(INCLOSURE.)
I cannot, fellow-citizens, more vividly express the profound gratitude I
entertain, than by saying, that you have given me as great a pleasure as
you have bestowed an unexpected honor. A pleasure such as this shall not
be dashed by the question how I can possibly deserve this distinction at
the hands of your beautiful city. You have worthily shown, not only that
you value her material prosperity, but that you are alive to higher
interests, and accord sympathy and respect to efforts directed to the
advancement of knowledge, the education of the people, and the general
culture of mankind. As a reward for a portion of these efforts, to which
my long and chequered life has been devoted, I accept with pride your
flattering gift. By the favor of two illustrious monarchs it has been my
privilege, for twenty-two years, with but little interruption, to live
as your townsman, and to find, in scenery beautiful by nature and art,
those inspirations indispensable to a life-like portraiture of nature,
which aims to display the workings of the powers of the universe.
Grateful for this good fortune, I have adorned almost all my later
writings with the historic name which has become dear to me, and in the
walls of which the year 1767 witnessed the birth of my brother, whose
memory lives in the hearts of those who have preserved a sense of the
enlarged proportions of a political life which progresses in obedience
to laws inherent in the constitution of society.