American Republican and Baltimore daily clipper. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1844-1846, 1845-05-27
AN APOLOGY.

We have been furnished by friend with the
following Essay, read at one of the recent stat
ed meetings of the Monumental Lyceum, by
its author, whose name, we regret to state, we
are not at Liberty to give. If the subjoined be
aspecimcn Of the original compositions read be-
fore that institution, every third Wednesday
evening in each month, we are no longer at a
loss to conceive how so many young men are
bound together in the ''bonds of common
brotherhood' in efforts to promote moral and
intellectual improvement;
While the political perth Of modern Europe
urge their numerous iallaces against the doc
trine of Mans Self Government, and terrify
themselves in their menagcrie of meagre bug
bears and goblin-lions, destined, at some event
full moment, TO be let loose upon Republican,
ism, and make spicy desert of Democracy,
the Lterat Exquisite, with equal assurance,
proclaim the inieriority of our literature an
argument against our Republican Constitution.
These theorists suppose that because our
moderate fortunes and frugal industry, with our
simple laws and customs, are less dazzling than
the ample revenues, the arrogant orders and til
ties boasted by despotc governments, our infe-
riority, IN literature and abstract science, has
come from the soTdid influence of our system
Of government. Measuring nations intel
lect by the extent Oft public Libraries, wheth-
err read by the learned of the age, or sealed by
the dust of centuries, it has been inferred: that
learning here wants her natural sources of
inspiration, and science is pning away under
the whitening influence of an intellectual fam
inc, produced by the levelllng effects OF free IN
stltutions.
1t is denied that the mind, absorbed, of ne
cessity, by attention to material interests, amid
the eager competition otbusiness, will delight in
purely intellectual pleasures, or take her loftier
attitudes and more noble forms. lfthese sum
mary observers and nonchatant logicians at some
propitous hour, when the clouds of the lower
atmosphere have been chased away from the
pedestal of their toweting observatory, would
cast glance over the domains of science and
literature, their arrogance might be a little
modified on being reminded that the ancient tenn
pies of Poetry and Eloquence, of History and
Philosophy, re joiced in the refreshing shade of
Freedoms palm; while most of the bright
lights Of learning that have shone out in mon
arches, have broken through clouds of oppo-
stion and adversely. Their native splendor has
been famed by no breath of princely favor
The works of Dante, Shakespeare, Dryden and
johnson derived not their elaborate force and
:
twisted around the mouth of gentee bounty;
nor was the youthful flame, that kndled into
an unfidng etfulgence, fed by kingly patron
age. They addressed the people, and their re-
ward lay in the pleasure of performance and
the hope Of immortality.
In country where the minds are all intelli-
gent and refined, where all the elements of So
ciety are alive with action, and great events
are constantly exciting attention, and where
chord extends through the national heat, which
he who is able may strike--the general tenden-
cies NAV sometimes be sordid-but occasions
must often arise which will call forth the grand
and bea utiful manifestations Of genius.
1t will not be quite foreign to our purpose to
dwell briefly upon the peculiar motives in our
country to vigorous thought. There was i'm
planted in the bosoms of those who founded
our Institutions too deep conviction OF their
responsibilities to allow them to believe that
they had fulfilled their Office as statesmen, by
merely prohibiting, in their laws, the more d.
rect aggressions of the powerful. In the neces-
sary inequalities of society they remarked the
thousand methods by which tyranny may be
exercised, and they knew we'll that, if the OPP
portunities for obtaining the honors and advan-
tages of life, were unequal, the rights OF man,
though embodied into the civil code, would fall
far short OF their design. 1t was their great
aim to destroy those fatal influences of acct
dent and privilege, which in other countries,
and in past ages, have repressed the mass Of
mental energies, and TO give universal thought
that freedom from restraint which always con-
firms its supremacy. Wealth here is not col
lected into limited number of over-grown es-
tates perpetuated by strict entails, in favored
families but nearly equally distributed among
the industrious citizens, knowledge, in this