step of this inquiry, we shall find that no miser ever yet had gold enough; no office-seeker ever yet had honor enough; no conqueror ever yet subdued kingdoms enough. When the rich man had filled his store-houses, he must 5 pull down and build larger. When Cæsar had conquered all his enemies, he must enslave his friends. When Bonaparte had become the Emperor of France, he aspired to the throne of all Europe. Facts, a thousand facts, in every age, and among all classes, prove, that such 10 is the ambitious nature of the soul, such the increasing compass of its vast desires, that the material universe, with all its vastness, richness, and variety, cannot satisfy it. Nor is it in the power of the governments of this world, in their most perfect forms, so to interest the feel15 ings, so to regulate the desires, so to restrain the passions, or so to divert, or charm, or chain the souls of a whole community, but that these latent and ungovernable fires will, sooner or later, burst out and endanger the whole body politic. 20 25 What has been the fate of the ancient republics? They have been dissolved by this same restless and disorganizing spirit, of which we have been speaking. And do we not see the same dangerous spirit, in our own comparatively happy and strongly constituted republic? Here, the road to honor and wealth is open to all; and here, is general intelligence. But here, man is found to possess the same nature as elsewhere. And the stirrings of his restless spirit have already disturbed the peace of society, and portend future convulsions. Party spirit is 30 begotten; ambitious views are engendered, and fed, and inflamed; many are running the race for office; rivals are envied; characters are aspersed; animosities are enkindled; and the whole community are disturbed by the electioneering contest. 35 Already office-seekers, in different parts of the country, unblushingly recommend themselves to notice, and palm themselves upon the people, by every electioneering manœuvre; and in this way, such an excitement is produced, in many parts of the Union, as makes the contend40 ing parties almost like mobs, assailing each other. Only let the public sense become vitiated, and let a number of causes unite to produce a general excitement; and all our fair political proportions would fall before the spirit of party, as certainly and as ruinously, as the fair proportions of Italian architecture fell before the ancient Goths and Vandals. LESSON CCX.-RECTITUDE OF CHARACTER.-WILLIAM WIRT. The man who is so conscious of the rectitude of his intentions, as to be willing to open his bosom to the inspection of the world, is in possession of one of the strongest pillars of a decided character. The course of 5 such a man will be firm and steady, because he has nothing to fear from the world, and is sure of the approbation and support of Heaven. While he, who is conscious of secret and dark designs, which, if known, would blast him, is perpetually shrinking and dodging from pub10 lic observation, and is afraid of all around, and much more of all above him. Such a man may, indeed, pursue his iniquitous plans steadily; he may waste himself to a skeleton in the guilty pursuit; but it is impossible that he can pursue them with 15 the same health-inspiring confidence, and exulting alacrity, with him who feels, at every step, that he is in pursuit of honest ends, by honest means. The clear, unclouded brow, the open countenance, the brilliant eye which can look an honest man steadfastly, 20 yet courteously, in the face, the healthfully beating heart, and the firm, elastic step, belong to him whose bosom is free from guile, and who knows that all his motives and purposes are pure and right. Why should such a man falter in his course? He may be slandered; he may be 25 deserted by the world; but he has that within which will keep him erect, and enable him to move onward in his course, with his eyes fixed on Heaven, which he knows will not desert him. Let your first step, then, in that discipline which is to 30 give you decision of character, be the heroic determination to be honest men, and to preserve this character through every vicissitude of fortune, and in every relation which connects you with society. I do not use this phrase, "honest men," in the narrow sense, merely, of meeting 35 your pecuniary engagements, and paying your debts; for this the common pride of gentlemen will constrain you to do. I use it in its larger sense of discharging all your duties, both public and private, both open and secret, with the most scrupulous, Heaven-attesting integrity: in that sense, farther, which drives from the bosom all little, dark, crooked, sordid, debasing considerations of self, and sub5 stitutes in their place a bolder, loftier, and nobler spirit: one that will dispose you to consider yourselves as born, not so much for yourselves, as for your country, and your fellow-creatures, and which will lead you to act, on every occasion, sincerely, justly, generously, magnanimously. 10 There is a morality on a larger scale, perfectly consistent with a just attention to your own affairs, which it would be the height of folly to neglect; a generous expansion, a proud elevation, and conscious greatness of character, which is the best preparation for a decided 15 course, in every situation into which you can be thrown; and, it is to this high and noble tone of character that 1 would have you to aspire. I would not have you to resemble those weak and meagre streamlets, which lose their direction at every 20 petty impediment that presents itself, and stop, and turn back, and creep around, and search out every little channel through which they may wind their feeble and sickly course. Nor yet would I have you to resemble the headlong torrent that carries havoc in its mad career.. 