Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from Oration on the Duties Imposed by the Spirit of the Age: Delivered by Appointment of the Trustees Before the Gwinnett Manual Labor School Institute at Its Annual Examination, July 26th, 1838
These are some of the beacon lights which history exposes to our view, to illumine our path, to warn and to guide us. Will it be said that in the instances referred to, the causes which then opera ted have ceased to exist? It is indeed true, that where intelligence and refinement now prevail, we need not fear the conquests of the barbarian, or incursions from the Goth and the Vanda it is never theless triie, that the great efficient cause which then was followed by such fearful results, still exists in all its power. Human nature now, is the same as it was then. Then its innate depravity, its predisposition to yield to the sway of its animal propensities, and its actual submission to their dominion, generated the effeminacy which rendered its victims the easy prey of the spoiler. It is a hu miliating truth, and, disguise it as we may, we cannot eirado its force, that here it is, in this condition of our nature, in this abiding memento and consequence of transgression, is constituted the cen tripetal power which has hitherto driven man, intellectual man, from the o1bit in which he should revolve, and which will, unless its in?uence be counteracted by a power adequate to repel it, con tinne to be felt, and sink him lower and lower till he attain the level with the brute creation. It is vain. Therefore, it is preposterous, to expect that our race will be improved, that it will ever su tain its piesent moral elevation by remaining in a State of quiescence and inactivity. It is equally vain and preposterous to imagine, that any efforts for its improvement, any plans for its renovation, moral, social or religious, will prove otherwise than abortive, which do not recognize this prominent trait in its character, this universal law of its nature, and provide for its removal 01 modification. The centrifugal power piust be created, and be applied and sustained with untiring zeal, unyielding perseve1ance and concentrated energy.
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