts it into +a casket of gems; it is the school-teacher who gives direction to +budding thought, and awakens in the soul of youth the slumbering fires +of genius,--in short, it is the school-teacher who lays the broad +foundations of the Republic, and hews the pillars that sustain our civil +and religious institutions. The school-teacher should therefore possess +the qualifications of a master-builder, be able to plan his work, and +execute it with tact, taste, and judgment. He should not only govern +himself, but should be able to govern his pupils without seeming to +govern. In a word, he should be a model character, and regard his +profession as one of honor, and honor his profession by elevating it to +the dignity of a learned profession. He should remember that he is +placed in a position which gives him a vast influence,--an influence +broad as the ocean of time; an influence which should be pure in its +character, and as refreshing to the growth of the inner life as the dews +of heaven to the unfolding flowers. + +There is no means, perhaps, more efficient in promoting the success of a +professional teacher than the instruction to be derived from institutes, +or normal schools, in which the art of teaching is made a specialty. +This class of schools should be made a part of our school system. At +least every Congressional district, if not every county, should have its +normal school. It is only in this way that our public schools can be +supplied with accomplished teachers, and be made worthy of being called +the "people's colleges." + +But the truth is, the masses are not as yet more than half awake to +their real interests. In the cause of popular education the wonder is +that educators have done so much, and legislators so little. The true +educator is a philanthropist. He sees and feels that public sentiment +needs to be enlightened and liberalized before it will yield its +sanction to such a system of public schools as ought to be established. + +In perfecting our present system, we need a National Bureau of +Education, authorized to act as a central power in directing, if not in +controlling, the general educational interests of the entire country. A +department of this kind, it is believed, would give efficiency and +equality to all public schools, and thus greatly elevate their general +character. And with this view Congress should be required by the +Constitution, not only to establish, but support in each of the States +at least one national college; and these colleges should constitute a +national university, in which the crowning studies should be natural +science, military science, and the science of government. + +It is doubtless true that educators have already become a power in the +land. Of this fact they seem to be aware, and the danger is that their +influence may be subordinated to the uses of political aspirants. Every +educator has a right, of course, to express his own individual opinions; +but he certainly has not the right to employ educational +instrumentalities to promote the interests of a selfish partisanship, +either in State or Church. Whenever it is attempted to sow "tares" of +this kind among the wheat, it is to be hoped that an indignant public +sentiment will eradicate them with an unsparing hand. + +It is always pleasant to recall our early schooldays, with their many +delightful and refreshing memories, which still linger about the old +school-house where we received our elementary education,--the dear old +school-house by the wayside, with its noisy group, its sunny spots, and +its hours of fun and frolic, and especially its birchen sceptre, which +so often taught us the "doctrine of passive obedience." It is +unquestionably true that every school-house, to some extent at least, +reflects its character in the character of its pupils. Hence we should +not only look to the character of our schools, but should build our +school-houses in a neat, if not imposing style; for they, though silent, +are eloquent teachers, whose influence should create such impressions as +will tend to refine the tastes and elevate the aspirations of the +youthful mind. + +But no system of education which is contracted, or revolves in a circle, +can fully meet the exigencies of the mind, or satisfy the demands of the +age. In most American colleges, as well as in the universities of +Europe, a definite course of study is prescribed and made a fixed +fact,--a kind of Procrustean bed on which every lad is either stretched +or abridged to fit; and this is done, as scholastics tell us, for the +purpose of disciplining the mind. No two persons were ever created to +think, act, or look alike in every respect; nor can an educational +system be prescribed by square and compass which will be alike adapted +to all minds. In my humble judgment, those studies best discipline the +mind which tend most to enlarge and liberalize it, and which are +essentially concordant with its native powers and capacities. The course +of education, therefore, which will best develop the peculiar genius, +talent, or marked preference of the pupil, should be adopted so far as +practicable. If a young man, for instance, exhibits a native talent or +taste for music, painting, mechanics, law, medicine, theology, +agriculture, or commerce, his education should take the direction +indicated. If this plan were pursued in all our colleges and other +schools of a high order, we should soon see, instead of here and there a +star, a galaxy of brilliant men and women in the sky of our national +renown, whose excellence in their several specialties would challenge +the admiration of mankind. + +The truth is, our modern colleges are not modern enough. They look to +the ancients for wisdom, instead of seeking it from Nature and the +revelations of modern science. In a word, the dead languages are studied +too much; the living, too little. Next to mathematics, the natural +sciences should take the preference. No man is thoroughly educated who +is not thoroughly instructed in these sciences, especially in chemistry +and geology. Every farmer should be familiar with agricultural +chemistry, and be able to apply its principles. It is the utility, the +practical good to be derived from an education, that gives to it value +and solidity. + +It is practical, not fanciful knowledge, which the masses need. In order +to secure their elevation and social equality, every State in the Union +should be required to maintain an efficient system of common schools, in +which all instruction should be given in the English language, and the +schools made accessible to all classes of youth, and be "good enough for +the richest, and cheap enough for the poorest." In order to effect this, +the system should recognize the theory as an equitable principle, that +the property of the State is bound to educate the youth of the State. +This principle is certainly a just one, since the man of property, +though he have no children, is as much benefited by its application as +the man who has children but no property, for the reason that the +security of property, as well as the rights of persons and the stability +of the Republic, must ever depend on the degree of intelligence +possessed by the people. + +In fact, each State should be regarded as one great school-district, +and all its resident youth as the children of the State, for whose +common education every citizen having taxable property is bound to +contribute his proportionate share. In this way every child can be +educated, and elevated to the social position of a true manhood; and it +is only in this way that a work of such magnitude can be accomplished. +In every point of view it is much wiser to educate than to punish, much +wiser to build school-houses than prisons, much wiser to sustain school +libraries than billiard-tables. + +It is a matter of congratulation, however, that there is now much more +confidence placed in the theory of common schools than in former years. +In most of the States prejudice has yielded to enlightened sentiment, +and the "people's colleges" have come to be regarded as the most useful +and influential institutions in the land. All should be done that can be +to render these schools pleasant and attractive. The school-house should +be built not only in good taste, but its surroundings should be made as +cheerful and inviting as possible by planting about it ornamental trees, +shrubs, and flowers. Its interior walls should be enriched with +appropriate maps and charts, historical paintings, and portraits of +renowned men and women. In addition to this, every school should be +supplied with an ample apparatus, embracing specimen weights and +measures, mathematical figures in wood, together with globes and a +planetarium,--not omitting a cabinet of the leading minerals, metals, +and coins. Their uses and characteristics should be explained and +illustrated by the teacher in a simple style of language, and in the +presence of the entire school, at least once or twice a week. + +Familiar exercises of this kind would deeply interest the pupils, and +impart to their minds a degree of valuable knowledge which they would +not be likely to obtain in any other way, and which might awaken, +perhaps, some unconscious genius, who would in after-life so develop his +powers as to advance the interests of science, and take his place among +her proudest masters. In nearly every instance our truly great men have +arisen from an obscure origin. + +The time has already arrived, I am inclined to think, when there should +be added to the usual course of studies pursued in our colleges, +academies, and high schools, a systematic training in military science +and discipline, as a means not only of physical culture, but as an easy +method of fitting our young men to become practical soldiers and +defenders of the Republic. We as a people, in consequence of the late +Civil War in which we have been involved, are evidently undergoing a +transition, which has already had the effect to change in a good degree +our national traits of character. If we would have invincible men, we +must, like the ancient Greeks, accustom our sons to hardships and manly +exercises, give them muscle as well as mind, teach them to love and +defend their country, and if need be, to die for it,--die on the +battle-field,-- + + + "Where gory sabres rise and fall + Like shoots of flame on midnight's pall!" + + +The attempt which we are making in our public schools to educate our +children in the shortest possible time is a grave error. We ought rather +to "make haste slowly," if we would do the work well. A work of this +character is one which requires patience and perseverance. There is no +short way to knowledge, no patent right that can produce it to order. It +can only be obtained by study, persevering study, aided by the patient +efforts of competent teachers. It is all-important therefore that we +should furnish our children with such elementary books as are best +adapted to their capacities and needs, and with such teachers as are +qualified to teach them lessons contained not only inside of books but +outside of books,--lessons which abound everywhere, both in the natural +and in the moral world. We should also furnish them with school +libraries composed of standard works, and including the best current +literature of the day. A library of this character should be established +in every school-district, and be made accessible to every citizen. In +this way, and only in this way, can the masses be supplied with the +mental food which they so much need, and which is indispensable to their +moral and intellectual elevation. No matter what the cost, public +libraries always pay a liberal dividend in the shape of mental and moral +power, if not in dollars and cents. No matter what dangers may threaten +our free institutions, depend upon it, a reading people will take care +of themselves. + +The ancients built temples for their gods; we build school-houses for +our children. This one fact exhibits perhaps more clearly than any other +the distinctive character which marks the career of ancient and modern +civilization, and indicates the great change which has been wrought in +the course of ages by the law of progress. We may justly regard our +numerous school-houses and churches as the mirrors not only of moral +character, but as the safeguards of the Republic. + +In the pursuit of knowledge, it is quite absurd to suppose that all +high attainment in art, in literature, and in science, must of necessity +be confined to the "learned professions," as they are called by way of +pre-eminence. It does not matter what a man professes to know, but the +question is, what does he know, compared with what he might know? There +should never be such a monopoly allowed to exist as a monopoly of +knowledge. The learned professions have nothing in them sacred, no +forbidden fruit,--nothing more than what everybody may know who chooses; +nor can there be any good reason why every employment in the various +departments of human industry--every trade, every mechanic art--should +not be regarded as a learned profession, and be made a learned +profession, in which brains as well as hands should co-operate in +achieving success and in solving new problems. + +There is food for thought in every human pursuit. In order to be +successful, in order to achieve high aims, the laboring man must not +only think, but be capable of thinking profoundly. Indeed, every man may +live like a philosopher, and be a philosopher, if he will. But no man +can be a true philosopher who is not both a practical worker and a +practical thinker. There is nothing the world needs more than workers +and thinkers to make it a paradise. The masses are workers, and if +educated, would become thinkers. It is only once or twice in a century, +it is said, that "God lets loose upon the earth a great thinker." Of the +past, this may be true, but not of the present. We have scores of men +now living who are greater thinkers than Plato, Newton, or Franklin, +because modern science has introduced them into broader fields of +thought. The chemists, geologists, inventors, and discoverers of the +present day have never been excelled as profound thinkers. Ours is +literally an age of philosophers. + +Truth, though eternal, is never stationary; nor will the law of progress +ever reach a standpoint. There is always something to be done, some +vacuum to be filled. It is said by philosophers that Nature abhors a +vacuum. I do not doubt it, especially if it be a vacuum in the human +head. It is pretty certain that the youthful head, if not filled with +sense at the proper time, will soon be filled with nonsense. Neither +errors of the head nor errors of the heart can be easily eradicated, +when once implanted. The moral nature of the child may be moulded at +will; but the cherished opinions of age can seldom, if ever, be either +reversed or essentially modified. In the great battle of life our +success as individuals must depend on the kind of armor in which we are +clad, and the kind of weapons with which we are supplied. For effective +service there is nothing which can be brought into the field so +formidable or so irresistible as the artillery of logic. Intellect is +always sure of becoming the ultimate victor. We read of giants in the +chronicles of the early ages,--physical giants, who could overthrow the +pillars of the proudest temples, and bear off mountains upon their +shoulders; yet of what value to the world were their marvellous +exploits, if really true, compared with the achievements of those +intellectual giants who have appeared at different epochs, and taught +mankind the most useful lessons in the arts, in the sciences, and in +philosophy? And here let me say to the young aspirant for worldly honors +that if he would achieve high aims, he must not only aim high, but have +faith in himself as well as in a Divine Providence. Indeed, every man, +however humble, may become great in his vocation, if he will; yet no man +can become truly great who is not truly good. + +So far as human perfection can be defined, it consists in the purity and +sublimity of moral action,--a perfection which may be approached, if not +reached, by all who are so disposed. How truly has it been said that we +are never too old or too wise to learn! Nor is any man so ignorant but +he may teach a philosopher something. + +No matter how conservative we may be in our creeds and opinions, the +world will continue to move onward; nor can it stand still if it would. +The time is at hand when errors in creed, as well as in education, to +which we cling, will not only be exposed, but exploded. However hopeless +the condition of the masses may seem, they are already demanding more +light and only await an opportunity to proclaim their emancipation from +mental thraldom. + +The statistics relating to the numbers of mankind, and to the frail +tenure of human life, convey lessons which ought not to be disregarded +in the estimate we make of what man can do to elevate himself. Strange +as it may seem, it is a fact pretty well ascertained that the entire +population of the globe neither increases nor diminishes, but remains +essentially the same. And yet the population of the earth is continually +undergoing changes from the operation of local causes, increasing here +and diminishing there, as the ages advance. The law involved seems based +on the principle of a just compensation for all diminution. In other +words, the earth has a limited capacity, and like a cup when filled, can +hold no more, yet always remains full. + +When we consider the fact that one fourth of mankind die before +reaching seven years of age; one half before reaching seventeen years; +and that sixty persons die every minute,--we are struck with +astonishment, and are naturally led to inquire into the reasons. The +causes which abridge life may for the most part be attributed to popular +ignorance, or disregard of physical law,--either in ancestor, parent, or +child. Nothing can be truer than the fact that the "sins of the fathers +are visited upon their children unto the third and fourth generation," +and even to indefinite generations. It is indeed a fearful inheritance, +when life comes to us tainted with constitutional disease. For this +there seems to be no remedy, except in the adoption of such a popular +system of education as will diffuse a practical knowledge of the laws of +health. + +It may be safely asserted that many people, especially in America, where +food is abundant and the style of living luxurious, "dig their own +graves with their teeth." Americans, as we all know, are disposed to +live fast, and of course die prematurely. In short, we are a sanguine, +impatient people; have morbid appetites, crave rich viands, seek wealth +and office, and care for little else. In our successes we commit +excesses. In the pure elixir of life we infuse drops of poison. Yet +Nature proffers us the gift of long life, and waits our acceptance with +a patient spirit. Though extreme longevity may not be desirable, yet +many more than now do, might attain to the dignity of centenarians, if +they would but live in obedience to physical law. + +In the elements of his physical nature, man is truly "of the earth +earthy." Chemists say that a man of ordinary size is composed of forty +pounds solid matter and five buckets of water, all of which may be +converted into gas. However this may be, man is a delicate piece of +mechanism, a combination of divine inventions. For example, his eye is a +telescope, which penetrates the mysteries of the stars; his ear is a +drum, which repeats every sound in nature; his heart a timepiece, which +marks, with measured beat, the fleeting moments of his life; his vocal +organs a harp with a thousand strings, which is capable of uttering the +divinest music. + +And yet man in his moral nature, though created but "a little lower than +the angels," is a profound puzzle. He advances many theories, questions +even divine truth, yet believes in absurdities. Nor need we marvel at +this, perhaps, when we recall the fact that mankind speak more than +three thousand different languages, and profess more than one thousand +different religions. + +Whether regarded as a common brotherhood, or as composed of distinct +races, it is evident that the human family have made rapid advancement +in the amelioration of their condition during the last century, through +the instrumentalities of a world-wide commercial intercourse, and the +consequent diffusion of nobler incentives to action. Yet of the one +thousand millions that compose the great family of man, more than six +hundred millions are still groping their way in the darkness of a moral +midnight, awaiting the advent of the school-master and the promulgation +of a purer and holier faith. Even in Christian countries, especially in +the South-American States, and in many parts of Europe, the masses are +almost universally illiterate and superstitious, and have so long been +accustomed to oppression that they have become quite indifferent, if not +insensible, to their natural rights; nor dare they, if they would, +assert their manhood. + +In Italy, the land of art and of beauty, the proportion of those who can +read is from twenty to thirty in a hundred, while among the inhabitants +within a circle of thirty miles around Rome, there is not one in a +hundred, it is said, who can read. Not only in these countries, but in +more than half the globe, the masses submit to oppression, because it is +the policy of their oppressors to hold them, spell-bound, in ignorance. +If they are ever elevated to the social and political rank which the God +of Nature designed them to occupy, it must be done by the school-master, +armed with his text-books and sustained by the efforts of an enlightened +Christian philanthropy. For this ultimate object God works, and man +should work. + +There can be no doubt but natural scenery, as well as climate, exercises +a decided influence in the formation of national character. Whether we +advert to Palestine, Switzerland, or New England, it is easy to discover +that the mountains of these countries have by their silent eloquence +inspired the masses of the people, not only with reverence, but with a +love of freedom. In the sublimity of the cloud-capped mountains, they +seem to recognize a divine presence which has taught them to look +skyward, and to feel that they are destined to ascend in the scale of +existence; while in low and level countries, especially on the plains of +Russia and Asia, the inhabitants take horizontal views of things, and +consequently submit to oppression, and never dare, like mountain-bred +men, to break their fetters or question the decrees of fate. + +The ancient Hebrews, as everybody knows, were not only brave in warfare, +but were distinguished above all other nations as a reverential and +God-fearing people. Their form of government was essentially theocratic. +In the earthquake they recognized the footsteps of God; in the solemn +thunder they heard his voice; in the lightning's flash they saw an +expression of his anger; in the rainbow they beheld a token of his +promise,--in a word, they were a peculiar people, who have, in the +record of their experiences, transmitted to mankind a sacred +inheritance. + +Switzerland is emphatically a land of mountains and of heroes. Almost +every hill and vale within her borders has its consecrated spots and its +sanctified memories. In the recesses of her mountains the love of +freedom ever burns with a pure and a holy flame, because it is a love +which was born of the mountains. + +In New England it is equally apparent that the silent grandeur of her +mountains contributes to inspire her inhabitants with lofty sentiments, +and with a love of civil and religious liberty,--a love which can never +be subjected to the reign of oppression, nor be misdirected in its +action, except by its own enthusiasm. + +It often happens that the inhabitants who occupy distinct portions of a +common country differ as widely in their sentiments as in their manners +and customs. Especially is this true of the United States, where it is +easy to distinguish the Eastern, Western, and Southern people from each +other. It may be natural causes, or it may be local interests, that have +created these differences, and marked the people of each region with +those peculiar personal traits which give them character. + +The New Englanders are generally characterized as sedate, formal, and +puritanical, guessing at everything, yet pretty shrewd at guessing. They +possess genius, are prolific in inventions, and scrupulous in matters of +faith. In discussing theological questions, they split hairs; in making +a bargain, they conclude to split the difference. In all things they are +quick to see advantages, and apt to take advantages. In whatever they +undertake, they look ahead and go ahead. In every sixpence which falls +within their grasp, they recognize an element of power which "leads on +to fortune;" and when they have acquired a fortune, they are pretty sure +to keep it. And, as Halleck the poet says,-- + + + "They love their land because it is their own, + And scorn to give aught other reason why; + Would shake hands with a king upon his throne, + And think it kindness to his majesty; + A stubborn race, fearing and nattering none. + Such are they nurtured, such they live and die, + All but a few apostates, who are meddling + With merchandise, pounds, shillings, pence, and peddling!" + + +In the Western States, where Nature educates men on a liberal scale by +giving them broad rivers, broad lakes, and broad prairies, we find a +people characterized by broad and liberal views of things, +large-heartedness, frank