6. Upon the whole, there was in this man | something that would create, subvert, | or reform; | an understanding, | a spirit, and an eloquence, to summon mankind to society, | or to break the bonds of slavery asunder; | something to rule the wilderness of free minds with unbounded authority; | something that could establish, | or overwhelm empire, | and strike a blow in the world, ❘ that should resound through the universe. LESSON III. ADDRESS TO THE OCEAN.-PROCTOR. 1. O thou vast Ocean!-ever-sounding sea! Thou thing, that windest round the solid world At once; and on thy heavily laden breast, 2. The earth hath naught of this; nor chance nor change Ruffles its surface. Ever the same, it hath no ebb, no flow; But in their stated round the seasons come, And pass like visions to their viewless home, And come again, and vanish; the young spring Looks ever bright with leaves and blossoming, And winter always winds his sullen horn, 3. Thou only, terrible Ocean, hast a power, A will, a voice; and in thy wrathful hour, Thy broad, green forehead. If the waves be driven How quickly dost thou thy great strength unbind, And fearful in thy spleeny humors bent, And lovely in reposc; thy summer form Is beautiful; and when thy silver waves Marking the sunlight at the evening hour, And hearken to the thoughts thy waters teach,"Eternity, Eternity, and power." LESSON IV. THE ALPS."-CLARK. [An illustration of sublimity, continued.] 1. Proud monuments of God! sublime ye stand | Among the wonders of his mighty hand, With summits soaring in the upper sky, Where the broad day looks down with burning eye; Alps, mountains in Switzerland. 2. Where gorgeous Like olden conquerors, on high ye rear What garden, or what hall on earth beneath, Thrills to such tones, as o'er the mountains breathe? 3. There, through long ages past, those summits shone, Where morning radiance on their state was thrown; There, when the summer-day's career was done, 4. Played the last glory of the sinking sun; Where are the thronging hosts of other days, • Alpine ways, passes through or among the Alps. Still, round their peaks, the magic colors lie, Of morn, and eve, imprinted on the sky; And still, while kings and thrones, shall fade, and fall, Still, shall their glaciers flash, their torrents roar, 1. The importance of classical learning to professional education, is so obvious, that the surprise is, that it could ever have become matter of disputation. I speak not of its power in refining the taste, in disciplining the judgment, in invigorating the understanding, or in warming the heart with elevated sentiments; but of its power of direct, positive, necessary instruction. 2. There is not a single nation from the north to the south of Europe, from the bleak shores of the Baltic to the bright plains of immortal Italy, whose literature is not embedded in the very elements of classical learning. The literature of England is, in an emphatic sense, the production of her scholars; of men who have cultivated letters in her universities, and colleges, and grammar-schools; of men who thought any life too short, chiefly because it left some relic of antiquity unmastered, and any other fame too humble, because it faded in the presence of Roman and Grecian genius. 3. He, who studies English literature without the lights of classical learning, loses half the charms of its sentiments and • Glaciers, immense masses of ice, formed on the sides of the Alps, or other high mountains. style, of its force and feelings, of its delicate touches, of its delightful allusions, of its illustrative associations. Who, that reads the poetry of Gray,a does not feel that it is the refinement of classical taste which gives such inexpressible vividness and transparency to his diction? Who, that reads the concentrated sense and melodious versification of Dryden b and Pope,c does not perceive in them the disciples of the old school, whose genius was inflamed by the heroic verse, the terse satire, and the playful wit of antiquity? Who that meditates over the strains of Milton, does not feel that he drank deep at "Siloa's brook, that flowed Fast by the oracle of God,-" that the fires of his magnificent mind were lighted by coals from ancient altars? 4. It is no exaggeration to declare, that he who proposes to abolish classical studies, proposes to render, in a great measure, inert and unedifying, the mass of English literature for three centuries; to rob us of the glory of the past, and much of the instruction of future ages; to blind us to excellencies which few may hope to equal and none to surpass; to annihilate associations which are interwoven with our best sentiments, and give to distant times and countries a presence and reality, as if they were in fact his own. LESSON VI. EULOGIUM ON THE SOUTH.-HAYne. [See Rule 3, p. 168.] 1. If there be one state in the Union, Mr. President, (and I say it not in a boastful spirit,) that may challenge comparison Gray, (Thomas,) was born in London in 1716, and died in 1771. He wrote some beautiful poems. b Dryden, (John,) an illustrious English poet, died in 1700. •Pope, (Alexander,) a celebrated English poet, born in 1688, and died in 1744. |