Conclusion.

command the means for the most liberal culture. May children and parents and teachers and school. officers be faithful to their trusts, and by their united efforts make this the place where the rising genera. tion may come up as to a fountain of living waters, and take copious draughts of the pure limpid stream. And when the people of other towns shall boast of their public halls, and magnificent blocks, you may point with pride and satisfaction to this place, and say, the best public building of our village is devoted to the education of our children.

LECTURE IX.

EDUCATION AND DEMOCRACY THE TRUE BASIS OF

LIBERTY.

DELIVERED AT TOWNVILLE, JULY 4TH, 1857.

ELLOW-CITIZENS:-It is a mark of enlight

FEL

ened policy that we have a national holiday, and I know no time in the year more appropriate for the purpose than the fourth of July. The dreary winter has given way to the jocund spring. The husbandman has drained the damp earth of the liquid frosts. The weary ox, bearing meekly the yoke, has mellowed up the cold heavy acres. The seeds have been scattered, and the vines planted in deep trenches. The pruning knife and the implements of labor have been applied with tireless hand. And now, as the dusty garb of husbandry is to give place to the clean habiliments of summer, and the grain and fruits are beginning to mature for the sickle, what time can be more appropriate for a day of national recreation than this point of transition between seed time and harvest.

The time is appropriate. But were this all, it

Happy memories.

This day brings joy to every class.

might become dull and meaningless. There would be no living motive for its observance. It would become a day of debauchery for the immoral, and, consequently dreaded and hated by the intelligent and virtuous. But it comes to us with happy memories and endearing associations, because it marks the day of the nation's birth. The youth, the man of affairs and hoary age annually look forward to this day with buoyant and exhilarated feelings. Those who are bending beneath the weight of years are carried back to the time

"When their hearts were stout and brave,"

The celebrations of other days are brought back vividly to mind, and they are again aroused by that soul-stirring eloquence hurled from the lips of orators and poets now mute in death. The man who is in the prime of life, whose heart is eaten with care, and whose head begins to blossom, is glad to turn aside from the toilsome and dusty walks of life and breathe the inspiring breath of patriotism, review the origin and workings of civil liberty, tremble for its perils, weep for its persecutions and rejoice over its triumphs. And the child leaps for joy, he knows not why, for his heart is lit up with hope and anticipation, and his affections have not yet been chilled by the disappointments with which life's journey is thronged,

Young America's celebration.

Words of the patriot.

The grave and the gay, the matron and the maid, all reckon its approach in eager anticipation, and on the morning of this day a nation wakes like the child to the enjoyment of a new toy. Cannon herald its approach, and bells ring out their merriest peals. Music lends her spirit-stirring tones. The blast of the trumpet, and the mellow strains from the bugle and the horn of the well-regulated band which leads on the gay procession, the chorus chanted by hundreds of living voices, down to the tin whistle and jews-harp of the boy who is obliged to stay at home, and who gets up a celebration on his own account, decorated with wooden sword and a paper hat surmounted with cockade and feather, and who delivers his own oration by crawling up into a tree or the back end of a hay cart-all unite to swell the fountains of enthusiasm. The old patriot uttered truth when he looked forth with prophetic eye and said, "We shall make this a glorious and immortal day. When we are in our graves our children will honor it. They will celebrate it with thanksgiving, with festivity, with bonfires and illuminations. On its annual return they will shed tears-copious, gushing tears, not of subjection and slavery, not of agony and distress, but of exultation, of gratitude and joy." The celebration of this day is not to excite the feelings of hatred and exultation over those who

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The goodly inheritance.

Spirited Philippics.

formerly believed that they could with propriety pursue a line of policy which was degrading to us; but of joy and gratitude that the fruits of its labors have proved so glorious, that the era which this day has heralded in, has been so fortunate and happy to our youthful nation, that the fondest hopes and anticipations of those who took part in its deliberations have been more than realized, that a combination of such fortunate circumstances has centered in this, the latest experiment in civilization, and that we can this day rejoice together in the goodly inher itance bequeathed to us by the fathers of the republic. Indeed, we scarcely remember that England ever attempted to force us to subjection at the point of the bayonet, and hardly realize but that, in the intimacy of her relations with us, she has her fourth of July, and celebrates with us the triumphs of liberty. That feeling of animosity which originally existed between the generations which were parties to the contest, and that was kept alive and annually fed by spirited Philippics on our boasted greatness and the defeat of the British arms, was buried in the graves of the actors in the scene.

As the birthday of our nation, we celebrate it. On its annual return, our thoughts are naturally directed to the history of civil liberty, to its progress among the nations, and the struggles it has met. We are