sive proofs of the estimation, in course of instruction commenced which the powers of oratory were with the infant in the cradle and held, and of the attention, with continued to the meridian of manwhich it was honoured as an essen- hood. It was made the fundatial object of instruction in the mental object of education, and education of youth.

every other pari of instruction for From that æra, through the long childhood and of discipline for series of Greek and Roman history youth was bent to its accommodown to the gloom of universal dation. Arts, science, letters, night,in which the glories of the Ro- were to be thoroughly studied and man empire expired, the triumphs investigated, upon the maxim,that and the splendour of eloquence are an orator must be a man of unimultiplied and conspicuous. Then versal knowledge. Moral duties it was, that the practice of the art were inculcated, because none but attained a perfection ever since a good man could be an orator. unrivalled, and to which all suc- Wisdom, learning, Virtue herself ceeding times have listened with were estimated by their subservi. admiration and despair. At Ath- ency to the purposes of eloquence, ens and Rome a town-meeting and the whole duty of man concould scarcely be held, without sisted in making himself an acbeing destined to immortality ; complished publick speaker. a question of property between With the dissolution of Roman individual citizens could scarcely liberty, and the decline of Ronan be litigated, without occupying the taste, the reputation and the excelattention, and engaging the studies lency of the oratorical art fell alike of the remotest nations and the into decay. Under the despotism most distant posterity,

of the Cesars, the end of eloquence There is always a certain corres- was perverted from persuasion to pondence and proportion between panegyrick, and all her faculties the estimation in which an art is were soon palsied by the touch of held, and the effects which it produ- corruption, or enervated by the ces. In the flourishing periods of impotence of servitude. Then sucAthens and Rome eloquence was ceeded the midnight of the monkpower. It was at once the instru- ish ages, when with the other libment, and the spur to ambition. The eral arts she slumbered in the protalent of publick speaking was the found darkness of the cloister. key to the highest dignities; the At the revival of letters in modern passport to the supreme dominion Europe, eloquence, together with of the state. The rod of Hermes her sister muses awoke, and shook was the sceptre of empire : the the poppies from her brow. But voice of oratory was the thunder their torpors' still singled in her of Jupiter. The most powerful veins. In the interval, her voice of human passions was enlisted in was gone; her favourite languages the cause of eloquence, and elo- were extin:t ; her organs were no quence in return was the most ef- longer attuned to harmony, and fectual auxiliary to the passions. her hearers could no longer underIn proportion to the wonders she stand her speech. The discordant atchieved, was the eagerness to jargon of feudal anarchy had banacquire the faculties of this mightyished the musical dialects, in which magician. Oratory was taught as she had always delighted. The the occupation of a life. The theatres of her former triumphs

were either deserted, or they were fate of measures was not decided filled with the babblers of sophist. before they were proposed. Elo- , ry and chicane. She shrunk intu- quence produced a powerful ef. itively from the forum, for the last fect, not only upon the minds of object she remembered to have the hearers, but upon the issue of seen there, was the head of her the deliberation. In the only darling Cicero, planted upon the countries of modern Europe, where rostrum. She ascended the tribu. the semblance of deliberative asnals of justice ; there she found semblies has been preserved, corher child, Persuasion, manacled ruption, here in the form of execand pinioned by the letter of the utive influence, there in the guise law; there she beheld an image of party spirit, by introducing a of herself, stammering in barbar- more compendious mode of secu- . ous Latin, and staggering under ring decisions, has crippled the the lumber of a thousand volumes. sublimest efforts of oratory, and Her heart fainted within her : she the votes upon questions of maglost all confidence in herself : to- nitude to the interest of nations gether with her irresistible powers, are all told, long before the ques, she lost proportionably the consid- tions themselves are submitted to eration of the world, until, instead discussion. Hence those nations, of comprizing the whole system which for ages have gloried in the of publick education, she found devotion to literature, science, and herself excluded from the circle of the arts, have never been able to sciences, and declared an outlaw exhibit a specimen of deliberative from the realms of ļearning. She oratory, that can bear a comparison was not, however, doomed to eter, with those, transmitted down to us nal silence. With the progress from antiquity. of freedom and of liberal science Religion indeed has opened one in various parts of modern Europe, new avenue to the career of eloshe obtained access to mingle in quence. Amidst the sacrifices of the deliberations of their parlia- paganism to her three hundred ments. With labour and difficul. thousand gods, amidst her saga. ty she learned their languages, cious and solemn consultations in and lent her aid in giving them the entraiļs of slaughtered brutes, form and polish. But she has in the fight of birds, and the feednever recovered the

graces

of her ing of fowls, it had never entered former beauty, nor the energies of her imagination to call upon the her ancient vigour. The immea. pontiff, the haruspex, or the augur, surable superiority of ancient over for discourses to the people, upon modern oratory is one of the most the nature of their duties to their remarkable circumstances, which maker, their fellow-mortals, and offer themselves to the scrutiny of themselves. This was an idea too reflecting minds, and it is in the august to be mingled with the ablanguages, the institutions, and the surd and ridiculous, or profligate

