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fathom, and it supposes that such a void can be surpassed only by supernatural powers."

We have, in the instance of Cicero, the stately edifice, the monument of intellectual grandeur; but we have also the evidence of the illustrious architect to prove to us by what careful process the foundations were securely laid and the scaffolding gradually erected. Our wonder at the perfection of the work may be abated, but what can abate our admiration and respect for the elevated views; the burning thirst for knowledge and for fame; the noble ambition which scorned delights, and lived laborious days "—which had engraven on the memory the paternal exhortation to the hero in Homer, the noblest, says Dr. Johnson, that can be found in any heathen writer.

The name, the authority, the example of Cicero, conduct me naturally to a topic which I should be unwilling to pass in silence. I allude to the immense importance to all who aspire to conspicuous stations in any department of public or learned professional life, the immense importance of classical acquirements, of imbuing your minds with a knowledge of the pure models of antiquity and a taste for their constant study and cultivation. Do not disregard this admonition from the impression that it proceeds from the natural prejudice in favor of classical learning, which an English university may have unconsciously instilled, or that it is offered presumptuously by one who is ignorant of that description of knowledge which is best adapted to the habits and occupations of society in Scotland.

Oh, let us take higher and more extensive views! Feel assured that a wider horizon than that of Scotland is opening upon you; that you are candidates starting with equal advantage for every prize of profit or distinction which the wide circle of an empire extended through every quarter of the globe can include.

Bear in mind, too, that every improvement in the means of communication betwen distant parts of that empire is pointing out a new avenue to fame, particularly to those who are remote from the great seat of government. This is not the place where injustice should be done to that mighty discovery which is effecting a daily change in the pre-existing relations of society. It is not within the college of Glasgow that a false and injurious estimate should be made of the results of the speculations of Black and of the inventive genius of Watt. The steam engine and the railroad are not merely facilitating the transport of merchandise, they are not merely shortening the duration of journeys, or administering to the supply of physical wants. They are speeding the intercourse between mind and mind; they are creating new demands for knowledge; they are

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fertilizing the intellect as well as the material waste; they are removing the impediments which obscurity, or remoteness, or poverty, may have heretofore opposed to the emerging of real merit.

They are supplying you, in the mere facility of locomotion, with a new motive for classical study. They are enabling you with comparative ease to enjoy that pure and refined pleasure which makes the past predominate over the present, when we stand upon the spots where the illustrious deeds of ancient times have been performed, and meditate on monuments that are associated with names and actions that can never perish. They are offering to your lips the intoxicating draught that is described with such noble enthusiasm by Gibbon: "At the distance of twenty-five years I can neither forget nor express the strong emotions which agitated my mind as I first approached and entered the Eternal City. After a sleepless night I trod with a lofty step the ruins of the Forum; each memorable spot where Romulus stood, or Tully spoke, or Cæsar fell, was at once present to my eye; and several days of intoxication were lost or enjoyed before I could descend to a cool or minute investigation.". .

By every motive which can influence a reflecting and responsive being," a being of large discourse, looking before and after,”—by the memory of the distinguished men who have shed a lustre on these walls; by regard for your own success and happiness in this life; by the fear of future discredit; by the hope of lasting fame; by all these considerations do I conjure you, while you have yet time, while your minds are yet flexible, to form them on the models which approach the nearest to perfection. Sursum corda! By motives yet more urgent; by higher and purer aspirations; by the duty of obedience to the will of God; by this awful account you will have to render, not merely of moral actions, but of faculties intrusted to you for improvement; by these high arguments do I conjure you so "to number your days that you may apply your hearts unto wisdom "-unto that wisdom which, directing your ambition to the noble end of benefiting mankind, and teaching you humble reliance on the merits and on the mercy of your Redeemer, may support you "in the time of your tribulation; may admonish you "in the time of your wealth;" and "in the hour of death, and in the day of judgment," may comfort you with the hope of deliverance.

LORD JOHN RUSSELL (1792-1878)

THE ORATOR OF REFORM

G

REATEST among the advocates of parliamentary reform, year

after year Lord John Russell made motions in Parliament for the suppression of "rotten boroughs," at first exciting the contempt of the Conservatives, and afterward their dismay, for he was the principal author of the great Reform Bill of 1830, which, after a fight which was little short of a revolution, became a law in 1832. All his life Russell was a persistent Whig, and a thorn in the side of the Tories. In 1845 he became an advocate of the repeal of the Corn Laws, and was called to the office of Prime Minister in 1846, holding office till 1852. In 1865 he was again called to this position, with Gladstone as one of his principal colleagues, and again brought in a Reform Bill-destined to be defeated then, but to bring about a great increase in the suffrage two years later. As an orator Russell played a prominent part, his political speeches being numerous and import

ant.

