Clinton's introductory discourse. 27 



Yet, as long as man is susceptible of sublime emotions, so long will he 

 commit himself to this master feeling of a noble nature. What would 

 have become of the sublime work of Milton, if he had written for the 

 fifteen pounds which he received from the bookseller; and where would 

 have been the writings of Bacon, if he had not aspired to immortal fame. 

 " My name and memory," said this prince of philosophers, in his will, 

 '* I leave to foreign nations and to my own countrymen after some time 

 be passed over." When with. one hand he demolished the philosophy of 

 the schools, and with the other erected a magnificent temple dedicated to 

 truth and genuine knowledge, he was animated in his progress, and 

 cheered in his exertions, by the persuasion that after ages would erect 

 an imperishable monument to his fame. 



But in order that this passion may have its full scope and complete 

 operation, it is not only necessary that there should be a proper subject, 

 but a suitable place, and an enlightened public. The actor, in order to 

 act well his part, must have a good theatre and a respectable audience. 

 Would Demosthenes and Cicero have astonished mankind by their ora- 

 tory, if they had spoken in Sparta or in Carthage ? Would Addison 

 have written his Spectators in Kamtschatka, or Locke his work on the 

 Understanding at Madrid ? Destroy the inducement to act, take away 

 the capacity to judge, and annihilate the value of applause, and poetry 

 sinks into dulness, philosophy loses its powers of research, and elo- 

 quence evaporates into froth and mummery. 



A provincial government, like ours before the revolution, was entirely 

 incompetent to call into activity this ennobling propensity of our nature. 

 A small population, scattered over an extensive country, and composed 

 almost entirely of strangers to literature, a government derivative and 

 dependent, without patronage and influence, and in hostility to the pub- 

 lic sentiment, a people divided into political and religious parties, and a 

 parent country watching all their movements with a stepmother's feel- 

 ings, and keeping down their prosperity with the arm of power, could not 



