It is not in tranquil ease and enjoyment that the active energies of mankind are displayed.

Toils and dangers are trials of the soul.

Doomed to the first by his sentence at the fall, man by submission converts them into pleasures.

The last are, since the fall, the conditions of his existence.
To see them in advance, to guard against them by all the suggestions of prudence, to meet them with the composure of unyielding resistance, and to abide with firm resignation the final dispensation of Him who rules the ball--these are the dictates of philosophy--these are the precepts of religion--these are the principles and consolations of patriotism:--these remain when all is lost--and of these is composed the spirit of independence--the spirit embodied in that beautiful personification of the poet, which may each of you, my countrymen, to the last hour of his life, apply to himself,-- 'Thy spirit, Independence, let me share, Lord of the lion heart, and eagle eye! Thy steps I follow, with my bosom bare, Nor heed the storm that howls along the sky.' "In the course of nature, the voice which now addresses you must soon cease to be heard upon earth.

Life and all which it inherits lose their value as it draws towards its close.