Part 22 (2/2)
This society, then, Gentlemen, is instituted for the purpose of further and further applying science to the arts, at a time when there is much of science to be applied Philosophy and the rees, and still stretch their wings like the eagle
Che in another direction, has made equally important discoveries, capable of a direct application to the purposes of life Here, again, within so short a period as the lives of some of us, almost all that is known has been learned And while there is this aggregate of science, already vast, but still rapidly increasing, offering itself to the ingenuity ofdemand for every work and invention of art, produced by the wants of a rich, an enterprising, and an elegant age
associations like this, therefore, have eest, that not only are the general circue favorable to such institutions as this, but that there seeree of propriety that one or land In no other part of the country is there so great a concentration of land the lead in the great business of doetic free labor, her abundant falls of water, and various other causes, have led her citizens to engage, with great boldness, in extensive manufactures
The success of their establishree, upon the perfection to which machinery may be carried
I left to chance or accident, is justly regarded as a fit subject of assiduous study The attention of our coly attracted towards the construction of canals, railways, dry docks, and other i a profession, offering honorable support and creditable distinction to such as e its duties Another interesting fact is before us New taste and a new exciteard to an art, which, as it unites in a singular degree utility and beauty, affords inviting encourageenius and skill I mean Architecture Architecture is military, naval, sacred, civil, or dohest i of its intimate and essential connection with the arded as having already reached its utmost perfection It seems to have been for so, the rigging, the navigating of shi+ps, have, within the knowledge of every one, been subjects of great improvement within the last fifteen years And where, rather than in New England, may still further i either a greater business, or pursued with erness?
In civil, sacred, and doest hopes of iuous indications of the growing prevalence of a just taste The principles of architecture are founded in nature, or good sense, as much as the principles of epic poetry This art constitutes a beautiful s entirely to the exact sciences In its for broad rooeneral principles, it is founded on that which long experience and the concurrent judg Certain relations of parts to parts have been satisfactory to all the cultivated generations of men
These relations constitute what is called _proportion_, and this is the great basis of architectural art This established proportion is not to be _followed_ merely because it is ancient, but because its use, and the pleasure which it has been found capable of giving to the h the eye, in ancient times, and modern times, and all civilized times, prove that its principles are well founded and just; in the saes, to be a good poem
Architecture, I have said, is an art that unites in a singular manner the useful and the beautiful It is not to be inferred fro in architecture is beautiful, or is to be so esteemed, in exact proportion to its apparent utility Nowhich evidently thwarts utility can or ought to be accounted beautiful; because, in every work of art, the design is to be regarded, and what defeats that design cannot be considered as well done The French rhetoricians have ais beautiful which is not true” They do not intend to say, that strict and literal truth is alone beautiful in poetry or oratory; but they ainst probability is not in good taste in either The same relation subsists between beauty and utility in architecture as between truth and iination in poetry
Utility is not to be obviously sacrificed to beauty, in the one case; truth and probability are not to be outraged for the cause of fiction and fancy, in the other In the severer styles of architecture, beauty and utility approach so as to be almost identical Where utility is n, the proportions which produce it raise the sense or feeling of beauty, by a sort of reflection or deduction of the mind It is said that ancient Rome had perhaps no finer specimens of the classic Doric than the sehich ran under her streets, and which were of course always to be covered from human observation: so true is it, that cultivated taste is always pleased with justness of proportion; and that design, seen to be acco use of a noble material, found in vast abundance nearer to our city than the Pentelican quarries to Athens, may well awaken, as they do, new attention to architectural improveant Ionic or the rich Corinthian, it is yet fitted, beyond marble, beyond perhaps almost any other material, for the Doric, of which the appropriate character is strength, and for the Gothic, of which the appropriate character is grandeur
It is not more than justice, perhaps, to our ancestors, to call the Gothic the English classic architecture; for in England, probably, are itscharacteristic is grandeur, its in, indeed, in ecclesiastical architecture Its evident design was to surpass the ancient orders by the size of the structure and its far greater heights; to excite perceptions of beauty by the branching traceries and the gorgeous tabernacles within; and to inspire religious awe and reverence by the lofty pointed arches, the flying buttresses, the spires, and the pinnacles, springing fro upwards towards the heavens with the prayers of the worshi+ppers
