The examiner. [volume] (Louisville, Ky.) 1847-1849, 1849-04-21

tor. ia presence OF the principal professors
studsrsts, and brilliant throng Of ladies. Mr..
MseaaIay. after thanking those who had elected
him, said;
| ain not using mere phrzse,,of course,
when say that the feelings with which bear
a part In the ceremony Of this day are such as l
find il difficult TO utter in words. do not think
!, strange that when that great master OF elO-
ausnce, Edmund Burke, stood where i now
stand, he falfsred and remained mute. Doubt
less the multitude of thoughts which rushed
into his mind was such as even he could not
easily arrange or express. In truth there are
few spsctacIes more striking or affecting than
that which great historical place Of education
presents on q solemn public day.
Thsre Is something strangely interesting in
the contrast between the venerable antiquity OF
the body and the fresh and ardent youth Of the
great msiority Of members Reeollections and
hopes crowd upon rs together The past and
the future are at once brought close to Us Our
thoughts wander back to the time when the
fou ndations Of this ancient building were laid,
and forward to the time when those whom IL Is
our Office to guide and TO teach, will be the
guides and teachers Of our posferity. On the
present occasion, we may, with peculiar pro-
priety, give such thoughts their course. For il
has CHANGED that my magistracy has fallen In
great secular epoch. This Is the four hun
dredth year Of the existence Of your university.
(CheersL) At such jubilees as these-jubilees
Of which no Individual sees more than one--it
Is natural, il Is good, that society like this
society which survives all the transitory parts
Of which II Is Composed society which has
corporate existence and perpetual succession,
should review its annals, should retracs the
stages Of its growth, from infancy to maturity,
and should try to find in the experience Of gen.
erations which have passed away, lessons which
may be profitable to generations yet UNBORN
The retrospect Is full Of interest and instruction
Perhaps IL may be doubted whether, since the
Christian era. there has been any point Of time
more important to the highest interests Of man
kind than that at which the existence Of your
university commenced. II was the moment Of
great destruction, and Of great creation
Your society was Instituted Just before the
empire Of the East Perished-that strange en-
pire, which, dragging on a languid life through
the great age Of darkness, connected together
the two great ages Of light-that empire which,
adding nothing to our stores Of knowledge, and
producing not one man great in letters, in
science, or in art, yet preserved in the midst Of
barbarian, those master pieces Of Attic genius
which the highest miads still contemplate, and
long will contemplate, with admiring despair;
| and, at that very time, while the fanatic Mos
lem were Plundering the churches and palaces
of Consiantinople, breaking in pieces Grecian
sculpture, and giving to the flames piles Of Gre
clan eloquence, few humble German artisans,
who little knew that they were calling into
existence power far mighter than that Of the
victorious Sultan, were busted in cutting and
setting the first types. The University came
into existence Just in time TO see the last trace
Of the Roman empire disappear, and to see the
earliest printed book.
Al This eoniu ~ uu-s
vailed interest In the history Of letters man
never 10 be mentioned without reverence by
every lover Of letters, held the highest place IN
Europe. Our Just attachment 10 that Protest.
ant faith to which our country owes so much,
must not prevent us from paying the tribute
which, on this occasion and in this place, ius-
tice and gratitude demand, TO the founder Of the
University Of Glasgow, the greatest Of the revI-
vers Of learning, Pope Nicholas the Fifth. He
had sprung from the common people; but his
abilities and his erudition had early attracted the
notice Of the great. He had studied much and
travelled far. He had visited Great Britain, which
IN wealth and refinement, was TO his native
Tuscany what the back settlements to America
now areto Britain. He had lived with the mer-
chant princes OF Florence, those men who first
ennobled trade by making trade the ally Of phi
fosoPhy, OF eloquence, and Of taste. IL was he
who, under the protection Of the munifcent and
discerning Cosmo, arrayed the first public libra
ry that modern Europe possessed From pri-
vacy your founder rose to throne; but on the
throne he never forgot the studies which had
been his delight in privacy. He was the centre
OF an illustrions group composed partly Of the
last great scholars Of Greece, and partly Of the
trst great scholars Of Italy, Theodore GAIA and
George OF Trebizond, Besssrin and Tilelfc,
Marsllio Ficino and Poggio BraceioiiHi. by hirn
49, fS~''d0S the Vatican library, then and long
alter the most precious and the most extensive
collection oil books in the world. By him were
carefully preserved the most valuable intellectu-
al treasures which had been snatched kom the
wreck Of the Byzantine empire. His agents
were to be found everywhere-in The bazasrs Of
the farthest East, in the mOnasteries Of the far
thest West-parchasing OrcOpying worm-eaten
parchmcnts, on which were traced words worthy
OF Immortality. Under his patronage were pre-
pared accurate Latin versions Of many precious
remains Of Greek poets and philosophers. But
no department Of literature owes so much Ia
him as history. By him were introduced to the
knowledge Of Western Europe, two great and
unrivalled models Of historical composition, the
work OF Heredotus and the work of Thucydides.
BY him, too, our ancestors were first made ac-
quainted with The graceful and lucid simplicity
Of AenoPhon, and with the manly good sense Of
Polybius.
1t was while he WIS occupied with cares like
these that his attention was called to the INTEL
iecsual wants Of this region-a region now
swsrming with population, rich with culture,
and resounding with the clang Of machinery
q region which now sends forth fleets laden |
with Its admirable fabrics to lands of which. in
his days, no geogrspher had ever heard-then /
wild, aPoor, half-barbarous tract, living in the
utmost verge of the known world. He gave his /
sanction to the plan Of establishing a university
Al glasgow, and bestowed on the new seat of /
learning all the privileges which belonged te the
University OF Bologna. l can conceive that
plying smile passed over his face as he named
Bologna and Glasgow together. AT BOLOGNA he
had long studied. No spot in the world has
'een more favored By nature or by art. The
nrrounding country was a fruitful and sunny
country, country Of corn-ields and vine
'ards. In the city the house Of Bentiyoglis
'ore rule-a house which We'd with the Medjci
a taste and magnificence-which has left 10
'osterity noble palaces and temples, and which
ave a splendid patronage to arts and sciences.
Glasgow be knew TO be poor, a small. a rude
own, and, rs he would have thought, not Ike
ever to be otherwise; for the soil, COMPARED
Win the rich country at the foot Of the Appen-
lines, was barren, and the climate was such that
n Italian shuddered at the thought Of il. Bur
not on the fertility Of the soil-it Is not on =
ne miidness OF the atnosphers that the pros ,
Gritty OF nations chiefly depends Cheers.
lavery and superstition can make Componis = ,
Ind Of beggars, and can change the plain of |.
.nna into desert Nor is il beyond the now. !.
OF human intelligence and energy, develoD- ,
by evil and spiritual freedom, TO turn steriI. =
'cks and pestiential marshes into cities and :.
ardens. Enlightened as your founder was. he | :
tile knew that he was himself chief agent In =
great revolution-Physicsla and moral, politi- :