the drama and of human nature expounds the principle.

"The fire i' the flint

Shows not, till it be struck."

One of the most accomplished of the Latin classics declares the effect which trial and difficulty exert in bringing out this mighty force of character, "Adversa magnos probant." All history and observation demonstrate it. The mind, thrown upon its own resources, and summoning them resolutely to the effort, rises with every emergency, and confronts and surmounts all that can be brought against it. Such was the discipline of the early New-England character. Cold, hunger, disease, desolation, grappled with it in vain, at the beginning. Neither the tomahawk nor war-whoop of the Indian, nor all the terrors which hung over their defenceless hamlets, could subdue hearts armed with this inward strength. It grew with constant and healthful vigor through all vicissitudes. The neglect of the mother-country could not cast a shade dark or damp enough to wither it the most violent storms of its anger could not break it. Charters were torn away by the ruthless hand of arbitrary power, and every resource of despotism was exhausted to curb and crush it. But all was in vain. The people, severally and universally, had realized their rights and their power,

as men; and a determination to advance their own condition, to retain and enlarge their privileges, thus pervading the entire population, made them superior to all local disadvantages, and triumphant over all opposition. It placed their prosperity beyond the reach of power or fortune. So long as the arm of the settler could wield an axe, or his hand cast a vote; so long as the district schoolhouse opened its doors to impart the knowledge and the mental culture, enabling him to understand and maintain his rights, or the village church lifted its spire into the heavens to remind him of that immortal element, which, glowing in his breast, placed him on a level with the highest of his fellow-men, it would be impossible to enslave him, or prevent his progress.

It is the great advantage of free institutions, when aided by suitable provisions of education, that they give opportunity for natural diversities to display themselves. No permanent castes hang their dead weights on the community. Each individual, as he enters the scenes of active life, instead of being compelled to walk in the same path with his ancestors, chooses his own occupation, marks out a new course for himself, and by a special combination adapts the voluntary conditions of his existence to his own peculiar tastes and faculties. This impulsive projection of each individual, according to his peculiar nature, into the engagements and struggles

of business and of life in all its forms; this selforiginating and self-stimulating earnestness of pursuit, taking effect upon a whole people, is well worthy of the study of the philosophic mind. We sometimes hear it spoken of with a sneer. The determined assurance, and ingenious contrivances, and indefatigable perseverance by which New-Englanders push their fortunes in the world, in particular instances may justly excite ridicule, contempt, or aversion; but regarded in a comprehensive and general aspect, as a pervading and distinctive element of national character, such a spirit of enterprise rises into greatness, and becomes truly imposing. It secures perpetual and boundless progress. It diffuses prosperity. It evokes all latent power. It silently, and by a most benignant process, wins for a nation nobler victories and a greater dominion than the mightiest armies could have achieved.

It was not a mere personal boast, but the authentic and genuine utterance of this unconquerable and all-conquering spirit of individual enterprise and energy, when, a short time since, a distinguished merchant, himself a most signal illustration, in his history and fortune, of the power of such a spirit to command wealth and influence, in an argument on the protective policy of the country, speaking in the name of the industry of New-England, said to the national legislators, "Alter, reduce, destroy the tariff; pass whatever laws you may, adopt whatever

policy you choose, we will make money. Surely, the history of the action of government upon the labor, business, and capital of New-England, through the entire period of its dependence on the mothercountry, and I may say, without involving myself in party passions, up to this very hour, bears one continued triumphant testimony to the superiority of energy and intelligence, pervading a people, to all the powers that government can possibly exert. When their industry, bravery, hardihood, and skill, in all the multiplied forms and channels of foreign commerce, were reaping harvests of wealth on every sea, you closed their ports by embargo and war. They at once transferred the scene of their achievements. Forests vanished before them; new regions poured forth riches from their fresh and unexhausted bosoms; and everywhere the sounds of the water-wheel, the trip-hammer, and the steamengine were heard mingling with the voices of nature and of men. If, after having compelled them to give this direction to their capital and enterprise, reversing the policy of your laws, you attempt to crush the manufacturing and mechanical interests of such a people, their ingenuity and energy, constituting an inexhaustible resource, because one to which all severally contribute spontaneously, perpetually, and to the whole extent of their power, will probably be found able to elude the blow, and make it subserve the very objects it was designed

to injure. But if driven from their mills and workshops, they will again spread the wings of commerce, and, despite of your utmost efforts, place themselves ahead of all competitors on the tide of prosperity.

This principle of individual intelligence, ingenuity, and resolution, pervading the people of NewEngland, is covering the land with its monuments and trophies. In every form in which skill can combine with labor, in mechanism, in the infinite applications of science and processes of art, in patient researches into nature, and in all departments of mental activity; in solitary adventure, or in associated companies, religious, moral, political, or financial — directing the resources of multitudes with the accuracy and efficiency of a single intelligence and will-it is working incalculable effects. It turns barrenness into fertility, straightens the winding and crooked paths, smooths down every rugged obstacle, accelerates speed, reduces cost, multiplies business, creates wealth, draws useless rivers from their ancient beds into navigable and secure artificial channels, awakens the hum of inventive, animated, and well-rewarded industry along the banks of every descending stream, opens with its touch the bosom of the earth to give forth its mineral treasures, converts the ice of our northern lakes into a most welcome article of world-wide commerce, and sinking its quarries into the bare