Port Tobacco times, and Charles County advertiser. (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1845-1898, 1858-03-04
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dedicate his name to the great cause Of hu-
fnanity, and sas common possession OF all
mankind. This lis ne idle ceremonial OF
grief which we celebrate to-day !; but State
is inaugurating with the reverential SORROW
which such greatness may inspire in even a
mothers heart, the influence of perhaps the
highest human example, which is to be as
wide as the world in its operation and to
command Hove and sympathy from every
human heart. Long, them. may yonder
expressive bronze continue to speak its les.
sons Of virtue and wisdom to each succeed
ing generation Of man. Let the mother
bring. her boy hither that she may teach him
in this presence as her earliest lesson so
much Of the great story Of Washington as
he may be able to appreciate and compre-
hend.' Let the aspiring youth whose am
bition, like Caesars, may have been fired
blythe study of examples Of early successes
so much greater than his own, pause to be-
hold that calm face and consider its associa--
ted story Of patient fortitude and noble per-
severance. Or should he, in his eagerness
for fame, find that he is in danger to prefer
the prizes of ambition to goodness, let him
pursue that story to its conclusion, and learn
that it was Washingten's unfaltering loyalty
to duty and faith in virtue which endowed
him with an almost superhuman strength,
and made his name immortal among men.
Is it a man of maturer years, who dlsap-
pointed in his aspirations and misconstrued
in his best and neblest efforts for his race,
begins to grow weary IN the struggle and to-
despair Of achieving anything great or even
good, let him consider how sternly the great
soul of which that statue speaks was tried
and with what courage and faith it passed
through the fires of a consuming strife. un-
til every difficulty was surmounted and it
stood purified and annealed by the fierce
ordeal to which it had been exposed. Who.
amongst US all might not gather from his
meditations, in this calm presence, precious
lessons for the guidance and direction Of his.
future conduct? Here then is the genius
leci" Which should invite the universal pill
grimage of man, for all its influences arc
sacred to the great cause of Humanity yifseff
Touched by the inspired hand of human
genius, that mute bronze pours forth its full
tide of living associations which, like water
from the rock of Horeb, may refresh the
soul Of him whose hopes and strength are
failing under the teilsome, and it may be.
the sad experience Of his devious journey
through life.
This statue is not merely monument to.
Washington, but an altar erected to Heroic
Virtue itself, before which the human heart
may purify its own aspirations under the
Christening influences of the great example
of the Father of his Country. and upon
which it may sacrifice every vile or mad de-
sire that may be adverse to the eountry's
good. -
And yet this monument itself will pass
away7when time, with slow corroding tooth,
shall have dfssipated, atom BY atom, Its con-
secrated dust. But when all its particles,
fugitive on the winds, shall have disappear
ed from human view, there will still survive
the monument which Washington's own ge-
Mus has erected for itself, for there is
promise IN which We all eonfde, that the
good which men do shall 1--we after them
How much Of all that we admire in human
achievement must loose its influence in the
end, because. it is founded In. I'LL. The very
process of its progress dissipates it at last,
for the circles of its impulse grow fainter as
they grow broader, until they finally disap-
pear altogether on the face of the great
ocean of life. But the good which men do
in this life, and especially suchas Washing
ton achieved, shall live always as an efficient
cause and permanent influence in the pro-
gress of human affairs The foot of the
spoiler may trample down for while what
is best in the garden of life, but heaven,
soon or late, will send its rains to wash out
all traces, of the step. Its tempered airs
will visit the terminating seed, its genial
light will guide the upward growth, until by
a full development of leaf and flower, and
fruit and seed, it has not oaly completed the
course of one charming circle of existence,
but provided for the re-appearance of anoth-
er. The work of him who planted the good
seed shall live long after all traces of the de-
|stroyer shall have been lost and forgotten.
If. then, the good which men do be the
charmed seed of life, which must increase
and multiply in the successive processes of a
continued reproduction, who shall afix LIMITS
to the growth or existence Of that which
Washington planted as deep as the founda-
tons Of human society itself? Who does
not believe that the seed which he sowed
will continue to bear the rich fruits of hu-
man happiness and social progress until
man shall have completed his destiny upon
earth p. Il = :ez-t M !se,iss2 ,,.ls.a,.
@What two places names in France
will describe the language of parent who
refuses to give his daughter in marriagea
Ushant. Havre, (you shant have her.