The Duty of the American Scholar to Politics and the Times: An Oration, Delivered on Tuesday, August 5, 1856, Before the Literary Societies of Wesleyan University, Middleton, Conn., |
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Page 7
... discussed the abstract nature of patriotism on that Greek sum- mer day , through whose hopeless and immortal hours Leonidas and his three hundred stood at Thermopyla for liberty ? And , to - day , as the scholar meditates that deed ...
... discussed the abstract nature of patriotism on that Greek sum- mer day , through whose hopeless and immortal hours Leonidas and his three hundred stood at Thermopyla for liberty ? And , to - day , as the scholar meditates that deed ...
Page 36
... discussed . The professed abolitionists were re- viled as fanatical traitors , and the entire practical silence of the North was justified by saying that the discussion of the subject had only increased the difficulty by inflaming the ...
... discussed . The professed abolitionists were re- viled as fanatical traitors , and the entire practical silence of the North was justified by saying that the discussion of the subject had only increased the difficulty by inflaming the ...
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The Duty of the American Scholar to Politics and the Times: An Oration ... George William Curtis No preview available - 2018 |
The Duty of the American Scholar to Politics and the Times: An Oration ... George William Curtis No preview available - 2017 |
Common terms and phrases
allowed the slave-trade Ameri American scholar beautiful Benjamin Franklin Calhoun called cause cerned citizen Congress Constitution Convention crime debate deed degrades his order demoralization disgraced labor duty eternal fed and lodged fight free laborer free territory freedom of speech fugitive slave bill fulfill his office Gentlemen glad Greece heart honor Human Slavery immortal garland individual interest John Milton John Quincy Adams Judea justice Kansas Leonidas literature loves Massachusetts Milton Missouri Compromise monk moral never noble North parish beadles party of Freedom pedant Pennsylvania petition politics preacher President principle privilege prosperity pulpit question Quincy representative of thought republic Rome sagacious scholar's office scholarly scholarship senator sentiment settled silence and peace slave party Slave Power slave-labor slaveholder society southern speak system of slave Tallmadge Thermopyla threat of disunion tion to-day traitor tree tyranny Union Virginia William Tell Xerxes York young Americans
Popular passages
Page 19 - I cannot praise a fugitive and cloistered virtue, unexercised and unbreathed, that never sallies out and sees her adversary, but slinks out of the race, where that immortal garland is to be run for not without dust and heat.
Page 27 - I never mean, unless some particular circumstances should compel me to it, to possess another slave by purchase, it being among my first wishes to see some plan adopted by which slavery in this country may be abolished by law.
Page 46 - I call upon you to determine whether this great experiment of human freedom, which has been the scorn of despotism, shall, by its failure, be also our sin and shame. I call upon you to defend the hope of the world. The voice of our brothers who are bleeding, no less than of our fathers who bled, summons us to this battle. Shall the children of unborn generations, clustering over that vast western empire, rise up and call us blessed or cursed ? Here are our Marathon and Lexington ; here are our heroic...
Page 45 - Because our fathers fought in this great cause, we must not hope to escape fighting. Because, two thousand years ago, Leonidas stood against Xerxes, we must not suppose that Xerxes was slain, nor, thank God, that Leonidas is not immortal. Every great crisis of human history is a pass of Thermopylae, and there is always a Leonidas and his three hundred to die in it, if they can not conquer.
Page 12 - We are inclined to think that the feeling excited would be a good deal like that which was expressed by Dr. George about the praises of the great King of Prussia, who entertained considerable doubts whether the King, with all his victories, knew how to conjugate a Greek verb in iu.
Page 45 - ... fight of Freedom. I call upon you to say, with your voices, whenever the occasion offers, and with your votes, when the day comes, that upon these fertile fields of Kansas, in the very heart of the continent, the upas-tree of slavery, dripping death-dews upon national prosperity and upon free labor, shall never be planted. I call upon you to plant there the palm of peace, the vine and the olive of a Christian civilization.
Page 42 - He must recognize that the intelligent exercise of political rights which is a privilege in a monarchy, is a duty in a republic. If it clash with his ease, his retirement, his taste, his study, let it clash, but let him do his duty. The course of events is incessant, and when the good deed is slighted, the bad deed is done. Young scholars, young Americans, young men, we are all called upon to do a great duty. Nobody is released from it. It is a work to be done by hard strokes, and everywhere. I see...
Page 42 - Therefore, as a man must breathe and see before he can study, the scholar must have liberty, first of all ; and as the American scholar is a man and has a voice in his own government, so his interest in political affairs must precede all others. He must build his house before he can live in it. He must be a perpetual inspiration of freedom in politics. He must recognize that the intelligent exercise of political rights, which is a privilege in a monarchy, is a duty in a republic.
Page 42 - He must be a perpetual inspiration of freedom in politics. He must recognize that the intelligent exercise of political rights which is a privilege in a monarchy, is a duty in a republic. If it clash with his ease, his retirement, his taste, his study, let it clash, but let him do his duty. The course of events is incessant, and when...
Page 8 - The sacred story hands down to endless infamy the Priest and the Levite who passed by on the other side. Among gentlemen, this scholar pleads the cause dear to every gentleman in history, and a bully strikes him down. In a republic of free men, this scholar speaks for freedom, and his blood stains the Senate floor. There it will blush through all our history. That damned spot will never out from memory, from tradition, or from noble hearts.