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ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS
BY JOHN D. LITTLE, DEMOSTHENIAN
SOCIETY, UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA,
FEBRUARY 24, 1888.
THINGS WHICH ARE TRUE,
ROT ALL NE W."
ARE
Ladies and Gentlemen:—Many
years ago, when the present century
was but an infant in the arms of
time, the first anniversarian of the
society which 1 to-day have the
honor to represent, made his ap-^
pearance before a cultured and en
lightened audience, composed of
students of the University, and
their friends among the good peo
ple ol the “Classic City.” Since
that eventful day, each returning
year has brought forth an orator
from among our ranks, and a kind
and appreciative audience from
your people. Your ever responsive
hearts have been filled by the burn
ing eloquence of my predecessors;
pathos has moved, humor pleased,
and sentiments of patriotism stirred
you. You have heard sung from
inspired lips praises of “the land we
love so well.” Sweet symphonies
have been played upon the tender
chords of romance and reality,-^
You have listened to tlie silver^
tongued orators, as with wondrous
skill they painted beautiful pictures
of heroism, glory and renown.—
Those orators who once delighted
you have left these halls forever.—
Some have gone to “the undiscover
ed country from whose bourn no
traveller returns.” Young men,
who full of hope and energy, have
spoken earnestly from this very
stage, of life and its battles, now
“ sleep the sleep that knows no wak
ing.” Youthful orators who have
thrilled you with their eloquent
tales of heroes and heroism, have
since illustrated their themes with
their lives, and at Manassas, Get
tysburg and Cold Harbor their
bleaching bones formed monuments
of greater heroism than that in oth
ers they so highly praised. The
beardless boys who often here de-
clatmed the deeds^of heroes famed
in war, have by their actions gained
a like renown, and some have filled
heroes’ graves.
Could my predecessors, those
faithful ones of our society, come
once more upon the stage they all in
turn have graced, how like true
mile stones in the path of Time
those silent forms would stand.—
And could the silent tongues de
claim, how like successive records of
the past their meaning words would
seem. Generations and generations
have passed away since the first
Demosthenian anniversary was cel-
al the close of the century whose
lirst year gave birth to our society!
we can hear the words the silent
lips would speak and review those
records of the past. From this re
cord great lessons will go down to
bless and enlighten posterity. Not
from any one land shall these teach
ings go, but all the civilized world
will swell the record of thoughts
which illuminate the pages of the
history of this eventful century.
While we may not forecast the fu
ture; ndr draw the horoscope of
years to come, it is not heresy to as
sert that the Nineteenth Century
from its record in every field, in let
ters and art, in peace and war, in
government and in laws, will take
its proud place in the grand proces
sion of centuries gone by, and like
the great suu as it sinks to rest,
leave a gilded train of mellow g’ory
to mark its radiant pathway .
In every age man has made valua
ble additions to the history of his
race—has founded governments on
the same eternal principles of liber
ty; has sailed over the same seas,
stood upon the same mountain tops,
breathed the same pure air of heaven
lived in the same dreams, cherished
the same ambitions, and yielded to
the same great destiny.
Ij^jioone thing has the history of
tlTe presenTagTrbeeir better marked
than with what we know as progress.
To its demand the earth has yielded
up her secrets; the starry heavens
have opened the sealed book of ce
lestial laws; the lightning has been
caught from the mountain top to
light the world, or bear on its flash
the words and hopes of man. -Not
only so, but to all things have been
been added new theories, new laws.
There are new thoughts, new lan
guages, new religions; all have
sprung into a magic existence, and
entered the race where only merit
can win. Am I not justified then,
when, outside the path beaten for oc
casions like this, I should call a halt
on fancy, and looking back to the
birth of our time honored society—
the changes and progress of a cen
tury—stop for a moment to consider
the -assertion of another, that
“Things which are true are not all
new?”
heavens roll back the reply--found!
but not lost, not new, but older than
the everlasting hills: “one of the
scattered company, which, in the
unison of Nature, first sang together
on the morning of the new made
world.”
It is the cherished pride and boast
of our age that freedom to man is
the corner stone, which, in the march
of progress, has been placed in all
the structures of government that
grace the continents of Europe and
America.
