£6 Clinton's introductory discourse. 



the literature of Europe is, in a great degree, owing to the division of 

 that continent into a number of independent states. Each capital is a 

 place where letters are encouraged, and the different governments vie 

 with each other in rewarding the effusions of genius; but if Charles V., 

 Lewis XIV., or Napoleon, had succeeded in establishing an universal 

 monarchy, the dark ages of Gothic barbarity would have revisited man- 

 kind. Thus, under the direction of an all wise and beneficent God, the 

 half-civilized serf of Russia has become the unconscious guardian and 

 protector of knowledge. The small country of Attica, not so large as 

 Long Island, can never be contemplated without the mingled emotions 

 of veneration and sorrow. " Ab Athenis enim humanitas, doctrina, 

 religio, fruges, jura, leges, ortae, atque in omnes terras distributa, 

 putantur." " It is acknowledged," said Cicero, " that literature, polite 

 arts, religion, agriculture, laws, and social rights, originated in Athens, 

 and were thence distributed over all nations." The fertility of the soil, 

 the excellence of the climate, the freedom of the government, and the 

 enterprising spirit of the people, must have cooperated in producing 

 this transcendent and preeminent state of human exaltation. And if a 

 comparison was instituted in those respects between that country and 

 ours, in what important part would we be deficient ? 



We are, perhaps, more favoured in another point of view. Attica 

 was peopled from Egypt ; but we can boast of our descent from a supe- 

 rior stock. I speak not of families or dynasties ; I refer to our origin 

 from those nations where civilization, knowledge, and refinement have 

 erected their empire, and where human nature has attained its greatest 

 perfection. Annihilate Holland, Great Britain, Ireland, France, and 

 Germany, and what would become of civilized man? This country, 



