276 An Address on Archeology. 
correcting, and invigorating all the faculties of perception and 
thought. Surely here every capacity is tested and called into action, 
which may fit a man to succeed in life—which may prepare him 
for a career of usefulness and honour. But I will now pass on to 
the moral side of the question ; and if I mistake not, the position I 
have already laid down will be seen to be as plain and incontrover- 
tible in this, as in the former case. Whenever a want is universally 
felt to exist in human nature, it will not be denied that it was the 
design of creative wisdom that it should be fully satisfied. Now 
the wish to know something of those who have passed away is as 
instinctive in us as the desire to be acquainted with that which is 
daily happening. Weare antiquaries by nature. We are connected 
with the past, and however we may disavow that connection, or 
strive to put it out of sight, we cannot ged rid of the fact. Asso- 
ciations of our earliest homes, of our childhood, companions and 
friends, firmly cling to us, and, amidst the the turmoils of business 
and strife, while all romantic impressions are being gradually 
effaced, will occasionally flash across our minds, redolent of joy and 
youth, and bringing with them a gladdening sense of refreshment. 
I believe that the oftener these associations recur, the better men 
are we likely to be. I believe that he who is altogether estranged 
from them, is living without purpose or aim. We are not ignorant 
how these reminiscences are apt to be evoked at the sight of a 
common-place object,—a tree, a cottage, a stream, or of some other- 
wise worthless relic, or even at the sound of a familiar strain. 
Merge this individual in the general past ; extend these associations 
to musings on the whole cycle of human action, as previously 
existing, and Archeology starts up at once. Still the same principle 
is at work, the same law of suggestion prevails. The ruins of time 
require an explanation: we cannot stop short at the records of 
time, but long to have them identified with that which is tangible 
and real. It is not enough for us to know “ves geste regumque 
ducumque”; we would also behold “ monumenta regis, templaque.” 
What the human body is to the quickening spirit, such are outward 
forms in reference to antiquity—that which causes it to assume for 
us an objective existence. ‘A Gothic cathedral,” says Coleridge, 
