THE TRUE GREATNESS OF OUR COUNTRY.
PATRIOTISM is allied to philosophy, and inseparable from benevolence. A virtuous citizen is not satisfied with knowing that his country is great, and free, and happy; he desires to understand why it is so, what are the elements of its empire, how long they will endure, and what will be their perfect development; because he knows that his country and his race are immortal, and he feels assured that, although mortal himself, he shall not altogether perish.
We have the authority of Lord Bacon to the effect that "the true greatness of kingdoms and estates, and the means thereof, is an argument fit for great and mighty princes to have in their hands, to the end that neither by overmeasuring their forces they lose themselves in vain enterprises, nor, on the other side, by undervaluing them, they descend to fearful and pusillanimous counsels."
The same profound philosopher remarked that "the greatness of an estate in bulk and territory doth fall under measure, and the greatness of finances and revenue doth fall under computation. The population may appear by numbers, and the number and greatness of cities and towns by cards and maps. But yet.
NOTE. This discourse was delivered in Baltimore, on the 22d of December, 1848, before the "Young Catholic Friends' Society" of that city. The same discourse was also substantially delivered before the Phi Beta Kappa Society of Union College, and before the Literary Society of Amherst College, in 1844.-Ed.