the islands and shores of Europe, were destitute of every vestige of what is now denominated civilization. They sheltered themselves from the rigors of winter in caves and holes in the ground; and, at other seasons, resorted, like birds, to nests in the tops of trees, to keep out of the reach of ferocious animals. They ate their food in its raw state, and indeed it is said, were for a con siderable period unacquainted with the use of fire. Some of them also have been stigmatized with a charge of cannibalism.

As the genius of song, when availing herself of letters and alphabetic writing, has always bestowed her inspiration upon the lofty, the spirited, and the free, and appears equally among the earlier Hebrews, the Greeks, and the Arabs, as when firing the soul of a Spaniard, an Italian, or an Anglo-Saxon, the patron of liberty, civilization and improvement; may we not suppose that before her sons had invented the pencil and brush, the stylus and pen, while the chisel and graver were employed to communicate the brilliant conceptions of their oriental imaginations — she was guided in the selection of her residence, by the same ruling passion for a free social condition, and mild political institutions? Such would seem to have been the fact in the unannalled times and countries of Asia, no less than in those later settled or nearer territories with which written history has made our ancestors and ourselves so much better acquainted.

For, to whatever historic page we turn, monarchical or republican, wherever and whenever we can obtain authentic records, a careful scrutiny will disclose the same triumphant testimony to the superior tendency of free institutions, and an equality of advantages to refine, enlighten, and civilize mankind.

Whether we look back to the times in which the institutions of civilization were originated, or contemplate their progress amid religious excitement and political revolution, whether we trace the history of each class, the useful, the fine, the liberal, and the polite, or confine our observation to their concurrent results, we are brought to the conclusion, that the best method of securing, in any given number of human beings, the highest possible attainments in all those acquisitions which adorn an individual, and

render glorious a nation, is to so reward the industry of each, and so to regulate the distribution of property, as to secure the highest possible degree of EQUALITY in the condition and advantages of every citizen.

By doing this, we put it into the power of all to supply themselves with such of the products of art as are most conducive to their comfort and convenience. We greatly multiply the amount of wealth brought into existence by human industry, by putting into the possession of each that knowledge, and awakening in all those incentives to exertion which must bring to the diversified pursuits of life the greatest possible application of human energy. We increase the social and business intercourse between individuals, families, and communities, and thereby spread a knowledge of human improvements, and diffuse a taste for their enjoyment. We increase the facilities and opportunities of intercourse between minds of congenial bent and inclination, and thereby put into the possession of each a knowledge of the ideas and discoveries of all others. We excite and bring forth to the public view and patronage, latent talent-repressed genius- unknown, unsuspected, undeveloped energies and capacities. We prevent that immense waste of human happiness resulting from arrogance and oppression in one class, envy and revenge in another. And as the cultivation of a wilderness hitherto unsubdued, multiplies and increases the general stock of provisions and fruits; as the discovery and colonization of our own America and her luxuriant islands, has augmented the treasures and enjoyments of the world; so, an extension to all the families and nations of mankind of the reclaiming, meliorating, equalizing influence of a moral and social code which recognizes their rights, encourages their industry, excites their hopes, cheers their efforts for refinement, stimulates their ambition to improvement, must inevitably awaken the kind affections, and confirm the good will of neighbors, communities, and empires; must enkindle in all an interest in the preservation of whatever is valuable and useful, and diminish in all the propensity to selfishness, war, and crime. While in a state of society where only a few have opportunity and pecuniary means of in

ry,

dulging a taste for literature, science, or the arts there will continue to be, as there ever has been, many a genius for poetry, eloquence and song, many a mind whose conceptions, could they obtain utterance, would stimulate to deeds of virtue and gloall whose ears were within reach of their appeals; and many a hand whose chisel, graver, or pencil would immortalize some beauteous form of nature's ever-changing organization, thrilling with rapture the souls of all to whose eye or imagination these copyings of creation might find their way - born to live uneducated, uncultivated, unknown; and to die, without having performed for the world a single act which they were made and fitted to achieve, by the hand of nature's God!

There can remain no doubt, then, that a state of freedom and general prosperity has ever been the elected era of a pure taste. In the enjoyment of the sweets of peace, and a mild government, mankind ardently apply themselves to literature and the arts. Throughout modern Europe, the more the people have become enlightened and liberalized, the greater the security of life, liberty and property, the more rapid and various have been the progress of civilization and improvement. And this has been more particluarly true in relation to those arts denominated the useful.

