Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1850-09-30
Literary Institutes.

upon the worth and welfare of nations is literature
Great events remarkable Deeds and noble ideas, are
not sufficient Of themselves to elevate the general NOR
y of nations and secure for them the admiration Of
posterity They must have tongue; they must be
spoken written in order that knowledge of them
may reach the general mind, or they are but the dumb
manifestations of capacity that for of an educa-
tional vehcle die with the generation that produces
them. Discoveries in the arts and sciences and all
those mental efforts and activities which have Man for
their object, such poetry and history with the high
er exerons Of pure and intellect would have
tanned excellence, and would have exerted but
feeble and transient influence upon human society if
God had blessed man with the faculty of Speech to
communicate them and enable him to preserve them in
the substantial form of writing.
The strongest bond of union in nations, is not alb
stract laws but common language and common lit
1t is that power which transfes from soul to
soul, with the rapidly of electricity, the oughs
and which generalzes the same sentiments of patriot
ism, freedom and right.
Every body knows what influence the art of express
sion eoquence exercises over individuals and every
body from this may infer what influence written express
sion or literature exercise over intelligent nations
If we look general history, and critically observe
the which have elevated ancient nations in the
estimation of postery, find that those causes did
not lay much in the positive power and actions Of
those nations in the advancement and refinement Of
their literature; that is in their power of keeping them
alive in the memory Of people, through the arts of rhe
toric and description
1t to the generalization of literature to the diff
fusion Of ideas, and to the making popular of virtue
that ancient nations owed whatever of stability and lib
erty they possessed; and it ignorance and brutality
that overwhelmed them in ruin. 1t is to the studou
cultivation of the general mind and the wide diffusion
of the principles Of liberty and morality that moderr
society," 18th great republic its representative
must owe. its complete emancipation from fendalism
and it is upon these that it build up the founda
tons of rational liberty, and public justice.
America, with all her faults, is PROFESSIONALLY tn
embodiment of those reforms towards which genera
society is tending. 1t is her glorious destiny to Leaf
the of the worlds great host in their progress to
wards liberty, equality and fraternity it to her tina
the Of the future, in all lands, look for exam
pies of public virtue, of popular intelligence and repub
lican heroism.
No State in the Union seems yet to have so cear
comprehended the necessities of American freedom
and the oreatve responsibility of our country amongs
the nations; and to have SO promptly and faithfully
obeyed the purpose of providence in this respect
our own dear Massachusetts. She more than any 9th
err State that ever existed, has opened up, withou
price, the living, liberal streams of juvenile education
As far State could do, she has noby done her duty
in placing within the reach of all who tread her soil tho
riches Of normal learning.
Our Semnaries however, are only initiaory institu
tons We do not much acquire ideas in them as the
power Of comprehending the spoken and written ideas
Of Others We obtain the instruments of literature
than literature ITSELF 1t is necessary then in or
der to sustain the educational probation of our citizens
OF which our seminaries the introductory stages to
have institutions beyond these less precise and normal
in their character, and more literary.
The general mind Of Massachusetts has nat,rarv fell
this necessity; and the general intelligence and liberal
ity Of her citizens have developed it in the form Of
Public Reading Rooms, Mechanics Institutes, Lyceums
Apprentices Libraries, and those other voluntary soce
ties for the elevation Of the people, which make the cit
zenso this Old Bay State respected wherever they 90
and which gorifes dear country's name wherever
virtue and intelligence are priced.
We have promised these general remarks in order
tnat we might urge upon orcester, the heart Of the
Commonwealth, whose people are proyerbia for their
intelligence, their general virtue and their public spr-
IT. to ask herself why Isl that she has no Public Read
ing Room, or adequate literary institution in which our
citizens may meet, and by social communion and com
bned intellectual efforts, preserve and extend those men
tai and moral excelencies which are confessedly the
heritage of our community. Association polishes the
general mind, and energies its faculties. Communion
preserves and sustans the general virtue.
Worcester is fast increasing in opuence in trade and
IN physical extent. IL is necessary that she shall in
crease also in facilities for improving the minds of the
young men who constitute the majority of her active
population, aud who will be called upon, at no distant