Sunbury American and Shamokin journal. [volume] (Sunbury, Northumberland Co., Pa.) 1840-1848, 1843-11-25
by NIasser s. EiseIy
ENCE.


dress Of the Rev. DR.. SrRAcuE delivered before
the Society of Phi Beta Kappa, in Yale College,
on the 18th of August last. 1t claims an at.
tentive perusal:
awe talk ofthe press till it has become
! ,hreadbare topic; and yet with all our talk, we
have really no practical estimate of its impor-
tance. Time was when mems thoughts could
be communicated only by being spoken; and
some have conjectured that even the works Of
Homer were originplly committed only to the
memories of men, and that generations passed
| away before they were written on any mater-
al substance. And when Demos;henes thun.
dered, and Virgil sung, it was for the few, and
not for the many and their lofty productions
were indebted to the dogged labor Of their
trsnscriber.
/ But the art ofprinting has operated in respect
/ to the ancicnts like the word which will ac-
complish the great resurrection-it has brought
them up from the grave Of ages, and pledged TO
the man existence every where and through all
time. And the same art now advanced 10 a
degree Of perfection which casts into the shade
the best Improvements Of the past, is embaIming
mems thoughts in our days; aye, and giving
| them wings by which they fly al over the world.
You may sit in your closet now, and without
opening your lips, speak to those who dwell
nearest the poles--You may multiply yourself,
in single week. into len thousand agents ei-
| Iher for good or evil. You may scarcely ever
] 1,,1, ,I. 1
| principalitcs may feel the influence of your
thoughts,
The simplest view Of subject Is often the
mtst impressive. Estimate then the press, by
the acknowledged influence ofany great mind
that has spoke through it. Do you see that
man, in the eccentricity ofhis genius PROSTATE
upon the floor,-laboring to recall one of the
noblest efforts in the annals of intellect! Ii is
Robert Hall, busy with his sermon on modern
| infdelity.-Ilis friends have asked him TO pub
lish it, and he will not decline but as yet il
has no existence except in his own mind and
though he ioathes the labor of writing, hc is
turning his hand at intervals to the work.
Wonder of the age as he was for modesty as
well as for genius, he dreamed not of the intlu-
ence that sermon was destined TO exert; but
when it came forth, the world recognized it as
the masterpiece of master mind; it puts itself
into communion with the greatest inteilects of
the age; it threw around christianity new
wall o. fire and inidelity, as she bent over It's
pages resolved that silence was prudence.
Turn now your eye 10 yonder villa on the
shores Of the Mediterranean, and see another
mighty mind pouring out upon paper It's brilliant
thoughts, to he given ere long into the printers
hands 1t is Byron-ihe Heayan favored, and
yet foul-miuded Byron-in the act ofproducing
one OF his iicen,ious poems, Persdvcnture he
is dreaming of nothing but his own fame - but
he is in reality opening new fountain of death
upon the world; he is making provision to per
petuatc his existence as the enemy of his race
he is rendering the splcndors ofhis genius sub.
scrvieht TO the wild and desperate purposes o
his heart. Both Hall and Byron are star,
that must always shine; but in the beams of thC
one there is lie--n the beams Of the ot..er il
death.
know rot whether it is possible TO gain
; higher idea of the power of the press and the
consequent responsibility of those who wiell it
than by looking at the effects which it produce
in connection with the political struggles whici
, occasionally occur in our own history mem
l her tCongress may rise in his place, and speal
five minutes by the watch,-and get he ina,
q have said that which in one week shall wei
= nigh convulse the whole nation. A convention
1 may assemble 10 propose a candidate for TN
; Presidential chair, and scarcely shall the resul
= be announced, before the remo,cst village in tn
t most dstan, state shall have responed 10 it, an,
,. millions of hearts shall be beating, and million
: of hands busy, Tor the success or defeat ot tn
n nomination. An emergency may occur in th
e administration of our government that look
o portentous of evil; aud yet it shall scarcely hGv
u transpired from the councils Of the cabinet, be
fore the details ofthe whole matter have passe
IT under the eye OF the nation, and meA OF ever
l. class and every character specializing in re
is gard to the policy that should be pursued. An
K, DheneUer the waves of public feeling, ar
ID wrought up like the mighty ocean in a storm,
l. will always be found that the press has had
o. principal agency in producing the commotion.
" cannot leave this branch of my subject will
out adverting briefly to our periodical Literature
~ though regret the necessity of dismissing
important and fertile topic with passing r