An address on American literature, delivered before the Philomathean Society of Indiana University, at its annual commencement, September 25th, 1839 / by James Conquest Cross.

  • Cross, James Conquest.
Date:
1839
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An address on American literature, delivered before the Philomathean Society of Indiana University, at its annual commencement, September 25th, 1839 / by James Conquest Cross. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

    3/86
    ADDRESS. Were wc to be guided by the results of experience in other places, in regard to the measures which most certainly conciliate prejudice and inspire a generous par- tiality, we should attempt to win your favor by an un- restrained indulgence in the turgid effusions of adulato- ry admiration, and by raising sacrificial whisperings in your ears. We trust, however, that, to-day, we are blessed with the singular privilege of addressing an au- dience, so free from uneducated prejudice,—so liberal and enlightened in opinion, and so wise in the judgment it has formed of the value to truth of free and indepen- dent discussion, that it will be enabled to listen, with pa- tience if not interest, to the strictures, sometimes severe, but believed to be always just, which we may make on the present state and future prospects of American Literature. This theme has not been selected from a belief of the peculiar applicability of its discussion to the circumstances of those whom we expected to meet at this time and in this place. Entirely unacquainted, by personal observation, with the character of this com- munity, and having been honored with an invitation from the Philomathean Society, to address it, although un- known until to-day, to every one of its members, I should be doing violence to my sense of justice, as well as wanting in gratitude to those who, I fear, more from a 1 TJANGE'