The true test of all the diversified creations of human ingenuity and skill, is utility. An increased amount of this, constitutes their only claim to the appellation of improvement. And in the diffusion of the benefits of this improvement among the greatest possible number of individuals and families, consists the only claim which such arts can have on the favor and patronage of mankind. The erection of splendid palaces and lofty pyramids for the accommodation of a single family, or the gratification of a few favored individuals, at the expense of the toil and suffering of hundreds of thousands, and the deprivation of their children and posterity of all the blessings of existence, deserves little of mankind but its execration. While the construction of works of utility, whereby the subsistence and education, the quiet and happiness of all whose labor or resources is made contributive to their creation, is promoted, subserved and perpetuated, — will deserve and

receive at the hands of freemen, everywhere, the highest possible support and admiration.

The extensive achievement of works of this character and for these purposes, under the guidance of this diffusive benevolence, has yet to be accomplished. The world has yet to behold what can be done for them on an extended scale, under the uninterrupted operation of free political institutions. For it was the fortune of the republics of antiquity to become so surrounded by ambitious and oppressive monarchies, and to be subjected to the infliction of such domestic sufferings, as to have enjoyed but little from the evils of war, repose and but a short duration of their independence and liberty. It was perhaps reserved for our own age to best exhibit the spectacle of a numerous, united and flourishing people, under the guidance of a representative democratical government increasing in wealth, advancing in education, augmenting its power; and thus multiplying every species of physical and intellectual improvement. The experiment is now in progress and if we, the people of these United States, are but true to ourselves, it will not be easy for the advocate of aristocracy, after one or two generations more, to point to a place on the globe whose celebrity for success in useful science, arts and literature, shall have excelled our own attainments.

In every species of work contributive to personal comfort, to the gratification of a pure taste, and the display of genius; in all the varied pursuits of intellectual and moral beings, we will exhibit to mankind a measure of success, and a model of perfection, which monarchs and patricians shall be proud to imitate. We will do it, did I say?- Even now it is being done! Behold the proud Emperor of the Russias, and his accomplished Consort, visiting an American merchant-ship, and complimenting the taste and skill of republican mechanics! See too the floating bulwarks of our maritime sovereignty, every where conquering, from kings and nobles, their homage and respects to our stripes and stars! Follow, too, our Copely, West, and Lawrence; our Cooper and Irving, to the proudest courts of Europe, and see if the admira

tion commanded by a Franklin, an Adams, a Jefferson, has not been secured in other departments, by these American citizens!

But it is urged that the fine arts do not flourish here. That kings, nobility, and a wealthy aristocracy, are necessary to their support, because these only can have leisure to cultivate a taste for their enjoyment, or command the means of their patronage. That, confining most of our efforts to the economical and useful, and neglecting to cultivate a taste for the elegant and beautiful, we compel our own artists to go to Europe, or elsewhere, for the establishment of their trades, and the disposal of their works. 'Where,' we sometimes hear it asked, are our extensive flower-gardens; artificial pools and tanks; groves, parks and lawns; or those splendid specimens of architectural grandeur exhibited in Europe and Asia? What is there in the furniture of our dwellings, or in our style of living, that can be compared advantageously with that of our kindred abroad?

6

Let him who propounds such queries, reflect upon our history. Let him recollect that while Europe and Asia have been settled and cultivated for three or four thousand years; and their nations have inherited not only the honest accumulations of their ancestors, but the spoils and plunder of all the rest of the world;-we have been on this continent but two hundred years; that when we arrived here it was a savage wilderness; and that here we have had to create all that we possess. That during the first century and an half after the commencement of these settlements, our people were in a state of colonial bondage, subjected to incessant wars with the aborigines or the colonies of France; that our states were then invaded and laid waste much of our wealth exhausted, and thousands of our best citizens massacred in a struggle for independence; and that, from that period to the present, we have hardly escaped the influence of those anti-republican doctrines, and demoralizing fashions, which our fathers had inherited from their nobility-ridden ancestry; and with these facts in view, let another people be named which has produced in the same period those evidences of its taste in whatever is beautiful as well as useful, which environ our cities, and adorn our villages.