ancestors, be of proper indulgence, as we can scarce doubt that it is; if it be the unaffected and irrepressible language of a heart not utterly debased, claiming still, even in its admitted lamented degradation, some bond of high companionship, some sympathetic unsevered link, binding with uninterrupted and indissoluble tie its own deep pathos in throbbing harmony with that of living excellence, of departed worth; then may we well be proud to claim Washington as our fellow-citizen and friend: we may feel ourselves honored in calling him the Father of our nation, and in meeting to contemplate and praise his character, and with swelling bosoms and glistening eyes to thank God that we too are Americans. And if not, if indeed we may claim no peculiar interest in the distinguished honors which the world unites to confer on our country's chieftain ; if upon us no dim reflection of his glory falls, and no participation in the fame of his worth is of right ours; still it becomes us, as knowing the omnipotence of example, as feeling the obligations of a just and generous gratitude, as thrilled by the instinctive admiration excited by exalted virtue-it becomes us to join our voices and hearts in paying tribute to whom it belongs, in rendering to Cesar the things that are Cesar's; as unto God the things that are His. Let us then call in those thoughts of ours "that wander through eternity," and curb the airy flight of impatient fancy, and silence the voice of impulsive passion, while for a short time we direct our attention to an object in every respect worthy to be made the subject of intense and undivided mental activity, both of refined sentiment and none the less of voluntary critical intellection; for I know not, I confess, of a nobler theme for the excrcise of our highest powers, than the investigation of human character in its. varied manifestations and phases, especially that of such as

by unusual energy, have fixed upon themselves the stamp of greatness.

I do not propose to give a biography, or even a memoir of Washington. To do so would be to insult your limited course of reading, to insinuate that you have not already often warmed your patriotism and kindled your philanthropy over the page of our nation's history. I do not choose to offend by any such unfounded and absurd insinuation. You have doubtless read the graphic descriptions of his exploits and the eloquent delineations of his character, which constitute a considerable part of our best American literature; you also have thanked Heaven for a boon not peculiar to his nation or his age, but common to mankind and to all timo, hallowing by its memory the past, blessing by its example the present, and destined to exert its power through all futurity; and you have grieved that relentless fate doomed to the lot of mortality that "one of the few who were not born to die."

It needs not then that I should make a feeble effort to recount those acts of his which, to adopt an expression of the matchless Tully, "no tongue is so eloquent that it can properly narrate, much less suitably adorn;" to sketch that life whose every page is at this moment living on the uninscribed tablets of your hearts. I will not do it: Let us therefore take a general view of the influence exerted by Washington on the world-the probable ultimate results. of his achievements on the universal history of our race : not thus, indeed, is character to be justly estimated, since much more is due to divine than human providence, in the final consequences of conduct; but it is nevertheless pleas ant and profitable to view illustrious men with reference to their position in the ranks of mankind, and to trace the long trains of important events that, like heavy cars on a

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descending plain, once started dash onward to a distant goal by other than the prime motive power.

Man is a progressive being, capable of vast, almost infinite improvement. The human mind is not contented to remain stationary, but boldly aspires to an unbounded advancement. It is contrary to its exalted nature to continue long degraded in the dust; it feels an irresistible instinct ever impelling it to rise toward heaven, its birthplace and its destined home; it would not be the kinsman of a worm, but soar away, unbound by time and space, the brother of an angel; it would not be the slave of circumstance, but the proud monarch of creation: nay, it has dared to usurp the throne of the Almighty; with impious Titanic hand it has seized the scepter from Jehovah; it has banished God from nature, and made itself a substitute for Deity: it has claimed the empire of the Most High encroaching on the prerogative of Omnipotence by demanding for itself adoration, while the opposing voices of Sinai's awful mount have thundered forth in counter peals, "Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve."

Man's first historic act affords an illustration of this disposition of his nature. Not contented to retain his assigned position when a forward step was possible in any direction, he coveted knowledge even where ignorance was bliss, and by the desire of a new acquirement was seduced from his allegiance to the lawful sovereign. From that time to the present, he has been characterized by the same ungovernable thirst for knowledge; he has labored and toiled and died to gratify it; he is at this day prying inquisitively into the secret constitution of the minutest atom, and unlocking with the key of persevering investigation the grand arcana of nature. Sun, moon and stars are

forced to contribute their portion to the constantly increasing ocean of human science. The inmost bowels of the

earth are open to the light of day. Every animal, plant and mineral in the universe, is hurrying with its offering to the altar of genius and bowing with respectful submission at the shrine of enterprising mind. The external material universe is not all it is but one state in the vast empire of mind. That monarch claims no less a realm than the infinite even the gates of light are opened to this terrestrial visitant she treads the portals of the skies in triumph, and feels at home where angels blush abashed: she approaches almost to the throne of the Invisible; the lightnings play around her steps, as she trips it o'er the thunder-cloud, but she fears them not; she revels in their angry glare, extracts and locks for servile labor in her little jar their magic essence, and then derides the Sampson shorn. With iron wand she beckons aside the impending desolation of the thunder-bolt, or makes it bow its haughty crest, submissive and obedient to her mandate, murmuring harmlessly expire beneath her feet. With a velocity to which compared, "the tempest itself lags behind, and the swift-winged arrows of light," she springs from one boundary of nature to another, ever unwearied by her exertions, unsatiated with her discoveries, still fresh for bolder efforts, still eager for new and more arduous labor. Such is the manifestation of man's progressive nature ; history is but its exemplification; to that fascinating page we must for a moment turn. We will list to the past, whispering to us from eternity, its tomb.

We glance at man's early history and his subsequent progress, and we note his advance from barbarism to civilization; we see him a savage and in chains, and then claiming the heavenly boon of freedom, purchasing it with

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the blood of Marathon, Salamis, Platea, and a thousand other places on the verdant field and azure wave, consecrated and immortalized by the disinterested patriotism and noble deaths of the bravest heroes and most faithful sons of

a generous nation. We can still hear "the blind king of epic grandeur," sing with his deathless harp the praise of those indomitable spirits whose sons were too proud of their paternal blood to be enslaved, and the prince of orators thunders forth defiance to oppression. By sympathy we catch something of the Athenian's spirit, when he shouted, "Lead us to Philippi's lord, let us conquer him or die,” and glow with the heroism of Leonidas, when, raising an altar of his Persian foes, he offered himself upon it to his country —a sacrifice admirable to men, approved by heaven. We in fancy

"Go where the Nile, to slake the torrid sand,
Leaps from his bed and overflows the land;"

and we find upon the time-wrinkled front of that "fatherland," deep traces of thought, worn while the world was young and green in hope of its golden age. There too the mind of man worked up and wrote records on tall pyramids, which will remain unerased when twice forty centuries look down on some greater Napoleon. Egypt sleeps deeply while the waning crescent sinks toward the western horizon; but a voice steals from her slumbers, and its low sigh is "Onward," to the mail-shod cycles.

Then next

"We visit the neglected site

Where Carthage rose in majesty and might;

and the lone desert tells a tale not all of wo, as the bright Mediterranean wave breaks on its shore, chanting