manners, generous sympathies; a philanthropy +which regards all mankind as a brotherhood, and a public sentiment which +rebukes intolerance. In truth, Western men despise "little things" and +devise "liberal things," and would sooner sacrifice their lives than +yield obedience to the mandates of either political or ecclesiastical +oppression. + +In the Southern States Nature has not as yet effected much in the +exercise of her educational influences. In whatever she has attempted in +this direction she seems to have been overruled by circumstances,--by +the difference in races, and by the prejudices of caste. Though the +South has produced intellectual men of a high order, she has contributed +comparatively but little either to science or to standard literature. +Yet it must be conceded that the South has always been justly +distinguished for her hospitality, cordiality, and chivalric spirit. + +Whatever human institutions may achieve, it is certain that Nature in +the manifest wisdom of her works contributes largely to the education of +all classes of men in all countries. In her great school, even the +uncivilized man not unfrequently becomes a profound philosopher. The +coinage of her mint has the true ring in it and passes current +everywhere. Her light is the light of the world, yet the masses are too +blind, or rather too ignorant, to see it. Without intending the least +disrespect to the one thousand different theologies which distract +mankind, it may be asserted that the Book of Nature is in itself a +divine revelation, which has been divided by her own hand into chapter +and verse, and may be read in the alphabet of the flowers, in the rocks +of the hills, and in the stars. In its language it is not only +beautiful, but every word is suggestive; in its doctrines it is pure and +truthful; in its wide range of thought it treats principally of life, +and of the conditions of life, and assures us that the silent process of +creation--of eternal change--still goes on, now as ever; and that every +particle of matter in the universe is constantly active, achieving +something. + +In a philosophical sense, there is nothing dead that does not live. +Matter combines, dissolves, and re-combines. New forms of life and new +conditions of life appear and disappear. The very dust under our feet +has lived and breathed, and will live again. Nature waits to be +gracious, and is ever ready to reveal her mysteries as fast as man can +comprehend them. And though she speaks with a silent lip, she invites +all to share her bounties. Her wealth is infinite. + +In every star, in every flower, in every blade of grass, in every grain +of sand, in everything visible and invisible, there is life, light, and +beauty. In everything there is power. We cannot look at a grain of sand, +insignificant as it may seem, without seeing in its composition the +material which enables us to read the golden record of the heavens. In +the falling raindrop, when converted into steam, we recognize the +existence of a power which has revolutionized the world. In the kiss of +the sunbeam we discover a magical influence which tints the flower, +gives color to everything in Nature, and by its impress presents us with +an exact and lifelike transcript of ourselves and of our friends. In the +lightning's flash we have a language in which we can converse with our +friends throughout the civilized world, at any moment we please. + +When we consider what has been achieved in the way of scientific +discovery during the last half-century, who can tell what may not be +achieved in the next century, in the next ten centuries,--when the great +mysteries of Nature shall be more fully revealed, and when new +sciences, now unknown, shall disclose new principles, new forces, and +still subtler agencies? + +In her desire to advance human knowledge, Nature invokes +interpreters--unborn interpreters--who, though far away in the distance, +will yet come, and when they do come, will interpret in accordance with +truth the mystical language in which her undiscovered secrets are +written, and thus extend the empire of thought until it becomes +infinite,--an empire in which man, still rising in the scale of +intelligence, will acquire divine powers, and assume the dignity of a +perfect manhood. + + + + +WOMAN AND HER SPHERE. + + +Woman, like a flower, sprang to life in a garden of flowers,--sprang +from the side of her lord, and took her place at his side, as a meet +companion to share his earth-life, his joys, and his sorrows. + +The Greeks believed that the gods collected everything that is beautiful +in Nature, out of which they formed the first woman, and having crowned +her brow with sunshine, intrusted her with the irresistible power of +fascination. + +It is certainly not less pleasant than natural to believe that woman was +made of a more refined material than man; and it is doubtless true that +every sincere worshipper of the beautiful delights to regard the "angel +of his dreams" not only as an incarnation of all that is lovable, but as +a divine spirituality,--a vision from a brighter and holier sphere. + +An old writer remarks that in order to make an entirely beautiful woman, +it would be necessary to take the head from Greece, the bust from +Austria, the feet from Hindostan, the shoulders from Italy, the walk +from Spain, and the complexion from England. At that rate she would be a +mosaic in her composition; and the man who married her might well be +said to have "taken up a collection." + +However mystical may be the origin of woman, it is certain that we +should look to the moral beauty of her life, rather than to her personal +charms, in estimating the true value of her character. In her nature +woman is a loyalist,--loyal to man and loyal to God. In all ages of the +world, in all countries and under all circumstances, she has ever been +distinguished for her patience, her fortitude, and her forbearance, as +well as for those still higher and diviner attributes, her love and her +devotion. + +Endowed with charms which give her the power of conquest, woman ever +delights in making conquests; and though she may sometimes "stoop to +conquer," she never fails to elevate the conquered. With the smile of +love resting on her brow, she aims to fulfil her mission by scattering +flowers along the pathway of life, and inspiring the sterner sex with +reverence for her virtues and for the angelhood of her nature. + +The true woman exhibits a true womanhood in all she does, in all she +says,--in her heart-life and in her world-life. Her love, once bestowed +on him who is worthy of it, increases with her years and becomes as +enduring as her life,-- + + + "In death, a deathless flame." + + +Not only in the sincerity of her love, but in all her sympathies, in her +quick sense of duty, and in her devotion to all that is good, right, and +just, she discloses without being conscious of it the divinity of her +character. + +It is in sacred history that we find the earliest record of woman's +virtues, acquirements, and achievements. It is there that we read of +women who were not only distinguished for their exalted piety and +exemplary habits of life, but who often excelled even the great men of +renown in sagacity of purpose and in the exercise of sceptred power. It +is in sacred history that we have the earliest account of the social and +domestic relations of the human family, the most prominent of which is +the institution of marriage. + +The first marriage of which we have any account took place in a garden, +without the usual preliminaries and ceremonies which have marked its +solemnization in subsequent periods of the world's history; yet we must +believe that it was the most august and sublime wedding that ever +occurred. The witnesses of the ceremony were none other than the angels +of God. Nature presented her choicest flowers, and the birds of +Paradise sang the bridal hymn, while earth and sky rejoiced in the +consummation of the "first match made in heaven." + +It may be presumed, perhaps, that all matches are made in heaven; yet +somehow or other, sad mistakes occur when least expected. Even our first +parents, though placed in a garden of innocence, encountered a serpent +in their pathway. It need not seem very strange, therefore, that "the +course of true love never did run smooth." Yet there are but few who +would not concur with Tennyson in thinking-- + + + "'Tis better to have loved and lost, + Than never to have loved at all." + + +In affairs of the heart there is no such thing as accounting for the +freaks of fancy, or the choice of dissimilar tastes. Singular as it may +be, most people admire contrasts. In other words, like prefers unlike; +the tall prefer the short; the beautiful the unbeautiful; and the +perverse the reverse. In this way Nature makes up her counterparts with +a view to assimilate her materials and bring harmony out of discord. It +is from accords and discords that we judge of music and determine its +degree of excellence. In wedded life even discords have their uses, +since a family jar now and then is often attended with the happiest +results, by bringing into timely exercise a higher degree of mutual +forbearance, and inspiring the heart with a purer, sincerer, and diviner +appreciation of the "silken tie." + +There is no topic, perhaps, of deeper interest to a woman than that of +wedlock. It is an event, when it does occur, which brightens or blasts +forever her fondest hopes and her purest affections. The matrimonial +question is therefore the great question of a woman's life. In deciding +it, she takes a risk which determines the future of her heart-life. When +the motive is stamped with the imperial seal of Heaven, it is certain +the heart will recognize it as genuine, and trust in it. The language of +love speaks for itself, sometimes in mysteries, sometimes in +revelations. It is a telegraphic language which every woman understands, +though written in hieroglyphics. Hence the preliminaries to wedlock, +usually called courtships, are as various in their methods as the whims +of the parties. In many parts of the world these methods are as amusing +as they are singular. + +In royal families matrimonial alliances are controlled by State policy, +and the negotiations conducted through the agencies of ministerial +confidants. In some Oriental countries, parents contract their sons and +daughters in marriage while yet in their infancy, nor allow the parties +an interview until of marriageable age, when the wedding ceremonies are +performed, and the happy pair unveiled to behold each other for the +first time. At such a moment "a penny for their thoughts" would be cheap +enough. The philosophy of this absurd custom seems to be based on the +classical idea that "love is blind." This may be true; yet blind though +it be, the heart will always have its preference, and contrive some way +or other to express it. + +In some of the Molucca Islands, when a young man is too bashful to speak +his love, he seizes the first opportunity that offers of sitting near +the object of his affection, and tying his garments to hers. If she +allows him to finish the knot, and neither cuts nor loosens it, she +truly gives her consent to the marriage. If she merely loosens it, he is +at liberty to try his luck again at a more propitious moment; but if she +cuts the knot, there is an end of hope. + +In Lapland it is death to marry a girl without the consent of her +friends. When a young man proposes marriage, the friends of both parties +meet to witness a race between them. The girl is allowed, at starting, +the advantage of a third part of the race; if her lover does not +overtake her, it is a penal offence for him ever to renew his offers of +marriage. If the damsel favors his suit, she may run fast at first, to +try his affection; but she will be sure to linger before she comes to +the end of the race. In this way all marriages are made in accordance +with inclination; and this is the probable reason of so much domestic +contentment in that country. + +In ancient times marriageable women were the subjects of bargain and +sale, and were more generally obtained by purchase than courtship. The +prices paid in some instances seem incredible, if not extortionate. Of +course, "pearls of great price" were not to be had for the mere asking. +Jacob purchased his wife, Rachel, at a cost of fourteen years hard +labor. + +The Babylonians, who were a practical people, gathered their +marriageable daughters once a year from every district of their country, +and sold them at auction to bachelors, who purchased them for wives, +while the magistrates presided at the sales. The sums of money thus +received for the beautiful girls were appropriated as dowries for the +benefit of the less beautiful. Of course rich bachelors paid liberal +prices for their choice, while poor bachelors, in accepting the less +beautiful, generally obtained the best wives, with the addition of a +handsome sum of money. In this way all parties were accommodated who +aspired to matrimonial felicity. + +But in these modern times most of our young men, instead of purchasing +their wives, prefer to sell themselves at the highest price the market +affords. Fortune-hunting is therefore regarded as legitimate. In the +mind of a fast young man wealth has a magical influence, which is sure +to invest the possessor, if a marriageable young lady, however +unattractive, with irresistible charms. If his preliminary inquiry--Is +she rich?--be answered in the affirmative, the siege commences at once. +Art is so practised as to conceal art, and create, if possible, a +favorable impression. An introduction is sought and obtained. Interview +follows interview in quick succession. The declaration is made; the +diamond ring presented and graciously accepted; consent obtained, and +the happy day set. Rumor reports an eligible match in high life, and the +fashionable world is on tiptoe with expectation. + +But instead of its being an "affair of the heart," it is really a very +different affair,--nothing but a hasty transaction in fancy stocks. And +if the officiating clergyman were to employ an appropriate formula of +words in celebrating the nuptials, he would address the parties thus:-- + +"Romeo, wilt thou have this delicate constitution, this bundle of silks +and satins, this crock of gold, for thy wedded wife?"--"I will." +"Juliet, wilt thou have this false pretence, this profligate in +broadcloth, this unpaid tailor's bill, for thy wedded husband?"--"I +will." + +The happy pair are then pronounced man and wife. And what is the result? +A brief career of dissipation, a splendid misery, a reduction to +poverty, domestic dissension, separation, and finally a divorce. But how +different is the result when an honest man, actuated by pure motives, +marries a sincere woman, whose only wealth consists in her love and in +her practical good sense! + +It is man who degrades woman, not woman who degrades man. Asiatic +monarchs have ever regarded woman, not as a companion, but as a toy, a +picture, a luxury of the palace; while men of common rank throughout +Asia and in many parts of Europe treat her as a slave, a drudge, a +"hewer of wood and a drawer of water," and make it her duty to wait, +instead of being waited on; to attend, instead of being attended. Out of +this sordid idea of woman's destiny has grown in all probability the +custom of regarding her as property. Influenced by this idea, there are +still some persons to be found among the lower classes, even in our own +country, who do not hesitate to sell, buy, or exchange their wives for a +material consideration. Some of our American forefathers, in the early +settlement of Jamestown, purchased their wives from England, and paid +in tobacco, at the rate of one hundred and fifty pounds each, and +thought it a fair transaction. Perhaps this is the reason why ladies are +so generally disgusted with the use of the "Virginia weed." + +But the doctrine that woman was created the inferior of man, though +venerable for its antiquity, is not less fallacious than venerable. It +is simply an assertion which does not appear to be sustained by +historical facts. It is true that woman is called in Scripture the +"weaker vessel;" weaker in physical strength she may be, but it does not +follow that she is weaker in mind, wit, judgment, shrewdness, tact, or +moral power. + +The sterner sex need not flatter themselves, therefore, that superiority +of muscle necessarily implies superiority of mind. History sufficiently +discloses the fact that woman has often proved herself not only a match, +but an over-match, for man, in wielding the sceptre, the sword, and the +pen, to say nothing of the tongue. Illustrations of this great fact, +like coruscations of light, sparkle along the darkened track of the +ages, and abound in the living present. + +But in looking into the broad expanse of the historical past, we cannot +attempt to do more than glance here and there at a particular star, +whose undiminished lustre has given it a name and a fame, not only +glorious, but immortal. As in all ages there have been representative +men, so in all ages there have been representative women, who crowned +the age in which they lived with honor, and gave tone to its sentiment +and character. + +In the career of Semiramis, who lived about two thousand years before +the Christian era, we have a crystallization of those subtle attributes +of female character, which are not less remarkable for their diversity +than extensive in their power and influence. It will be remembered that +she was the reputed child of a goddess, a foundling exposed in a desert, +fed for a year by doves, discovered by a shepherd, and adopted by him as +his own daughter. When grown to womanhood, she married the governor of +Nineveh, and assisted him in the siege and conquest of Bactria. The +wisdom and tact which she manifested in this enterprise, and especially +her personal beauty, attracted the attention of the King of Assyria, who +mysteriously relieved her of her husband, obtained her hand in wedlock, +resigned to her his crown, and declared her queen and sole empress of +Assyria. The aspirations of Semiramis became at once unbounded; and +fearing her royal consort might repent the hasty step he had taken, she +abruptly extinguished his life, and soon succeeded in distinguishing her +own. She levelled mountains, filled up valleys, built aqueducts, +commanded armies, conquered neighboring nations, penetrated into Arabia +and Ethiopia, amassed vast treasures, founded many cities, and wherever +she appeared, spread terror and consternation. Under her auspices and by +means of her wealth, Babylon, the capital of her empire, became the most +renowned and magnificent city in the world. Her might was invincible; +her right she regarded as co-extensive with her power. Her prompt action +was the secret of her success. + +When she was informed, on one occasion, that Babylon had revolted, she +left her toilet half made, put herself at the head of an armed force, +and instantly quelled the revolt. She was a woman of strong passions and +of strong mind, and, what is now very uncommon, of strong nerves. And +yet her peerless beauty and the fascination of her manners appear to +have been as irresistible as the sway of her sceptre. The fatality of +her personal charms, her inordinate love of power, and the evils which +arise from the indulgence of vain aspirations, indicate the lessons +which are taught by her career. In the twenty-fifth year of her reign, +her life was suddenly terminated by the violent hand of her own son. +After death she was transformed, as it was believed, into a dove, under +the symbol of which she received divine honors throughout Assyria. + +It would seem that literary women were not less known in ancient times +than at the present day. Sappho took her place in the galaxy of literary +fame six hundred years before Christ. So sublime, and yet so sweet, were +her lyric strains that the Greeks pronounced her the tenth Muse. +Longinus cites from her writings specimens of the sublime, and extols +her genius as unrivalled. Beneficent as talented, she instituted an +academy of music for young maidens, wrote nine books of lyric verse, and +many other compositions of great merit. But of all her writings, +however, only one or two of her odes have survived. Her fate was an +unhappy one. She became violently enamoured of a young man of Mitylene, +who was so ungallant as not to reciprocate her attachment; and being +reduced to a state of hopeless despair, she precipitated herself into +the sea from the steep cliff of Leucate, ever since called the "Lover's +Leap." + +In this connection we ought not to omit the name of Aspasia, who, at a +period two centuries later than Sappho, emerged like a star in a +darkened sky and charmed the age in which she lived with the +fascinations of her rhetoric. She was not less stately and queen-like in +her person than accomplished in her manners. It is said of her, that +she possessed rhetorical powers which were unequalled by the public +orators of her time; she was as learned as eloquent. Plato says she was +the instructress of Socrates. She also instructed Pericles in the arts +of oratory, and afterwards married him. He was largely indebted to her +for his finish of education and elegance of manners, for which he was so +much distinguished. + +So charming were Aspasia's conversational powers that the Athenians +sought every opportunity to introduce their wives into her presence, +that they might learn from her the art of employing an elegant diction. +On one occasion when the Athenian army had been disheartened, she +appeared in the public assembly of the people and pronounced an oration, +which so thrilled their breasts as to inspire new hopes, and induce them +to rally and redeem their cause. + +Among female sovereigns but few have evinced more tact or talent in an +emergency than Zenobia, Queen of Palmyra. She was a native of Syria, a +descendant of Ptolemy; married Odenatus, a Saracen, and after his death +succeeded to the throne, about the year of our Lord 267. She had been +highly educated, wrote and spoke many different languages, had studied +the beauties of Homer and Plato under the tuition of Longinus, and was +not less renowned for her beauty, melody of voice, and elegance of +manners, than for her heroic deeds. In the five years of her reign she +conducted many warlike expeditions, extended her empire, compelling +Cappadocia, Bithynia, and Egypt to recognize her authority, and +acknowledge her "Queen of the East,"--a favorite title which she had +assumed. Her power had now become so extended as to alarm the Roman +government for their own safety, who sent Aurelian with a formidable +army to subjugate and reduce her empire to a province. Zenobia, after +being defeated in two severe battles, retired with her forces to +Palmyra, her capital, fortified it, and resolved never to surrender. +Aurelian invested the city with his entire army, and in the course of +the siege was severely wounded by an arrow, and being thus disabled, the +progress of the siege was so far retarded as to give the citizens of +Rome occasion to utter against him bitter invectives, and to question +the character of the "arrow" that had pierced him. In other words, they +accused him of complicity. In his letter of self-justification to the +senate, he says, "The Roman people speak with contempt of the war I am +waging against a woman. They are ignorant of the character and the power +of Zenobia. It is impossible to enumerate her warlike preparations of +stones and arrows, and every species of missile weapons. The walls of +the city are strongly guarded, and artificial fires are thrown from her +military engines. The fear of punishment has armed her with desperate +courage. Still I trust in the gods for a favorable result." + +In this letter the stern and proud Roman general frankly admits the +might of woman. Feeling humiliated and almost despairing of success, he +now attempted to procure a surrender of the city by negotiation, and +offered the most liberal advantages to the queen. In her reply she said +to him, "It is not by negotiation, but by arms, that the submission you +require of me can be obtained." This laconic reply was certainly worthy +of a heroine and a queen. Yet after a protracted and desperate defence, +and finding that her allies, instead of coming to her relief as they +promised, had accepted bribes from the enemy to remain at a distance, +she saw that all was lost, and mounting her fleetest dromedary, sought +to escape into Persia, but was overtaken on the banks of the Euphrates +and captured. When brought into the presence of her conqueror, and asked +how she dared resist the power of Rome, she replied, "Because I +recognize Aurelian alone as my sovereign." + +Zenobia was sent to Rome to grace the triumph of Aurelian. She entered +the city on foot, preceded by her own chariot, with which she had +designed, in the event of having won the victory, to make her grand +entry into Rome as the triumphant "Queen of the East." But the fortunes +of war subverted her ambitious scheme, and subjected her to the +mortification of gracing a Roman triumph; yet for this indignity she +felt that she was somewhat compensated in knowing that her appearance in +Rome would create a sensation. In the grand procession she followed her +chariot, so laden with jewels and chains of gold as to require the +support of a slave to prevent her from fainting beneath the weight. + +After enjoying the satisfaction of a triumph, Aurelian treated his +beautiful captive with kind consideration, and provided for her a +delightful residence on the banks of the Tiber, where she passed the +remainder of her days, honored by all as a matron of rare virtue and +accomplishments. She lived to educate her daughters, and to see them +contract noble alliances. Her descendants were ranked among the first +citizens of Rome, and did not become extinct until after the fifth +century. + +Near the commencement of the fifteenth century there appeared in France +a brilliant meteor,--a youthful maiden, whose development of character +was as mystical as it was heroic. Joan of Arc was born of obscure +parents, in an obscure village on the borders of Lorraine, and was bred +in a school of simplicity. She possessed beauty, united with an amiable +temper and generous sympathies. In her religious faith she was sincere, +even angelic. Her love of country was ardent and irrepressible. Finding +her country-men distracted by a bitter partisan feeling, she identified +herself with the patriots, and desired to secure the coronation of +Prince Charles, as the only means, in her belief, of restoring the +authority of the legitimate government. The reigning king had become +hopelessly demented, and anarchy prevailed in almost every part of his +dominions. + +The rival houses of Orleans and Burgundy were contending for the +supremacy, and had entered upon a career of murder and massacre, instead +of adopting a regular system of warfare. Both parties invoked the aid of +the English, who interfered in behalf of Burgundy; but instead of +affording relief, their interference only imposed still weightier +calamities on the country. At this crisis a prophecy became current +among the people, that a virgin would appear and rid France of her +enemies. This prophecy reached the ear of Joan of Arc, and inspired her +with the belief that she was the chosen one of Heaven to accomplish the +work. + +In confirmation of this belief, she heard mysterious voices which came +to her in her dreams, and which she regarded as divine communications, +directing her to enter upon her great mission. On conferring with her +parents in relation to the matter, they advised her to abandon her mad +scheme, and desired her to marry and remain with them in her native +village; but she declined, insisting that the current +prediction--"France shall be saved by a virgin"--alluded to her. The +English army had already besieged Orleans, and all hope of saving the +city seemed lost. Her friends, regarding her as endowed with +supernatural powers, provided her with a war-horse and a military +costume, and sent her with an escort to the court of Prince Charles, +whom she had never seen, but whose cause she had espoused. + +He received her with distrust, though he desired her proffered +assistance. In order to avoid being charged with having faith in +sorcery, he handed her over to a commission of ecclesiastics, to +ascertain whether she was inspired of Heaven, or instigated by an evil +spirit. Among other tests, the ecclesiastics desired her to perform +miracles. She replied, "Bring me to Orleans, and you shall witness a +miracle; the siege shall be raised, and Prince Charles shall be crowned +king at Rheims." They approved her project, and she received the rank +of a military commander. + +She then demanded a mysterious sword which she averred had been +concealed by a hero of the olden time within the walls of an ancient +church. On search being made, the sword was found and delivered to her. +In a short time, with this mysterious sword in hand, she appeared at the +head of an enthusiastic army, within sight of the besieged city of +Orleans. The English army was astonished at the novel apparition. She +advanced, and demanded a surrender of the city, but was indignantly +refused; yet the citizens of Orleans were elate with joy at the prospect +of relief. Joan boldly assaulted the outposts, and carried them. The +besieged citizens, who had escaped outside the walls, now rallied under +her banner, and swelled the ranks of her army. Fort after fort was +captured. The English fought with desperation. Joan, cheering on her +brave forces, and calling on them to follow, seized a scaling-ladder, +and ascended the enemy's breastworks, when she was pierced with an arrow +in the shoulder, and fell into the fosse. Her undaunted followers +rescued her, when she, seeing her banner in danger, though faint and +bleeding, rushed forward, seized and bore it off in triumph. The English +army, amazed at this, and believing her more than human, became +panic-stricken, and retreated in confusion. In their flight they lost +their commander and many of their bravest men. Thus, in one week after +her arrival at Orleans, she compelled the English to abandon the siege. +In truth, she had performed a miracle, as her country-men believed, and +as she had promised the ecclesiastics she would do. For this brilliant +achievement she acquired the title, "Maid of Orleans." + +In addition to this, she subsequently fought several severe battles with +the English and defeated them. Even the sight of her approaching banner +often terrified the enemy into a surrender. In less than three months +from the commencement of her career, she saw Prince Charles crowned king +at Rheims. In gratitude for her pre-eminent and timely services in his +cause, Charles issued his royal edict ennobling her and her family. Not +long after this, the opposing faction of King Charles captured the Maid +of Orleans, as she was now called, and imprisoned her in a strong +fortress. She attempted to escape by leaping the walls, but was secured +and transferred to the custody of the English. The University of Paris, +at the instance of dominant ecclesiastics, demanded her trial on the +charge of sorcery and the assumption of divine powers. The judges, +intolerant as the priests, condemned her to be burned at the stake. Her +friends were overawed, and failed to interfere in her behalf. The only +condition in her sentence was recantation and the acknowledgment of the +supremacy of the Church. In view of so terrific a death, she recanted; +but hearing the mysterious voices of her former dreams upbraid her, she +re-asserted her faith in her divine mission, was again seized at the +instance of the priesthood, and the cruel sentence of death at the stake +carried into execution. + +Never did a sadder fate overtake an innocent, patriotic, and +noble-hearted woman. Her only crime was her love for her country, and +her contempt for ecclesiastical assumption. Her purity of life was never +questioned. It was said of her that she never allowed a profane word to +be uttered in her presence. Her religion was a religion of the heart, +too exalted for the times in which she lived. So sincere was the belief +of the populace in her sanctity that many persons made pilgrimages from +every part of the empire to touch her garments, believing that if they +could be allowed the privilege, they would be especially blest, both in +this life and in the life to come. + +There was no woman of the sixteenth century, perhaps, who was more +conspicuous or more talented than Elizabeth, Queen of England. Highly +educated in the ancient and modern languages, as well as in philosophy, +she embraced at an early age the Protestant faith, and in consequence of +the religious jealousies of the times, encountered great opposition in +her advent to the throne, and while yet in her girlhood, suffered a long +imprisonment in the Tower by order of her sister Mary, who was at that +time the reigning queen. But events which transpired in 1558 resulted in +the elevation of Elizabeth to the throne, at the age of twenty-five. So +fearful were the Catholics of her influence in matters of faith that +they sent to her a distinguished ecclesiastic, who demanded from her a +declaration of her religious creed. To this intrusive demand she, being +an adept at rhyming, replied, impromptu,-- + + + "Christ was the Word that spake it; + He took the bread and brake it; + And what that Word did make it, + That I believe and take it." + + +So frank and faultless was this avowal that it confounded the artful +priest, who, feeling rebuked, went away as wise as he came, if not a +little wiser. + +In her personal appearance Elizabeth was stately and majestic, but by no +means remarkable for her beauty, or amiableness of temper. Her good +judgment and discrimination enabled her to call to her aid wise men for +ministers and counsellors. She patronized talent and intellect. It was +during her reign that Spenser, Shakespeare, Raleigh, Bacon, and other +eminent characters flourished, giving to her times and to literature the +distinction of the "Elizabethan age." The leading events of her reign +amply attest her capacity to grapple with emergencies in sustaining her +prerogatives and in maintaining the defiant attitude of England. She +loved money as well as power, and though penurious, wielded her power +with decision, crushed domestic rebellion at a blow, removed her fears +of Mary, Queen of Scots, by consigning her to the block, defied the +power of Spain, and with the timely assistance of a providential +whirlwind, sank the Spanish Armada in the depths of the sea. + +Though unattractive, her charms induced sundry propositions of marriage, +particularly from the King of Sweden, from the King of Spain, and from a +young prince of France, twenty-five years younger than herself. For this +young prince, it is said, she entertained a sincere attachment, and went +so far as to place publicly on his finger a costly ring, as a pledge of +their union, but being taken soon afterwards by some strange +whimsicality, dismissed him, and thus gave him leisure to reflect on the +vanity of human aspirations. Yet, like most artful women, she delighted +in flirtations, and always retained in her retinue a few special +favorites, among whom were the Earls of Leicester and of Essex. On these +men she bestowed official positions of high rank, and evidently desired +to make great men of them; but Leicester proved to be deficient in +brains, and Essex turned traitor, and was finally executed. + +When advised to marry by her counsellors, she replied that she could not +indulge such a thought for a moment, for she had resolved that the +inscription on her tombstone should be: + + + "Here lies a queen who lived and died a virgin." + + +In her seventieth year she died of grief, it is said, for having signed +the death-warrant of Essex, for whom she entertained a sincere yet +"untold love." + +The events of her reign wrought great changes in the destinies of +nations. By her firm adherence to the Protestant faith, she contributed +much towards enlarging and strengthening the foundations of civil and +religious liberty. She succeeded by her wisdom and diplomacy in +circumventing the subtle machinations of rival powers. In few words, it +may be said of her that she was a noble specimen of _manly womanhood_. + +Catherine I., Empress of Russia, was born of obscure parents, near the +close of the seventeenth century. In girlhood she was known by the name +of Martha, until she embraced the Greek religion, when her name was +changed to Catherine. Her father died when she was but three years old, +and left her to the care of an invalid mother in reduced circumstances. +When old enough to be useful, Catherine devoted her services to the care +and support of her mother, and in attaining to womanhood, grew to be +exceedingly beautiful. Her mother had instructed her in the rudiments of +a common education, which she afterwards perfected under the tuition of +a neighboring clergyman. Among other accomplishments, Catherine acquired +a knowledge of music and dancing, and soon became as attractive for her +elegance of manners as she was celebrated for her beauty. + +In 1701, she married a Swedish dragoon, and immediately accompanied him +to the military post assigned him in the war which had just broken out +between Sweden and Russia. In a battle which soon followed, she was +taken prisoner by the Russians. Her personal charms soon attracted the +attention of Peter the Great. What became of her husband is not known, +but may be imagined. At any rate, the emperor succeeded in winning her +affections, acknowledged her as his wife, and placed the imperial +diadem on her head and the sceptre in her hand. She soon proved herself +to be a woman of wonderful tact, shrewdness, and judgment, and obtained +an unbounded influence over her husband. In fact, her advice controlled +his action; and in following it, he acquired the enviable and lasting +title of "Peter the Great." Like her, thousands of women have made their +husbands great men, and often out of very indifferent materials. + +After Peter's death, Catherine was proclaimed empress and autocrat of +all the Russias. Her reign, though short, was brilliant. Her frailties, +if she had any, were few, and ought to be attributed to the character of +her favorites rather than to herself. She died at the early age of +forty-two, after a brief reign of a little less than two years as sole +empress. Her native endowments constituted her brightest +jewels,--modesty, simplicity, and beauty; it was these angelic gifts +which elevated her from the obscurity of rural life to the throne of a +great empire. + +Here let us turn from the Old World to the New, and look into the +parlor, instead of the palace, for specimens of true womanhood. It is in +the private walks of life, in the domestic and social circles, that we +must look if we would contemplate the character of woman in its purest +and proudest development. It is in her daily exhibition of heart, soul, +sympathy, generosity, and devotion that woman attains to perfection and +crowns herself with a diadem. Everywhere in this great Republic are +thousands of women whose excellence of character challenges our +admiration. Among those who have passed into the better life, and whose +names are recorded on the tablet of every American heart, is Martha +Washington. + +In her character we have the character of an accomplished American lady. +Few, if any, have ever excelled her. When the war of the Revolution +commenced, she accompanied her husband, who had just been appointed +commander-in-chief of the American armies, to the military lines about +Boston, and witnessed the siege and evacuation of that city. She was +ever the guardian spirit of the general, and aided him materially in his +military career by her wise counsels and timely attentions. While he +reasoned logically and deliberately, she came to logical conclusions +instantly, without seeming to reason,--a faculty of logic which +characterizes almost every woman. + +In her figure, Martha was slight; in her manners, easy and graceful; in +her temper, mild yet cheerful; in her conversation, calm yet +fascinating; in her looks beautiful, especially in her youthful days. +So universally admired and respected was she, that everybody spoke of +her as "Lady Washington." + +She did the honors of the presidential mansion with polished ease, +dignity, and grace. Her connubial life with Washington was not less +exemplary than it was happy. His regard for her was as profound as her +devotion to him was sincere. So solicitous was she for preserving his +good name and fame that immediately after his death, she destroyed all +the domestic letters which he had addressed to her, for fear they might +some day be published, and be found to contain some word or expression +of a political nature which might be construed to his prejudice. + +Faithful as a wife, as a friend, and as a Christian, she proved herself +a model woman. She survived her husband but two years, and died at the +age of seventy. In life she occupied a position which queens might envy, +and in death bequeathed a memory which will be cherished in a nation's +heart, when the proud monuments of kings and queens have crumbled into +dust and been forgotten. + +If it could be done without making invidious distinctions, it would be +no less delightful than instructive to refer specifically to the names +and deeds of many other American women who have graced the age in which +they lived, and added lustre to the annals of our Republic. But we must +content ourselves by alluding to them in general terms; and in doing +this, we must admit the fact that the noble deeds and exalted virtues of +woman occupy a much less space in the world's history than they ought. + +It is sufficiently evident to everybody that women, in all the relations +of life, exhibit a keener appreciation of right and wrong than men. +Hence they are usually the first to approve what is right, and the last +to concur in what is wrong. It was this devotion to principle which +induced American women in the days of the Revolution to submit to the +severest trials and deprivations, while they encouraged their sons, +husbands, and brothers to go forth to the battle-field in defence of +their country. In proof of their patriotism, these noble women, with +their own hands and with cheerful hearts, spun, wove, knit, and baked +for the brave and suffering soldiers, and even made an offering of their +jewels on the altar of liberty, and rather than see the enemy enriched +by traffic and unjust revenues, complacently approved the policy which +cast rich cargoes of their favorite beverage into the depths of the sea. + +It was the same spirit, the same patriotism, which inspired the women of +our own times on a still broader scale, in the late struggle of the +North to crush the rebellion of the South and sustain in all its purity, +its honor, and its glory, the dear old flag of the Union. This great +work has been done manfully and nobly, and at immense sacrifices of +treasure and of blood; but it could not have been done without the aid +and encouragement of woman. It was woman who held the key and unlocked +the hearts of twenty millions of people, and induced them, by her +pleading appeals, to pour out their noble charities, as from floodgates, +to supply the urgent needs of the largest and bravest army the world +ever beheld. It was woman whose delicate hand nursed the sick, the +wounded, and the dying soldier, and whose sympathies and prayers soothed +and cheered his departing spirit. + +In the sanitary commission, in the Christian commission, woman was the +master-spirit, the angel of mercy, the music of whose hovering wings +animated the weary march of our gallant volunteers, and inspired their +souls with invincible courage. It is woman who weaves the only wreath of +honor which a true-hearted hero desires to wear on his brow, and the +only one worthy of his highest aspirations. It is an indisputable fact +that the power, the patriotism, and the influence of woman constitute +the great moral elements of our Republic, and of our civil and +religious institutions. + +It is the educated and accomplished women of our country who have +refined the men as well as the youth of the land, and given tone to +public sentiment. It is this class of women who have purified our +literature, and moulded it to harmonize with the pure principles of a +Christian philosophy. In the fine arts, and even in the abstruse +sciences, women have excelled as well as men. In the catalogue of +distinguished authors there are to be found, both in this country and in +Europe, nearly as many women as men. From the facts which we have +already adduced, it is evident enough that woman, in the exercise of +intellectual, if not political power, is fully the equal of man; while +in tact and shrewdness she is generally his superior. According to the +old but truthful saying, it is impossible for a man to outwit a shrewd +woman; and instead of asking, What can a woman do? we should ask, What +is there a woman cannot do? + +Whenever women are left to take care of themselves in the world, as +thousands are, they should not only have the right, but it is their +duty, to engage in any of the industrial pursuits for which they are +fitted. The principal difference between man and woman is physical +strength; and for this reason the lighter employments should be +assigned to women. In whatever employment men are out of place, women +should take their place; especially in retailing fancy goods, in +book-keeping, in telegraphing, in type-setting, in school-teaching, and +in many other like employments; nor need they be excluded from the +learned professions. In fact, we already have lady clergymen and lady +physicians; and some think the character of the Bar would be much +elevated by the admission of lady lawyers. We cannot doubt that +unmarried ladies, if admitted, would excel in prosecuting suits +commenced by "attachment," but in other cases their success is not +assured, if we may judge from the following incident: A lady lawyer of +presidential aspirations, in conducting a suit before the late Judge +Cartter in the district court at Washington, was opposed by an eminent +lawyer of the other sex, who raised a vexed legal question which had not +been "dreamed of in the philosophy" of the lady lawyer, and which so +perplexed her that she, in the midst of her embarrassment, appealed to +the judge for advice as to the course she had better pursue. The judge, +who hesitated somewhat in his utterances, replied, "I think you had +_bet-bet-better_ employ a lawyer." + +If women choose to compete with men in any of the learned professions, +or in any other pursuit, and are fitted to achieve success, there is +nothing in the way to prevent them; yet it does not follow that they can +take the places of men in everything, especially in those employments +which require masculine strength and great physical endurance. Nor does +it follow that women who pay taxes should therefore have the right of +suffrage. The fact that they hold property does not change their +_status_, nor does it confer political rights. + +The right of suffrage is a political right and not a natural right. The +exercise of this political right carries with it the law-making power, +the duty of protecting persons and property, and consequently of +maintaining and defending the government. They who make the government +are therefore bound to defend it. Nature never intended that women +should become soldiers and face the cannon's mouth in the battle-field; +nor did she give them strength to construct railroads, tunnel mountains, +build war-ships, or man them. Yet women, prompted by affection or +romantic sentiment, have been known to become soldiers in disguise, and +perhaps have fought bravely in the battle-field. But this, of itself, +proves nothing; it is merely an exception to a general rule, or in other +words, an eccentricity of character. In all ages of the world, as we +have shown, the mere force of circumstances has occasionally unsphered +woman and placed her in unnatural situations, in which she has sometimes +achieved a brilliant success,--on the throne and off the throne, in +peace and in war, in political life and in social life. Yet in stepping +out of her sphere, whatever may be her success, every true woman feels +that she "o'ersteps the modesty of nature." + +When woman glides into her natural position,--that of a wife,--it is +then only that she occupies her appropriate sphere, and exhibits in its +most attractive form the loveliness of her character. Marriage is an +institution as essential to the stability and harmony of the social +system as gravity is to the order and preservation of the planetary +system. In the domestic circle the devoted wife becomes the centre of +attraction, the "angel of the household." Her world is her home; her +altar, the hearthstone. In her daily ministrations she makes herself +angelic by making home a heaven, and every one happy who may come within +the "charmed circle" of her kind cares and generous sympathies. In fact, +there is no place like home, "sweet home," when on its sacred altar +burns the blended incense of harmonious souls,-- + + + "Two souls with but a single thought; + Two hearts that beat as one." + + +It is certain that man and woman were never created to live independent +of each other. They are but counterparts, and therefore incomplete until +united in wedlock. Hence they who prefer single blessedness are justly +chargeable with the "sin of omission," if not the "unpardonable sin." It +is difficult to estimate the fearful responsibilities of those +fossilized bachelors who persist in sewing on their own buttons and in +mending their own stockings. Yet these selfish gentlemen frankly admit +that there may have been such a thing as "true love" in the olden times, +but now, they say, the idea has become obsolete; and if a bachelor were +to ask a young lady to share his lot, she would immediately want to know +how large the "lot" is and what is its value. In further justification +they quote Socrates, who, being asked whether it were better for a man +to marry or live single, replied, "Let him do either and he will repent +it." But this is not argument, nor is it always true, even in a sordid +marriage, as appears in the following instance: Not long since, in New +York, a bachelor of twenty-two married a rich maiden of fifty-five, who +died within a month after the nuptials and left him a half-million of +dollars. He says he has never "repented" the marriage. + +The age in which we live is one of experiment and of novel theories, +both in religion and in politics. In modern spiritualism we have +entranced women, who give us reports from the dead. In modern crusades +we have devout women, who visit tippling-houses and convert them into +sanctuaries of prayer. In politics we have mismated and unmated women, +who hold conventions, clamor for the ballot, and advocate the doctrine +of "natural selection." + +It is true that every marriageable woman has a natural right to select, +if not elect, a husband; and this she may and ought to do, not by +ballot, but by the influence of her charms and her