we regard the dismal contest between the brothers of one household, the kinsmen of one ancestry, the citizens of one country, must attend the contemplation of every scene of strife; for are we not all, in a just and Christian sense, brethren of one household, kinsmen of one ancestry, citizens of one country-the world? It is clear, then, that no success in arms against our fellow-men-no triumph over brothers, who are flesh of our flesh and bone of our bone-no destruction of the life which God has given to his children-no assault upon his sacred image in the upright form and countenance of man—no effusion of the blood of any human being, under whatever apology of necessity it may be vindicated, can be the foundation of Christian Fame."*

On the 25th of July, 1848, Mr. Sumner delivered another glowing oration before the Phi Beta Kappa Society of Union College, Schenectady, entitled The Law of Human Progress. Presenting a history, recognition, and vindication of the great doctrine of the progress of the human race, this discourse displays in an admirable manner the exten

* Ah! little did Mr. Sumner imagine, while uttering these truthful words, that he himself was to be the subject of a personal assault, as violent, cowardly, and brutal as has ever been committed in a legislative body in ancient or modern times-an outrage so inhuman that it utterly shocks the sensibilities of our nature, and one perpetrated, too, in the middle of the nineteenth century, in the American capital, and in the land of boasted freedom!

sive learning of its author, and the skill with which he employs his intellectual treasures to the attainment of the grand object in view. In speaking of the ancient and modern standards of civilization, he says, with much beauty and force:

"Without here undertaking to decide the question of the supremacy of Greek or Roman genius, as displayed in individual minds, it would be easy to show, that the ancient standard of civilization never reached the heights of many modern States. The people were ignorant, vicious, and poor, or degraded to abject slavery-slavery itself the sum of all injustice and all vice. And even the most illustrious characters, whose names still shine from that distant night with stellar brightness, were little more than splendid barbarians. Architecture, sculpture, painting, and vases of exquisite perfection, attested their appreciation of the beauty of form; but they were strangers to the useful arts, as well as to the comforts and virtues of home. Abounding in what to us are luxuries of life, they had not what to us are its necessaries.

"Without knowledge there can be no sure Progress. Vice and barbarism are the inseparable companions of ignorance. Nor is it too much to say, that, except in rare instances, the highest virtue is attained only through intelligence. And this is natural; for in order to do right, we must

first understand what is right. But the people of Greece and Rome, even in the brilliant days of Pericles and Augustus, were unable to arrive at this knowledge. The sublime teachings of Plato and Socrates-calculated in many respects to promote the best interests of the race-were restrained in their influence to the small company of listeners, or to the few who could obtain a copy of the costly manuscript in which they were preserved. Thus the knowledge and virtue, acquired by individuals, failed to be diffused in their own age or secured to posterity.

"But now at last, through an agency all unknown to antiquity, knowledge of every kind has become general and permanent. It can no longer be confined to a select circle. It cannot be crushed by tyranny or lost by neglect. It is immortal, as the soul from which it proceeds. This alone renders all relapse into barbarism impossible, while it affords an unquestionable distinction between Ancient and Modern Times. The Press, watchful with more than the hundred eyes of Argus-strong with more than the hundred arms of Briareus—not only guards all the conquests of civilization, but leads the way to future triumphs. Through its untiring energies, the meditations of the closet, or the utterances of the human voice, which else would die away within the precincts of a narrow

room, are prolonged to the most distant nations and times, with winged words circling the globe. We admire the genius of Demosthenes, of Sophocles, of Plato, and of Phidias; but the printingpress is a higher gift to man than the eloquence, the drama, the philosophy, and the art of Greece." Farther on in this address we have another passage which happily illustrates the subject:

"Look at the cradles of the nations and races which have risen to grandeur, and learn from the barbarous wretchedness by which they were originally surrounded, that no lot can be removed from the influence of the Law of Progress. The Feejee Islander, the Bushman, the Hottentot, the Congo negro cannot be too low for its care. No term of imagined finality' can arrest it. The polished Briton, whose civilization we now admire, is a descendant, perhaps, of one of those painted barbarians, whose degradation still lives in the pages of Julius Cæsar. Slowly and by degrees, he has reached the position where he now stands; but he cannot be stayed here. The improvement of the Past is the earnest of still further improvement in the long ages of the Future. And who can doubt, that, in the lapse of time, as the Christian Law is gradually fulfilled, the elevation which the Briton may attain will be shared by all his fellow-men?

"The signs of improvement may appear at a

special period-in a limited circle only-among the people favored of God, who have enjoyed the peculiar benefits of commerce and of Christianity; but the blessed influence cannot be restrained to any time, to any place, or to any people. Every victory over evil redounds to the benefit of all. Every discovery, ever humane thought, every truth, when declared, is a conquest of which the whole human family are partakers. It extends by so much their dominion, while it lessens by so much the sphere of their future struggles and trials. Thus it is, while nature is always the same, the power of Man is always increasing. Each day gives him some new advantage. The mountains have not grown in size; but man has broken through their passes. The winds and waves are capricious ever, as when they first beat upon the ancient Silurian rocks; but the steamboat,

'Against the wind, against the tide,

Now steadies on with upright keel.'

"The distance between two places upon the surface of the globe is the same to-day, as when the continents were first heaved from their ocean bed; but the inhabitants can now, by the art of man, commune together. Much still remains to be done; but the Creator did not speak in vain, when he blessed his earliest children, and bade them to multiply and replenish the earth, and subdue it."