35



Pitt and Fox lie, side by side, their eloquence and rivalry
bushed in death; there Chatham towers in colossal grandeur,
his arm uplifted, as, when in life, he hurled the thunderbolts
of his imperial scorn upon his terrified antagonists. But
from all these magnificent memorials of departed greatness,
the eye of the traveler turns to rest upon that simple tablet,
on a retired pillar, sacred to the memory of one-the graces
of whose varied and brilliant conversation charmed the pol-
ished circles of that great metropolis, while the seraph tones
of that unearthly voice held listening crowds in wrapt and
breathless admiration, and by the simple majesty of truth
and goodness, awed Eng'and's proudest aristocracy before
him-and as he gazes on that simple and sublime inscrip
tion, which, forgetting his genius and accomplishments, com-
memorates his virtues only-he seems almost to hear the
angel melody of that unearthly voice, and the very air seems
vocal with the name of "WILLIAM WILBERFORCE, FRIEND OF
GOD AND MAN."
  And, when I have reflected on the hundreds and thousands
that may, hereafter, issue in successive generations from these
halls, to be the radiant sources of light and knowledge to all
around; and the ten thousand voices that shall rise in grati-
tude to heaven, and call down blessings on the name of him
who made them blessed, I have felt, that there is no purer fame,
than that which springs from doing good, and that human am-
bition, in its loftiest aspirations, could ask no prouder epitaph,
than the simple inscription which shall record the name of
hiln-"THE FOUNDER OF THE SYSTEM OF GENERAL INSTRUCTION,
FOR THE PEOPLE OF KENTUCKY."