Some few are going up, and carrying us up, heavenward; calculated, I mean, to be of priceless advantage in teaching — in forwarding the teaching of all generations. Others, a frightful multitude, are going down, down; doing ever the more and the wider and the wilder mischief. Keep a strict eye on that latter class of books, my young friends!

And for the rest, in regard to all your studies and readings here, and to whatever you may learn, you are to remember that the object is not particular knowledges-not that of getting higher and higher in technical perfections, and all that sort of thing. There is a higher aim lying at the rear of all that. You are ever to bear in mind that there lies behind that the acquisition of what may be called wisdom- namely, sound appreciation and just decision as to all the objects that come round you, and the habit of behaving with justice, candor, clear insight, and loyal adherence to fact. Great is wisdom; infinite is the value of wisdom. It cannot be exaggerated; it is the highest achievement of man: "Blessed is he that getteth understanding." And that, I believe, on occasion, may be missed very easily; never more easily than now, I sometimes think. If that is a failure, all is failure!-- From the address to the Students of Edinburgh University, April 2, 1866.

O bounteous seas that never fail !
O day remembered yet!

O happy port that spied the sail
Which wafted Lafayette!

Pole-star of light in Europe's night,

That never faltered from the right.

From Lafayette's Autobiography.

-EMERSON.

You ask me at what period I first experienced my ardent love of liberty and glory. I recollect no time of my life anterior to my enthusiasm for anecdotes of glorious deeds, and to my projects of travelling over the world to acquire fame. Republican anecdotes always delighted me; and, when my new connections wished to obtain for me a place at court, I did not hesitate displeasing them to preserve my independence. I was in that frame of mind when I first learnt the troubles in America; they only became thoroughly known in Europe in 1776, and the memorable declaration of the 4th of July reached France at the close of that same year.

After having crowned herself with laurels and enriched herself with conquests; after having become mistress of all seas; and after having insulted all nations,- England had turned her pride against her own colonies. North America had long been displeasing to her; she wished to add new vexations to former injuries, and to destroy the most sacred privileges. The Americans, attached to the mother country, contented themselves at first with merely uttering complaints; they only accused the ministry, and the whole nation rose up against them; they were termed insolent and rebellious, and at length declared the enemies of their country: thus did the obstinacy of the king,

the violence of the ministers, and the arrogance of the English nation oblige thirteen of her colonies to render themselves independent. Such a glorious cause had never before attracted the attention of mankind; it was the last struggle of Liberty; and, had she then been vanquished, neither hope nor asylum would have remained for her. The oppressors and oppressed were to receive a powerful lesson; the great work was to be accomplished, or the rights of humanity were to fall beneath its ruin. ... When I first learnt the subject of this quarrel, my heart espoused warmly the cause of liberty, and I thought of nothing but of adding also the aid of my banner. Some circumstances, which it would be needless to relate, had taught me to expect only obstacles in this case from my own family; I depended, therefore, solely upon myself, and I ventured to adopt for a device on my arms these words "Cur non?" that they might equally serve as an encouragement to myself, and as a reply to others. Silas Deane was then at Paris; but the ministers feared to receive him, and his voice was overpowered by the louder accents of Lord Stormont. He despatched privately to America some old arms, which were of little use, and some young officers, who did but little good, the whole directed by M. de Beaumarchais; and when the English ambassador spoke to our court, it denied having sent any cargoes, ordered those that were preparing to be discharged, and dismissed from our ports all American privateers. Whilst wishing to address myself in a direct manner to Mr. Deane, I became the friend of Kalb, a German in our employ, who was applying for service with the insurgents (the expression in use at that time), and who became my interpreter. He was the person sent by M. de Choiseul to examine the English colonies; and on his return he received some money, but never succeeded in obtaining an audience, so little did that minister in reality think of the revolution whose retrograde movements some persons have inscribed to him! When I presented to Mr. Deane my boyish face (for I was scarcely nineteen years of age), I spoke more of my ardour in the cause than of my experience; but I dwelt much upon the effect my departure would excite in France, and he signed our mutual agreement. The secrecy with which this negotiation and my preparation were made appears almost a miracle; family, friends, ministers, French spies and English spies, all were kept completely in the dark as to my intentions. Amongst my dis

creet confidants, I owe much to M. du Boismartin, secretary of the Count de Broglie, and to the Count de Broglie himself, whose affectionate heart, when all his efforts to turn me from this project had proved in vain, entered into my views with even paternal tenderness.

