The Register of Pennsylvania : devoted to the preservation of facts and documents and every other kind of useful information respecting the state of Pennsylvania, Vol. XII, Part 29

Author: Hazard, Samuel, 1784-1870
Publication date: 1828
Publisher: Philadelphia : Printed by W.F. Geddes ;
Number of Pages: 438

USA > Pennsylvania > The Register of Pennsylvania : devoted to the preservation of facts and documents and every other kind of useful information respecting the state of Pennsylvania, Vol. XII > Part 29

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These periodical revolutions of time are happily cal- culated to keep alive the recollection of past events. Feelings which are inspired even by the great occur- rence of the 4th of July, 1776, would become languid if they were not occasionally renewed. Remarkable events are rooted in the memory only when it dwells upon them from time to time, and recalls the periods which gave them existence. They are thus, as it were, acted over again in fancy, with all their attractions, and none of their toils and dangers. They become known

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to us by a sort of communication more impressive than history and more vivid than mere tradition ; and pass- ing from generation to generation in a frequent and familiar intercourse, their influence is at length stamped indelibly on the hearts and reflected from the conduct of those who thus at stated periods and at short inter- vals recur to them.

The American revolution cannot properly be esti- mated, independently of its consequences. Sublime as were the sacrifices which it called forth, it is not to be considered merely as a glorious display of devoted patriotism, untiring fortitude and determined valour- as a bright example of virtuous efforts conducted by a gracious providence to happy results-as a triumphant relief of suffering worth from proud oppression-or as the auspicious establishment of a mighty empire on the broadest basis of popular representation. These pro. perties belong indeed to an event among the most re- markable in the story of mankind. Had it been no otherwise distinguished, history would have inscribed it upon her brightest page; philosophy would have pointed to it as confirming many of her favourite theo- ries; and the shades of those who bled for its accom- plishment would have continued to walk amid the con- flicts and animate the exertions of struggling freedom until the end of time. It would have taught lessons profitable to the world at large. Its speculative results would have been the property of mankind. But a long train of benefits and blessings was laid for the descend- ants of those who braved the storm, and who were themselves unconscious of the extent which they would one day reach. These benefits and blessings have con- tinued to pass along the course of time, increasing in abundance and diffusing themselves in lavish bounty in their progress. They resemble a stream which, spring- ing from a pure but unpretending source in the depths of the forest or on the summit of the mountain, gathers as it flows its tributary waters, and gliding through boundless plains which it fertilizes, swells at length in- to a mighty and majestic river, which reflects from its bright surface populous cities, and bears upon its buoy- ant waves the productions of a world.

The practical effects of the American revolution are peculiarly ours. National honour and individual pros- perity; an attainment of all the comforts and conve- niences of life ; science adopted, learning cultivated, and knowledge every where diffused ; a spirit of enter- prise without a parallel ; activity the most intense, and success in almost every undertaking within the reach of human strength-all are results, the deep foundations of which were laid on the day and by the deed, which we are now commemorating. But for that day and that deed, they would have been unknown, and this now united and powerful republic would have continu- ed to be a collection of loosely combined und depend- ent colonies. They would have languished in feeble existence, subject to the caprice of foreign power ; the perpetual prey, and the bloody arena of a warfare not their own ; starved perhaps by the neglect, or, what would have been scarcely better, fed by the conde- scending bounty of a distant master. Where are the colonies that have really assumed the dignity or enjoy- ed the advantages of a nation ?' Shall we turn to the / West India Islands ? Different governments of Europe

