what stock or what clan they come of? what coat of arms they gave? which had, of right, precedence? But, methinks, noth ing of man's folly has less show of reason to palliate it.

2. For, first, what matter is it of whom any one is descended, that is not of ill fame, since 'tis his own virtue that must raise, or vice depress him? An ancestor's character is no excuse to a man's ill actions, but an aggravation of his degeneracy; and since virtue comes not by generation, I neither am the better nor the worse for my forefather: to be sure, not in God's account; nor should it be in man's. Nobody would endure injuries the easier, or reject favors the more, for coming by the hand of a man well or ill descended. I confess it were greater honor to have had no blots, and with an hereditary estate to have had a lineal descent of worth; but that was never found, no, not in the most blessed of families upon the earth—I mean Abraham's.

3. To be descended of wealth and titles fills no man's head with brains, or heart with truth; those qualities come from a higher cause. 'Tis vanity, then, and most condemnable pride, for a man of bulk and character to despise another of less size in the world, and of meaner alliance, for want of them; be cause the latter may have the merit, where the former has only the effects of it in an ancestor; and though the one be great by means of a forefather, the other is so too, but 'tis by his own; then, pray, which is the bravest man of the two?

4. No, let blood and name go together; but pray, let nobility and virtue keep company, for they are nearest of kin. Tis thus posited by God himself, that best knows how to apportion things with an equal and just hand. He neither likes nor dislikes by descent; nor does he regard what people were, but are. He remembers not the righteousness of any man that leaves his righteousness, much less any unrighteous man for the righteousness of his ancestor.

5. But if these men of blood please to think themselves

concerned to believe and reverence God in his holy scriptures, they may learn that in the beginning, he made of one blood all nations of men to dwell upon all the face of the earth; and that we are descended of one father and mother-a more certain original than the best of us can assign. From thence go down to Noah, who was the second planter of the human race, and we are upon some certainty for our forefathers. What violence has rapt, or virtue merited since, and how far we that are alive are concerned in either, will be hard for us to deter mine but a few ages off us.

6. But, methinks, it should suffice to say, our own eyes see that men of blood, out of their gear and trappings, without their feathers and finery, have no more marks of honor by nature stamped upon them, than their inferior neighbors. Nay, themselves being judges, they will frankly tell us they feel all those passions in their blood that make them like other men, if not farther from the virtue that truly dignifies. The lamentable ignorance and debauchery that now rages among too many of our greater sort of folks, is too clear and casting an evidence in the point; and pray, tell me of what blood are they come?

LESSON CXXXVII.

INFLUENCE OF INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS.

SEWARD.

1. NOR can we forget that it was Msssachusetts that encountered first and suffered most from the tyranny which resulted in our national independence; that the first blood shed in that sacred cause flowed at Lexington, and that Liberty's earliest rampart was established upon Bunker's Hill. Nevertheless, the struggles and sacrifices of Massachusetts have, until now.

been known to us through traditions not her own, and seem to have been those of a distant, though an allied people; of a country separated from us by mountain barriers, such as divide every continent into states and empires.

2. But what a change is here! This morning's sun was just greeting the site of old Fort Orange as we took our leave, and now when he has scarcely reached the meridian, we have crossed that hitherto impassable barrier and met you here on the shore of the Connecticut, the battle ground of King Philip's cruel wars; and, before that sun shall set, we might ascend the Heights of Charlestown, or rest upon the rock that was wet with the blood that flowed from the weary feet of the Pilgrim Fathers.

3. Sir, you have well set forth the benefits which will result to you, to us, to our country, and to mankind, from the triumph of modern science over the physical obstructions to intercourse between the American communities. I can advert to but one of these results, the increasing strength of the states, and the perpetuity of the Union. New York, Massachusetts, and her sister states of New England, will no longer be merely confederate states. Their interests, their affections, and their sympathies will now be intermingled, and a common and indivisible destiny, whether of good or evil, awaits them all.

4. Had such connections existed when the British throne attempted to abridge the rights of the colonies, what power could have wounded Massachusetts when New York could have rushed to her defense? Could Great Britain and her savage allies have scourged so severely our infant settlements upon the Mohawk and the Susquehannah, if New England could have gone to her relief? How vain will be any attempt hereafter to array us against each other! Since Providence has been pleased to permit these states to be thus joined together, who shall put them asunder?

5. Rightly have you assumed that on this occasion we in

dulge no jealousies of your prosperity, and no apprehensions of harm from your growing power or influence. The Hudson is beautiful in our eyes, for it flows through the land of our birth; and our institutions and marts overhang its waters. But if its shores be not the true and proper seat of commerce and of empire, or if we have not the virtues and the energies necessary to retain our vantage-ground, we shall not try to check the prosperity or the political ascendency of our sister states.

6. Far from indulging such unworthy thoughts, we regard this and every other improvement as calculated to promote our own prosperity, and what is far more important than the advancement of our state or of yours, THE UNION AND HARMONY OF THE WHOLE AMERICAN FAMILY. The bond that brings us into so close connection, is capable of being extended from your coast to the Mississippi, and of being fastened around not only New York and the first thirteen, but all the twenty-six states. This is the policy of New York and her ambition. We rejoice in your coöperation, and invite its continuance, until alarms of disunion shall be among the obsolete dangers of the republic.

7. New York has been addressed here in language of magnanimity. It would not become me to speak of her position, her resources, or her influence. And yet I may, without of fending the delicacy of her representatives here, and of her people at home, claim that she is not altogether unworthy of admiration. Our mountains, cataracts, and lakes, cannot be surveyed without lifting the soul on high. Our metropolis and our inland cities, our canals and railroads, our colleges and schools, and our twelve thousand libraries, evince emulation, and a desire to promote the welfare of our country, the progress of civilization, and the happiness of mankind.

8. While we acknowledge that it was your Warren that of fered up his life at Charlestown, your Adams and your Hancock who were the proscribed leaders in the revolution, and your

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Franklin, whose wisdom swayed its councils, we cannot forget that Ticonderoga and Saratoga are within our borders; that it was a son of New York that fell in scaling the Heights of Abraham; that another shaped every pillar of the constitution, and twined the evergreen around its capital; that our Fulton sent forth the mighty mechanical agent that is revolutionizing the world, and that but for our Clinton, his lofty genius and undaunted perseverance, the events of this day and all its joyous anticipations, had slept together in the womb of futurity.

9. The grandeur of this occasion oppresses me. It is not as some have supposed, the first time that states have met. On many occasions, in all ages, states, nations and empires have come together; but the trumpet heralded their approach; they met in the shock of war; one or the other sunk to rise no more, and desolation marked for the warning of mankind, the scene of the fearful encounter. And if sometimes chivalry asked an armistice, it was but to light up with evanescent smiles the stern visage of war. How different is this scene! Here are no contending hosts, no destructive engines, nor the terrors, nor even the pomp of war. Not a helmet, sword or plume is seen in all this vast assemblage.

10. Nor is this a hollow truce between contending states. We are not here upon a cloth of gold and under a silken canopy to practice deceitful courtesies, nor in an amphitheater, with jousts and tournaments, to make trial of skill in arms preparatory to a fatal conflict. We have come here enlightened and fraternal states, without pageantry, or even insignia of power, to renew pledges of fidelity, and to cultivate affection and all the arts of peace. Well may our sister states look upon the scene with favor, and the nations of the earth draw from it good auguries of UNIVERSAL AND PERPET”AL PEACE.