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LECTURE I.

It is one of the distinguishing characteristics of the human being, that he loves to contemplate the scenes of the past, and desires to have his own history borne down to the future—this, like all the other propensities of our nature, is accompanied by faculties to secure its gratification. The gift of speech by which the parent can convey information to the child, and the old transmit intelligence to the young, is an indication that it is the design of the Author of our being, that we should receive from those who are passing away before us, the narrative of their experience, and communicate the results of our own to the generations that are to succeed us. All nations have to a greater

or less degree been faithful to their trust, in using the gift to fulfil the design of the Giver. It is impossible to name a people who do not possess cherished traditions that have descended from their early ancestors.

Although it is generally considered that the invention of a system of arbitrary and external signs to communicate thought, is one of the greatest and most arduous achievements of human ingenuity, yet so universal is the disposition to make future generations acquainted with our condition and history, a disposition, the efficient cause of which can only be found in a sense of the value of such knowledge, that you can scarcely find a people on the face of the globe, who have not contrived by some means or other, from the rude monument of shapeless rock, to the most perfect alphabetical language, to communicate with posterity, thus declaring as with the voice of nature herself, that it is desirable and proper that all men should know as much as possible, of the character, and actions, and fortunes of their predecessors on the stage of life.

to us.

It is not difficult to discern the end, for which this disposition to preserve for the future and contemplate the past was imparted If all that we knew were what is taught by our individual experience, our minds would have but little, comparatively, to exercise and expand them, and our characters would be the result of the limited influences embraced within the narrow sphere of our particular relations and circumstances. But now, that our eye is attracted to the observation of those who have lived before us, our materials for reflection and sources of instruction are multiplied. The virtues we admire in our ancestors, not only adorn and dignify their names, but win us to their imitation. Their prosperity and happiness spread abroad a diffusive light that reaches us, and brightens our condition. The wisdom that guided their footsteps becomes at the same time a lamp to our path. The observation of the errors of their course, and of the consequent disappointments and sufferings that befel them, enables us to pass in safety through rocks and ledges, on which

they were shipwrecked;- and while we grieve to see them eating the bitter fruits of their own vices and crimes, we can seize the benefits of their experience without paying the price at which they purchased it.

In the desire which every man feels to learn the history, and be instructed by the example of his predecessors, and in the accompanying disposition, with the 'means of carrying it into effect, to transmit a knowledge of himself and his own times to his successors, we discover the wise and admirable arrangement of a providence, which removes the worn out individual to a better country, but leaves the acquisitions of his mind, and the benefit of his experience, as an accumulating and common fund, for the use of his posterity-which has secured the continued renovation of the race, without the loss of the wisdom of each generation.

These considerations suggest a much more adequate and accurate definition of history, than the celebrated one proposed by Bolingbroke-Philosophy teaching by example.' They inform us that history is rather the

instrument by which the results of the great experiment of human life are collected and transmitted from age to age: speaking through the records of history, all past generations become the instructors of the present.

Since this is the true and proper design of history, it assumes an exalted station among the branches of human knowledge. Every community that aspires to become intelligent and virtuous, should cherish it. Institutions for the promotion and diffusion of useful information, should have special reference to it. And all people should be induced to look back to the days of their forefathers, to be warned by their errors, instructed by their wisdom, and stimulated in the career of improvement, by the example of their virtues.

Under the influence of these views, it has appeared to me, that I could not discharge the duty to which I have here been called, in any way more conducive to the accomplishment of the design of this association, than by presenting to its members a remarkable passage in the history of their ancestors. It shall be my design to exhibit the subject