virtues. If all +marriageable men and women were but crystallized into happy families, +earth would soon become a paradise. Yet if this were done, we doubt not +there would still remain some "strong-minded" women, who would get up a +convention to reform paradise. The truth is, the women will do pretty +much as they please, and the best way is to let them. + +Yet all must admit that a woman of refinement is not only a ruling +spirit, but "a power behind the throne greater than the power on the +throne." Her rights are therefore within her own grasp. Among these she +has the right, and to her belongs the responsible duty, of educating her +children in first principles, and in those sanctified lessons which +have been revealed to man from heaven. It is the mother's precepts +which constitute the permanent foundation of the child's future +character. Hence no woman is really competent to discharge the +responsible duties of a mother as she ought, unless she has first been +properly educated. There can be no object more deserving of +commiseration, perhaps, than a mother who is surrounded by a family of +young children, and yet is so ignorant as to be unable to instruct them +in the rudiments of a common-school education and in the fundamental +principles of a Christian life. The character of every child, it may be +assumed, is essentially formed at seven years of age. The mother of +Washington knew this, and felt it, and in the education of her son, +taught him at an early age the leading truths of Christianity. She took +the Bible for her guide, and taught him to take the Bible for his guide. +His subsequent career proves that he adhered to the instructions of his +mother. When he came to pay her a visit, at the close of the war, after +an absence of seven long years, she received him with the overflowing +heart of a mother, as her dutiful son, and thought of him only as a +dutiful son, never uttering a word in reference to the honors he had won +as a military chieftain. + +Soon after this, General Lafayette, wishing to make the acquaintance of +the mother of Washington before returning to France, called at her +residence in Virginia, and introduced himself. He found her at work in +the garden, clad in a homespun dress, and her gray head covered with a +plain straw hat. She saluted him kindly, and calmly remarked, "Ah, +Marquis, you see an old woman; but come, I can make you welcome in my +poor dwelling without the parade of changing my dress." In the course of +conversation Lafayette complimented her as the mother of a son who had +achieved the independence of his country, and acquired lasting honors +for himself. The old lady, without the least manifestation of gratified +pride, simply responded, "I am not surprised at what George has done, +for he was always a very good boy." What a noble response, in its moral +grandeur, was this! Certain it is that such a mother was worthy of such +a son. A monument, plain, yet expressive in its design, has been erected +at Fredericksburg to her memory. It bears this simple, yet sublime +inscription: + + + "Mary, the Mother of Washington." + + +The extent of woman's moral power can only be limited by the extent of +her capacities. In every circle, whether domestic, social, or political, +the accomplished woman is a central power--_imperium in imperio_; and +though she may not directly exercise the right of suffrage, yet her +influence and her counsels, even an expression of her wish, enable her +to control the political, as well as the social, destinies of men and of +nations. It is in this way that she may "have her way." It was the +accomplished wife of Mr. Monroe who made him President of the United +States. She was the first to propose his name as a candidate. Her +influence with members of Congress induced them to concur in advocating +his election; he was elected. His administration, as we all know, was +distinguished as "the era of good feeling." + +The prevalent idea that women need less education than men is a gross +error, worthy of heathendom perhaps, but entirely unworthy of +Christendom. Let women be as generally and as liberally educated as men, +and, my word for it, the question of woman's rights would soon settle +itself. The right of women to be thus educated cannot be doubted, +because it is a divine right, and because God has made woman the +maternal teacher of mankind, and the chief corner-stone of the social +fabric. Yet she should be educated with reference to her proper sphere +as woman,--a sphere which is higher than that of man in the economy of +Nature. Her capacities for industrial pursuits, such as are consistent +with her physical abilities, should be developed so that she may be +qualified to provide for herself, and to sustain herself in life's +battle, if need be, without the aid of a "companion in arms." + +Nevertheless, marriage is one of Heaven's irrevocable laws. It is, in +fact, the great law of all animal-life, and even of plant-life. Nowhere +in Nature is there a single instance in which this law is not obeyed, in +due time, except in the case of mankind. Why is this? It certainly would +not be so if it were not for some grand defect in our social +system,--some false notions acquired by education, which are peculiar to +our civilization, and which induce apostasy to truth and natural +justice. Man was created to be the protector of woman, and woman to be +the helpmeet of man. Each therefore has an appropriate sphere; and the +obligations of each are mutual, growing out of their mutual interest and +dependence. The sphere of the one is just as important as the sphere of +the other. Neither can live, nor ought to live, without the aid, the +love, and the sympathy of the other. Whether so disposed or not, neither +can commit an infraction of the other's rights, without violating a law +of Nature. + +Whatever may be the evils of our present social or political system, it +is evident that the right of suffrage, if extended to woman, could not +afford a remedy, but on the contrary, would tend to weaken, rather than +strengthen, mutual interests, by creating unwomanly aspirations and +domestic dissensions, thus sundering the ties of love and affection +which naturally exist between the sexes. In a word, it would be opening +Pandora's box, and letting escape the imps of social and political +discord, and finally result in universal misrule, if not in positive +anarchy. + +Modesty and delicacy are the crowning characteristics of a true woman. +She naturally shrinks from the storms of political strife. Give her the +right of suffrage,--a boon no sensible woman desires; place her in +office, in the halls of legislation, in the Presidential chair; enrobe +her with the judicial ermine, or make her the executive officer of a +criminal tribunal,--and how could she assume the tender relations of a +mother, and at the same time officiate in any of these high places of +public trust, in which the sternest and most inflexible duties are often +required to be performed? + +It is not possible, however, that the erratic comets, whose trailing +light occasionally flashes athwart our political sky, will ever acquire +sufficient momentum to jostle the "fixed stars" out of place, because +there is a fixed law of Nature which preserves them in place. There is +also a law of Nature which makes man not only the protector, but the +worshipper, of woman,--a worship which is as instinctively paid as +reciprocated, and which is by no means inconsistent with the worship of +God, but in truth is a part of it. It is this kind of worship--this +natural and holy impulse of the heart--which constitutes the basis of +man's rights and of woman's rights, and should harmonize all their +relations in life. + +We see the instinctive exhibition of man's reverence for women almost +every day of our lives, and often in a way that proves how ridiculous +are modern theories in regard to woman's rights, when brought to the +test in practical life. Not long since, in one of our cities where a +woman's rights convention was in session, a strong-minded female +delegate entered a street railway car, when an old gentleman arose to +give her his seat, but at that moment, suspecting her to be a delegate, +asked, "Be you one of these women's righters?"--"I am." "You believe a +woman should have all the rights of a man?"--"Yes, I do." "Then stand up +and enjoy them like a man." And stand up she did,--the old gentleman +coolly resuming his seat, to the great amusement of the other +passengers. + +Whatever maybe the pretensions of agitators, it is certain that no +woman of refined culture, or of proper self-respect, will attempt to +step outside of her appropriate sphere. This she cannot do if she would, +without doing violence to the sensibilities of her nature. When true to +herself, woman, like the lily-of-the-valley, prefers the valley, where +she can display her native loveliness in comparative retirement, secure +from the inclemencies of a frowning sky; while man, born with a more +rugged nature, prefers, like the sturdy oak, to climb the hills and the +mountains, where he delights to breast the assaults of storm and +tempest, and to fling the shadow of his stately form over the valley, as +if to protect the ethereal beauty of the lily from the too ardent gaze +of the sun. And, though a solitary flower may sometimes be seen climbing +the mountain height, it is only the modest lily-of-the-valley--the true +woman--whose cheering smile man aspires to share, and whose purity of +character calls into exercise his reverent admiration. + + + "Honored be woman! she beams on the sight, + Graceful and fair as an angel of light; + Scatters around her, wherever she strays, + Hoses of bliss on our thorn-covered ways; + Roses of paradise, sent from above, + To be gathered and twined in a garland of love!" + + + + +AIM HIGH. + + +In addressing you as a graduating class, permit me to suggest for your +consideration a few thoughts on the importance of regarding self-culture +not only as a duty, but as the only means of elevating and ennobling +your aspirations in life. + +Though you have completed your academical course with a degree of +success which does you credit, you should remember that the great work +of education still lies before you, and that the formation of your +characters and the shaping of your destinies are committed to your own +hands. And here let me assure you that it is little rather than great +things which mark the character of a true gentleman. In fact, there is +but one way in which a refined education can be acquired, and that is, +"little by little." + +It is thus from day to day, from year to year, from everybody, and from +everything, that you may learn, if you will, something new, something +useful; and though you care not to do it, yet you will, in spite of +yourselves, learn something, good or evil, just as you may choose to +apply it. + +You certainly have the power to choose between good and evil,--in other +words, to achieve the loftiest aims. Yet in directing your aspirations, +you must adapt means to ends; collect your materials and refine them, +and in refining them give them the brilliancy of costly jewels,--jewels +which you can wear with becoming grace and dignity wherever you may go, +and at all times and under all circumstances. + +The acquisition of a mere book-knowledge, however desirable, will avail +you but little, unless you acquire at the same time correct habits and +principles, united with refinement of manners. The world will be likely +to take your personal appearance, your style of dress and address, as +the true index of your character, and whether deceived at first view or +not, will finally estimate you at your true value. In perfecting your +education, it is not to be expected that you are to master every branch +of human learning, but rather that you are to make your life a life of +thought, of study, of observation, of strife to excel in all that is +good, and in doing good. + +In attempting to achieve great things in the world, you must not +overlook little things,--little attentions, little civilities due to +others with whom you may come in contact; for your claims to +consideration will be estimated by the character of your conduct in +social life. There are certain conventionalities recognized in good +society which you must respect, and to which you must conform, if you +would be well received. Your manners and habits are therefore of vital +importance as elements of character. + +It has been truly said that man is a "bundle of habits." It may be said +with equal truth that our own worst enemies are "bad habits." We all +know that bad habits fasten themselves upon us, as it were, by stealth; +and though we may not perceive the influence which they exert over us, +yet other persons perceive it, remark it, and judge us accordingly. The +formation of correct habits in early life is comparatively easy, while +the correction of bad habits, when once formed, is always difficult, +especially in more advanced years. In a word, if you would become model +characters, you must discard all bad habits, all odd habits, all that is +ungracious or ungraceful in word, deed, or manner, and make it the +leading rule of your life to observe the proprieties of life in all +places and under all circumstances. In order to achieve all this, it is +indispensable that you should study yourselves, watch yourselves, +criticise yourselves, and know yourselves as others know you. The value +of self-examination has been forcibly as well as beautifully expressed +in a single stanza by Robert Burns,-- + + + "O wad some power the giftie gie us + To see oursel's as ithers see us! + It wad frae monie a blunder free us, + An' foolish notion: + What airs in dress an' gait wad lea'e us, + An' ev'n devotion!" + + +It is true that in relation to the laws of etiquette many books have +been written, which are in fact more read than observed, and which are +more perplexing than practical. No lady or gentleman was ever made truly +polite, truly agreeable, truly amiable, by a strict observance of +artificial rules. Something more is needed; something must be done. It +is in the heart, in the exercise of all the moral and Christian virtues, +that true politeness has its foundation. True politeness is never +selfish, never ostentatious, but always overflowing with kindness, +always angelic in its attributes. In word and deed, it is always +considerate, delicate, and graceful; yet in its ministrations it always +preserves its own self-respect, while it manifests its sincere respect +for all that is good and for all that is meritorious. + +Heaven has imposed on us the duty of acquiring all the knowledge we can. +In discharge of this heaven-born duty, we should begin at once the +great work of self-culture,--a work never to be discontinued. He who +would build a spacious and a lofty temple, a fit dwelling-place for +divinity, must first lay the foundations broad and deep,--not in sand, +but on a rock; and then, though storm and tempest beat against it, it +cannot fall, because it is founded on a rock. + +But in adopting a system of self-culture, too much care cannot be +bestowed on the cultivation of your manners, your attitudes, your style +of conversation, and your expression of sentiment. In regard to manners, +it is impossible to prescribe exact rules. The best models for you to +copy are to be found in the manners of the model men and women of our +country who give tone to society. At any rate, be governed by good sense +and by the dictates of nature, so modified by art as to conceal art. To +disguise art is the perfection of art. In this lies the secret power of +angelic charms,--the charm of polished womanhood and manhood. + +In your social intercourse employ a pure and unambitious style of +diction, and be careful to maintain a quiet and unobtrusive deportment; +and above all things avoid singularities and eccentricities, nor attempt +to attract attention for the sake of gratifying an overweening vanity. +And while you manifest a due respect for others, be careful to maintain +your own self-respect. Never indulge in exhibiting violence of temper; +but on all occasions control your feelings and expressions, though +provocations arise which justly excite your indignation. + +If you would attain to the highest possible standard of social +refinement and moral virtue, you must rely on yourselves, must look into +the mirror of your own hearts and behold your own defects, and then +proceed at once to apply the appropriate remedies. To do this +effectively may cost you much labor, yet the task will be found +comparatively easy when you have resolved to execute it. + +It is not only your privilege, but your duty, to acquire knowledge from +every source, as the bee gathers honey from every flower. Collect and +compare facts; for in every fact, whether great or small, there lies hid +a lesson of wisdom,--a logic which is not only irresistible, but divine. +Theories are of but little value unless attested by facts. All mere +theories are alike worthless, whether they relate to the physical or +moral world. "Prove all things, and hold fast that which is good." No +better rule than this, for your guidance through life, ever was or ever +can be given. Facts, though "stubborn things," are never falsehoods. You +may therefore regard facts as truth, as the kind of mental food you +should acquire, digest, and convert into nutriment, and thus grow strong +and wise, until you have realized the great fact that "man was created +but a little lower than the angels." + +For the purpose of self-culture, in its highest sense, an ordinary +lifetime seems quite too short, though prolonged to threescore years and +ten. The value of time cannot be overestimated. If we would but consider +how many precious moments we fritter away and lose in an unprofitable +manner, we should see that it is the want of a due regard for the value +of time, rather than a want of time, of which we should complain. It is +not, therefore, the fault of a Divine Providence that we have not time +enough to perfect ourselves in the arts of a refined civilization, and +in the realization of the highest enjoyment of which our nature is +capable. Whatever else you may lose, never lose a moment of time which +can be profitably employed. A moment of time once lost can never be +regained. Insignificant as a moment may seem, your destiny may depend on +the improvement you may make of it, on the deed or thought it may +prompt. Life, though long, is made up of moments, and terminates in a +moment; and all true knowledge is founded in truth. + +If you would prolong your lives, and enjoy health and happiness +accompanied with vigor of mind, study the laws of health and obey them. +Make yourselves thoroughly acquainted with yourselves, by becoming +acquainted with the physiology of the human system, and by living in +compliance with the requisitions of its principles. Nature is the best +physician you can employ, whatever may be your malady; but in order to +be healed by her prescriptions, you must apply to her in time, and adopt +the uniform and temperate habits of life which her laws require. + +It is said that Nature has her favorites. This may be true. It would +seem that some persons are born poets, some philosophers, some fiddlers, +some one thing, and some another. It may be said that such persons are +specialists, born to accomplish a special purpose. They doubtless +subserve the interests of mankind as models, or standards of merit, in +their respective specialties; yet to be born a genius is not in itself a +matter of merit, but it is the good one does in the world which creates +merit and crowns life with honors. + +Nearly all of our truly great men are men of self-culture, who have +acquired brains by the slow process of a lifelong industry in the +pursuit of knowledge. This class of men are not only much more numerous +than born geniuses, but much more useful. They have a wider range of +intellect and wield a wider influence. They are men who read, think, and +digest what they read. In their choice of books they select standard +authors. They are not book-worms, devouring everything that is +published; nor are they literary dyspeptics, who feed on sentimentalism +and French cookery, but hale, hearty men, who prefer common-sense and +roast beef,--caring more for the quality of their food than for the +quantity. + +The world in which we live is a beautiful world. He who made it +pronounced it good, and designed it for the residence of the good. It is +in itself a paradise for all who choose to make it a paradise. In a +physical sense, it is not only a beautiful world, but a great storehouse +full of knowledge, full of wisdom, full of facts,--a record of the past +and of the future, written by a divine hand. In short, it is the great +Book of Life--of Revelation--in every word of which we may find an +outspoken thought,-- + + + "Tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, + Sermons in stones, and good in everything." + + +In estimating your life-work, you should feel that yours is a high +destiny, and that much is expected of you. If you would succeed in the +world, you must have faith in yourselves as well as in a Divine +Providence, and act upon the principle that "God helps those who help +themselves." Wherever you go, make yourselves as acceptable and as +agreeable to all with whom you come in contact as possible. If you would +be preferred, prefer others; and if you would be beloved, scatter +flowers by the wayside of life, but never plant thorns, and in all you +do and say, unite modesty with simplicity and sincerity. + +There can be no true manhood or womanhood that does not rest on +character, in the highest sense of the term. In fact, it is the +character we bear that defines our social position. The formation of +character is a work of our own, and requires the exercise of all the +better and higher powers of our nature. On character depends not only +our usefulness in life, but our individual happiness. Character is the +engraved mark, or sign, by which every individual is known, and +indicates the essential traits of his moral composition, the qualities +of his head and heart, as displayed in his aspirations and in the work +of his life. Character is more enduring than reputation. God respects +character; man respects reputation. The one is as lasting as eternity; +the other as evanescent as the bubble that glitters in the sunshine for +a moment, and then disappears forever. + +In forming a true character, such an one as crowns the true man with an +imperishable diadem, there are many things to be considered, especially +the materials which enter into its moral masonry. Its foundation must be +solid and immovable, its superstructure chaste and elegant, and its +proportions harmonious and beautiful. Like a temple built for the gods, +it should be worthy of the gods. It should be not only beautiful in its +exterior, but be in its interior the life-work of a truly heroic soul. + +Character represents soul. As character is moulded by human +instrumentalities, so is soul. Soul is therefore the essence of a true +manhood, a living principle that cannot die. It is an influence in +itself, and out of itself, felt everywhere and forever. It is the moral +life and the eternal life. Like a pebble cast into the broad ocean, its +impulse is sensibly felt by the entire ocean; every particle moves a +particle, until the vast deep is moved. Such is individual influence. If +character, then, be what it should be, truthful, noble, divine, it will +necessarily be godlike, and exert an influence in harmony with the +benevolent designs of Heaven. + +And yet there are thousands who seem to live without purpose,--live +merely to vegetate. Of course such persons do not live in earnest, and +hence do nothing in earnest. They have life, but no lofty aspirations. +They may have souls; but if so, they remain undeveloped. In fact, +persons of this character have no character, no earnest work, no +significance. And for this reason, though living, they are literally +dead. If we would make the world what it should be, we must first make +ourselves what we should be. The work must begin at home in our own +hearts, and with a view to our own moral needs. + +In the cultivation of a pure heart-life, we should begin by cultivating +"a conscience void of offence." If we would unlock the gate of paradise, +we must look for the key where it is to be found. We may rest assured +that it cannot be found in an uncultivated field of brambles and briers, +nor amid the rubbish of a misspent life; yet to find it, only requires +diligent search. Though everything beautiful, everything noble, +everything sublime, may lie in the distance, yet it is attainable; it is +the _ultimatum_ that we should seek,--something substantial, something +eternal. Mere fame is nothing worth. It is a thing of earth, and not of +heaven. + +There may be an innate feeling or principle that constitutes what is +called conscience; yet it must be conceded that conscience is +practically but the product or outgrowth of education, and may +therefore be so moulded as to become the just or unjust judge of the +moral questions which involve both our present and future welfare. How +important, then, that this judge should not only be a righteous, but an +educated judge, familiar with the principles of right and wrong, and +stern in the application of them! In a word, conscience is the central +life of character,--the silent monitor within our own breasts, whose +moral influence controls our destiny. + +The law of love may be regarded as the great law which underlies all +law, because it is divine. In fact, love is the law that pervades the +universe, and in itself is