The author is under obligations to Messrs. Houghton, Osgood & Co., Charles Scribner's Sons, and other publishers, as well as to Robert Lowell, Epes Sargent, and several authors, holding the copyright of various Selections in the foregoing pages, for their kind permission to use the same.

PRIZE JUNIOR AND SENIOR ORATIONS

OF PRINCETON COLLEGE, 1882-'92.

THE PURITANS, AND PRACTICAL LIBERTY.

MACLEAN PRIZE ORATION, BY W. K. SHELBY, '83.

Ar the rise of Puritanism in England the destinies of all Europe were approaching a crisis. Some measure of freedom had indeed been achieved for the consciences and the minds of men. But despotism in the state was lifting a mighty arm to throttle the spirit of moral and intellectual liberty for frail as yet was the offspring of that great labor, the Reformation. The fate of society for all future time was involved in the struggle which England had the glory to begin, which caught inspiration from the cry of Wycliffe and Hooker and Hampden, which received its most powerful support from the mighty pen of Milton.

But why was it in England that monarchy should receive. the first blow? Germany and Switzerland had taken the lead in emancipating the human mind; Puritanism in England differed little in creed from Protestantism on the continent: wherein lay the power which gave it to England to overturn tyranny, to consummate the Reformation, and to become the parent of constitutional liberty throughout the world?

Will you explain the fact by saying that the British. nation was younger, more vigorous than the rest of Europe, and thus more capable of shaking off oppression? Will you answer me that the brilliant thinkers of the time had peculiarly enlightened the minds of Englishmen upon the

everlasting rights of communities? Does the galling oppression of a tyrannous line of kings account for the grandest movement in behalf of practical liberty the world had ever seen? No; the key-note has not yet been struck. You have not yet supplied the woof for these theories. There was a deep moral power which permeated and made effective all other causes, a power which emanated from the hearts of the Puritans, from the fundamental principles of their character. In them alone was found the spirit which no vicissitudes of fortune could turn from its course; the spirit which contained energy sufficient to carry it through revolution and anarchy; the spirit in which was vitality sufficient to sustain life until the winter of trial was over, and spring should develop it in its glory.

You all know the Puritan character. Its marks are on the surface: "he who runs may read them." You will not call them bigots; because their creed was taken directly from the word of the Most High. You will not say they were fanatics; because the ends for which they struggled were not imaginary, but real and practical. You will not pronounce them disloyal; because they were bound to truth and their God by a tie which was not to be broken for the sake of any other allegiance. If their minds were narrow, charge it to the intellectual darkness, the shadows of which had not yet been dispelled. If they were intolerant and cold, the blame should be laid upon that cruel church whose evils were still in them by inheritance.

The faults they had find many excuses; their virtues deserve the highest praise. How shall we cease to venerate their fidelity to conscience! Elizabeth's preference for ritual could not beguile it. It could not be trenched upon by her "Ecclesiastical Court." It held out against the oppressions of Laud, and preferred hardship, poverty, exile to submission. How shall we cease to admire their sublime fortitude! Charles could not break it down by threats, nor by persecution. It stood grandly, immovably

firm, before the terrific charge of Rupert, at Marston Moor and on Naseby Field. And when, at Naseby, there went up from the invincible ranks of the Puritans the shout of victory, Charles Stuart fled in terror from the field, and the knees of every despot in Europe were loosed with dread.

Not for one generation only, not for one land was that day's battle fought. The blessings there won by Cromwell and his "Ironsides" are enjoyed by every civilized country in the world to-day. Yet when England, sick of confusion, turned once more, for a short time, to monarchy, a licentious court and a scurrilous press laughed at the eccentricities of the Puritans, and pronounced their principles a failure. "But it is not from the laughers alone that the philosophy of history is to be learnt." I point you to England, delivered from tyranny; to her affairs, directed with superior wisdom during the darkest portion of her history; to the great measure of political and religious liberty secured to her citizens, and enjoyed by them in increasing fulness to-day. I point you to her proud literature, influenced and leavened by the genius of Bunyan and of Milton, crowned with "Paradise Lost," its brightest jewel, and I ask you whether Puritanism did fail in the land of its birth. Or, if the qualities of the immense trunk are too broad to be estimated with certainty, let us examine the qualities and the fruit of a branch.

At the darkest hour of its history the spirit of Puritanism turned from its native shores, and, looking aloft for guidance, sought a spot where it might work out its destiny. Fifty millions of us now turn our thoughts to Plymouth Rock, and salute with filial affection that heavendirected little band. Our hearts are filled with gratitude when we reap in security and at peace the plenteous harvest of blessings which has sprung from the seed of their sowing. Puritan piety and perseverance colonized our land. Puritan valor asserted and made good our independence. Puritan conservatism warded off disruptions and ruin,

while Puritan humanity wiped from our national escutcheon the foul curse of slavery. The strongest, surest stones in the structure of our nation were taken from that quarry at Plymouth. The most cherished of our institutions owe their prosperity, in a great degree, to the vigor infused into them by Puritanism. That spirit has followed us all the days of our national life, giving us prudence in youth, dignity and strength in manhood, restraining from evil ways, inspiring with love for justice and for perfect freedom. It has delivered the Church from all obligation to the State. It has made the priest a pastor, and religion a "reasonable service."

Such is Puritanism in America. If its success be doubtful in the Old World, its triumph is assured in the New. England's overreaching colonial policy may be a disgrace to the spirit of Cromwell's prudent reign. The cruel wrongs of Ireland may be a dishonor to the memory of Hampden, the patriot and the philanthropist. But there is a land where Puritan honesty and Puritan justice have prevailed.

where the glad song of an emancipated race answers back the cry of Ireland's oppressed. And upon the bosom of every ocean I see the hopeful faces of those whose prows are turned hither ward: for America is the Ararat towards which the shattered and storm-tossed barks of all nations are drifting slowly home.

THE FRENCH PHILOSOPHERS AND THE REIGN OF TERROR.

BAIRD PRIZE ORATION, EDWIN M. ROYLE, '83.

FRANCE is the puzzle of history. It is difficult to understand the co-existence of such genius, such resources, such power with such instability. But the enigma belongs not alone to the present; it had its origin in the 18th cen