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have there tried the effect of their respective systems ; and have left their dependencies almost motionless in moral and intellectual improvement, effectually moving only in a career of monied advantages, where it is diffi- cult to say which is the more intolerable, the insecurity and perpetual alarm of the master, or the hopeless, yet unsubdued and reluctant submission of the slave. Spain has gone on adding to the load of oppression under which her American colonists had groaned, for ages, until at length the chains were broken which had be- come too galling to be borne. But what has the boast- ed colonial policy of Great Britain done to benefit its subjects ? how little has it attempted except to enrich herself! Human sacrifices still kindle the fires which burn upon the funeral piles of Hindoo superstition. The idol Juggernaut still dyes his chariot wheels with human blood. These sad remains of native ignorance darken the sky of European supremacy, while the once splendid fabrics of Asiatic taste and elegance are mould- ering into dust. - What has the country, peopled with eighty-nine millions of inhabitants, gained by the exchange of rulers ? Ignorance and a false religion, with its impure and impious rites, maintain their power ; not even as formerly, at least the compan- ions of national independence ; but shorn of the consolations which the elevation and grandeur of self- government might have continued to inspire. Shall we compare the advancement of the Canadas, much favor- ed as they have been by their distant rulers, with that of their republican neighbours ? A single illustration may suffice. The happiest invention of modern times for the diffusion of useful and universal information, in the cheapest form, the freshest in production, the most various in matter, and the most practical for the purpo- ses of life, is the establishment of gazettes. The art of printing was imperfect without them. Books are the preceptors of the scholar and the philosopher, but the daily press is the friend and the companion of the man. No station is so exalted as to be out of the sphere of its influence, none so humble that it does not reach it. It is alike welcome in the populous city and the se- questered vale. It goes forth with the sun himself, and diffuses universal light. Political knowledge and indi- vidual instruction are alike disseminated by it. It pen- etrates the workshop and the counting room, the cot- tage and the cabin : it flies to the traveller, however re- mote, on wings as swift almost as light, and overtakes and cheers him with the intelligence of his home. The chamber of the sick is relieved by its consolations; even the dungeon of the prisoner is rendered less dark by its sympathy. We are told by Sir James Mackintosh, in his celebrated defence of Peltier for an alleged libel on Napoleon, that in the year of the Armada, Queen Elizabeth caused to be printed the first gazette that ever appeared in England. "This," he adds, " was one of the most sagacious experiments, one of the greatest discoveries of political genius, one of the most striking anticipations of future experience that we find in history." More than sixty gazettes are daily issued from the presses of these United States, besides the numbers which less frequently appear. In England, too, they multiplied and magnified to the best of pur- poses under the patronage of the successors of Eliza- beth, their ministers and people. Yet the Canadas have, it seems, within the last few weeks, (if it has been done at all) made their very first attempt thus with every rising sun to enlighten the public mind-to pene- trate like his beams the deepest caverns, and dispel the shades of ignorance-to establish a watchtower, which to a people boasting of freedom and meaning to maintain it, is indispensable-a lighthouse, which to a people desirous of general knowledge, is inestimable.

ver ceasing efforts, to dishonour not the authors of our blood-" to attest that those whom we call fathers did beget us." The devout Mahometan in his daily prayers, is said to turn from every corner of the remotest lands towards the temple of Mecca. So should the grateful American fix his steady eye and constant heart upon the event which rendered this day the brightest of the po- litical year ; animated by the spirit, instructed by the precepts, led by the example and faithful to the princi- ples which shone forth on that trying occasion, when the garb of patriotism was to all appearance of the same texture and the same hue with the robe of rebel- lion-when clouds and darkness hung upon the same narrow steep and thorny path which led to immortaI fame or to an ignominious grave-to honour or the scaffold-to liberty or death. During the whole voyage of life, in all its varying latitudes from early infancy to extremest age, this same bright star should guide us, these same ennobling feelings should inspire and animate and purify us. Neither the young nor the old are exempt from the obligation. It calls alike for the exertions of all. While the active performers on the stage devote the best energies of manly maturity to ennoble and ex- alt their country, they are cheered by the smiles and guided by the instructions of the venerable fathers of the nation. Youth, too, has its no less appropriate of- fice. The young Hannibal before the assembled wis- dom of Carthage offered up his vow of unrelenting hatred to the Romans. Let the young American, in better spirit but with the same undoubting zeal, devote himself to the love and service of his native land. In the discharge of this his sacred vow, his earliest and his unceasing efforts must be directed to the promotion of science, without which even freedom itself would be an empty name. It is the best-under the sacred guar- dianship of heaven, it is the only safe protection of the dignity, the power, the glory, the happiness, the vir- tue, and even the existence of the republic. Without it, her institutions are erected on the sand ; defenceless from the shocks of ignorance, caprice and passion; with it, they are grounded on the solid rock, and will defy the storms of foreign and domestic strife.

