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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