Preparations were making to send a vessel to America, when very bad tidings arrived from thence. New York, Long Island, White Plains, Fort Washington, and the Jerseys, had seen the American forces successively destroyed by thirty-three thousand Englishmen or Germans. Three thousand Americans alone remained in arms, and these were closely pursued by General Howe. From that moment all the credit of the insurgents vanished; to obtain a vessel for them was impossible : the envoys themselves thought it right to express to me their own discouragement, and persuade me to abandon my project. I called upon Mr. Deane, and I thanked him for his frankness. "Until now, sir," said I, "you have only seen my ardour in your cause, and that may not prove at present wholly useless, I shall purchase a ship to carry out your officers; we must feel confidence in the future, and it is especially in the hour of danger that I wish to share your fortune." My project was received with approbation; but it was necessary afterwards to find money, and to purchase and arm a vessel secretly: all this was accomplished with the greatest despatch.

From Charles Sumner's Oration on Lafayette.

Meanwhile came tidings of melancholy reverses which followed the Declaration of Independence, and of the scanty forces of Washington tracking the snow with bloody feet, as they retreated through New Jersey,- seeming to announce that all was lost. The American Commissioners frankly confessed that they could not encourage Lafayette to proceed with his purpose. But his undaunted temper was quickened anew, and, when they told him that with their damaged credit it was impossible to provide a vessel for his conveyance, he exclained: "Thus far you have seen my zeal only: now it shall be something more. I will purchase and equip a vessel myself. It is while danger presses that I wish to join your fortunes."

On the 26th of April, 1777, Lafayette set sail for America. In a letter to his wife, written on the voyage, under date of

June 7, 1777, his sympathy with the great objects of the national contest is tenderly revealed. "I hope, for my sake," he writes, in words worthy of everlasting memory, "that you will become a good American. This is a sentiment proper for virtuous hearts. Intimately allied to the happiness of the whole human family is that of America, destined to become the respectable and sure asylum of virtue, honesty, toleration, equality, and of a tranquil liberty." Where are nobler words of aspiration for our country than this simple testimony by a youth of nineteen, pouring out his heart to his wife of seventeen? For seven weeks laboring through the sea, yet sustained by thoughts like these, he arrived at last on the coast of South Carolina. It was dark, but, pushing ashore in a boat, and following the guidance of a light, he found himself under a friendly roof. His first word, as he touched the land, was a vow to conquer or perish_with_it.*

Undertaking this enterprise at a time when the sea and all beyond were little known, the youthful adventurer showed a heart of "triple oak." Our admiration is enhanced when we recall the charms of country, rank, and family left behind, — with perils of capture and war braved even before reaching the land, and especially when we contemplate the motive in which this enterprise had its origin. Rarely has hero gone forth on so beautiful an errand; for he carried words of cheer to our fathers, then in despairing struggle for the Great Declaration, and opened the way for those fleets and armies of France soon after marshalled on our side; nor is it too much to say that he was the good angel of Independence.

*When Lafayette crossed to America the second time, in 1780, after his brief visit to France, he landed at Boston, for which place, at a later date, he recorded a " predilection," chiefly, it appears, because there were no slaves there, and all were equal. In 1799, in the straitened circumstances in which he found himself, upon his release from Olmütz, his thoughts turned to America, and he conceived the plan of buying a farm either in Virginia, not far from what he calls the "Federal City," or in New England, not far from Boston; and thus, in one of those tender letters to his wife, he balances between these two places: " am aware, dear Adrienne, that I, who complain of the serfs of Holstein, as something very melancholy to a friend of Liberty, should find in the valley of the Shenandoah negro slaves; for Equality, which in the Northern States is for everybody, exists in the Southern States for the whites only. Therefore, while I perceive all the reasons which should draw us to the neighborhood of Mount Vernon, and the capital of the Federal Union, yet I should prefer New England."

During Lafayette's visit to Boston, in 1824, he lodged in the house at the corner of Park and Beacon Streets, afterwards the residence of George Ticknor. On no occasion were there ever so many people in Boston before. Lafayette was cheered to the echo, whenever he went abroad; and the corner of Park Street was seldom deserted. One day, when he returned from some excursion with the mayor, there was a great crowd to see him alight. He turned to the mayor, and said, "Mr. Quincy, were you ever in Europe?" "No, General. "Then," said Lafayette, "you cannot understand the difference between a crowd in Europe and here in Boston. Why, I should imagine the people of your city were a picked population out of the whole human race." At another time, while in Boston, Lafayette said, "The world should never forget the spot where once stood Liberty Tree.” — ED.

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