CALVERT AND PENN;
OR THE GROWTH OF
CIVIL AND RELIGIOUS LIBERTYIN AMERICA,
AS DISCLOSED IN THE PLANTING OF
MARYLAND AND PENNSYLVANIA:
A DISCOURSE BY
BRANTZ MAYER,
DELIVERED IN PHILADELPHIA BEFORE THE
PENNSYLVANIA HISTORICAL SOCIETY,
8 APRIL, 1852.
"Fosco vel di nebbia impura,
"Quando il sol gli squarcia il seno,
"Piu sereno il ciel si fa.
"Fuga il tempo, e nuda splende.
"Vincitrice e vendicata.
"L'offuscata Verita."
PRINTED FOR THE
PENNSYLVANIA HISTORICAL SOCIETY
BY JOHN D TOY
BALTIMORE
CALVERT AND PENN.
It is a venerable and beautiful rite which commands theChinese not only to establish in their dwellings a Hall ofAncestors, devoted to memorials of kindred who are dead, butwhich obliges them, on a certain day of every year, to quitthe ordinary toils of life and hasten to the tombs of their Forefathers,where, with mingled services of festivity and worship,they pass the hours in honoring the manes of thosewhom they have either loved or been taught to respect fortheir virtues.
This is a wholesome and ennobling exercise of the memory.It teaches neither a blind allegiance to the past, nor a superstitiousreverence for individuals; but it is a recognition ofthe great truth that no man is a mere isolated being in thegreat chain of humanity, and that, while we are not selfishlyindependent of the past, so also, by equal affinity, we are connectedwith and control the fate of those who are to succeedus in the drama of the world.
The Time that merges in Eternity, sinks like a drop in theocean, but the deeds of that Time, like the drop in the deep,are again exhaled and fitted for new uses; so that althoughthe Time be dead, the acts thereof are immortal—for theachieved action never perishes. That which was wrought, ininnocence or wrong, is eternal in its results or influences.[Pg 4]
This reflection inculcates a profound lesson of our responsibility.It teaches us the value of assembling to look overthe account of the past; to separate the good from the false;to winnow the historical harvest we may have reaped; tosurvey the heavens, and find our place on the ocean after thestorm. And if such conduct is correct in the general concernsof private life, how much more is it proper when weremember the duty we owe to the founders of great principles,—tothe founders of great states,—of great states thathave grown into great nations! In this aspect the principlerises to a dignity worthy our profoundest respect. History isthe garnered treasure of the past, and it is from the glory orshame of that past, that nations, like individuals, take heartfor the coming strife, or sink under irresistible discouragement.
Is it not well, then, that we, the people of this large country,divided as we are in separate governments, should ass