25 But I would have you like the ocean, that noblest emblem of majestic Decision, which, in the calmest hour, still heaves its resistless might of waters to the shore, filling the heavens, day and night, with the echoes of its sublime Declaration of Independence, and tossing and 30 sporting on its bed, with an imperial consciousness of strength that laughs at opposition. It is this depth, and weight, and power, and purity of character, that I would have you to resemble; and I would have you, like the waters of the ocean, to become the purer by your own 35 action. 5 LESSON CCXI.-WASHINGTON.-DANIEL WEBSTER. America has furnished to the world the character of Washington! And if our American institutions had done nothing else, that alone would have entitled them to the respect of mankind. Washington! "First in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen!" Washington is all our own! The enthusiastic veneration and regard in which the people of the United States hold him, prove them to be worthy of such a countryman; while his reputation abroad reflects the highest honor on his country and its institutions. I would cheerfully put the question to-day 5 to the intelligence of Europe, and the world, what character of the century, upon the whole, stands out in the relief of history, most pure, most respectable, most sublime; and I doubt not, that, by a suffrage approaching to unanimity, the answer would be, Washington! 10 This structure, by its uprightness, its solidity, its durability, is no unfit emblem of his character. His public virtues and public principles were as firm as the earth on which it stands; his personal motives, as pure as the serene heaven in which its summit is lost. But, indeed, 15 though a fit, it is an inadequate emblem. Towering high above the column which our hands have builded, beheld, not by the inhabitants of a single city, or a single state,ascends the colossal grandeur of his character, and his life. In all the constituents of the one,-in all the acts of the 20 other, in all its titles to immortal love, admiration, and renown, it is an American production. It is the embodiment and vindication of our transatlantic liberty. Born upon our soil,-of parents also born upon it,-never for a moment having had a sight of the old world,-instructed, 25 according to the modes of his time, only in the spare, plain, but wholesome elementary knowledge, which our institutions provide for the children of the people,-growing up beneath, and penetrated by, the genuine influences of American society,-growing up amidst our expanding, 30 but not luxurious, civilization, partaking in our great destiny of labor, our long contest with unreclaimed nature and uncivilized man,-our agony of glory, the war of independence, our great victory of peace, the formation of the Union, and the establishment of the Constitution,—he 35 is all,-all our own! That crowded and glorious life,"Where multitudes of virtues passed along, Each pressing foremost in the mighty throng, 40 that life was the life of an American citizen. I claim him for America. In all the perils, in every darkened moment of the state, in the midst of the re *The Bunker Hill Monument. proaches of enemies and the misgivings of friends,-I turn to that transcendent name, for courage and for consolation. To him who denies, or doubts, whether our fervid liberty can be combined with law, with order, with the security of property, with the pursuits and advancement of happi5 ness, to him who denies that our institutions are capable of producing exaltation of soul, and the passion of true glory, to him who denies that we have contributed anything to the stock of great lessons and great examples,—to all these I reply by pointing to Washington! LESSON CCXII.-PUBLIC FAITH.-FISHER AMES. To expatiate on the value of public faith, may pass, with some men, for declamation,—to such men I have nothing to say. To others I will urge,—can any circumstance mark upon a people more turpitude and debasement, than the 5 want of it? Can anything tend more to make men think themselves mean, or degrade to a lower point their estimation of virtue, than such a standard of action? It would not merely demoralize mankind; it tends to break all the ligaments of society, to dissolve that myste10 rious charm which attracts individuals to the nation, and to inspire, in its stead, a repulsive sense of shame and disgust. What is patriotism? Is it a narow affection for the spot where a man was born? Are the very clods where we 15 tread entitled to this ardent preference because they are greener? No, sir, this is not the character of the virtue ; and it soars higher for its object. It is an extended selflove, mingling with all the enjoyments of life, and twisting itself with the minutest filaments of the heart. It is thus 20 we obey the laws of society, because they are the laws of virtue. In their authority we see, not the array of force and terror, but the venerable image of our country's honor. Every good citizen makes that honor his own, and cherishes it not only as precious, but as sacred. He is willing 25 to risk his life in its defence, and is conscious that he gains protection while he gives it. For what rights of a citizen will be deemed inviolable, when a state renounces the principles that constitute their security? Or if his life should not be invaded, what would its enjoyments be, in a 30 country odious in the eyes of strangers, and dishonored in his own? Could he look with affection and veneration to |