sufficiently indicative of our moral +obligations. He who is governed by it, cannot err. It is not, however, +what we do for ourselves, but rather what we do for others, that can +afford the most substantial happiness. If you would receive, you must +give, influenced by a kind and generous spirit. "Overcome evil with +good." In this way, like a moral Alexander, you may conquer the world. + +It is doubtless true that conscience, being essentially the outgrowth of +education, is ever in a formative state, and may therefore be +strengthened and elevated in its moral perceptions by culture. The more +perfect its judgment, the more perfect the man or woman. There can be +no religion without conscience; nor can there be conscience without +religion. The one is a counterpart of the other; and equally true is it +that the character of the one reflects the character of the other. + +A true religion does not consist in a mere profession of faith, nor in +church membership, but in that which is the leading principle of our +lives; in that which binds us to achieve an ultimate aim; in that which +calls into exercise all our moral powers, and harmonizes our lives with +the requisitions of the divine law. Yet any religion is better than +none. Even the pagan is not destitute of a religion of some sort, +however debased it may be. It is simply the refinement of a higher +civilization which has made the difference between the pagan and the +Christian. Nothing can be more important, therefore, than the kind of +education which is bestowed on us in childhood, or the kind of +self-culture which we choose to bestow on ourselves. And though +circumstances may be adverse to our interests, it is our duty to conquer +circumstances, and take into our own hands the fabrication of our +fortunes. In this life every day brings with it new lessons; and though +some of them may be pernicious, all of them have their value. If there +were nothing evil, there would be nothing good,--for the reason that +there would be no contrast, no standard of comparison. And yet between +good and evil there is no halfway house, no "happy medium." + +In every question of right and wrong there are but two sides. The one or +the other we must take, either directly or indirectly. We cannot take a +neutral stand if we would; nor can we identify ourselves with both +sides. Sincerity and hypocrisy are not born of the same parentage, and +cannot therefore walk hand in hand, nor take the same social position. +They are marked by a different sign, and by their sign they are readily +recognized. Appear where they will, the one will be respected, the other +despised. + +If you would excel in anything, in any particular pursuit, you must +first resolve to excel, and then persevere, cost what it will. If you +encounter lions in your path, exterminate them. In ascending mountains, +make difficulties your stepping-stones, and never look back until you +reach the summit, and can breathe freely in a pure atmosphere. If you +would reach the stars, construct your own ladder, and climb until you +not only reach them, but are crowned with them. The soul never becomes +truly heroic until it becomes truly godlike in its aspirations and +purposes. + +It is only in the practice of the cardinal virtues--prudence, justice, +temperance, fortitude--that we acquire that divine power which alone can +make us divine. It is only in the adoption of lofty aims that we can +expect to reach a lofty ideal. Everything is possible to him who has +resolved to make it possible. In other words, where there is a will +there is a way. The will is the motive-power; if this be wanting, then +all is wanting that goes to make up the character of an heroic soul. The +world needs moral as well as physical heroes,--heroes who know their +duty, and dare do it. In the battle of life none but the wise and the +valiant can be safely intrusted with the command. The hostile powers of +darkness, of ignorance, of superstition, challenge the field, and cannot +be overcome without a severe conflict. The crisis has come. Whether +armed or unarmed, you must meet the foe; for results you must trust in +yourselves. It will never do to trust in shields, in breastplates, in +fire-arms, or in faith without works. If you would conquer, you must go +into battle inspired with lofty aims, and with a divine enthusiasm; then +will victory perch on your standard, and the eagle of freedom, +fire-eyed, pierce the sun. + +And yet you should remember that in your attempts to achieve success, +you must deserve success. It is only in severe moral discipline that +you can see what you need, and acquire what you need,--eminent virtue, +industry, and sagacity. In social life, be social, amiable, and +accomplished; in domestic life, be something more,--be kind, +considerate, and sympathetic. Whether you have one or more talents, +improve them; they will grow brighter by constant use. Whatever may be +your capacities, never indulge in vain aspirations. However seductive +the temptations which may beset you, never compromise your integrity. +However ambitious you may be in your ultimate aims, regard a good moral +character as of infinite value. Always true to yourselves, be true to +others. Place implicit confidence in no one, but confide in the strength +of your own individuality. In adversity be hopeful, and always look on +the bright side of things. + +In selecting a profession or business for life, be governed by your +natural taste or capacity,--your peculiar talent for this or that +pursuit. If embarrassed by circumstances, never yield to them, but +resolve to excel in whatever you undertake. Perseverance is the secret +of success. If born with the gift of genius, make it available; do +something new; invent something new; and in this way bequeath something +valuable to mankind. In other words, live for mankind, and if need be, +die for mankind. Adopt this as the religious sentiment of your life, and +act in accordance with it, and your works will sufficiently attest the +purity of your faith. + +And yet you are not required to crucify yourselves; but on the contrary, +it is your duty, while striving to live for others, to live for +yourselves, and thus make yourselves and your homes as happy as +possible. It is not in the shade, but in the sunshine, that you should +seek to live. It is only the _now_ of life, the fleeting present, of +which you are certain. If, then, you would be prosperous, if you would +be happy, if you would look to the future with a pleasing hope, so live +as to feel that you are sustained, in all you do, by an approving +conscience, and by the divine counsels of Infinite Wisdom. It is only by +living thus that you can make life on earth what it should be,--a +heaven-life. + +He who made all things has made no distinction between heaven and earth. +It is man that has made the distinction. The natural atmosphere which +surrounds the earth is pure and healthful; it is only the moral +atmosphere that has become impure and deleterious. It needs no chemical +agencies to purify it; it must be purified, if at all, by moral +agencies. In other words, we must recognize our obligations to our +fellow-men, and obey the "Golden Rule," as prescribed by the law of +love, if we would succeed in making earth a heaven. + +Almost every American of culture has an object in view for which he +lives,--some ultimate aim or aspiration which stimulates him to effort. +It may be a desire to excel in some one of the learned professions, or +to become a millionnaire, a hero in the battle-field, a Solon in the +halls of legislation, perhaps President of the United States. In +attempting achievements of this character, it should be remembered that +knowledge is the basis of success. It is knowledge that gives power, and +wisdom that should direct us in wielding it. Yet a man may be learned, +and still be a cipher in the world. God gave to man a divine outline, +and then left him to perfect himself, at least in a mental sense. This +he must do, or remain an animal, and "feed on husks." + +Nearly all our great men are self-made men. This is true of Washington, +Franklin, Jefferson, and scores of others who, like them, have acquired +an enviable renown. Thus, in all ages of the world, have men of noble +aspirations reached eminent positions and immortalized their names. + +It is somewhat surprising, however, that most of our American graduates +look to the learned professions, rather than to a practical business +life, as affording the widest field for the acquisition of wealth and +high social position. This, it seems to me, is a great mistake. Not more +than one professional man in ten ever rises above mediocrity in his +profession, though he may prove to be useful, and succeed in acquiring a +comfortable livelihood. + +In fact, the learned professions have yet to learn that the supply +exceeds the demand. And hence there is but little use in attempting to +shine as a "star" in any of the professions, unless you have a +sufficient brilliancy to take rank as a "star of the first magnitude." + +And yet we cannot have too many men of liberal education; the more the +better. They are needed in every pursuit in life, and in every place. It +is not the occupation that dignifies a man, but the man that dignifies +the occupation. When you have chosen a pursuit, whatever it may be, aim +high. Yes,-- + + + "Give me a man with an aim, + Whatever that aim may be; + Whether it's wealth or whether it's fame, + It matters not to me. + Let him walk in the path of right, + And keep his aim in sight, + And work and pray in faith alway, + With his eye on the glittering height. + + "Give me a man who says, + 'I will do something well, + And make the fleeting days + A story of labor tell.' + Though aim he has be small, + It is better than none at all; + With something to do the whole year through, + He will not stumble or fall. + + "But Satan weaves a snare + For the feet of those who stray + With never a thought or care + Where the path may lead away. + The man who has no aim + Not only leaves no name + When this life is done, but, ten to one, + He leaves a record of shame. + + "Give me a man whose heart + Is filled with ambition's fire; + Who sets his mark in the start, + And keeps moving higher and higher. + Better to die in the strife, + The hands with labor rife, + Than to glide with the stream in an idle dream, + And lead a purposeless life. + + "Better to strive and climb + And never reach the goal, + Than to drift along with time, + An aimless, worthless soul. + Ay, better to climb and fall, + Or sow, though the yield be small, + Than to throw away day after day, + And never strive at all." + + + + +AMERICA AND HER FUTURE. + + +There is something in the very name of America, when applied to the +United States, which carries with it an inspiring influence,--an ideal +of freedom and of true manhood. In referring to the incidents of her +origin, in connection with the events of her subsequent career, it would +seem that America is none other than a "child of destiny." + +She was born amid the storms of a revolution, and commenced at birth to +work out the great problems of civil and religious liberty. She has an +abiding faith in herself, and believes it to be her mission to originate +new views and discover new principles, as well as to try new experiments +in the science of popular government. The greatest peculiarity in her +character is that her past cannot be safely accepted as an index of her +future; in other words, her past is not likely to be repeated. In fact, +she does not wish to repeat or perpetuate anything that can be improved. +Her political creed is as simple as it is brief,--the "greatest good to +the greatest number;" and yet it is the most complex creed, perhaps, +that ever existed, involving questions which have not been, and cannot +be, satisfactorily settled. + +America knows what she has been, but does not know what she will be. It +is doubtful if she knows what she would be. She has several favorite +watchwords, such as progress, freedom, and equal rights, and but few, if +any, settled opinions. Her present position, unstable as it may be, is +her standpoint of judgment. In attempting to achieve what she most +desires, she relies on experiment rather than precedent. In her forecast +consist her welfare and her political sagacity; yet she can no more +predict than control her future. None but a divine intelligence can +comprehend the extent or grandeur of her future. + +One thing is certain, the rapidity of her career approaches railway +speed. What impediments may lie in her track, or what collisions may +occur, it is impossible for man to foresee. It would seem, however, that +she is an instrumentality in divine hands; a nationality, whose task it +is to work out the great problem of a just government,--one in which all +political power is vested in the people, and exercised by the people for +the common purpose of securing the greatest possible good to the +greatest possible number. The right to live under such a government is +a natural right, and should be accorded to every human being, the world +over. + +In all human governments there are, and probably ever will be, more or +less imperfections growing out of mistaken theories, or arising from +their practical workings. Though it may not be possible by legislation +or otherwise to remedy every imperfection, yet there can be no political +inequality which may not be so far modified as to extend to every +citizen equal rights and equal justice. There is a natural love of +freedom and of justice implanted within the human breast, which lies at +the foundation, not only of the political, but of the social, fabric. +This love of freedom and of justice is an instinctive feeling, if not an +inspired sentiment, which ennobles the patriot, and converts him into a +hero. When oppressed, the true hero smites his oppressor. This is a law +of his nature--an attempt to redress a wrong--and therefore an element +of human government. When a civil government has been instituted, +positive law becomes the rule of right. But when nations differ, and +diplomacy fails in its mission, there remains no recognized alternative +for adjustment but a reference to the arbitrament of the sword. This +final method of redressing national wrongs has descended to modern times +from the primitive ages of barbarism, and when adopted, as often +terminates in perpetuating the wrong as in redressing it. It is, to say +the least of it, a method which is entirely inconsistent with the +refined civilization of the present age. + +There seems to be no good reason why an international code of laws might +not be adopted by all civilized nations for their common government in +redressing their grievances. If such a code could be framed and +accepted, it would not only secure the just rights of nations from +infraction as against each other, but would unite them in their mutual +interests and sympathies by the indissoluble ties of a common +fraternity. Then all differences and dissensions could be settled, as +they should be, by negotiation or voluntary submission to arbitration; +and then wars would cease, and rivers of blood no longer flow. + +Nations, in their relations to each other, are but individuals, and +should, as such, be subjected to wholesome restraints by some recognized +authority. The proper authority would seem to be a representative +Congress of Nations. This view of the matter is an American idea, and +one which has been suggested by American experience. The assumption that +every nation is an independent sovereignty, if not absurd in theory, is +by no means true in fact. No civilized nation can live within itself and +for itself, but must and will, in order to supply its wants, hold +commercial intercourse with other nations. The productions of the earth +belong to man, and are essential, whether of this or that clime, to his +health and happiness, and will therefore be sought and distributed. Even +the social relations of one nation with another are hardly less +conducive to the general welfare than their commercial relations, +especially since steam-power and the telegraph-wire have comparatively +made all men next-door neighbors. + +In these modern times no government which is not just in its +administration can long survive without provoking a revolution. It is +only as a last resort that revolution becomes an elementary right, and +then it must succeed in order to be recognized as a right. Nations +succeed each other as naturally as individuals, sooner or later. The +interest of all, whether national or individual, is the interest of +each. Hence mankind the world over should be regarded as a common +brotherhood, entitled to the enjoyment of equal rights and equal justice +as the legitimate sequence of their fraternal relationship. And yet +neither in ancient nor in modern times do we find a perfect government. +It is true, however, that we sometimes speak of our own American +Republic as a perfect system of popular government; yet it is nothing +more, in fact, than an unsatisfactory experiment. It is a system which +grew out of circumstances, and one which changes with circumstances. + +It was near the close of the eighteenth century when America began to +lose her affectionate regard for her mother England. This change in her +affections grew out of the fact that the mother evinced a sincerer love +for money than for the welfare of her daughter. Remonstrance, though +calmly uttered, proved unavailing. It was then that America for the +first time gave indications of possessing a proud puritanic spirit that +would not brook oppression. The imposition of the Stamp Act had incurred +her displeasure; nor did an invitation to "take tea" restore her to +equanimity. Instead of condescending to take so much as a "sip" of that +favorite beverage, she had the audacity to commit whole cargoes of it to +the voracity of the "ocean wave." This offence provoked England to take +an avowed hostile attitude. America, still unawed, proceeded to beat her +ploughshares and pruning-hooks into broadswords; war, with all its +horrors, ensued. The result was that after a seven-years contest, +liberty triumphed, and American independence became an acknowledged +fact. + +America had statesmen in those days who were men of pluck. When they +signed the Declaration of American Independence, and proclaimed it to +the civilized world, they took their lives in their hands, and so far as +human foresight could determine, were as likely to reach the gallows as +to maintain the position they had assumed. But fortune "favored the +brave," and instead of ascending the gallows, they ascended the pinnacle +of fame, and now take rank among + + + "The few, the immortal names + That were not born to die." + + +It will be recollected that our Pilgrim Fathers, on landing at Plymouth +Rock, entered into a written compact which contained the germs of a +republic,--principles which were expanded in the subsequent articles of +colonial confederation, and finally were so developed and enlarged in +their sweep and comprehension as to constitute not only the framework, +but the life and spirit, of the federal Constitution, which has been +accepted as the written will of a free and magnanimous people. In a +republic like ours, the popular will, when clearly expressed, commands +respect and must be obeyed. There is no alternative, nor should there +be. As Americans, we believe in the Constitution, and in the "stars and +stripes," and would die, if need be, in their defence. We also believe +in ourselves, and in our capacity to take care of ourselves. This great +fact is sufficiently illustrated in our past history as a nation. + +When her population was but a small fraction of what it now is, America +not only compelled England to acknowledge her independence, but also +compelled her, in a subsequent war, to acknowledge the doctrine of "free +trade and sailors' rights." + +Ever intent on enlarging the "area of freedom," America next sent out +her armies and took possession of the ancient palaces of the Montezumas, +and finally settled differences by accepting the "golden land" of +California, nor thought it at the time much of a bargain. And last, not +least, she suppressed within her own borders, despite the adverse +influences of England, one of the most formidable rebellions the world +ever beheld, and succeeded in restoring fraternal harmony throughout the +Union. + +In the history of the world there have been many forms of human +government, which have arisen at successive periods, and which may be +classed as the patriarchal, the monarchical, the aristocratic, and the +democratic. The last was originally a direct rule of the people, but +from necessity and convenience has now become a representative +government, chosen by the people, and controlled by their will and +action as expressed through the medium of the ballot-box. The doctrine +that "the majority must rule" is evidently based on the scriptural idea +that in a "multitude of counsellors there is safety;" and yet this is +not always true. Minorities are often right, and majorities wrong. What +is right and what is wrong, is a matter of opinion, ever changing with +the advance of civilization. + +Take any form of government you please, and analyze it, and you will +find that its vitality and its ability to preserve itself, are based on +physical power,--a power to coerce; and when this power fails, the +government fails, and either anarchy or revolution is the inevitable +consequence. Yet the moral power of a government, though it may not save +it, is not less important than its physical power. When both are +exercised with no other view than a sincere desire to promote the public +welfare, the government is pretty certain of being sustained, and simply +for the reason that it is approved by a generous and healthful public +sentiment. But let public sentiment become corrupted by the influences +of aspiring demagogues, or by men who avow principles in conflict with +the public interests, and no government, however pure and just in its +inception, can long command respect, or preserve its authority. + +Every nation has its representative men. America has hers. Cotton Mather +was a Puritan and a theocrat; Benjamin Franklin, a patriot and a +philosopher; George Washington, a great general and a model man; Thomas +Jefferson, a true democrat and a wise statesman; Andrew Jackson, a hero +at New Orleans, and a Jupiter in the Presidential chair; and Abraham +Lincoln, a man of destiny, who crushed rebellion, and proclaimed freedom +to four millions of slaves. These were the men of power in the hands of +Divine Power; and yet they did not comprehend the sequence of their +mission. Their achievements marked the age in which they lived, and will +doubtless exercise a living influence, more or less controlling, +throughout the coming ages of the civilized world. + +Nations, as well as individuals, have their destiny in their own hands. +It is the character of the individuals constituting the nation which +gives to the nation its true character. America began her career by +laying the foundations of her character, not in the sand, but on the +rock of free schools, free churches, and a free public press. Without +these institutions true freedom can neither be acquired, nor be +preserved. They are the only legitimate nurseries of a healthful and +vigorous public sentiment. Preserve these institutions, and the nation +will continue to be free and prosperous and happy and powerful and +glorious. And yet there may be corrupting influences growing out of the +manner in which a popular government is administered, or growing out of +the exercise and extent of the right of popular suffrage. + +Indeed, it has already become a grave question how far it is safe to +extend the right of suffrage. It cannot be denied that our American +population is but an intermixture of different nationalities, thrown +together by a common desire to become free men in a free land. Yet +immigrants continue to come from the Old World, differing as widely in +their political and religious education and predilections as in their +language, customs, and social habits. It is this foreign element that +makes our population what it is,--an assimilating, and yet an +unassimilated mass. A five-years residence, under our present +naturalization laws, entitles aliens to citizenship and the right of +suffrage. When they have acquired citizenship, demagogues assume to be +their best friends, only to deceive them and advance their own selfish +aspirations. In this way the original peculiarities of the different +nationalities are wrought into political subserviency, and employed as +an element of power in securing the balance of power. It is in this way +that the people are first corrupted, and then the government. It is in +this way that we, as a nation, allow demagogues to educate the masses +into a low and degrading estimate of what constitutes a popular +government, and of what are its true legitimate objects. + +The right of suffrage is clearly a political, not a natural, right. It +should be exercised with wisdom, and only with reference to the +"greatest good to the greatest number." The ignorant cannot exercise +this right with safety, for the reason that they are not sufficiently +intelligent. A certain degree of education should therefore be regarded +as an indispensable prerequisite. A mere residence of five years in the +country, without the ability to read and write the English language, +should not be accepted as a presumptive qualification, though +strengthened by an oath of allegiance. + +There are some statesmen, as well as other persons, both in this country +and in Europe, who are earnestly engaged in