regarded as a sort of sacred ground, like the plains 

 of Elis in ancient Greece, where the Olympic games 

 were celebrated at the end of every four years. 

 Mount Vernon, too, might, perhaps, be made the 

 theatre of public rejoicings on the anniversary of our 

 great national festival. The citizens of the neigh- 

 borhood would naturally meet there upon that occa- 

 sion ; and, in proportion as the importance of the day 

 shall be more and more felt, and the respect for the 

 memory of our political fathers shall go on increas- 

 ing, as it w ill, from year to year, many persons, from 

 all parts of the country, would naturally avail them- 

 selves of that opportunity to visit the abode and 

 burial-place of their illustrious leader. The festivi- 

 ties might, probably, be continued for several days, 

 and might be accompanied by devotional and literary 

 exercises, poems, plays, and other entertainments of 

 all descriptions. The whole drama of the Greeks 

 grew out of an annual religious festival, lasting four 

 or five days in succession, — during which, tragedies 

 and comedies, founded in the history and manners of 

 their country, were acted, without intermission, from 

 morning till night. We, too, might, perhaps, obtain 

 in this way, a national drama more congenial to the 

 state of manners and of morals among us, than that 

 of modern Europe. Here, too, some new Herodotus 

 might read to his assembled countrymen the yet 

 unwritten history of the achievements of their 

 fathers ; some modern Pindar restore the glory of 

 poetry, by devoting it anew to the praise of heroism 

 and virtue. A festival like this, held, perhaps, once 

 in three or four years, would produce no trifling 