The great charter of English lib
erty, unwillingly surrendered by
King John on the banks of the
Thames, marks an era, and fixes the
basis of liberty, to the English
speaking people of the world. But
it may be remembered that even be
fore the star of the Christian era
I had dawned in the east, in sunlit
Italy grew and flourished mighty
Rome, where law-givers wise and
great codified maxims of free speech
and free action, and a Roman Senate
stood a bulwark to arrest usurpation
power. Even then in Rome, a citi
zen bore the dignity of a free man,
and carried with that charm, person
al liberty, for which in every age
patriots have contended; and which
has only bloomed and blossomed in
to full fruition in this free country
of ours.
If it be true that obedience to the
laws of society is an attribute of
civilization, then history points to a
period long anterior to our age for
its rise.
‘ There is a charm in something new,
Its winsome face oft lures us from the
tried and true.”
To the scholar, it may be a book;
to the statesman, a law; to the ora
tor, a period; to the artist, a color;
to the man, a hope. When from the
blue vault of heaven is rolled back
the canopy of space, and the silvery
light of a new star is added to the
jeweled curtain of the night, science
marks it, and the news of its size,
form and constellation is carried
over hills and under waters—that all
The
ebrated. And now standing almost | may know a new star is found.
Sparta lived and flourished before
there was a Caesar at Rome. Re
splendent with public works and
buildings, adorned by temples, ruled
by magistrates and a Senate, she ri
valled the magnificence of latei
days. Brave patriotic and free her
people lived, and her gallant Kiug,
Leonidas, loyal to the homes and lib
erties of his people, responded to the
tread of the invader, and at Ther
mopylse made the most notable sac
rifice in History. The stone which
marks his fall bore an inscription
worthy of ony time and age:
Tell the Spartans, thou who pisset.h by,
That here in obedience to the laws we lie.”
We read with wonder and admira
tion the career of that Corsican sol
dier, who by his genius gave to
France renown and to himself un
dying fame. He, who in the face of
united Europe, as Geneal, Consul
or Emperor, exercised over the des
tinies of a Continent the pleasures
of his will. A mighty soldier, the
unknown paths and frowning heights
were circumstances, not obstaeles,
in the path of his ambition. A great
statesman who drew from his own
resources new rules in the science of
government—a mighty ruler who
lived secure in the affections of his
people. Even for him there was a
Waterloo. Yet we find that more
than two thousand years before Na
poleon lived another warrior with
undying hostility to Rome—ascend
ed the same mountain peaks, and in
victorious ease rested his soldiers
amid the olives and vines of the
same sunlit Italy. Brilliant soldier
of the Nineteenth Century, some of
the genius, and power and which laid
Europe, vanquished at your feet,and
subjected even the land of the Pha
raoh’s were inspired by that Cartha
ginian general who maintained for
years by the power of his deeds and
name armies invincible to even the
standards of Rome!
But let the illustrations which na
ture brings to establish the truth of
her ancient laws rest in history.
Let the triumph which genius has
achieved in arms, in government and
in art, stand as mighty monuments
of light which towi r in the track of
the past, and will shine in the years
yet to come. We may turn to some
of the things which are new, where
the history of the old lies embalmed
in deeds which challenge the admi*
ration of the world.
In the shadow of the mighty py
ramids,the witnesses in an unknown
tongue, of the science and skill of a
generation long since passed, where
the old guard of Napoleon waved in
victory the tri colors of France ;
where even the soldiers of Carthage
carried the name of freedom ; where
centered first the learning, knowl
edge and commerce of the world ;
to day dwell pigmies in progress—
infants in civilization, who tread
the silent streets of the once proud
city, and live without a nation, pen
sioners on the bounty of the world.
The ruins of imperial Rome \\j0r
buried, or are brought from bejaeath
the surface, to serve as reliefs of bet
ter days. Desceijjiants of the free
men of ^her^ancient Republic are
content to wander amid the ruined
greatness of their ancestors; while
the voices of her Cicero and Sallust
are stilled in the silence of a newer
and more degenerate civilization.
The deeds of her sons live only on
the pages of,her past, and her gates
are opened to admit, not the return
of victoriousdegions, but worship
pers, strange and from afar, at the
shrine of her old masters in art.
To principles of free government,
her portals have been closed, and
from her limits the genius of liberty
has arisen and soared away forever.
Proud and powerful England, on
the track of whose conquests the
sun never ceases to shine, whose ful
uess of strength calls tribute from
the golden shores of Australia and
the rich jungles of the Indias ; clad
in the warm furs of the Arctics, or
the soft fabrics of the Orientals.
England gives her jurisprudence to
the world, and spreads the broad