agitating the question of +extending the right of suffrage to women, on the ground that women are +citizens, and often own taxable property, and consequently have the same +interest as men in securing and maintaining a just and proper +administration of the government under which they live. While this is +true, it is equally true that men are endowed by nature with more +physical, if not more mental, strength than women, and have a higher +regard for the diviner sex than they have for themselves, and +consequently were created to be their protectors and guardians. In fact, +the two sexes are but counterparts of each other. In Nature's +arithmetic, the two count but one, and should be but one in heart and in +life. But somehow or other, many of these counterparts get strangely +mismatched, or are never matched at all. This is not a fault of Nature, +but a defect in our social system. If it were considered as proper for +women as for men to be the first to propose marriage, it would doubtless +lead to the happiest results. But taking things as they are, the thought +has occurred to me that it would be wise for the State to limit the +right of suffrage to married men, for the reason that such men would +naturally feel the deepest interest in sustaining a good government. Let +the right to vote and to hold office depend on marriage, let the honors +of State and of society be conferred on none but those who have honored +themselves by assuming the duties and responsibilities of wedded life, +and I doubt not that all marriageable bachelors would aspire to the +honors of full citizenship, while marriageable women would soon find +their proper places in their proper sphere, and the government become +what it should be,--pure in its principles and just in its +administration. America is in a transition state, and will in all +probability continue to trust in the success of untried experiment, +rather than rely on her past experience. But still there survives within +the American breast a popular sentiment, which, like the magnetic +needle, ever points to an unerring polar star. It is only amid clouds +and storms that dangers arise, or become alarming. It is therefore +important that the ship of State should be intrusted to none but skilful +mariners. The pilot should appreciate the dignity of his position, and +comprehend the extent of his responsibilities. Whether the "golden age" +of America terminated with the outbreak of her great Civil Rebellion, or +commenced at the date of its final suppression, remains, perhaps, an +undecided question; yet there are thousands who believe that her golden +age has passed, never to return. This may or may not be true. + +It is hardly to be expected, however, that a happier age will ever +arrive than that which existed prior to the Southern Rebellion. The +people generally, both North and South, before an appeal to arms +occurred, were characterized by a genial sincerity in the expression of +their political views and in the recognition of their constitutional +obligations, as well as in their ecclesiastical connections and social +relations. They, in fact, felt that they were akin to each other, and +regarded each other as a common brotherhood, having mutual interests in +sustaining a common government,--a government which their fathers had +framed, and bequeathed to them and to coming generations. In this genial +relation, for nearly a century, the North and the South enjoyed +uninterrupted peace and prosperity; and America took her position as one +of the great and powerful nations of the earth. + +It is to be hoped, however, that the result of the late Civil War will +prove a "blessing in disguise," though laden with many unpleasant +memories. + +If we cannot obliterate the "dark spots" in the sunlight of our past +history as a republic, we can at least cultivate friendly relations and +a liberal spirit, such as will give to our future history a spotless +character. + +It now becomes a grave question whether the freedom of the emancipated +slaves will prove a boon or a curse to them. As yet they cannot +comprehend their relative position; nor can they foresee their ultimate +though not distant destiny. As a race, they differ widely in their +natural characteristics from the Saxon race among whom they have been +diffused. They belong to Africa. The two races, being distinct in the +conditions of their origin and physical structure, as well as in their +temperament and tastes, can never harmonize as one people, either in +their social or political relations, on the basis of a perfect equality. +The thing is impossible, simply for the reason that the law of +antagonism which exists between the two races is founded in Nature, and +is therefore a divine law, which can neither be controlled nor +essentially modified by legislation or education. In fact, a "war of +races" has already become imminent, and must, when it does come, +terminate in the expulsion, if not extinction, of the African race. + +In the future of America there are mystic events which time only can +disclose. "Onward" is the watchword of the living present. Every +American believes there is "a tide in the affairs of men which, taken at +the flood, leads on to fortune." The "almighty dollar" is his leading +star. Hoards of gold and silver glitter in the distance. In acquiring +wealth he acquires power. He knows that wealth is power; and hence the +acquisition of wealth has become the ruling passion of the age. In other +words, money supersedes merit, while moral honesty is held at a +discount. Lamentable as the fact may be, it is evident that an +unscrupulous desire to obtain wealth and political honors pervades all +classes of American society, from the highest to the lowest. + +In order to facilitate the accumulation of wealth, and achieve their +ambitious aims, individuals consolidate their capital in corporations, +and corporations consolidate themselves into overgrown monopolies. In +this way almost every leading branch of trade and of manufactures, as +well as railroad interests, shipping interests, and telegraph lines, are +merged in corporations,--in fact, nearly all that remains of +individuality is lost in corporationality. Of course the mere +individual, however meritorious, becomes literally powerless unless +recognized by a corporation. Though a trite saying, it is nevertheless +true that corporations are "soulless," and therefore devoid of human +feeling and of human sympathies. Among the most formidable of these +monopolies are the railroad corporations, ever busy in weaving their +spider-like webs over the entire continent. In discharging their duties +to the public they seldom subordinate their own interests. + +Almost every man of wealth in America is a stockholder in one or more +incorporated companies, and will of course act politically, as well as +individually, in accordance with his interests. Both the commercial and +financial operations of the country are essentially in the hands of +corporations. They in fact monopolize the banking institutions; and if +they do not control, they evidently desire to control, the legislation +and government of the entire country. Indeed, the time has already +come, when in quite too many instances the popular voice yields to the +corporative voice, while personal merit and qualification for office +become questions of secondary importance. It is easy to be seen that +corporative interests have become not only gigantic, but are engaged, +with pick and spade, in undermining the very foundations of the +Republic. If the people would preserve their equal rights, and enjoy the +blessings of a free government, they must not only remember, but act on +the principle, that "eternal vigilance is the price of liberty." + +It is owing to the tendency of capital to combine its productive +energies that working-men, as they are pleased to designate themselves, +conceive the idea that capital and labor are antagonistic in their +interests. Hence working-men, especially miners and mechanics, combine +against capitalists for the purpose of securing higher rates of wages. +In doing this, they resort to "strikes," violate their contracts, and +dictate their own prices. If their terms are not accepted, they refuse +to work, and the great leading industries of the country are crippled, +if not suspended. A train of moral and physical evils follows, which are +more seriously felt by the "strikers" than by capitalists. If movements +of this kind are continued, the obvious result will be to drive capital +out of the country to seek a more reliable investment. It is labor that +produces capital, and capital that furnishes labor. The one must depend +on the other. Their interests are therefore mutual, and both are +entitled to equal protection; their relations to each other must +necessarily be regulated by the law of supply and demand. There is no +other law or power that can do it. If force be applied, it is certain to +react. Yet the field is alike open to all. The laborer often becomes a +capitalist, and the capitalist a laborer. What are known as "strikes," +therefore, can effect no lasting good to any one. They are but elements +of social discord, which demagogues seize and control for their own +aggrandizement. In fact, "Trades Unions" are nothing more nor less than +organized conspiracies against capitalists and the best interests of the +country. If tolerated, the government itself is in danger of being +ultimately subverted. It is clear that the tendency of these unions is +to produce disunion. They have already become so formidable in numbers +and in political influence as to render it doubtful whether any +legislation could be obtained, or military power enforced, which would +either control or restrain them in their action and ultimate aims. In +view of this state of things, it would seem that the time has come when +the American people, as a nation, should pause and "take the sober +second thought." + +It is often said that the world is governed too much. But so far as this +country is concerned, the reverse seems much nearer the truth. Our +government is presumed to be the creature of public opinion. In theory +it is so; but in practice we generally find that what is called public +opinion is manufactured by a few scheming politicians, through the +instrumentalities of packed conventions and a subservient public press. +And hence candidates for office are selected with a view to their +availability rather than for their known capacity and integrity. This +failure to select the best men of the country to govern it, and +administer its laws, has already resulted in degrading American +character by the corrupt practices which it has generated, if not +sanctioned, in every department of government, whether federal, State, +or municipal. + +In fact, dangers lurk on every side. There is no safety, unless it can +be found in the virtue and intelligence of the people. If in this +respect the people are deficient, it is the fault of their education. +The rights of citizenship should depend on education, and the masses, if +need be, should be educated by compulsion. As it now is, the learned +professions are regarded as the main pillars that sustain the social +fabric. They in fact give tone to public sentiment, and erect the +standard of public morals. The masses accept their opinions, and seldom +question their accuracy; and yet the masses are often misled. The few +corrupt the many. Hence it is that we so often see the lawyer, the +doctor, and even the clergyman, swayed in their action by political +incentives; and especially is this true of professed politicians and +official dignitaries. As a matter of course, public sentiment becomes +demoralized, and almost every species of fraud and corruption comes to +be regarded as quite respectable. If for this state of things there be a +remedy, it is only to be found in our public schools and in the moral +teachings of our churches. It is here that the work of reform must +begin, the sooner the better. It should begin by re-laying the +foundations of the Republic deeper and broader, and with principles as +solid and permanent as the masonry of the everlasting hills. When this +great radical work has been accomplished, the threatening clouds which +now cast their shadows over our national future + + + "Will fold their tents like the Arabs, + And as silently steal away." + + +While in the tendencies of the age we see much to admire, we also see +much to be regretted. In a word, there is too much friction in the +complicated machinery that spins and weaves the web and woof of American +character. In religion, morals, and politics, wide differences of +opinion are to be expected, yet they should be honest. While a free +public press may be regarded in theory as the "palladium of American +liberty," it seems to proceed practically on the belief that its own +interests are the public interests. Especially is this true of the +political press. Money, instead of principle, is too often its guiding +star. By its influence, men in office and out of office are made and +unmade at pleasure. And this will ever be the case so long as editorial +utterances are accepted as oracular. And yet there is hope, and perhaps +safety, even in the freedom of our partisan prints, so long as they +continue to expose the falsities of each other, whatever may be their +motives. If, as in China, the head of every editor who knowingly +publishes an untruth were demanded as a forfeit, it is to be feared that +gentlemen of the "tripod" would soon become "few and far between" in +this broad land of the free. Yet the newspaper is the controlling power +of the government, and the mouth-piece of public sentiment. Editors +should therefore appreciate their responsibility, as well as "take the +responsibility." + +Though rotation in office may be regarded as a wholesome principle in +the administration of a popular government, it is evident from the +history of the past that frequent elections tend to disturb the peace +and harmony of society. One political campaign scarcely ends before +another begins. Especially is this true of our Presidential elections. +The spirit of these elections extends to all our local elections, and +often renders them equally bitter and intolerant. + +These are growing evils which seem to threaten the stability of the +Republic, and which require the application of a radical remedy. In the +first place, the right of suffrage should be made uniform in all the +States, and extend to none except citizens who can read, write, and +speak the English language. This must be done, if we would preserve our +American nationality from a confusion of tongues and the contamination +of disloyal principles. In the next place, the President should be +elected by a direct popular vote for a term of eight or ten years, and +be rendered ineligible thereafter. + +If provisions of this character were incorporated into the federal +Constitution, the President would have no other motive in the discharge +of his official duties than a desire to make for himself a good record; +while professional politicians would disappear, and our county be saved +from the demoralizing influences of a constant partisan warfare. + +In regard to the Presidential question, the keynote is usually sounded +by the friends of the administration, who wish to retain its patronage, +or by opponents, who seek to overthrow it for the sake of the "spoils." +Though candidates for office contend loudly for principles and reform, +it is evident that with many of them the public treasury is the centre +of attraction. It is true, however, that there are some honorable +exceptions,--some men who are influenced by patriotic motives, who love +their country and desire to promote its real welfare, and who would +rather "do right than be President of the United States." + +In a government like ours, which is essentially partisan in its +character, there exists a manifest want of promptitude in the exercise +of its central power. In other words, it takes a republic too long to +move and execute in a crisis. It is prevented from doing this by the +popular trammels which environ it. And yet it is often as difficult to +ascertain what is the popular will as it is to comply with it. For this +reason it is often a slavish fear, rather than a sense of right, that +controls the administration of the government. Even our best men, when +placed in power, become so sensitive to public opinion that their moral +courage "oozes out at their fingers' ends." They see lions in their +path, and therefore fear to do their duty. So long as a love of office, +rather than a love of country, influences the action of the politician +and the statesman, there can be neither strength nor stability in the +framework of democratic institutions. For an illustration of this, we +need only appeal to the histories of Greece and Rome. America has +produced, however, many model men, and doubtless will produce many more +of a like character. It is men that we want,--men of nerve and pluck, as +well as men of wisdom, not only to enact our laws, but to administer +them. All conspiracies of one class against the rights of another class, +or against the rights of individuals, should by Congressional enactment +be declared crimes, and the perpetrators promptly punished, no matter by +what name their associations may be known. It is the prompt enforcement +of criminal law that gives it moral force and overawes the offender. + +It is impossible to predict the future, except as we see it from a +standpoint of the present. Hence it is, perhaps, that we apprehend +dangers when there are none. Yet we know that the elements of +dissolution are incorporated into the very material that constitutes the +universe. And so it is with the nations of the earth. The law of change +is universal. It affects alike both the moral and the physical world. In +his desires, man, as an individual, is insatiable; and so are nations. +It is a prominent trait of Americans to want territory, and to acquire +territory. They must have elbow-room; but the misfortune is, they do not +know when they have enough. It seems as if they aspired to grasp the +world and to govern the world. + +It is doubtless true that we, as a nation, have already acquired too +much territory. The result is, the government has become unwieldly, and +the danger great that it will break down, sooner or later, of its own +weight. So vast is the national domain, and so various is it in its +climate, productions, and population, that its central power cannot so +legislate as to do equal justice to all interests, and at the same time +harmonize the conflict of public sentiment. This state of things had its +influence in producing the outbreak of the late Rebellion. For +grievances of this character there would seem to be no other remedy than +that of revolution. + +We can but hope, however, that the States now known as the United States +will continue to increase in numbers, and to harmonize as one people, +one nation, and one government. Yet it is quite possible that the time +will come when they will sever into groups and become independent of +their present federal relation to each other, in accordance with their +peculiar sectional interests, "peaceably if they can, forcibly if they +must." Then, instead of one, we shall probably have several independent +American confederacies, whose future boundaries are clearly indicated, +not only by differences of climate and productions, but by Nature, as +marked by her great intervening rivers, lakes, and mountain ranges. +These confederacies, when organized, will doubtless consist of those +groups of States now known as the Eastern, Western, Southern, and +Pacific States. + +In addition to sectional interests and geographical differences, there +are other considerations tending to induce a division of the Union. +Among these are an almost unlimited number of political aspirants, and a +rapidly increasing population. In Europe, and in many parts of Asia, an +overgrown population, in connection with geographical differences and +tribal distinctions, is doubtless the original cause which led to +subdivisions of empire, and the establishment of so many petty kingdoms +as now exist in those countries. The same causes are evidently at work +on the American continent, and must ultimately produce similar results. +In little more than a century our population has increased from seven to +sixty millions. In the next century, at present rates, the increase from +natural growth and the influx from foreign emigration will in all +probability approximate two or three hundred millions. Europe alone, +judging from present indications, will transfer to this continent within +that period a large share of that number. If this be assumed as worthy +of credence, is it not time that we, as American citizens, should look +ahead, as well as go ahead, and if possible, preserve our national +character? + +It is true that an intermixture of foreign blood with American blood may +tend to develop a higher order of manhood; yet when we go so far as to +permit foreign languages to be taught in our public schools at the +public expense, as essential to an American education, and that, too, at +the dictation of denizens whose education and predilections are in +conflict with our own, have we not reason to fear the ultimate results? +If this insidious influence of foreign growth be allowed to control our +educational system, it will not be long before we shall adopt foreign +habits and sentiments, and lose forever our American nationality. + +If America would be true to herself, she must preserve not only the +purity of her principles, but the purity of her spoken language. If +foreigners choose to become American citizens, they must expect to +become Americanized in language and sentiment, as well as accept our +form of government. We want no foreign element incorporated into our +free institutions which does not harmonize with them. In a word, we want +no union of Church and State, no "confusion of tongues" in our public +schools, no aping of foreign manners and habits, no foreign +dictation,--nothing but pure American freedom and pure American +principles. + +It is in this country that Church and State, for the first time in the +history of the civilized world, have been separated, and allowed to +conduct their own affairs in their own way, and independently of each +other. So far as experience has gone in this respect, it proves the +wisdom of the policy. And yet there are many statesmen, who, in reading +the "signs of the times," think there are reasons for believing that the +priesthood have inherited their ancient love of civil power, and are +quietly endeavoring, in various ways, to secure such a degree of moral +power over the popular mind as will, in effect if not in fact, transfer +to them the control of the civil government. + +If the priesthood are to control the government, it matters but little +whether it be the Catholic or the Protestant. Catholicism regards the +Church as supreme and the State as subordinate, repudiates public +schools, and trains her youth in the Church and for the Church, thus +preparing them to become not only adherents to the faith, but "soldiers +of the cross;" while Protestantism asks the recognition of God in the +Constitution, urges a fraternal union of all her various denominations, +with a view to concentrate and direct their moral force, and even goes +so far as to discuss politics in the pulpit,--thus attempting to control +the results of our popular elections, especially when great moral +questions are supposed to be involved. In all this there may be no +insidious design; but facts carry with them a degree of significance +which ought not to be disregarded. If a "religious war" must come, it +will be a fearful contest, and one which must result in the subversion +of free government, and finally extinguish the last hope of every true +philanthropist. + +And yet, as a people, we need never "despair of the Republic" so long as +we sustain free public schools and confide the government to none other +than an enlightened and philanthropic statesmanship. If America +continues to respect herself, she is evidently destined to wield, not +only the moral power of the world, but to complete the civilization of +the world. Inspired with a desire to ameliorate the condition of +mankind the world over, she annually expends millions of money in +advancing the cause of a true Christianity. So inviting are her free +institutions that she is rapidly becoming a central nation in point of +wealth, talent, and population, as well as in moral and political +influence. It should be her pleasure, as well as aim, not only to +perfect her own government, but to diffuse a knowledge of her liberal +principles throughout the world. + +In reverting to the history of the past, we see that nations, like +individuals, have their career, succeed each other, and finally become +extinct. On this continent the red race has been rapidly succeeded by +the white race. Whether a still higher order of man will succeed the +white race, is a question which time only can determine. + +Nature is provident, and like Divine Providence, works in "mysterious +ways," and with an aim to achieve ultimate results. What America now is, +we know; what she will be, we know not. It is devoutly to be wished, +however, that her career may continue to be characterized by great and +noble achievements, and that her "star-spangled banner" may forever +float in triumph + + + "O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave." + + + + +CAREER OF REV. JOSEPH BADGER. + + +There have been but few men in the clerical profession who have made a +worthier or more exemplary