THE "ROTTEN BOROUGHS” OF ENGLAND

[Various references have been made in this work to the great reform movement of 1830-32, and it has just been said that Lord Russell was one of the most persistent advocates of reform. Some fuller account of the state of affairs is here in place. During the preceding two centuries there had been great changes in the distribution of population in England, but the distribution of seats in Parliament remained the same. Flourishing towns had decayed, and ancient boroughs had become practically extinct, yet they were still represented in Parliament. "Pocket boroughs" these were called, and were well named, since their membership was practically in the pocket of the owner of the land, who could give it to whom he pleased. On the other hand, great manufacturing cities had sprung up, whose hundreds of thousands of people did not send a single member to Parliament. This was the desperately corrupt system against which Russell vigorously protested, and which he earnestly sought to reform. We give his picturesque description of the state of affairs from a speech by him in 1831.

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LORD JOHN RUSSELL

A stranger who was told that this country was unparalleled in wealth and industry, and more civilized and enlightened than any country was before it; that it is a country which prides itself upon its freedom, and which once in seven years elects representatives from its population to act as the guardians and preservers of that freedom-would be anxious and curious to see how that representation is formed, and how the people choose their representatives.

Such a person would be very much astonished if he were to be taken to a ruined mound, and told that that mound sent two representatives to Parliament; if he were taken to a stone wall, and told that these niches in it sent two representatives to Parliament; if he were taken to a park, where no houses were to be seen, and told that that park sent two representatives to Parliament. But he would be still more astonished if he were to see large and opulent towns, full of enterprise and industry, and intelligence, containing vast magazines of every species of manufacture, and were then told that those towns sent no representatives to Parliament.

Such a person would be still more astonished if he were taken to Liverpool, where there is a large constituency, and told, "Here you will have a fine example of a popular election." He would see bribery employed to the greatest extent, and in the most unblushing manner; he would see every voter receiving a number of guineas in a bag as the price of his corruption; and after such a spectacle he would be, no doubt, much astonished that a nation, whose representatives are thus chosen, could perform the functions of legislation at all, or enjoy respect in any degree.

THE IMPORTANCE OF LITERARY STUDY

[Of Russell's speeches aside from politics, one of the most interesting is his address at the Leeds Mechanics Institute in 1852. The following selection is taken from this fine oration.]

That

I will now turn for a short time to the subject of literature. subject again is so vast that if I were to attempt to go over any one of its numerous fields I should not find the time sufficient to enable me to do so; but there is one leading remark which I will venture to make, and which, I think, it is worth while for any person who studies literature to keep in view. There are various kinds of productions of literature, of very different forms, and of very different tastes; some grave and some gay, some of extreme fancy, some rigorously logical, but all, as I think, demanding this as their quality, that truth shall prevail in them. A French author has said that nothing is beautiful but truth; that truth alone is lovely, but that truth ought to prevail even in fable. I believe that remark is perfectly correct; and I believe that you cannot use a

LORD JOHN RUSSELL

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better test, even of works of imagination, than to see whether they be true to nature. Now, perhaps I can better explain what I mean in this respect by giving you one or two instances, than I should be able to do by precept and explanation. A poet of very great celebrity in the last century, and who certainly was a poet distinguished for much fancy and great power of pathos, but who had not the merit of being always as true as he is pointed in the poetry he has written,-I mean Young,-has said, at the commencement, I think, of one of his "Nights"

Sleep, like the world, his ready visit pays

Where Fortune smiles; the wretched he forsakes,

And lights on lids unsullied with a tear."

Now, if you will study that sentence, you will see there are two things which the poet has confounded together. He has confounded together those who are fortunate in their peace of mind, those who are fortunate in the possession of health, and those who are fortunate in worldly advantages. Now, it frequently happens that the man who is worst off in his worldly circumstances, to whom the world will pay no homage, on whom it would not be said that Fortune smiled, enjoys sweeter and more regular sleep than those who are in the possession of the highest advantages of rank and wealth. You will all remember no doubt, that in a passage I need not quote, another poet, one always true to nature, Shakespeare, has described the shipboy amidst the storm, notwithstanding all the perils of his position on the mast, as enjoying a quiet sleep, while he describes the king as unable to rest. That is the poet true to nature; and you will thus, by following observations of this kind, by applying that test to poetry as well as to history and to reasoning, obtain a correct judgment as to whether what you are reading is really worth your attention and worth your admiration, or whether it is faulty and is not so deserving.

I may give another instance, and I could hardly venture to do so if my friend and your friend, Lord Carlisle, were here, because the want of truth I am going to point out is in the writings of Pope. There is a very beautiful ode of Horace, in which, exalting the merits of poetry, he says that many brave men lived before Agamemnon; that there were many great sieges before the siege of Troy; that before Achilles and Hector existed, there were brave men and great battles; but that, as they had no poet, they died, and that it required the genius of poetry to give immortal existence to the bravery of armies and of chiefs. Pope has copied this ode of Horace, and in some respects has well copied and imitated it in some lines which certainly are worthy of admiration, beginning :

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