Page:The World's Famous Orations Volume 9.djvu/36

THE WORLD'S FAMOUS ORATIONS last^ a fit emblem, both of the events in memory of which it is raised, and of the gratitude of those who have reared it. We know, indeed, that the record of illustri- ous actions is most safely deposited in the uni- versal remembrance of mankind. We know, that if we could cause this structure to ascend, not only till it reached the skies, but till it pierced them, its broad surfaces could still contain but part of that which, in an age of knowledge, hath already been spread over the earth, and which history charges itself with making known to all future times. We know that no inscrip- tion on entablatures less broad than the earth itself can carry information of the events we commemorate where it has not already gone; and that no structure, which shall not outlive the duration of letters and knowledge among men, can prolong the memorial. But our ob- ject is, by this edifice, to show our own deep sense of the value and importance of the achieve- ments of our ancestors; and by presenting this work of gratitude to the eye, to keep alive similai* sentiments, and to foster a constant re- gard for the principles of the Revolution. Human beings are composed not of reason only, but of imagination also, and sentiment ; and that is neither wasted nor misapplied which is ap- propriated to the purpose of giving right direc- tion to sentiments, and opening proper springs of feeling in the heart. We wish that, in those days of disaster, which, 26