The world moves in a grand cycle of days, and weeks, and months, and
years, susceptible of approximation, but not of exact ascertainment.
There are cycles, also, of the human understanding; or, at least,
of opinions with regard to the faculties and organism of the human
intellect. Locke was thought to have demonstrated, by unanswerable
argument, our entire lack of innate ideas; thus demolishing the
foundation upon which others had erected so many and such various
theories. But now Kant has proven, by a logic far more subtle, and
altogether more conclusive, that the mind acts only in certain
processes, or by means of certain categories, which are the laws of
its organization, and whence result conceptions or ideas not derived
from experience, or observation, or confidence in others. Plato
arrived at the same conclusion two thousand years ago, although he
supposed these conceptions or ideas to be the _reminiscences_ of a
former and superior state of intellectual existence. What has Kant
accomplished, in all his philosophy, except our remission to the
speculations of Plato, as enforced and illustrated by the wisdom of
revealed religion? And so, in the world of moral sentiment, there must
be cycles of repetition and restoration, but of restoration with _new
auspices_, and informed by principles of higher and pure significance.
The Age of Chivalry was an age of moral improvement, an age of
sympathy and generous enterprise, after centuries of darkness,
antagonism, and oppression. When scholars, therefore, shall have
become true to themselves, true to the mission of their faith and
labors, as against the overwhelming allurement of our time; shall
have become the actual prophets, and priests, and rulers, which
once they were, another Age of Chivalry will arise and dawn upon
earth. It will restore us a Government paternal in character, and
yet stripped of the usurpations by which government is now rendered
oppressive; it will restore us a Church of pristine authority and
influence, but authority and influence derived from purity in practice
as well as in precept. And with these two elements so long extinct or
lost--leaving mankind to all the terrors of tyranny and all the wiles
of imposture--with a Church and a Government reflecting the Divine
conception of men's duties toward their Creator and toward each other,
will Human Society attain, at last, the summit of human perfection.
Then will the original brotherhood and equality of our race be forever
acknowledged; then will there be work for all, and wages for work,
instead of the injustice, the crime, the misery, the wasteful disorder
which fill our hearts with so much despondency and woe. This Chivalry
is of magnificent design; since to the faith, to the hope, to the
steadfastness of our fathers, to their moral excellence and solid
greatness, will thus be united the wondrous material achievements for
which we have been so distinguished--a Chivalry of splendors enhanced
as well as rekindled, or splendors essentially bright, and joyous, and
immortal.
History tells us of republics full of promise and full of glory like
our own. Such were those which clustered upon the shores of the
Mediterranean, in almost the same latitude with us, and accomplished,
centuries ago, their rise, their zenith, and their fall. Such were
those free states and cities which braved the bleakness and inclemency
of the Baltic and German coasts; and which likewise had their
increase, and fullness, and extinction. These were all the children of
Commerce, and followed her along the borders of the sea. Their ships
explored the very ends of the world; laid the Indies under tribute;
and on this remote continent, also, planted colonies and outposts
of civilization. Alas! those republics and free states and cities
have gone to their decay; the armed legions of Despotism tread upon
their tombs, and scatter even their sacred ashes to the winds. But
may our New World, which inherits their enterprise as well as their
liberty, rejuvenate the nations grown old in oppression and despair,
and plant upon the Eastern Continent the germs of a Civilization
nobler than has yet been recognized--nobler than was ever sung by the
poets, or foretold by oracles--a Civilization which shall raise up
LABOR from its fallen estate, heal its infirmities, cover
its nakedness, and enthrone it with honor; as the rescued maniac, by
Divine compassion, was seated near the feet of our Saviour, clothed,
and in his right mind!