its first pages were vernacular readings of the Word of God. From thence, ever since, as from a fountainhead, has flowed a mixed stream of thought and genius and talent, in all the departments of science, of law, and of learning; but the whole has been colored and leavened, and formed by, and under, the plastic influence of Christianity. The Bible and its precepts, has been the prompting spirit of its legal statutes, its constitutional compacts, its scientific ventures, its poetic flights, its moral edicts. But above and beyond all these, this language has delighted to expand and express itself in Tracts, and Tales, and Allegories; in Catechisms, and Homilies, and Sermons; in heavenly Songs, sacred Lyrics, and divine Epics; in Liturgies and Treatises, and glowing Apologies for the Faith; sweeping along in a pure and gracious flood, which in the end shall empty itself into a blessed eternity!
These then are the main peculiarities of this language, and these some of the rich gifts it bestows upon us. But while, indeed, dwelling as I do, with delight, upon the massy treasures of this English tongue, I would not have you to suppose that I forget the loss which has accompanied all this gain. Do not think, I pray you, that I am less a man. that I have less the feelings of a man; because I would fain illustrate a favoring providence,—
No! I do not forget that to give our small fraction of the race the advantages I have alluded to, a whole continent has been brought to ruin; the ocean has
