be my especial protection for an unbroken silence. I think that my Lord Coke has somewhere told us, and at all events the doctrine is assuredly as old as his day, that a corporation has no soul; nor has it any natural body; but only an artificial existence, or legal entity; so that it cannot manifest its intentions by any personal acts or oral discourse, and therefore it can act and speak only under its common seal, or at all events through its acknowledged living head; and through that head our Corporation has already powerfully and eloquently spoken this day. But although I have hitherto had great confidence in the law, as on my side, it seems that it has failed to be my security in the present emergency.

"In the next place, I had placed equal reliance upon a matter of fact. I came here with the distinct understanding, that on this most interesting anniversary, all of us should move in procession, and take our places at the tables, in the order of our respective college classes; and well I knew, that, as a member of the class of 1798, in the midst of that phalanx, I should be secure from all intrusion from without, so that I might comfortably say, with honest John Falstaff, 'Shall I not take mine ease in mine own inn?' But here, again, I have been mistaken in the matter of fact; for the place from which I now address you, abundantly proves, that the move and the remove have been greatly to my disquiet. In short, sir, I am in the same unhappy predicament here, in which many poor gentlemen find themselves in some other places, with a total failure of matter of law and matter of fact for my justification or defence, touching the demand for a speech.

"But, not to trouble you with any further apologies, allow me in a graver tone to say, that few occasions could be of more deep and permanent interest than the present. When I look around me, and see the numerous assemblage of students and alumni who grace this celebration, I cannot but feel a lively sensibility and unaffected gratitude, in being permitted to witness such a scene, under such auspices. I can

not turn my eyes towards the neighboring collegiate halls and academical shades, without the most touching reminiscences of former days passed there, in the season of gay and unsuspicious youth. I realize in its full force the beautiful language of the poet:

'I feel the gales, that from ye blow,

A momentary bliss bestow,

As, waving fresh their gladsome wing,
My weary soul they seem to soothe,
And, redolent of joy and youth,

To breathe a second spring.'

"Many of the topics, which naturally crowd upon the mind under such circumstances, have already been in a great measure exhausted in the excellent address to which we have just listened from the chair, and in the elaborate and powerful discourse, which occupied our attention in the morning. At this late hour, I have little to add to what has been so well discussed in them. My worthy friend who last spoke (the learned Dean of the Faculty of Divinity) has placed before us the labors and services of the Puritan clergy in establishing and protecting and aiding this University, in their true light. He has but done them the justice of bestowing warm praise upon their prompt zeal, their untiring fidelity, and their constant devotion to its interests. It was founded by them for the cause of religion and truth; and I trust it will forever remain steadfast and immovable in that

cause.

"In regard to the complimentary notice of the Law School of the University, in the toast from the chair, I cannot but receive it with a deep consciousness of the kindness which dictated it, and of the small claim that I have to appropriate to myself personally the commendation which it implies. No one appreciates more fully than myself the general importance of the study of the law. No one places a higher value upon that science, as the great instrument by which society

is held together, and the cause of public justice is maintained and vindicated. Without it, neither liberty, nor property, nor life, nor that which is even dearer than life, a good reputation, is for a moment secure. It is, in short, the great elastic power which pervades and embraces every human relation. It links man to man by so many mutual ties, and duties, and dependencies, that, though often silent and unseen in its operations, it becomes at once the minister to his social necessities, and the guardian of his social virtues. No one, therefore, can hold in more reverence than myself, the memory of that excellent man, the founder of the Professorship which I have now the honor to hold, whose bounty is worthy of all praise; for its noble object is to inculcate, through all generations, the doctrine of the supremacy of the constitution and laws. But, although I am conscious of my own inability to carry into full effect his admirable design, I trust that it will not be thought presumptuous in me to indulge the hope, that there may hereafter be found, among the pupils of this school of jurisprudence, some master spirit, who will task himself to its accomplishment, and thereby secure to himself and the school an enviable immortality. To such a one I would say,

'Bate not a jot

Of heart or hope; but still bear up, and steer
Right onward.'

"But I confess that my thoughts have been led in a somewhat different direction from that of the law by the festivities of this day. The very spot where we are assembled is consecrated by a thousand endearing associations of the past. The very name of Cambridge compels us to cast our eyes across the Atlantic, and brings up a glowing gratitude for our unspeakable obligations to the parent University, whose name we proudly bear, and have borne for two centuries. To her we owe many of our earliest scholars and best benefactors, many of our civil rulers and our ecclesiastical leaders.

They nursed our infant institution in their bosoms. They cherished the cause of letters and learning with a holy ardor and unconquered diligence, in this then scarcely reclaimed wilderness. They stamped the image of their own exalted piety and patient virtues upon their own age. They refined, while they animated, the strong lineaments of the Puritan character. They planted the precious seed, whose mature fruits we are now enjoying in a rich and luxuriant harvest. I do not say too much, then, when I proclaim, that we owe unspeakable obligations to the ancient and venerable University of Cambridge in old England. Let it be recollected, that there our pious founder, John Harvard, of glorious memory, received his education. There, also, our second President, Charles Chauncy, gathered the solid learning, which he so liberally bestowed upon his pupils here. There, also, the first three ministers of the first parish of our own Cambridge, the Rev. Mr. Hooker, the Rev. Mr. Stone, and the Rev. Mr. Shepard were matriculated, and in Emanuel College laid the foundations of that ample knowledge of things human and divine, which made them the ornaments of their own age, and the pride of succeeding generations. So numerous, indeed, was the class of educated men from this stock among our civil and clerical fathers, that it has been stated by one of our own historians, of almost unexampled minuteness and accuracy of research, that there were, as early as 1638, forty or fifty sons of that University dwelling in the sparse villages of New England, being one for every two hundred or two hundred and fifty inhabitants.

"We may, therefore, indulge a just pride in claiming our kindred with and lineage from that University. Nor ought we to desire to trace back to any higher origin our instruction in literature and religion, or our love of science and liberty. That ancient University numbers among her sons some of the brightest names in the annals of British renown. Bacon, Milton, Newton, were her own. And where in the history, I do not say of England, but of the world, can we point to

men of more extraordinary genius, more profound attainments, more comprehensive researches, or more enduring fame? It seems scarcely the coloring of poetry to declare, that

and saw

'They passed the flaming bounds of place and time,'

'The living throne, the sapphire blaze,
Where angels tremble while they gaze.'

"Mr. President, I will not detain you or the company any longer. I beg leave to offer as a toast,

"Our Ancient Mother, the University of Cambridge in old England. 'Salve, magna Parens,-magna Virúm."

A singular and characteristic indication of delicacy of feeling, is contained in the first of these two following letters:

TO HON. JUDGE PITMAN.

Cambridge, November 29th, 1836.

MY DEAR SIR:

I do not think that it would be discreet in you or me to attend any evening party during the pendency of a capital trial. It would look too much like indifference or lightness of feeling as to the result. I am, however, truly obliged to General Greene for his proffered hospitality. Such a case as we have to try is bad enough at best, and I should scarcely wish that ladies should be compelled to hear about it, or be reminded of it by our society.

Believe me, most truly, your obliged friend,

22*

JOSEPH STORY.