Architectural beauty having always a direct reference to utility, edifices, whether civil or sacred, es, in different places, on account of clies, on account of the different states of other arts or different notions of convenience The hypethral temple, for exaht of in our latitude; and the use of glass, a thing not now to be dispensed with, is also to be accommodated, as well as it may be, to the architectural structure These necessary variations, and ive roo from the principles of true taste May we not hope, then, to see our own city celebrated as the city of architectural excellence? May we not hope to see our native granite reposing in the ever-during strength of the Doric, or springing up in the grand and lofty Gothic, in forment, taste and devotion, shall unite to approve and to adhly iet that other branch, so essential to personal comfort and happiness,--do
In ancient tiovernratification of the overnment, or the public has been allowed too often to put aside considerations of personal and individual happiness With us, different ideas happily prevail With us, it is not the public, or the government, in its corporate character, that is the only object of regard The public happiness is to be the aggregate of the happiness of individuals
Our systeins with him when he leaves the cradle; and it proposes to instruct hie and in morals, to prepare him for his state of manhood; on his arrival at that state, to invest hihts, to protect him in his property and pursuits, and in his family and social connections; and thus to enable hi, what belongs to aFor the saeneral utility, as they affect the personal happiness and well-being of the individuals who compose the community It would be adverse to the whole spirit of our systes, if individuals were at the same time to live in houses of mud Our public edifices are to be reared by the surplus of wealth and the savings of labor, after the necessities and comforts of individuals are provided for; and not, like the Pyramids, by the unremitted toil of thousands of half-starved slaves Domestic architecture, therefore, as connected with individual comfort and happiness, is to hold a first place in the esteem of our artists Let our citizens have houses cheap, but coed by the portion of earth they cover, but by their symmetry, their fitness for use, and their durability
Without further reference to particular arts hich the objects of this society have a close connection, it reat activity, of industry, of enterprise in the various walks of life It is a period, too, of groealth and increasing prosperity It is a ti, but whenstill faster than men An auspicious eorous prosecution of those inquiries which have for their object the discovery of farther and fartherthe results of scientific research to the arts and business of life
FOOTNOTES
[88] Introductory Lecture, read at this Opening of the Course for the Season, on the 12th of November, 1828
[89] See Becke is quoted from the Miscellaneous State Papers
PUBLIC DINNER AT NEW YORK
INTRODUCTORY NOTE
In February, 1831, several distinguished gentlemen of the city cf New York, in behalf of thee number of other citizens, invited Mr Webster to a public dinner, as a mark of their respect for the value and success of his efforts, in the preceding session of Congress, in defence of the Constitution of the United States His speech in reply to Mr Hayne (contained in a subsequent volume of this collection), which, by that tireater extent than any speech ever before delivered in Congress, was the particular effort which led to this invitation
The dinner took place at the City Hotel, on the 10th of March, and was attended by a very large asse to the co rereat men, the necessary consequence of the admirable discipline of her institutions--and we are this day honored with the presence of one of those cherished objects of her attachment and pride, who has an undoubted and peculiar title to our regard It is a plain truth, that he who defends the constitution of his country by his wisdoratitude with those who protect it by valor in the field Peace has its victories as well as war We all recollect a late htened patriotisentleman to whom I have alluded were exerted in the support of our national Union and the sound interpretation of its charter
”If there be any one political precept preeed by all, it is that which dictates the absolute necessity of a union of the States under one governovernment clothed with those attributes and pohich the existing Constitution has invested it We are indebted, under Providence, to the operation and influence of the powers of that Constitution for our national honor abroad and for unexampled prosperity at home Its future stability depends upon the firitimate powers in all their branches A tendency to disunion, to anarchy a the members rather than to tyranny in the head, has been heretofore the overnments of ancient and modern Europe Our Union and national Constitution were formed, as we have hitherto been led to believe, under better auspices and with improved wisdom But there was a deadly principle of disease inherent in the systeht to question and resist, or annul, as its own judgress, or the treaties, or the decisions of the federal courts, or the ated as the Constitution prescribes, was ato collision and the destruction of the system And if, contrary to all our expectations, we should hereafter fail in the grand experi over some of the fairest portions of this continent, and destined to act, at the sarievously disappoint the hopes of mankind, and blast for ever the fruits of the Revolution
”But, happily for us, the refutation of such dangerous pretensions, on the occasion referred to, was signal and coes and delusive theories which had perplexed the thoughts and disturbed the judgments of men, were then dissipated in likeof the sun The inestimable value of the Union, and the true principles of the Constitution, were explained by clear and accurate reasonings, and enforced by pathetic and eloquent illustrations The result was the more auspicious, as the heretical doctrines which were then fairly reasoned down had been advanced by a very respectable portion of the Union, and urged on the floor of the Senate by the polished uished member from the South