The maxim has grown to be as familiar as it is true, that knowledge is power. The very terms are almost synonymous. Our language derives from the same root the words which imply the strength to execute and the intellect to perceive and learn. Glossarists trace the term king, now serving the title of the possessor of the proudest human rank, to an origin which signifies know- ledge, that being the first and surest fountain of authori- ty. But the cause we advocate and are endeavouring to sustain, would deserve only half our homage were it the source or the instrument of merely power. Mere power, unenlightened, unrefined, with the strength of angels, may be tainted with the wickedness of demons. Science is the companion and the parent of virtue-the antidote and foe of vice. Power, enlightened, purified, refined, is the attribute of God himself. It is in a state of ignorance, that the imagination of man's heart is desperately wicked. Religion and virtue find their way to it when the path is lighted by the lamp of know- ledge.

The progress of science may be traced and its charms discerned in a gradual extinction of the evil dispositions, and a corresponding improvement in the finer feelings of our nature, as the understanding is enlightened and the manners are refined. Barbarous nations are with- out definite notions of property or solicitude for the acquisition of it, and they are thus strangers to a preg. nant source of crimes among those which are civilized. Yet they are the victims of internal discord more savage and relentless than that of beast of prey ; and of ex- ternal warfare, fierce, cruel and insatiable. The ancient Saxons and their neighbouring Danes were perpetually involved in ferocious and brutal conflicts. Scarcely less ferocity at one time mingled with the border wars of the

A debt of gratitude which can never be effectually cancelled, is due to the founders of our republic, from all who enjoy the rich inheritance ; an inheritance which their valour won and their wisdom has, we devoutly trust, secured. It may be partially repaid only by ne- English and the Scots, Yet the same blood which, un-

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checked in its tumultuous fury, became inflamed to more than madness among them, plunged in ignorance as they were, now flows in gentle currents through the veins of their educated descendants. Conquests of a no bler nature are now the objects of ambition-the bril- liant and bloodless conquests of mind over matter, and the corresponding triumphs of reason and philosophy over passion, ignorance and vice. Every student should be familiar with the delightful work of Professor Herschel, written not long since expressly to show the advantages of science. Astronomy, chemistry, mag, netism, the use of steam, navigation-have all during the present age and at a recent period of it developed resources, and been made productive of results, which at any time heretofore, would have been deemed im- practicable or supernatural. Wisdom once employed itself in fruitless searches for the art of divination among conjunctions of the planets, or hoped to manufacture gold by the discovery of the philosopher's stone. That is the true astrology which opens the book of science, and foretels to the fearless mariner his safety on the trackless ocean ; which bids him securely leave every landmark and trust to the unerring guardianship of an occasionally cloudless sky, and conducts him after months of absence precisely to his wished for home. That is the only alchemy which finds a philosopher's stone in the commonest productions of nature, and with known and simple elements forces matter into changes which Ovid never dreamt of and the fabled Proteus ne- ver underwent. What would the wisest of the philoso- phers of former times have said had he been told that sawdust can be converted into wholesome digestible and nutritious food ? that linen rags can produce more than their own weight of sugar? or that a bushel of coal properly consumed can be made to raise a weight of seventy millions of pounds ?

Natural philosophy is the root of science. Most of the discoveries useful to mankind are drawn directly from it, and all may be regarded as more or less con- nected with it. The various departments of knowledge are more nearly allied to each other than a superficial observer would suppose. A very skilful and sagacious writer advises the youthful lawyer to prepare himself for the cross examination of witnesses by a careful study of the mathematics. Intellect is necessarily affected and perhaps controlled by the matter which surrounds it. Natural science therefore, which teaches the phenome- na of all that the senses can perceive, and all that can be accurately known, leads to an acquaintance with the operations of the mind itself. How can we direct the human will, without a knowledge of the fibres of the body by which it acts, without analyzing the air which its possessor breathes, without penetrating into the earth he cultivates, and from which he draws his subsistence and his enjoyments ; without ascertaining the opportu- nities which he has for the exercise and improvement of the faculties which we should for ever seek to direct to some useful and efficient end ? Grecian learning, with all its brilliancy, wanted the basis of precision and ac- curacy, because Grecian scholars were ignorant of the philosophy of nature. One wise man thought he had settled every thing in science ; another believed that nothing could be settled. Both were wrong, and their mistake arose from the want of an unerring standard to suspend the premature conclusions of the one and re- solve the discontented misgivings of the other. Modern times claim a superiority in discarding most of what is merely speculative, and holding fast to the useful and the true. No period of the wold has been, and no por- tion of it can be more propitious than ours to the culti- vation of what is thus peculiarly valuable and instruc- tive. It suits the simplicity of our mamers, and harmo- nizes with our tastes and favourite pursuits, and with the circumstances in which we are placed. You are especially in possession of the advantages, connected as you are with an institution which combines instruction in all that is lofty and sublime in the theory, with all

that is practically beneficial in the business of life- which is to secure to you the companionship and the elegance of Virgil among flock and herds and imple- ments of husbandry-which teaches you to soar with Newton among the stars, or to meditate with the pa- triarch Isaac at eventide-to unite the learning of the closet with the labours of the field.

