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  THE OADIGT. 57
we
  literature and exist in seeming prosperity, but if the underlying
  principles of their government are false, sooner or later it will
  _ crumble and fall.
  I appeal to history I Where are the nations that were once “1'.lCll ·
  with the labors of ancient art and emblazoned with the pomp of
c heraldy ?"
Where Babylonia, the earliest cradle of human culture'? And · ‘
. Assyria, her conqueror, the terror of nations? Back across the ages
4 comes their impressive answer. I oppressed my people and fell by
- my own injustice. Egypt, like her mummies, sleeps in death. The
_ I once proud and potent mistress of the Nile, has fallen, and her very
. i monuments`are silent witnesses of her injustice and cruelty. Her
A sombre pyrami d——the watch towers of eternity, rising majestic and
_ colossal-—the most impressive monuments ever reared by the hand of
’ · man, were wrought by thousands of bleeding, suffering slaves, as an
enduring resting place, for the tyrants who oppressed them. A sad
°` commentary on man’s inhumanity to man. But such is the story of
` human progress. Dynasty after dynasty, government after govern-
_ · ment, are born in obscurity, reach a maximum development and then
pi fade into the realm of forgetfulness. 'l`he history of them all, each in '
I its own language, is but a rehearsal of the same story—the crimes,
__ passions and coniiicting interests of men. Each is influenced by the
one that has gone before, and in turn gives valuable lessons for the
guidance of its successor. We pass over the historyofsluggish India,
despotic Persia and conservative China——the worshiper of a past—and
read the stories of nations that have left a more immediate impress
I upon our civilization of to-day. I
I ‘VVe turn to another chapter of history and are led into that beauti-
ful classic land, the haunt of the muses, the birthplace of eloquence,
the mother of arts and sciences, the peerless queen of intellect, that
country whose landscape has inspired the human mind to its loftiest
flights of poesy, whose art has evoked the wonder, admiration and
envy of each succeeding age. Greece, too, erected a government and
called it a republic. But it was a "libel upon free government."
_ ‘ A confederation of States, having no principle of political unity.
_ An oligarchy in one city, a democracy in another, unable to rise from
b the conception of the city to the higher conception of the unity of the
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