The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1879-02-01
THE LOST ARTS.

The followin is an abstract Of the cele-
brated lecture of Wendell Phillips on The
Lost arts
am To speak to You to night ON the
Lost Arts. chose this subject for lee
ture many years ago from this considera.
tion. 1t had always seemed to me that
one of the most prominent characteristic les
Of tho American people was self. eonceit;
or, rather, an exaggerated estimate of our
own Importance, Of our own capabilities,
of our own achievements, and of our own
place in relation to the centuries We can
whip all creation; that is the phrase and
1t means. substantially and essentially. that
we stand in front and at the head of all
civiliz ition: that we have done what no
body ever did before. and We lead the world
Now it seemed to me that if could turn
the eyes Of an audience back to the earliest
civilization, to the 7ery childhood of the
race, should show them that progress had
not been constantly advancing, but that it
was moving forwards and back wards, up
and down-au oscillation-and that really
the world had stood once. at least, il not
twice, on the very level where We stand to.
day. Whether you grant me all claim.
or believe all assert at any rate. from such
view, you would get a more discrimiuat-
ing estimate of your real place in the cen
turics, or what really does distinguish us
as people from all that precedes us.
say this was my motive IN choosing this
subject many years ago: but the centennial
year mas remi nded me that there is one sub.
ject III regard To which the American ma.
ton may, without conceit. claim it has
done what 10 nation before ever did OF
ever dared to try; it has succeeded in &C
complishing that which no other people
ever ventured, aud that is, it has rested the
state on every man-on manhood mot as
III old tImes. on property, nor on class, but
upon every man. WE'LL now, that Is
great thing. The highest level of heroism
that our fathers touched a ury ago was
not on the battle field; it was neither at
Saratoga, nor at Yorktown; it was when
the battles were ended; aud they rested in
willing to trust him; that it was safe To
leave man with all the rights he gave him,
and 10 establish universal suffrage Vow
this had never been done before In the
Greek republic, suffrage was limited to the
Greek race; 81 was it at Rome. Switzer
land had republic, but there was no rec
ognition of the man; Holland in her repub-
lie, based suffrage on land. not ON man; we
10 trust humanity. When the century had
ended. and this republic had survived a
hundred years, instead Of only forty as Eng
land had prophesIcd when all such pruphs-
sizes had been faIslied, it was no immod-
esty, it WAS no self-couceit it was in sober
earnest, good sense that We invited the
world to come aud measure the grandeur
OF what we had done: to see if We had not
opencd new chapter it, the possibilities of
the race.
But the trouble is, the American leaps
OF admitted superiority; he leaps into an
other channel of literature, the arts and
sciences and culture, and claims the same
precedence in those that he has in politics
and there is the mistake. Now, in what |
may say | shall coniine my self 10 the me
chapic arts, that administer to comfort and
luxury, and upon which, as a people We
specially pride ourselves; might show you
that, in every field of literary effort, in the
drama, poetry. painting, sculpture, that
the childhood of the race reaped heavy
harvest where we are only cleaners.
could take moment and show you that
even our newspaper Jokes are not original
with Us. but were some of them made in
the streets of Athens centuries ago
The speaker here quoted several laugh
able jokes, and told the time when and by
whom they were first uttered.
shall concern myself with the mechanic
arts. America has good advantage. God
gave us a continent to subdue; we were to
dot it with cities and cobweb it with rail
roads. Steam i, made TO reap our harvests:
the lightning is sent on our errands. "The
genuine Yankee baby looks over his era
AMI gets out patent on it 10y the time he
is nine months old" II any where Ameri
cans can claim that they beat the world, il
is in the mechanic arts. Every scholar
In, hat h., IN
of the marvellous things done by old chem
lists. When our fathers could not under.
stand these things, nor copy them, they
said, here the man lies Ii was an easy
delivcrance. Take lIerodotus; he was called
the father Of history four hundred years
before Christ. His books are so erammed
with marvellous statements Of things done
by the ancients, that two hundred years
ago our fathers called him the " Father of
Lies But this singular fact was noticed
Every invention illustrated and explained
the old Greek. His stock began to rise till
he is now called again the - Father Of His
tory" The mistake Of our fathers was in
measuring every thing 10y the yard stick of
their own ignorance. Strabo, Greek that
wrote Roman history hundred years later
than the days Of Christ, left an account
of the siege of Syracuse. Archmedes. the
great mathematician, hurried home to de
fend his birth place, and using the top of
the walls Of the city as a fulcrum. by lev
ers, lifted the Roman ships from the water
and dropped them down again, thus dash
ing them to pieces. Thus far the world
believes; for, give a fuicrum sufficient lever
age, and you can move the world; but
Strabo goes on to add that, when the Ro-
man captains perceived this, they with
drew to the outer edge Of the harbor, and
there threw balls and stones into the city