An Oration, Pronounced at Middlebury, Before the Associated Alumni of the College, on the Evening of Commencement, August 17th, 1825

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Tuttle and Richards, 1825 - 40 pagina's
 

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Pagina 40 - Doomed o'er the world's precarious scene to sweep, Swift as the tempest travels on the deep, To know Delight but by her parting smile, And toil, and wish, and weep, a little while ; Then melt, ye elements, that formed in vain This troubled pulse, and visionary brain ! Fade, ye wild flowers, memorials of my doom ! And sink, ye stars, that light me to the tomb...
Pagina 37 - ... which issue from a thousand flaming craters — the thunderbolts which perpetually descend from heaven, and the earthquakes whose trepidations are felt to the very centre of our globe, have superinduced a degeneracy through all the productions of nature. Men have been frightened into intellectual dwarfs, and the beasts of the forest have not attained more than half their ordinary growth !— While some of the lines and touches of this picture have been blotted out by the reversing hand of time,...
Pagina 36 - Far be it from me to cherish, in any shape, a spirit of national prejudice, or to excite in others a disgusting national vanity. But when I reflect upon the part which this country is probably to act in the renovation of the world, I rejoice that I am a citizen of this great republic. This western continent has, at different periods, been the subject of every species of transatlantic abuse. In former days, some of the naturalists of Europe told us, that every thing here was constructed upon a small...
Pagina 33 - ... the death-groans of murdered victims. The ensanguined field is no more covered with the mangled bodies of the slain — nor do the broad streams of blood ever again pursue their dark, and deep, and melancholy course amidst the shouts of victory and the agonies of despair. The wife is no more hastened into widowhood, nor her babes consigned to orphanage. The bow of victory is broken — the spear of death is cut asunder — and the chariot of conquest is burned in the fire. — This is a consummation...
Pagina 36 - This western continent has, at different periods, been the subject of every species of transatlantic abuse. In former days, some of the naturalists of Europe told us, that every thing here was constructed upon a small scale. The frowns of nature were represented as investing the whole hemisphere we inhabit. It has been asserted, that the eternal storms, which are said to beat upon the brows of our mountains, and to roll the tide of desolation at their bases — the hurricanes which sweep our vales,...
Pagina 39 - ... has long waved from the summit of our Alleghany, has now been answered by a corresponding signal from the heights of the Andes. And the same spirit, too, that came across the Atlantic wave with the pilgrims, and made the rock of Plymouth the corner-stone of freedom and of this republic, is traveling back to the east. It has already carried its influence into the cabinets of princes ; and it is, at this moment, sung by the Grecian bard, and emulated by the Grecian hero.
Pagina 38 - Inferior in enterprise? Let the sail that whitens every ocean, and the commercial spirit that braves every element and visits every bustling mart, refute the unfounded aspersion. Inferior in deeds of zeal and valor for the Church? Let our missionaries in the bosom of our own forest, in the distant regions of the East, and on the islands of the great Pacific, answer the question. Inferior in science and letters and the arts? It is true our nation is young; but we may challenge the world to furnish...
Pagina 40 - ... the faithless charter of my life, If Chance awaked, inexorable power! This frail and feverish being of an hour, Doomed o'er the world's precarious scene to sweep, Swift as the tempest travels on the deep, To know Delight but by her parting smile, And toil, and wish, and weep, a little while; Then melt, ye elements, that formed in vain This troubled pulse, and visionary brain!
Pagina 38 - ... original stock from which they sprang. But inferior in what? In national spirit and patriotic achievement? Let the revolutionary conflict — the opening scenes at Boston and the catastrophe at Yorktown— furnish the reply. Let Bennington and Saratoga support their respective claims. Inferior in enterprise? Let the sail that whitens every ocean, and the commercial spirit that braves every element and visits every bustling mart, refute the unfounded aspersion. Inferior in deeds of zeal and valor...
Pagina 21 - ... new direction to the whole tenour of his future life. As he was walking with a fellow-student in the fields, he was stricken by a flash of lightning to the ground, and his companion instantly expired at his side. This providence affected his spirits, and under the influence of the prevailing fashion of the age, he retired to a convent to spend his remaining days. Here he met with a Latin Bible, the first that had ever greeted his eye. This Bible gave liberty to Luther, and Luther, with this Bible...

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