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the rise of the river, and far above the muddy deposit.
These pillars indicated the height of the water, the
depth of the fertilizing deposit, and the true channel of
the river, and above these marks were engraved maxims
of wisdom for the instruction of those who navigated
the river and cultivated the fields. Thus, with the great
names which illustrate the 17th century, which mark
the swelling tide of human thought as it rose, threaten-
ing destruction to all existing institutions, which meas-
ure the prolific fertility that comes of the subsiding
flood, which record in marble letters the maxims of all
wisdom, and lift the souls of men from the mere earth
up to their kindred commerce with the skies. Cut but
a half dozen names from the vast calendar, and say
where is the record so full of human intellect and man's
right progress. Take Shakspeare and Bacon, Milton
and Newton, Cromwell and William of Orange, and
those who thought and fought and worked with them,
and you have a picture which the hand of Time has yet
to parallel.

And while Protestanism was working thus in England,
the same spirit was opening up this new land by like
influences, step by step, to the same and grander results.
For while in England there was a pause from the sublime
grandeur of the 17th to the fantastic frippery and slug-
ish effetism of the 18th century--while England felt
the retrogressive wave from the continent, with its
slimy crest of infidelity and materialism--the deep-
heaving oceanic current moved on with all its majestic
power along these new shores of ours. That same cen-
tury which raised its curtain on a drivelling dramatic
charlatan, in bitter irony called the Grand Monarque,
and let it fall on a tableau in which a flaunting vagrant
of Paris impersonated the Goddess of Liberty, whose in-
termediate acts were played by Bolingbrokes and Wal-
poles, Voltaires and Rousseaus, in America gave birth to
a Washington, a Franklin, and a Liberty undreamed of
in the old or new days.

But even in that era of folly and infidelity--of de-
bauchery and madness--there was one--if not more
than one--bright and glorious exception which comes to
sustain the sequences of our assumptions--and were it

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for the good of mankind, as some have thought, that
the 18th century of European history should be blotted
out, the angel who records the good gifts of God to men
would write over the dreary blank the name of John
Wesley--and perhaps some grateful American, or some
Englishman freed from the blasphemy and stupid folly
of the divinity of kings, might not be blamed, if beneath
it he wrote the names of Chatham and Burke; but
neither the Christian, the freeman, or the scholar, would
mourn without comfort for the loss.

My countrymen, need I trace farther to you, or with
more minute specification, the abiding communion of
all our religious, civil and social principles, with the ad-
vance and diffusion of liberal knowledge? Do you not
feel it in every impulse of your own hearts and minds?
This unceasing--almost torturing--desire and longing to
know, to have, and to give, is your very nature--the
very being of your active life. You cannot--you dare
not attempt to resist its requisitions.

For furthering my argument with you, Americans, I
need not enter upon the details of that intimate commu-
nion which exists among all the Protestant Churches of
America, in advancing the cause of learning, and the
practical purposes of all knowledge--the freedom and
happiness and moral exaltation of the people. As I have
said, while from 1600 to 1776, from the Protestant free-
dom of England, to the universal freedom of America--
from Bacon, who taught mankind to think, to Washing-
ton, who taught mankind to act--England was at times
blazing with true, and at other times paling with false,
letters and philosophy, we were constantly imbibing her
virtues, and almost escaping her impurities. When
Charles' falsehood triumphed, the Puritan came here and
built his church, his hall of justice, and his school.
When Cromwell became more cruel than his victim, the
Cavalier fled, leaving his wealth, but bringing his cour-
age, his religion, his love of letters, and his independ-
ence. Here they dwelt together in peace, and with one
purpose. And after their political separation from
England--a conjoined triumph of virtue and patriotism
equal to that of the Reformation, and of civil exaltation

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