Constant activity and exertion of mind and body are necessary to the wholesome condition and successful employment of each. Man was not born to be idle. Mark the bloated frame of the sluggard, his nerveless arm, his beamless eye. His decrepitude is less pitiable than his vicious appetites are loathsome, which he has still the passion without the power to indulge. Has sloth made less disastrous inroads upon his moral na- ture? No. Mental idleness is immeasurably more dis- astrous. The mind cannot be motionless or unproduc- tive if it would. It is insusceptible of a vacuum. Vice and crime grow up in rich and rank luxuriance, if their place be not thickly sown with plants of better growth. All the lessons of nature, of philosophy, and of reli- gion, are opposed to idleness, which according to Spen- cer, is the nurse of sin, the companion and the fellow slave of gluttony and lust, of envy, avarice and wrath. The earth is fitted to call forth the energies of fallen

man. In his first estate he was " to dress it and keep it." But when he lost h's innocence, nature herself was changed. The ground became reluctant, though not rebellious, and he was to till it with labour and moisten its productions with the sweat of his brow. Some of the plants of Paradise still here and there diffuse their fragrance over the bosom of nature, but they are hap- pily no longer of spontaneous growth. Constituted as we are, toil sweetens the perfumes of the fairest flowers and adds flavour to the richest fruit. Sloth has not even present comfort and enjoy ment to recommend it. It is as odious as it is pernicious ; as burdensome and oppressive at the moment, as it is disastrous in its re- sults. Paradox as it may appear, idleness is the hardest work. Every hour of the indefatigable student flies on eagle's wings, while th: leaden moments of the idler linger in reluctant and oppressive tediousness. For- eigners sometimes reproach us as incompetent to liter- ary exertion for the want of leisure. There is neither philosophy nor truth in the assertion. We have men of leisure ; but they are for the most part like the corres- ponding class abroad, neither disposed nor habituated to efforts either of literature or business. A literary lord is a rare production ; and when he is to be found he often owes his title to his literature, and not his liter- ature to his title. Lord Byron indeed, whose literature is not lofty enough to sanctify his bad feelings or bad morals, was unexpectedly a lord, and he laid the foun- dation for his literature before he became one. But the few noble writers of Great Britain, from Lord Ba- con, who was unworthy only in his dignities, to Lord Brougham, who condescended to accept a title, wear a wreath fairer than princely crowns. On the other hand, Sir William Jones and Sir Humphrey Davy, and the most abundant and delightful writer of the age, Sir Walter Scott, were all men of business, and attentive in the midst of varied study to their professional and official pursuits. The discipline which the mind ac- quires in a course of industry qualifies it for the occu- pations of science, if it has the taste to enjoy them. All the leisure of a hermit will not have the effect, if it has not. Cultivate then this taste which may be properly directed and chastened and elevated, where it is natur- al, and may even be acquired where it is not.

Youth is the season for acquirement-not merely for the acquisition of habits of taste, study, reflection, ge- nerosity of sentiment, energy in action, kindness of feeling, and all that is calculated to ennoble and purify the moral character ; but of solid and beneficial know- ledge. I do not mean to urge this position, because of the importance of fixing early habits of industry and application ; or of the more numerous and conflicting

