TWENTY-FIFTH CONGRESS, 1837-39. 163 



forth some works worthy of their former fame, though of 

 less transcendant merit ; and they now gave to Rome the 

 Roman eloquence and literature. 



Groecia capta serum Victorem cepit et artes 

 Intulit agresti satio : 



and, if we are wise to profit by their example, may yet give 

 to us an equal eloquence and literature. 



I mention these things to show what encouragement 

 we have to this enterprise- what well grounded hope 

 of success. We have only to tread the path that led 

 the -Athenian to his glory, and to open that path to the 

 youth of our country. All the animating influences of 

 freedom exist here in still greater force than they existed 

 there ; for while it is not less absolute here, it is better 

 regulated better combined with order and security. 

 Neither is the gift of genius wanting here ; the gleams of 

 this precious ore are seen to break out here and there all 

 over the surface of our society ; the animus acer et sublimis is 

 daily displayed by our countrymen in all the forms of dar- 

 ing and enterprise ; the eagle, their emblem, is not more 

 daring in his flights. And if the love of fame, which was 

 the ruling passion of the Greek, is not now so strong with 

 us, it is because the want of the means, the want of plain 

 and sure directions for its pursuits, begets a despair of its 

 attainment. The Greek had these means, had these plain 

 and sure directions ; and it was the certainty of success by 

 perseverance and by their guide that kindled and sustained 

 his passion, and made it his ruling passion. This passion 

 is now burning in the young bosoms of thousands of our 

 youth ; but it "is, as I have said, vis consili expers, and strug- 

 gles in vain because it struggles blindly for the fame it 

 pants after. Let this Athenian mode of education be 

 adopted in this instance let it produce but a few examples 

 of eminent success, (as I have no doubt it speedily would,) 

 and thousands would rush to the path that had led to that 

 success ; and members now of this body are yet young 

 enough to live to see a new era arising in our land another 

 golden age of literature, no less splendid than any that had 

 gone before it not excepting even the Athenian. 



I know it has been supposed that the Athenians had 

 something peculiar in their genius, which gave to them 

 their unparalleled success. But we have seen that when, 

 with the loss of freedom, they lost their love of literary 

 glory, they fell back to the ordinary level of mankind ; and 

 were not at all distinguished for literary merit from the 

 mass of nations. So it was not nature, but the means 

 adopted to assist and improve nature, that gave to them 



