IS 



brightness are annexed to it, and it becomes a sun to illumi- 

 nate a long succession of future ages. 



But with respect to those more refined and elegant pur- 

 suits that are usually comprehended under the name of 

 Belles Lettres, it may be easily perceived that the case is 

 widely different. From the very constitution of his nature, 

 and from the state in which he finds himself, in the very inr 

 fency of societ}-^, man is necessarily an orator, and the ob- 

 jects and business of oratory are nearly the same in all ages. 

 Among all the melancholy pictures that travellers have given 

 from time to time of human degradation, hardly any one 

 has ever yet been exhibited of a race of men denying the 

 existence of a Supreme Being. However defiled and disfi- 

 gured the character of the Creator might have been by at- 

 tributing to it their own depraved propensities, they still con- 

 sidered Him with awe and reverence, and submissively of- 

 fered the homage of their adoration. Hence we always find, 

 in every age and nation, some whose peculiar office it was 

 to appease the Deity by prayer, and to unfold the secrets of 

 their wild mythology, to set forth to the people the supposed 

 revelations of their god, and to explain the superstitious rites 

 observed in their worship, to prescribe rules of conduct for 

 the living, and to celebrate the praises of such departed he- 

 roes and sages, who had formerly improved and adorned 

 their community. Such were the offices of a priest in the 

 earliest days, and these necessarily introduced the characters 

 of poet and. of orator, of both conjointly, for at first the di- 



