Discourse On The Uses And Importance Of History - Illustrated By A Comparison Of The American And French Revolutions (1847) (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: DISCOURSE. Mr. President And Gentlemen: In accepting the invitation with which you have honoured me, to address you at your present meeting upon the objects connected with your new and enlarged organization, I have yielded far more to an earnest desire to testify my respect for your wishes, than to the hope of being able to say any thing that can be useful to you in the prosecution of your noble designs. Nurtured in the lap of science here, you have gone forth from these halls, in successive and annual generations, to fill the walks of busy life, and return to pay your devotions at the shrine of your early instruction, laden with the rich fruits of observation and experience. The generous seed planted here has long since quickened into vigorous growth, and been succeeded by abundant harvests of usefulness and honour to yourselves and the country. Instead of " black misfortune's baleful train," which the too gloomy imagination of a gifted poet has held up, in chilling perspective, to the buoyant spirits of academic youth, as the fatedcompanions of after-life, the hand-maids of your career, I rejoice to believe, have, with but few, if any exceptions, been propitious fortune, successful achievement, happiness and virtue. Gray. Upon the tempestuous ocean of the world, where so many dangers beset even the most experienced mariner, you have not only escaped disaster, but you have made honourable and prosperous voyages. It was a custom of the ancients for those who had been exposed at sea and escaped shipwreck, to commemorate, at once, their safety and their gratitude, by hanging up in the temple of Neptune a votive tablet, representing the circumstances of their danger and deliverance. In imitation of this classic usage, it is for you, gentlemen, from time to time, to pr...