tion of the Author's orations, published in that year. Those of subsequent date have never before been collected. The speech made at the School Convention, at Taunton, has never appeared in a separate form; and the remarks at the School Convention, at Tisbury, are now for the first time published. The addresses, which have before appeared, have been subjected to a careful revision, for this edition, especially with a view to their adaptation for youthful readers. Several of the marginal references and other explanations have been made for their information, by the intelligent and accurate Supervisor of the publication, Mr. JOSEPH W. INGRAHAM, to whom the Author feels himself under great obligations, for the care with which the Volume has been carried through the press. The Glossary, an important addition to the Work, will, it is believed, be found to contain a more than usual amount of valuable information. The Volume is now respectfully dedicated to the rising generation of the country, with ardent wishes for their improvement, virtue, and happiness. ON SUPERIOR AND POPULAR EDUCATION, . An Address delivered before the Adelphic Union Society of An Address delivered before the Massachusetts Charitable Mechanic Association, September 20, 1837, on Occasion of their first Exhibition and Fair. EDUCATION THE NURTURE OF THE MIND, Substance of Remarks, made at the County Convention of the Friends of Education, held at Tisbury, on the Island An Address delivered before the Mercantile Library Asso- ciation, at the Odeon, in Boston, September 13, 1838. THE IMPORTANCE OF EDUCATION IN A REPUBLIC, ORATIONS AND ADDRESSES. THE CIRCUMSTANCES FAVORABLE TO LITERARY IMPROVEMENT IN AMERICA.* MR. PRESIDENT, AND GENTLEMEN,-IN discharging the honorable trust, which you have assigned to me, on this occasion, I am anxious, that the hour, which we pass together, should be exclusively occupied with those reflections, which belong to us, as scholars. Our association in this fraternity is academical; we entered it, before our Alma Mater dismissed us from her venerable roof; and we have now come together, in the holydays, from every variety of pursuit, and every part of the Country, to meet on common ground, as the brethren of one literary household. The duties and cares of life, like the Grecian states, in times of war, have proclaimed to us a short armistice, that we may come up, in peace, to our Olympia. On this occasion, it has seemed proper to me, that we should turn our thoughts, not merely to some topic of literary interest, but to one which concerns us, as American scholars. I have accordingly selected, as the subject of our inquiry, THE CIRCUMSTANCES PECULIARLY CALCULATED TO PROMOTE THE PROGRESS OF IMPROVEMENT, AND TO FURNISH THE MOTIVES TO INTELLECTUAL EXERTION, IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. In * An Oration, pronounced at Cambridge, before the Society of Phi Beta Kappa, August 26, 1824. the discussion of this subject, that curiosity, which every scholar naturally feels, in tracing and comparing the character of the higher civilization of different countries, is dignified and rendered practical, by the important connexion of the inquiry, with the condition and prospects of his Native Land. I am aware that such inquiries are apt to degenerate into fanciful speculations, and doubtful refinements. Why Asia has, almost without exception, been the abode of some form of despotism, and Europe more propitious to liberty;—why the civilization of the Egyptians was of a character so melancholy and perishable; that of the Greeks so elegant, versatile, and life-giving; that of the Romans so stern and tardy, till they became the imitators of a people, whom they conquered and despised, but never equalled ;-why tribes of barbarians, from the North and East, not supposed to differ, essentially, from each other, at the time of their settlement in Europe, should have laid the foundation of national characters so dissimilar, as those of the Spaniards, French, Germans, and English;-are questions, to which such answers, only, can be given, as will be just and safe, in proportion as they are general and comprehensive. It is difficult, even in the case of the individual man, to point out precisely the causes, under the operation of which, members of the same community, and even of the same family, grow up, with characters the most diverse. It must, of course, be much more difficult to perform the same analysis on a subject so vast as a nation, composed of communities and individuals, greatly differing from each other, all subjected to innumerable external influences, and working out the final result, not less by mutual counteraction, than coöperation. But as, in the formation of individual character, there are causes of undisputed and powerful operation, so, in national character, there are causes, equally undisputed, of growth and excellence, on the one hand, and of degeneracy and ruin, on the other. It belongs to the philosophy of history, to investigate these causes; and, if |