38 



To his friends, who melted into tears, he said, "Why 

 weep, are you ignorant that nature, when she gave me 

 life, condemned me to resign it ?" To Appollodorus, 

 who replied, that he mourned because he would die 

 innocent, he said, "Would you, I should die guilty V 

 Taking the cup fror.i his weeping jailor, he prayed to 

 the Gods, and drank the poison. At the scene, dis- 

 may seized his friends, and their lamentations broke 

 forth. "For shame," said he, without emotion. "We 

 are placed on the earth as soldiers, at a post assigned 

 by their General. We may not quit our stations with- 

 out the permission of the Gods, (but be ready when 

 they call.) Resume your courage my friends. Death 

 should be accompanied with happy omens."* 



Gentlemen, the period approaches when you will be 

 called upon, under new auspices, to imitate the lives 

 and deaths of such men. Look back a moment at 

 their times and then at your own. Trace the pro- 

 gress of man's mind during the intervening eras, and 

 conjecture what will be its state, when, fifty years 

 hence, you stand on the Pisgah of another age, and 

 view the glorious scene beyond ; when pointing to ano- 

 ther race, whom your talents and virtues have led on- 

 ward in sight of new promised lands of knowledge, 

 you will see the whole world spread out before you, 

 encompassed by a more refined atmosphere, and still 

 nearer, and nearer yet, approximating to the sphere of 

 the Deity ; — Universal peace blessing its happy plains ; 

 Religion resting on calm faith and unclouded reason ; 

 Social life, a rational association of good men ; Poli- 



a Plato in Phaedon. 