, manners of modern Europe, that and barbarous rites of her deplora. the solution of a phenomenon, so ble superstition. It is an instituextraordinary,must be sought. The tion for which mankind are in

, assemblies of the people, of the debted to christianity ; introduced select councils, or of the senate in by the Founder himself of this di. Athens and Rome were held for the vine religion, and in every point of purpose of real deliberation. The view worthy of its high original. Its effects have been to soften the The foundations for the orator. tempers and purify the morals of ical talent, as well as those of the mankind ; not in so high a degree poetical faculty, must be laid in the as benevolence could wish, but e- bounties of nature ; and as the Muse nough to call forth our strains of in Homer, impartial in her distri. warmest gratitude to that good bution of good and evil, struck the being, who provides us with the bard with blindness, when she gave means of promoting our own fe. him the powers of song, her Sisliciiy, and gives us power to stand, ter not unfrequently, by a like mixa though leaving us free to fall. Here ture of tenderness and rigour, bethen is an unbounded and inex. stows the blessing of wisdom,while haustible field for eloquence, never she refuses the readiness of utterexplored by the ancient orators, ance. Without entering however and here alone have the modern into a disquisition, which would Europeans cultivated the art with lead me far beyond the limits of much success. In vain should we this occasion, I may remark, that enter the halls of justice, in vain the modern Europeans have run should we listen to the debates of into the adverse extreme, and apsenates for strains of oratory wor- pear, during a considerable period, thy of remembrance, beyond the in their system of publick educaduration of the occasion which tion, to have passed upon elocalled them forth. The art of quence a sentence of proscription. embalming thought by oratory, Even when they studied Rhetorick like that of embalming bodies by as a theory, they neglected Oratory aromaticks, would have perished as an art ; and while assiduously but for the exercises of religion, unfolding to their pupils the bright These alone have in the latter ages displays of Greek and Roman elofurnished discourses, which remind quence, they never attempted to us, that eloquence is yet a faculty make them eloquent themselves. of the human mind.

Of the prevailing indifference to Among the causes, which have this department of human learning, contributed thus to depress the no stronger evidence could be oforatory of modern times, must be fered, than the circumstances unnumbered the indifference, with der which we are assembled. which it has been treated, as an ar- Nearly two centuries have elapticle of education. The ancients sed since the foundation of this had fostered an opinion, that this university. There never existed talent was in a more than usual a people more anxious to bestow degree the creature of discipline ; upon their children the advantages and it is one of the maxims, hand- of education, than our venerable ed down to us as the result of their forefathers; and the name of Harexperience, that men must bevard is coeval with the first settleborn to poetry and bred to elo- ment of New-England. Their quence : that the bard is always immediate and remote descendants the child of nature, and the orator down to this day have inherited always the issue of instruction. and transmitted the same laudable This doctrine seems to be not en- ardour, and numerous foundations tirely without foundation, but was of various kinds attest their attach, by them carried in both its parts ment to science and literature : to an extravagant excess.

yet so far have rhetorick and ora

will compensate for the unskilful- importance of his services to his ness of the tillage.

country; whose visions of futurity Sons of Harvard ! you who glow with the hope of presiding are ascending with painful step in her councils, of directing her and persevering toil the emi- affairs, of appearing to future ages Dance of science to prepare

on the rolls of fame, as her ornayourselves for the various func- ment and pride ? let him catch tions and employments of the from the relicks of ancient oratory world before you, it cannot be those un resisted powers, which necessary to urge upon you the mould the mind of man to the importance of the art, concerning will of the speaker, and yield the which I am speaking. Is it the the guidance of a nation to the purpose of your future life to min- dominion of the voice. ister in the temples of Almighty Under governments purely reGod, to be the messenger of publican, where every citizen has heaven upon earth, to enlighten a deep interest in the affairs of the with the torch of eternal truth the nation, and in some form of publick path of your fellow-mortals to assembly or other, has the means brighter worlds ? remember the and opportunity of delivering his reason assigned for the appointment opinions, and of communicating of Aaron to that ministry, which his sentiments by speech ; where you purpose to assume upon government itself has no arms but yourself....I know that he those of persuasion ; where prespeak well ; and, in this testi- judice has not acquired an unconmonial of Omnipotence, receive troled ascendency, and faction is the injunction of your duty. Is yet confined within the barriers of your intention to devote the la- peace, the voice of eloquence will bours of your maturity to the not be heard in vain. March then cause of justice ; to defend the with firm, with steady, with undepersons, the property, and the fame viating step, to the prize of your of your fellow citizens from the high calling. Gather fragrance open assaults of violence, and the from the whole paradise of science, secret encroachments of fraud ? and learn to distil from your lips fill the fountains of your eloquence all the honies of persuasion. Confrom inexhaustible sources, that secrate, above all, the faculties of their streams, when they shall be- your life to the cause of truth, of gin to flow, may themselves prove freedom, and of humanity. So inexhaustible. Is there among shall your country ever gladden at you a: youth, whose bosom burns the sound of your voice, and evewith the fires of honourable am- ry talent, added to your accombition ; who aspires to immortal- plishments, become another blesize his name by the extent and sing to mankind.

can