essful or the less successful competitor, would cease to envy his more fortunate, or, more sagacious rival in the race: indigence, and misfortune would cease to murmur, at the apparently unequal distribution of the goods of fortune; which are goods or evils to the possessor, or to others, only, according to the motives and mode of their appropriation. The actual good, however permanent and extensive, that may be done by such an appropriation of superfluous opulence, may be estimated and even calculated: but the benefit which the public and posterity reap from such an example, is inestimable and incalculable. If the opulent, (or any considerable number of the opulent,) in any civilized community, were to feel and manifest the disposition, which General Hampton has felt and manifested; not only in the instance referred to, but in many others, of which the narrator has been the witness, the agent, or the object; the execution of any scheme of solid and acknowledged public utility, (however new or even romantic,) would be practicable even by the most indigent, and previously obscure and insignificant individual, who might conceive, propose, and unfold it. Thus aided, an individual possessing only the limited and humble powers of the narrator, might execute an enterprise; in the attempt to achieve which, an adventurer who united the philanthropy of Howard, the eloquence of Cicero, the perseverance of Clarkson or Lancaster, the fortitude of Trenck, the address of Marlborough, and the moral energy of Tooke, might (without this ally), vainly exert and exhaust this aggregation of accomplishments. Were any considerable number of the opulent, disposed thus to appropriate wealth: there would exist in the community of which they were members, for carrying into effect. every design useful to the public, a fund more vast in amount, and more readily accessible, than the lawless lord of a mighty empire, could wring by exaction from impoverished and oppressed millions. Were any, even inconsiderable number of the opulent, thus disposed to appropriate the "superflux of wealth," that "superflux" which is usually transmuted into toys, or consumed and evaporated, (annihilated, would be a more correct expression,) in fashionable expense: The narrator would indulge the delightful day-dream of beholding, before the earth shall accomplish two of her annual revolutions, in the principal cities of the American republic, temples dedicated to the noblest of the arts: Temples, dedicated to the Genius of Oratory, lifting their "starry pointing" spires to heaven, embellished with all the pride of architecture, perfumed with botanical odours, embosomed in groves of laurel, and arresting, by their sublime destination and rival grandeur, the homage and admiration of Transatlantic strangers! The narrator, has in a previous part of this narrative, expressed unqualified contempt for unmeaning compliment: for idle or interested adulation. What he has now written, he intends as compliment and eulogy. He avows this intention: He does admire and love the features in general Hampton's character to which he now adverts: He avows this admiration and love: If what he has said be compliment, it is also fact: It is the debt of gratitude, and he delights to pay it: It is the effusion of genuine feeling, and he pours it forth not only freely but with pride: From misconstruction of motive, his character protects him: He would not, if he could, disabuse the wretch, who can misconstrue the motive, which dictates what he has said on this occasion. In the prosecution of the design which he has undertaken there is a fourth stage; but it is altogether prospective: He can neither live to accomplish, nor even to witness its accomplishment: But it will be accomplished by his successors in this glorious career, and to them he consigns it. He refers to the formation, in every part of the civilized world, especially in the regions which have been populated and civilized by the Magna Virum Mater, and above all, in the American republic: The formation of a fraternal band of youthful orators, trained by the "rigid lore of the stern and rugged nurse;" inured by the discipline of moral and metaphysical analysis to the use of the truth-tempered weapons of oratory, (ponderous as well as missile;) practised in all the arts of philosophical rhetoric, and initiated in all the forgotten, and yet undiscovered mysteries of elocution; with minds enlightened by the beams of every science, a conscience guarded and guided by religious faith, and characters and manners formed and finished by social intercourse, by personal experience in the ways of the world, and a practical knowledge of " man as he is," and of the existing state of society: The formation of a band of orators, spurning the "Auri sacra fames;" trampling on every degenerate and ignoble passion: Impelled and inspired in the race of glory, by the Amor patriæ, and the laudum immensa cupido: In yon bright cloud that fires the western sky, Ye unborn ages, crowd not on my soul! To have advanced thus far in the prosecution of a design, which could have been achieved and prosecuted thus far only, in the American republic; is fame and felicity enough for the narrator. Let him but live, and possess a sufficient share of health and mental energy, to avail himself of an auspicious season, to vindicate the nascent glory of the Rostrum, in London, Edinburgh, and Dublin-Let him but accomplish this! and fixing "A last, lingering look," on the boundless Arena; as the youthful competitors for glory begin to throng its avenues, and intelligent auditors and spectators, are beheld advancing in every direction along the vast and ever-expanding area that "enrounds" the Rostrum.-Let him but accomplish This! and gaze for a moment on so glorious a spectacle! and he will be ready and willing to exclaim, "Now let me die!" TO THE CANDID READER. In a prospectus of the contents of this volume, (which has been extensively circulated by the polite and friendly attention of the editors of gazettes throughout the United States, and which will be found in the Appendix:) the writer intimated his intention of subjoining to the Essays, passages from the orations, and a few of the specimens of criticism; which he has pronounced from the Rostrum. When, however, he came to transcribe and revise his Essays for the press, he found himself, (as the work advanced,) reduced to the alternative; of giving a very inconvenient size to the volume, or of contracting the limits of the original design. Thus circumstanced, he deemed it most expedient, to narrow the extent of his plan. Passages from his orations; specimens of criticism, and the " Essay on the Theory and Use of Moral Fiction," do not therefore, make their appearance in this volume. He has been governed in this instance, by other motives. The length of time which has been required to revise and transcribe the contents of this volume for the press, (a considerable part of the text, and nearly all the notes, having been written since the printing of the work commenced,) has been much greater than was expected, when the prospectus was issued. He has found it inconvenient to appropriate so much of his leisure, exclusively, to the execution of a design; not only unproductive of immediate emolument, but necessarily involving considerable expense. |