life-record for themselves than Rev. Joseph +Badger. He fought for liberty in the Revolution, and for Christianity in +the wilds of the Western Reserve. In the one case he fought with the +musket, in the other with the sword of the Spirit. Whether serving as a +soldier or as a missionary, he proved himself sincere and steadfast in +his devotion to duty. + +Rev. Joseph Badger was born at Wilbraham, Mass., Feb. 28, 1757. He was a +lineal descendant of Giles Badger, who emigrated from England and +settled at Newburyport, not far from Boston, about the year 1635. The +father of Joseph was Henry Badger, who married Mary Landon. They were +both devoutly pious, and equally poor in this world's goods. They +instructed their son Joseph, at an early age, in the catechism of the +Puritan faith, and gave him such further elementary education as they +were able at the domestic fireside. He grew strong in the faith as he +grew to manhood, when he began to realize that in sharing life with his +parents, good and kind as they were, he shared their poverty. In +consulting his mirror he was often painfully reminded of the fact that +his garments, patched as they were, displayed about as many colors as +the coat of his ancient namesake. Inspired with the patriotic sentiment +of the times, and desiring not only to provide for himself, but to +obtain sufficient money to give himself a liberal education, he enlisted +in 1775, when but eighteen years of age, in the Revolutionary army, as a +common soldier, and was assigned to the regiment commanded by Colonel +Patterson. The regiment was stationed at Fort No. 3, near Lechmere's +Point, in the vicinity of Boston. At the battle of Bunker Hill this +regiment was posted on Cobble Hill, in a line with the front of the +American battery, and about half a mile distant, where every man of the +regiment could see the fire from the whole line, and enjoy the pleasure +of seeing the British break their ranks, run down the hill, and then +reluctantly return to the charge. On their third return, as luck would +have it, they carried the works at the point of the bayonet. This was +the first time after his enlistment that young Joseph had an opportunity +to smell the smoke of British gunpowder. It was some time in September +of the same year he enlisted that the British landed three or four +hundred men on Lechmere's Point to take off a herd of fat cattle. +Colonel Patterson ordered his regiment to attack the marauders and +prevent them from capturing the cattle. A sharp conflict ensued, in +which Joseph tested the virtues of his musket and poured into the enemy +nine or ten shots in rapid succession and with apparent effect. Several +were killed and others wounded on both sides. Joseph escaped unharmed. +But soon after this skirmish he took a violent cold, attended with a +severe cough. His captain advised him to return home until he could +recover. This he did, and within twenty days came back and rejoined his +regiment quite restored to health. + +The British evacuated Boston on the 17th of March, 1776. On the next day +Colonel Patterson's regiment, with several other regiments, was ordered +to New York, where they remained for three weeks, and were then ordered +to Canada. They were transported up the Hudson to Albany, and thence by +way of Lakes George and Champlain to St. Johns, and thence to La Prairie +on the banks of the St. Lawrence and in sight of Montreal. On the way +the troops suffered severely from exposure to rain-storms and +snow-storms, and from want of provisions. They arrived at La Prairie +late in the day, and in a state bordering on starvation, where they +encamped supperless. The next day each soldier received a ration of a +few ounces of mouldy bread for breakfast, and a thin slice of stale meat +for supper. Joseph accepted his share of the dainty feast without a +murmur, but doubtless thought the wayfaring soldier had a pretty "hard +road to travel." A part of Colonel Patterson's regiment was then ordered +up the river to a small fort at Cedar Rapids, which was besieged by a +British captain with one company of regulars and about five hundred +Indians, led by Brant, the famous Indian chief. The Indians were +thirsting for blood. A fierce conflict ensued, which lasted for an hour +or more, when the enemy was compelled to retreat towards the fort. At +this juncture a parley was called, and the firing ceased. A number were +killed, and more wounded. It so happened that the fifth company, to +which Joseph belonged, did not arrive in time to participate in the +fight, though they had approached so near the scene as to hear the +firing and see the rolling cloud of battle-smoke. Joseph expressed his +regret that he had lost so good an opportunity to give his flint-lock a +second trial. The detachment was now ordered to retreat to La Chine,--a +French village about six miles above Montreal. Here they were +reinforced by the arrival of eight hundred men, under command of General +Arnold. The entire force advanced to the outlet of Bason Lake, at St. +Ann's, where they embarked on board the boats and steered for a certain +point about three miles distant. In passing, the force was fired upon by +the enemy, armed with guns and two small cannon. A shower of shot seemed +to come from every direction, and as the boats containing the Americans +were about to land at the point sought, they received, amid hideous +yells from the Indians in ambush, a hailstorm of bullets that rattled as +they struck the boats, and slightly injured some of the men. The men in +the boats returned the fire as best they could. It was marvellous that +none of the Americans were killed or seriously injured. "It appeared to +me," said Joseph, "a wonderful, providential escape." A British captain +by the name of Foster was shot in the thigh. It was now nearly sunset, +when General Arnold ordered a retreat. The night was spent in making +preparations for the morrow. It was near morning when Captain Foster +came over to General Arnold and agreed with him to a cartel by which +certain prisoners were exchanged. The American prisoners were returned +in a destitute and forlorn condition. The pitiful sight deeply excited +the generous sympathies of the kind-hearted Joseph, who did what he +could to comfort them by dividing his own supplies with them. + +General Arnold now returned with his troops to Montreal, exercising +great vigilance to avoid further surprise. He then crossed the St. +Lawrence and encamped at St. Johns. Here the small-pox appeared in camp. +In order to avoid the severity of the disease, Joseph procured the +necessary virus and inoculated himself with the point of a needle, which +produced the desired effect. Two days after the disease had appeared in +camp, the troops were ordered to Chambly. The British hove in sight and +began to land on the opposite side of the bay. The invalids were +numerous and continued to increase. They were directed to march back to +St. Johns,--a distance of twelve miles. Most of them could hardly carry +gun, cartridge-box, and blanket, and were often obliged to sit down and +rest by the wayside, Joseph among the rest. In the course of a few days +the sick were transported to Isle aux Noix, at which place all the +shattered army were collected under command of General Heath. From this +place the troops, including the sick, proceeded amid sundry +embarrassments to Crown Point, where they encamped. Here the small-pox +spread among the men, and in its most aggravated form, with fearful +rapidity. The scene in camp soon became appalling. The groans and cries +of the sick and dying were heard night and day without cessation. As it +happened, the surgeons, for want of medicines and hospital stores, could +render but little aid. In some instances as many as thirty patients died +in a day, and were buried in a single vault or pit, for the reason that +there were not well men enough to bury them in separate graves. + +The humane and philanthropic Joseph, who had previously inoculated +himself with success, and thus avoided further danger from the +contagion, now devoted himself to nursing and caring for his sick +companions-in-arms with unwearied assiduity. As soon as the contagion +began to abate, the sick were transferred in boats to Fort George, while +the men fit for service were ordered to Mount Independence, opposite +Ticonderoga, to erect works of defence. The mount was covered with +forest trees, loose rocks, and dens infested with rattlesnakes, which +often crept into camp and were killed. + +At this time Joseph suffered for want of the clothes he had lost in the +retreat from Canada, and had, in fact, worn the only shirt he had for +six weeks, and was so incommoded with vermin that he was compelled to +take off his shirt, wash it without soap, wring it out, and put it on +wet. He was also scourged with an irritating cutaneous disease, which +induced him to retire some distance from camp, fire a log-heap, and +roast himself, after anointing with a mixture of grease and brimstone. +The camp was destitute of indispensable conveniences, and the hospital +in which lay the sick had not a dish of any kind in which could be +administered a sup of gruel, broth, or a drink of water. Resort was had +to wooden troughs, or dishes, cut out with a hatchet or penknife. The +colonel, in passing through the hospital, said, "I wish there was a man +to be found here who can turn wooden dishes." Joseph, who understood the +art, replied, "Furnish me the tools and I will do it." The tools were +furnished, and Joseph soon turned from the aspen poplar an ample supply +of wooden cups and trenchers. He was also often employed in making +bread, and in fact was a sort of universal genius and could do almost +anything. At the instance of General Washington he was also employed at +times to aid in negotiating treaties of friendship with the Indians. But +after being transferred several times from one military point to +another, and suffering more or less from hardships, his health became so +impaired that the principal surgeon gave him a discharge, and he +returned to his home in Massachusetts. He soon afterward so far +recovered that he re-enlisted and served as an orderly sergeant in +defence of the seaport towns till the 1st of January, 1778, when his +time expired, and he returned to his father's house once more, having +been in the service a little more than three years. He received, on +retiring from the army, about two hundred dollars in paper currency, +which was so depreciated that he could not purchase with the whole of it +a decent coat. He then (for the next six months) engaged in the business +of weaving on shares, and during that time wove sixteen hundred yards of +plain cloth. This enabled him to clothe himself decently, and to spend +the ensuing winter in improving his education. At this time, as he said, +he "had no Christian hope," but continued to labor and study during the +year 1779, when a religious revival occurred, and he acquired a +Christian hope, with a determination to fit himself for the ministry. +Encouraged by his friend, Rev. Mr. Day, he prosecuted the requisite +preliminary studies, and at the same time taught a family school in +order to meet his expenses. He entered college in 1781, and graduated in +1785. He then studied theology, and was licensed to preach in 1786. He +soon received a call and was ordained as pastor of the church at +Blandford, Mass. He had previously married Miss Lois Noble, who was a +young lady of refinement and exemplary piety. In October, 1800, he +resigned his pastorship at Blandford and received a regular dismissal. + +The Connecticut Missionary Society, whose central office was at +Hartford, had formed a high estimate of the character and piety of Rev. +Joseph Badger, and at once tendered him the appointment to go, under the +auspices of the society, as a missionary to the Western Reserve. This +was the kind of Christian labor in which he preferred to engage. He +therefore accepted the appointment; and leaving his family at home until +he could explore somewhat his new field of service, he took his +departure on horseback, Nov. 15, 1800, bound for the Western Reserve. He +took what was then called the southern route, crossed the Alleghany +mountains in the midst of a snow-storm, and after a weary journey, +arrived at Pittsburgh on the 14th of December. Here he rested for a day +or two, and then resumed his "journey through the wilderness," and after +a weary ride of nearly a hundred miles, reached Youngstown, one of the +earliest settlements in the Reserve, on Saturday night at a late hour, +and was kindly received. The next day he preached at Youngstown his +first sermon in the Reserve. The town at that time consisted of some +half-dozen log cabins. His audience included nearly every soul in town, +though but a handful, who had assembled in one of the larger cabins, and +who seemed pleased to receive from his lips "the good tidings of great +joy." Gratified with his reception at Youngstown, and resolving to lose +no time in expediting his missionary labors, he rode the next day to +Vienna, where but one family had settled; thence to Hartford, where but +three families had settled, and thence to Vernon, where he found but +five families. In making these successive visits he did good work. While +at Vernon he was informed that Mr. Palmer, the head of the family +settled at Vienna, had been taken suddenly sick and was not expected to +live. There was no doctor residing in all that region of country. Rev. +Mr. Badger hastened at once to the relief of the sick man, and nursed +him for eight days, when he so far recovered that his providential nurse +could safely leave him. In this way Rev. Mr. Badger visited, in the +course of the year 1801, every settlement and nearly every family +throughout the Western Reserve. In doing this he often rode from five to +twenty-five or thirty miles a day, carrying with him in saddlebags a +scanty supply of clothing and eatables, and often traversing pathless +woodlands amid storms and tempests, swimming unbridged rivers, and +suffering from cold and hunger, and at the same time here and there +visiting lone families, giving them and their children religious +instruction and wholesome advice, and preaching at points wherever a few +could be gathered together, sometimes in a log cabin or in a barn, and +sometimes in the open field or in a woodland, beneath the shadows of the +trees. At about this time he preached the first sermon ever heard in +Cleveland. In response to all this benevolent work he had the +satisfaction of knowing that he was almost universally received with a +heartfelt appreciation of his services, and with a liberal hospitality. +Though most of the early settlers were poor, they cheerfully "broke +bread with him," and gave him the larger share of such luxuries as they +happened to have at command. Even the Indians, who were quite numerous, +treated him kindly and with respect. He took especial pains to enlighten +and instruct them, and soon acquired such a knowledge of their language +as enabled him to communicate readily with them. + +In September of 1801, he journeyed on horseback to Detroit, with a view +to extend the field of his missionary labors. On reaching the banks of +the Huron River, late in the evening, he stopped at an Indian hut, +desiring to remain for the night. He was kindly received by the +inmates,--an aged Indian chief and his squaw. The squaw cut fodder from +the cornfield and fed his horse, and soon presented him with a supper of +boiled string-beans, buttered with bear's oil, in a wooden bowl that was +cut and carved out from the knot of a tree with a hatchet and knife. +Hungry as he really was, he relished the feast. She then spread for him +on the floor a bed of bearskins and clean blankets, on which he enjoyed +a refreshing night's sleep. In the morning she gave him for breakfast a +corn-bread cake, baked in the embers. It contained inside a sprinkling +of black beans, and resembled plum-cake. While he was eating, he +expressed his admiration of the bread. The squaw replied, "Eat; it is +good. It is such bread as God gives the Indians." He then resumed his +journey to Detroit, where he remained a few days. While there, and while +on his way to and from there, he held religious interviews with all he +met who were willing to converse in relation to their spiritual welfare, +whether white men or Indians, but found no one, as he said, in all that +region, whom he could regard as a Christian, "except a black man, who +appeared pious." On his return he visited Hudson, where he found a few +professors of religion. Here he organized a church, consisting of ten +males and six females. This was the first church organized in the +Western Reserve. The next morning, October 25, he took his departure +from the Reserve, and returned by way of Buffalo to his family in New +England, preaching, as he went, at such settlements as offered a +favorable opportunity. He arrived at home Jan. 1, 1802, after an absence +of thirteen months and fifteen days. He found his dear family all well, +and like David of old, blessed the Lord, who had "redeemed his life from +destruction and crowned him with loving-kindness and tender mercies." + +Soon after his arrival, he visited Hartford and reported to the +missionary society what he had done, and the character of his work, and +agreed to return with his family to the same field of missionary labor, +and for such compensation as the society chose to allow him, which was +but seven dollars per week. This was at that time considered a +sufficient sum to meet the current expenses of himself and family. He +exchanged his former homestead at Blandford for land in the Western +Reserve. On the 23d of February, 1802, he started on his journey to the +Western Reserve in a wagon drawn by four horses and loaded with a few +household goods, his wife and six children, and himself driving the +team. He took the route leading through the State of New York to +Buffalo, and thence followed the southerly shore of Lake Erie to +Austinburg, in the Reserve, where he and his family were received with a +hearty welcome to the home and hospitalities of his friend, Colonel +Eliphalet Austin. He accomplished the journey, a distance of six hundred +miles, in sixty days. This was travelling at a pretty rapid rate, as was +then thought. He remarked, when he had reached the hospitable home of +his friend Austin, that he and his family seemed destined to share God's +promise to his ancient Israel: "And they shall dwell safely in the +wilderness, and sleep in the woods." + +He now purchased a small lot of land in Austinburg, and soon, with the +aid of a few kind settlers, erected a log cabin in which to shelter his +family. He found it difficult to procure sufficient provisions, but soon +succeeded in obtaining a sack of coarse flour in the vicinity; and +hearing of a barrel of pork for sale at Painesville, he sent a man with +a team thirty miles through the woods to purchase it, and paid twenty +silver dollars for it, and found on opening it that it contained the +"whole hog,"--feet, head, snout and ears,--and weighed but one hundred +and seventy pounds. This, with the milk from two cows that were pastured +in the woods and sometimes missed for a day or two, was all the +provision he could make for his family when it became necessary for him +to leave them and enter upon his missionary labors in other parts of the +Reserve. He visited Mentor, Chagrin, and other settlements. At Euclid he +found a family by the name of Burke, who had resided in a lone situation +in the woods for over three years, in so destitute a condition that the +wife had been obliged to spin cattle's hair and weave it into blankets +to cover her children's bed and save them from suffering in cold +weather. At Newburg he visited five families, the only residents in the +place, but discovered to his regret "no apparent piety among any of +them. They all seemed to glory in their infidelity." He continued +visiting families and preaching throughout the southeastern part of the +Reserve, and establishing churches. He called on his return at "Perkins' +Station" in Trumbull County, where an election was pending and a goodly +number of voters present. He was invited to dine with them. All took +their seats and began to help themselves, when he interrupted them and +remarked: "Gentlemen, if you will attend with Christian decency, and +hear me invoke the blessing of God, I will sit down with you; otherwise +I cannot." Knives and forks were instantly laid down and a blessing +invoked. The dinner was then discussed with a keen relish by the +assemblage, who seemed to appreciate the fact that "blessings sometimes +come in disguise." He then continued on his way home. Soon after this a +revival commenced in most of the infant settlements, and his missionary +labors were largely increased. + +In some of the settlements the revival was attended with miraculous +power. In many instances the converts were stricken down in convulsions, +groaned in apparent agonies, and tore their hair; and in other instances +they fell in a trance, saw visions, awoke, and leaped for joy, shouting +long and loud, "Glory to God!" All this surprised the itinerant +missionary and presented him with a problem which he could not solve; +yet being a disciple of the "Calvinistic school," and charitably +inclined, he attributed the "spasmodic demonstrations" to the mysterious +workings of the Holy Spirit. The people far and near partook of the +excitement and flocked to hear him. On one occasion he preached to an +audience of five hundred. Though some scoffed, many professed to have +experienced religion. The general impression was in those days that +conversion consisted in experiencing some sudden and mysterious +shock,--a puritanic idea that is now held to be absurd; yet this wild +excitement doubtless produced some good fruit, if not a "rich harvest." +Be this as it may, Rev. Mr. Badger persevered in extending his labors, +and between June 18 and July 1 of the year 1802, rode two hundred miles, +preached eight sermons, and administered two sacraments. In riding +through the dense woodlands, especially after nightfall, he was often +followed by hungry wolves and bears, manifesting a desire to cultivate a +toothsome acquaintance with him. On one occasion, when riding through a +dark and pathless forest late at night, along the banks of Grand River, +and drenched with rain, he discovered by the sound of distinct footsteps +that some large animal was following him. He stopped his horse, turned +on the saddle, and with loud vociferations and clapping of hands +attempted to frighten the animal away, but instead of the noise having +the desired effect, the bear, as it proved to be, sprang towards him +with hair standing on end and with eyes flashing fire. At this critical +juncture, as Rev. Mr. Badger states in his diary: "I had no weapon of +defence. I thought best to leave the ground, turned to the left, and +walked my horse partly by the bear, when the brute stepped directly on +behind me and within a few paces. By this time it had become so dark +that I could see nothing, not even my hand holding the bridle, and the +bear was still snapping his teeth and approaching nearer. I had in my +hand a large heavy horse-shoe, took aim by his nose, and threw the shoe, +but effected no alarm of the enemy. To ride away was impossible in a +pathless wood, thick with brush and fallen timber. I concluded to resort +to a tree if I could find one. I reined my horse first to the right and +then to the left, at which instant some sloping limbs brushed my hat. On +feeling them, I found them to be long pliable beech limbs. I reined my +horse again and came with his shoulder close to the tree. I tied the +bridle to the limbs, raised myself on the saddle, and by aid of the +small limbs began to climb. I soon got hold of a limb large enough to +bear me; and at this instant the evil beast came to the tree with +violent snuffing and snapping. I fixed my stand on the limb, took out a +sharp knife, the only weapon I had, and prepared for battle. But I soon +heard the bear snuffing near the horse's nose as he was crunching the +boughs and leaves within his reach. I then ascended about forty feet, as +near the top of the tree as I thought was safe, found a convenient place +to sit on a limb, and then tied myself with a large bandanna to the +tree, so as not to fall if I fell into a drowse. The bear continued +smelling at the horse until he had passed around him to the opposite +side of the tree; and all was still but the champing of the horse. By +the roaring of the wind it appeared that a heavy gust was approaching. +It soon began to rain powerfully, with wind and heavy peals of thunder. +At this time the horse shook himself, which startled the bear to a quick +rush for a few rods, when he stopped and violently snapped his teeth, +and there remained until a few minutes before daylight, when he went +off. My horse standing as he did at the foot of the tree, without moving +a foot from the place where I left him, and in no way frightened by the +approach and management of the bear, seemed to be peculiarly +providential. This was the only time I was disturbed in camping out many +times. As soon as I could see to take my course, I mounted my horse and +arrived at my house, about six miles from my lodging-place in the tree, +with a pretty good appetite for breakfast. Having in my saddlebags two +volumes of the 'Ohio State Laws,' it was remarked by some of my friends +that the old bear did not like so near a 'union of Church and State.'" + +Rev. Mr. Badger continued his missionary work with zeal and with highly +encouraging prospects. He organized many churches and