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duties of after life ; or of the solemn truth that the lare, a comprehensive system of elementary education is hopes of the young like the disappointments of the old, [ calculated to bring them into obvious relief, and to af- are not exempt from the liability which awaits every ford opportunities for a wise selection with a prospect of honorable proficiency and ultimate success. Yet the time must come when the broad and beaten road of ge- neral knowledge diverges into various narrow paths. Among them a selection must be made of the one which is to lead to eminence. Happily all are honourable and meritorious. A choice is to be influenced less by the abstract nature of the duty which is to ensue, than by the temper and qualities of the mind and body of him who is about to choose. Each has its responsibilities; and where can the lot of man be cast without them? Each has its enjoyments in possession or in prospect, and each has its troubles and its cares. thing human, of being terminated by the stroke of death. All these are inducements of unquestionable strength. But beyond them all as an argument fiom expediency is the fact, that the capacity for learning is the liveliest and the strongest and the most active among the young. Granting a superiority of judgment to the mind that is matured by experience and enriched with knowledge, that which is fresh in years is the best adapted to acquirement. I will not panse to consider whether it proceed solely from the vivacity of youth, its ardour in the pursuit and unmingled delight in the enjoyment of the objects of its choice ; or whether these qualities are materially aided by the absence of In a country where church and state are disconnect- ed, nothing can be more free from every sordid and selfish consideration than the motives which lead the minister of the gospel to his holy calling. They are for the, most part a pledge for the purity of his life and the fidelity of his exertions. Few and lowly are the earthly honours that invite his choice or reward his sacrifices. He needs no recorded vow of perpetual poverty. While a broad line separates him from power, political consequence, and worldly pleasure, an ade- quate supply for temporal wants is all that his profes- sion can afford him; subsistence is often earned by ri- gid self-denial, and sometimes his frugal mealsare made upon the bread of tears. Sustained by the conscious- ness of doing good, and contented in the absence of all that glitters upon the mere surface of human existence, while others run the race of life for a corruptible crown, he literally seeks one that is incorruptible. other cares, and the means of giving a devotion without restraint to what it would learn. But it is the floodtide of opportunity which cannot without irreparable loss be permitted to pass away. The first word in the sol- dier's vocabulary is attention ; and it should be inscribed on every page of the scholar's manual. It is the war- rant of fidelity and exactitude in every pursuit. It is the surest aid to prompt as well as extensive acquisi- tion, the secret spring of genius itself. It is at least the generous and steady contributor to the memory, if it be not another word for the memory itself, which accord- ing to Cicero, is a universal treasury. * Why do the old so frequently complain that they can remember events of distant occurrence while they readily forget those of recent date ? Because the faculty for acquire ment slumbers, because the vigour for attention has passed away. Why does technical assistance, or the recurrence at the moment of study to analogous objects, scarcely less benevolent are the motives, although more productive of pecuniary benefit, are the exer- tions of the physician. A guardian angel of the sick, he is often able to pour the balm of consolation into the wounds of the afflicted. In his study and his practice nature unlocks to him her varied stores, and art becomes his willing tributary. All the best feelings of the mind and heart are called forth into active exercise. Is he a philosopher? there is no limit to the expanded field of speculation and discovery which is presented to him. Is he a philanthopist? there is no end of his power and opportunity of affording relief to suffering humanity. Crowns and mitres are of no value to the aching head. Swords and sceptres becomes impotent in the palsied hand. The minister of health removes from the brow the heaviest load of care, strengthens the arm of impo- tency, and makes fix the particular matter more deeply in the mind ? Be- cause the attention is thus rivetted to it by a double ef- fort. Early impressions, made when the senses are acute and unimpaired, and when curiosity is wide awake without a prompter, are not effaced by the lapse of years. They sink deep into the mind, and like let- ters carved on marble, last until the substance which receives them is destroyed. Late impressions, if such they can be called, which are made through the imper- fect attention of feeble and decaying faculties, are like marks upon the yielding sand which the succeeding wave washes away. Memory may remain to the last stage of life, but the agent that should thus minister to its supplies, having lost its energy, the treasure intended for preservation is consigned to instant and irremediable oblivion. Seize the propitious moment, which is always the present one. Procrastination is the thief of duty " The flinty and steel couch, A thrice driven bed of down." as well as time ; and time, if not a friend, is the most unrelenting and inexorable, foe. His rapid journey is delayed at no resting place ; his eye never closes, his wing never droops, his arm never tires, his scythe is as insatiable as the grave-

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The Register of Pennsylvania : devoted to the preservation of facts and documents and every other kind of useful information respecting the state of Pennsylvania, Vol. XII, Part 29

Author: Hazard, Samuel, 1784-1870 Publication date: 1828 Publisher: Philadelphia : Printed by W.F. Geddes ; Number of Pages: 438

Author: Hazard, Samuel, 1784-1870
Publication date: 1828
Publisher: Philadelphia : Printed by W.F. Geddes ;
Number of Pages: 438