14 



powers given by God should be devoted to his ser- 

 vice, and the minds created by his love, should return 

 to him with larger capacities for virtuous enjoyment, 

 and with more spiritual and intellectual brightness. 



It should not be for the poor purpose of gratifying 

 our vanity or pride, that we should erect columns, 

 and obelisks, and monuments to the dead ; but that 

 we may read thereon much of our own destiny and 

 duty. We know, that man is the creature of associa- 

 tions and excitements. Experience may instruct, 

 but habit, and appetite, and passion, and imagination, 

 will exercise a strong dominion over him. These are 

 the Fates, which weave the thread of his character, 

 and unravel the mysteries of his conduct. The truth, 

 which strikes home, must not only have the approba- 

 tion of his reason, but it must be embodied in a visi- 

 ble, tangible, practical form. It must be felt, as well 

 as seen. It must w^arm, as well as convince. 



It was a saying of Themistocles, that the trophies 

 of Miltiades would not suffer him to sleep. The feel- 

 ing, thus expressed, has a deep foundation in the hu- 

 man mind ; and, as it is well or ill directed, it will 

 cover us with shame, or exalt us to glory. The deeds 

 of the great attract but a cold and listless admiration, 

 when they pass in historical order before us like mov- 

 ing shadows. It is the trophy and the monument, 

 which invest them w ith a substance of local reality. 

 Who, that has stood by the tomb of Washington on 

 the quiet Potomac, has not felt his heart more pure, 

 his wishes more aspiring, his gratitude more wai'm, 

 and his love of country touched by a holier flame ? 