schools, and +distributed many Bibles and school-books, and often assisted the +settlers in erecting their log cabins and in securing their harvests. +In 1804, the missionary society reduced his compensation to six dollars +a week, being the same they allowed their missionaries nearer home. This +he did not relish, but accepted the reduced pittance, remarking that he +would go on with his work and trust to Him who "feeds the ravens." At +this time he was obliged to pay at the rate of sixteen dollars a barrel +for salt pork, though the other provisions were comparatively cheap and +plenty. Early in the spring of 1809, his house was burned, and nothing +saved but two beds and a few articles of clothing. He at once built a +small cabin, with the generous aid of his neighbors, and moved his +family into it, without bedstead, table, knife, fork, or spoon. In June +of the same year he returned to Hartford, Connecticut, and made a final +settlement with the Connecticut Missionary Society, and received an +honorable discharge from further services as a missionary under its +auspices. He then proposed to engage in missionary work among the +Indians west of the Cuyahoga, known as the Wyandots; and having within a +short time received cash donations from the Massachusetts Missionary +Society to the amount of over a thousand dollars, he returned to the +Reserve and commenced his missionary labors among the Indians at Upper +Sandusky, which he regarded as a central point, and from which he +extended his labors in the region round about so as to include all the +Indian villages in the vicinity of the lake, from the west side of the +Cuyahoga River to the city of Detroit. This mission was called the +"Wyandot Mission." His labors in this missionary field consisted mainly +in visiting the Indians in their lodges, instructing them and their +children in the elementary principles of Christianity and in the +observance of peaceful relations. He also gave them practical lessons in +agriculture and other arts of civilized life, and tried to reform their +intemperate habits by condemning the use of whiskey. He was a stanch +advocate of "temperance in all things," denounced slavish habits and +also slavery long before the latter became the subject of political +agitation. In 1812, he took a deep and active interest in the war, and +accepted the position of chaplain in the command of General Harrison. He +also exercised a wide influence over the Indians in preventing them from +making alliances with the enemy. At the close of the war he resumed his +missionary labors. In August, 1818, his good wife died, and left to him +the care of their children. His grief seemed inconsolable, but he soon +so far overcame it as to marry in April, 1819, Miss Abigail Ely for a +second wife. In the following June he took his bridal trip with her to +his old home in New England, and after a brief but delightful visit, +returned and devoted himself to preaching in the eastern part of the +Reserve, where he soon settled as pastor of the church at Austinburg,--a +church which he had organized, and which had become so large in the +number of its communicants that it was generally known as the "mother +church" of the Reserve. He subsequently officiated as pastor of the +church at Ashtabula for some years, then at Kingsville, and lastly at +Gustavus, Trumbull County, where he settled in 1825, and officiated not +only as pastor of the parish, but as postmaster, having been appointed +to the latter office by the postmaster-general. In 1835, he resigned his +position as pastor at Gustavus, and preached a farewell sermon, taking +the following words for his text: "Finally, brethren, farewell. Be +perfect, be of good comfort, be of one mind, live in peace; and the God +of love and peace shall be with you." The sermon was a masterly one, and +the audience was affected to tears. It was long remembered, and was +never forgotten by those who heard it. He had now become so enfeebled by +age as to disqualify him for further service as pastor of a church. From +Gustavus he went to reside with his married daughter in the township of +Plain, Wood County, Ohio, where for eight or nine years, he devoted +more or less time, as he was able, to missionary work in the vicinity. +In 1844, he changed his residence and went to the neighboring town of +Perrysburg, where he lived with his married granddaughter, and where he +died in 1846, at the advanced age of eighty-nine years. In six months +afterward his wife died. But two of his six children survived him. + +In personal appearance Rev. Joseph Badger was tall, slim, erect, had +blue eyes, brown hair, and a pleasing expression of face. In temperament +and action he was quick and somewhat impulsive, yet he was considerate +and slow of utterance, rarely, if ever, uttering an imprudent word. In +his social intercourse he was sedate or facetious as the occasion seemed +to require. He enjoyed hearing and telling amusing anecdotes. In his +style of preaching he was apostolic, plain, simple, and logical. In +creed he was an orthodox Presbyterian. He had but one grand aim in life, +and that was to do what he could to advance the moral and spiritual +welfare of mankind. In a word, Rev. Joseph Badger, though dead, still +lives and will ever live in memory as the early western missionary whose +lifelong labors were prompted by the spirit of a true Christian +philanthropy. + + + "His youth was innocent, his riper age + Marked with some act of goodness every day; + And watched by eyes that loved him, calm and sage, + Faded his late declining years away. + Cheerful he gave his being up, and went + To share the holy rest that waits a life well spent." + + + + +MISSION MONUMENT. + +[Dedicated at Williamstown, Mass., July 28, 1867.] + + +In the accomplishment of great moral purposes, a Divine Providence +employs human instrumentalities. Of this we have ample evidence, not +only in the history of nations, but in the career of individuals. + +A little more than eighteen centuries ago, a few obscure fishermen, +while casting their nets into the Sea of Galilee, were called to abandon +their nets, and become "fishers of men." + +A little more than sixty years ago, a few obscure young men, while +pursuing their classical studies in Williams College, were called to go +into benighted lands beyond the sea, and proclaim the divine doctrine of +"peace on earth and good-will to men." + +These students, though unknown to fame, were young men of thought and of +high moral aspirations. Influenced by a devotional spirit, they felt +that God had a great work for them to do, and that it was therefore +important for them to comprehend their true relations, both to God and +to man. + +What was the precise character of the great work assigned them, they +did not seem to know; and for this reason they sought for more light, +and for guidance from the Mighty Counsellor, whose wisdom is infinite, +and who cannot err. In seeking for that knowledge which "cometh from +above," they were accustomed, in the milder months of the year, to hold +occasional prayer-meetings in the solitudes of Nature, believing that + + + "The groves were God's first temples." + + +And doubtless they felt that the Divine Presence dwells more essentially +in the silent sanctuaries of Nature than in "temples made with hands." + +It was here, within the quiet and cool retreat of the maple-grove in +which we are now assembled, that they had convened at the close of a +sultry summer day, in the year 1806, to hold the accustomed +prayer-meeting, when they were overtaken by a sudden shower of rain, and +compelled to seek the friendly shelter afforded them by a neighboring +haystack. + +The group of young evangelists who were present at the prayer-meeting on +this particular occasion consisted of Samuel J. Mills, James Richards, +Francis L. Robbins, Harvey Loomis, and Byram Green. Protected from the +rain by the haystack, they continued, amid the conflict of the +elements, their devotional exercises, and also discussed religious +topics of deep interest to themselves and to the world. It was a sublime +moment for them and for the world. The heavens were darkened; the +lightnings flashed; dread thunders rolled; the rain fell; yet amid this +conflict of the elements there came "a still small voice," as if from +the storm-cloud. It was a divine whisper, an inspired thought, which +stirred the life-currents in the heart of Mills, and diffused upon his +brow a celestial radiance. That inspired thought, broad as the earth in +its comprehension, Mills announced to his devout companions. They felt +its divinity, and regarded it as a divine communication. At the instance +of Mills, they knelt in prayer, and besought divine aid and guidance in +executing the great work which they now believed had been revealed to +them. It was nothing less than a mission to some foreign heathen land, +and the ultimate evangelization of the world. In offering up the last +prayer at this meeting, so enthusiastic became Mills that he invoked +"the red artillery of Heaven to strike down the arm that should be +raised against a herald of the cross." + +And now, as the storm-cloud passed away, the skies became bright and +serene; the air was pure and fragrant as balm. The raindrops, like +jewels, glittered on the leaves in the grove, and on the grass and +wild-flowers in the meadows. In short, the smile of Heaven was reflected +in the face of Nature. And the sublimity of the scene, as it may be +supposed, was heightened by the appearance of a rainbow in the +east,--that glorious emblem of a divine love, which is so ample in its +character as to embrace within its golden circle the great world of +mankind, of "every nation, kindred, and tongue." + +As these inspired young men of the haystack wended their way back to the +college halls, they "pondered these things in their hearts" and +communicated their thoughts to such of their fellow-students as they +believed would sympathize with them in the desire they felt to +consecrate their lives to the great work of foreign missions, and +especially a mission to India. Several of their associates became at +once inspired with a similar missionary spirit. But as yet the interest +felt in this new enterprise was restricted to the circle of the "Society +of Brethren," as it was designated. This society was a secret +organization, composed of such students as had made a profession of +religion, and had for its object the promotion of the spiritual welfare +of its members. In pursuance of this object, they held private +prayer-meetings in each others' rooms, and discussed questions of +special religious interest, and often, in the summer season, retired for +the same purpose to the neighboring groves. + +In this way was sown the first grain of "mustard seed," which was +destined soon to vegetate and grow to a tree of gigantic proportions. +The planting of this "smallest of all seeds" constituted a nucleus for +more extended effort. Consequently other societies were soon organized +to promote the good work. In fact, new life was breathed into the "dry +bones" of every valley; and Heaven repeated the command, "Go, teach all +nations." + +The grand result of this day of "small things" was the organization at +Bradford, in 1810, of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign +Missions,--an organization which under the direction and favor of a +Divine Providence has achieved so much for the civilization and +evangelization of the benighted races of mankind. Of this we need adduce +no other proof than the leading facts of its history. + +In its inception, this Board consisted of but few members. At its first +meeting there were but five members present, and at its second, but +seven. Its receipts for the first year were but a thousand dollars. Now +its annual receipts exceed a half-million of dollars, and its annual +meetings are attended by thousands of people. In the aggregate, it has +collected and disbursed nearly twelve millions of dollars. It has never +lost a dollar by the fraud or embezzlement of any of its officers or +agents. Since its first meeting of five persons, in 1810, its corporate +members have been increased to two hundred, and its honorary members to +seventeen thousand. + +It has sent into the missionary field thirteen hundred persons, in +various capacities, including nearly five hundred ordained missionaries. +It has established missions in almost every benighted region of the +habitable globe, especially in the Eastern Hemisphere,--in India, in +China, in Persia, in Syria, in Greece, in Turkey, in Africa, and also in +several isles of the sea, including the Sandwich Islands. It has more +than a hundred missionary stations, and nearly two hundred out-stations +occupied by native helpers. It has in the native ministry three hundred +Christian converts, about seventy of whom are pastors of churches. These +native Christian churches have now increased to two hundred, in +communion with which more than sixty thousand hopeful converts have been +received. + +It has printing-presses, which have printed more than a thousand +millions of pages of religious and educational matter, which has been +distributed in forty-two living languages, as now spoken in pagan and +other unevangelized lands. It has invented alphabets, and reduced +eighteen native languages to writing. It has put in successful operation +more than four hundred native schools, in which more than twelve +thousand native children have been taught. All this has been done in +less than sixty years, and still the great work progresses with +increasing zeal and efficiency. + +Thus has the Board proved itself to be, in the providence of God, a +great moral power in the nineteenth century. It is the star in the West, +which flings its cheering light into the East. The wise men have seen +it, and the shepherds have seen it. Like the star of Bethlehem, its +errand is divine, for it was born of an inspired thought which has now +become an invincible element in the moral world,--a power which must and +will do its work; and though opposition and discouragement may come,-- + + + "Truth crushed to earth shall rise again." + + +Yes, millions of Christian heroes will come to the rescue, still bearing +aloft the banner of the cross, and shouting the battle-cry of civil and +religious freedom. And woman, first at the sepulchre, first in deeds of +charity, first in every good work, will renew her activities in the +great warfare with moral darkness, until the "uttermost parts of the +earth" have been illuminated with the light of divine truth. + +It is expected, perhaps, that some allusion will be made to the motive +which has induced the erection of the monument you see standing before +you in its modest yet truthful significance. The motive was simply a +desire felt in common with many other persons to see a spot which has +become sacred in missionary history commemorated by some permanent +expression of Christian gratitude. An expression of this kind seemed due +not only to the great and good cause of American Foreign Missions, but +to the revered memories of the five young men of prayer, who knelt here, +under shelter of the haystack, and received from on high a divine +commission. And permit me to add that the filial regard I entertain for +my Alma Mater, and for my native State of Massachusetts, has had its +influence in disposing me to make this contribution to a heaven-born +enterprise, and in remembrance of those truly good, and therefore truly +great, men, whose names are inscribed on the monument. The plan of the +monument, as well as its erection here, it gives me pleasure to state, +has received the cordial approval of the Faculty and Trustees of the +college. The grand object for which the monument has been erected, is +the commemoration of the "birthplace of American Foreign Missions;" and +to this object we now dedicate it, in the name of a Christian +philanthropy, whose "field is the world." + +In its character the monument is not less unique than emblematical. It +stands on the identical spot where the haystack stood. As a specimen of +fine material and artistic sculpture, it is strictly a Berkshire +production, composed of Berkshire marble quarried at Alford, and wrought +in the workshops of The Berkshire Marble Company. Its entire height is +twelve feet; its shaft, cap, and base, square; its surface polished; its +color a silver-blue. It is surmounted with a globe three feet in +diameter, traced in geographical lines. On its eastern face, and +immediately below the globe, are inscribed these words, "The Field is +the World." Then follows a similitude of the haystack, sculptured in +bas-relief, and encircled with these words, "The Birthplace of American +Foreign Missions, 1806." And beneath this appear the names of the five +young men who held the prayer-meeting under the shelter of the haystack. +The maple-grove, amid whose cool shadows we now stand, is the same grove +from which the five heavenly minded young men were driven by the +impending rain-storm. + +This maple-grove, which has now become ever memorable, is included +within the boundaries of Mission Park. The park contains ten acres, and +was purchased on account of its historical interest, and made part of +the domains of Williams College. It is the design of the friends of the +college to embellish the park with specimens of the trees and shrubs and +flowers of every foreign land to which missionaries have been sent by +the American Board, so far, at least, as such specimens can be +successfully acclimated in this country. + +When its embellishments have been perfected, Mission Park will become a +place of delightful resort, full of sacred memories, which will +accumulate and grow in interest with the lapse of time. Every year will +bring within its inviting precincts hundreds of pilgrims, and every +college commencement its missionary jubilee. Then will Mission Park +possess, not only an attractive aspect, but a moral power which will +awaken a renewed zeal in behalf of missions. And here may this +consecrated monument, which is so expressive of a highly interesting +fact in the history of missions, ever remain as an educator of coming +generations, and as a landmark in the pathway of the citizen, the +student, and the stranger! And here let the moral hero of the present, +and of the future, stay his steps, and make still higher and holier +resolves. Nor let us of the present generation forget that we have a +great work still to accomplish in the moral field,--a field which is as +broad as the earth, and in which we ought to renew our +diligence,--feeling assured that with the final triumph of truth will +come universal freedom, universal love, and universal brotherhood. + +It is due to Williams College to say that her educational and Christian +influences have ever been directed by a benevolent and philanthropic +spirit,--a spirit that burned on the prayerful lips of Mills at the +haystack, and which has inspired with heroic zeal in the cause of truth +thousands of human souls throughout our Western Hemisphere. Humble as +the college may have been in its infancy, time and the favor of Heaven +have made it a power in the land. In every department of literature and +of science it has furnished mental giants who have made their mark in +the world. In addition to this, it has sent forth its thousands of +faithful workers, who are engaged, far and near, in pulling down the +strongholds of error, and in building up in their stead towers of +strength, founded on a Christian basis. In its teachings of literature +and of science, it teaches those still higher and diviner principles +which give to man the graces of a true manhood. In a word, its refining +and harmonizing influences are felt, not only by its sons, but by +thousands of others, the world over. Few indeed are the men who have +wielded a more extensive influence for good, or contributed more to the +permanent value of our theological literature, than the learned and +venerated President of Williams College, Dr. Hopkins. + +Though the world owes much more to the efforts and vigilance of the +Faculty and Trustees of Williams College than it has ever acknowledged, +yet these patient, earnest, and hopeful men will continue to work on in +silence, still inspired with the belief that in casting "an handful of +corn in the earth, upon the top of the mountains, the fruit thereof +shall shake like Lebanon." + + +THE END. + + * * * * * + +NATURE AND CULTURE + +BY HARVEY RICE. + +SECOND EDITION PRICE, $1.00. + +_NOTICES OF THE FIRST EDITION._ + + +"The author has been a careful reader of the science and literature of +the day, and has formed generally intelligent opinions upon the great +questions of modern thought. He is also scholarly in his use of +language."--_Chicago Tribune._ + +"Mr. Rice's ideas upon matters which he treats appear to us sound and +practical; and the modesty with which they are put in his volume will +not detract from their value in the minds of sensible persons."--_Boston +Times._ + +"The style is pure, and the thought, if not new, is fresh, and at times +presented to the reader in a fine poetic setting. Nature is spoken of as +by one who really loves her, and who has seen her face to face, and not +through the eyes of another."--_Christian Leader._ + +"The collection of miscellaneous essays embraced in this volume without +any apparent bond of connection are worthy the attention of intelligent +readers, from the thoughtfulness of their tone, the sobriety of their +judgments, and the naturalness of their style."--_New York Tribune._ + +For sale by all booksellers. Sent, postpaid, on receipt of price. + +LEE & SHEPARD, PUBLISHERS. + +BOSTON, 1889. + + +PIONEERS OF THE WESTERN RESERVE. + +BY HARVEY RICE. + +_SECOND EDITION._ + +PRICE, $1.25. + +_NOTICES OF THE PRESS._ + + +"The name and character of Hon. Harvey Rice are sufficient guarantee +that anything which comes from his hands is worthy of consideration, and +it is with this assurance that in this work he has produced something of +great historical value, as well as of interest in its style and +incident, that we commend the work without hesitation."--_Cleveland +Leader._ + +"The incidents of the book have not only real historic value, but they +are of great interest as giving the present generation some idea of the +hardships and privations to which the early pioneers of Ohio were +subjected."--_Sunday Gazette, Akron, Ohio._ + +"Mr. Rice tells the story of the early struggles of the early settlers, +their haps and mishaps, and gradual development, in a most interesting +style."--_The American, Waterbury, Conn._ + +"It is altogether an instructive and valuable book, and especially +interesting to the people of our historic and noble state."--_Christian +Secretary, Hartford, Conn._ + +"There is much that is fresh and interesting in the narrative, and much +that helps the making of history, though it does not itself claim to +rank as history."--_Boston Journal._ + +"The reader's interest is sustained by remarkable historic facts, heroic +adventures and thrilling incidents, which the author has taken pains to +collect from authoritative sources."--_Christian Intelligencer, New +York._ + +"A book on the early settlers of the Western Reserve that will keep one +awake, like a novel by Scott or Dickens."--_North American Review._ + + +Sent, postpaid, on receipt of price. + +LEE & SHEPARD, Publishers. + +BOSTON, 1889. + + +SELECT POEMS. + +BY HARVEY RICE. + +Illustrated edition. Price, $1.00. + +_NOTICES OF THE PRESS._ + + +"'Select Poems,' recently published by Lee & Shepard, Boston, pp. 174, +12mo, are from the pen of Hon. Harvey Rice of Cleveland, O., and author +of 'Nature and Culture,' published by the same firm in 1875, and which +contained several essays on those subjects worthy of the deepest +consideration. + +"In the volume now before us, the same love and admiration of all things +good, noble, patriotic, and beautiful, are to be observed; and we wish +that some of our magazine-writers would take pattern by the plain, +almost severe, Saxon verbiage in which the deepest thought and most +vivid fancy find expression."--_Journal of Commerce, Boston._ + +"A second edition indicates the public estimate of these piquant, +graceful, and, in many regards, beautiful creations. We still think that +'Unwritten Music' rightfully fills the first place. It is simply +exquisite."--_Christian Leader, Boston._ + +"Among the best of the long poems are 'The Mystery of Life,' 'Mount +Vernon,' 'Ancestral Portraits,' 'Home of my Youth,' and 'Freedom.' The +short poems are all good, some of them being perfect gems."--_Eastern +Argus, Portland, Me._ + +"A collection of original poems, all of which are pleasing in structure, +pure and elevated in sentiment, vigorous and refined in diction, and +faultless in numbers. The religion is that of the natural man, the +morality that of works, the sympathy tender, and the wit general. The +lovers of good poetry will relish the feast."--_Epis. Recorder, Phil._ + +"Mr. Rice writes true poetry."--_New York Methodist._ + +_Sent, post-paid, on receipt of price._ + +LEE AND SHEPARD, PUBLISHERS. + +BOSTON, 1889. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Nature and Culture, by Harvey Rice + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NATURE AND CULTURE *** + +***** This file should be named 38022-8.txt or 38022-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/8/0/2/38022/ + +Produced by Roberta Staehlin, David Garcia, Martin Pettit +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images +generously made available by The Internet Archive/American +Libraries.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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