[THE DOMESTIC ALTAR.]
And in directing you to the domestic altar as the means of effecting this proud distinction, I would say that it is an altar of such high and sacred character, that it can be reared and successfully sustained by no nation, unless that nation be eminent in its encouragement of enlightenment and religion. I do not mean by this declaration that the Roman and Grecian boys wanted fathers to point them to the senate and to the field, and mothers to teach them patriotism at the fire-side. There was scarcely a father among them but had rather had his son a corpse than a coward. And but few of the mothers of the age were unlike that noble Grecian who told her son, when he went to battle, to return with his shield, or upon it. But I mean that the Grecian and Roman youth were taught patriotism in the neglect of domestic virtues. They were taught to encourage a thirst for eminence in the state, and for military renown at the expense of the social affections. We have an example in the noble heroism of Cornelia, the mother of the Gracchii. She infused into the souls of her illustrous sons the fire of patriotic devotion, which made them jewels for the state, but which lost them to her in the domestic circle for ever. But the American youth live in a very different age, and their system of instruction, in nearly all its departments, is of a very different character. In their education, the love for eminence in the state is not neglected, and they are taught to cherish the patriotism that burned in the bosoms of the Greek and Roman youth. And with this patriotic interest is mingled the training of the social affections, under the benign rays of religious enlightenment. And this is the sort of education which rears its subjects, not only for the domestic circle, but for their country and their God. And this should be the great purpose of American teaching in the developement of American character in the use and for the sustaining of American institutions. And what we have to regret is that it is not carried out more thoroughly, and rendered more efficient in practice.
We boast, as we have cause to do, of our position as free American citizens, and we rejoice in the powerful effect the domestic altar has upon our national character. But we are compelled to mingle reproach with our boast, and regret with our joy, that as a nation we should in any wise neglect that most important of all teaching—the teaching of character. In this we must acknowledge that we are deficient, and that the blessings of the domestic altar are not as profitable, nor as extensively diffused as they might be. What we lack is systematic effort in the formation of character. And judging from our want of systematic effort in this teaching, and our indifference about it, the supposition might be indulged that we are not aware of the importance and necessity of holding up character before the youthful mind as a distinctive part of education. Our practice would seem to indicate that we regard character as a thing that comes of itself, or that it is induced by the moral and mental training which the youth obtains at home, and at the schools. It is greatly to the disadvantage of the youth that, in all the departments of study in which he engages, there is not sufficient effort made to make him what he must be if he would rise to eminence in after life. It is greatly to his disadvantage that he is not taught in clear, and distinct, and systematic terms, what the American character is, and of what elements it is composed, and what he must be if he would carry out that character as it should be carried out in active life. The boy should be pointed forward to his position of responsibility as a man. He should be pointed to the period when he must take his place amid the busy multitudes of the world, and wrestle as his fathers have done for the place of success which he hopes to attain. He must have a place at the social circle, and he should be taught how he shall adorn it. He must be taught what he must be in private life, that he may do honor to his domestic relations. He must be taught his duty as a citizen, that, in the performance of that duty, he may become eminent, and that society and the state may be the better for his having lived in them. And he must be shown what he must be in religion, that he may fulfil his obligations both to God and man, and that his religious character may have its influence upon the community in which he dwells. In a systematic course of teaching for the developement of character in these several departments, we have to acknowledge our deficiency. And although the domestic altar stands pre-eminent in our midst, and operates powerfully upon the American mind, it is by no means what it ought to be, and its influence upon developing character is far less than more systematic effort would make it. And this defect is a serious impediment in the path of the American boy. He is prepared to act out the character of the Greek and the Roman, because the elements of that character are combined in his. But it is a different thing to act out the character of the American, because it combines the other elements which are sent forth from the domestic altar. A prominent and distinguishing feature in American teaching, should be the full developement of the domestic character. And when the domestic altar shall be adequate to the supply of its own demands, the American boy will be properly instructed in his character as an American citizen.
[GRECIAN AND ROMAN PATRIOTISM.]
The Greeks and Romans were patriots more from passion and impulse, than from regular and systematic training. Hence the impassioned and impulsive outbursts that are so frequent in their history. The Roman seemed ever ready to lay his life upon the altar of his country; and the soul of the Greek was unconquerable even by superior prowess of some brother Greek, and, as far as the self-sacrificing spirit of the patriot is viewed, their superiors are not found upon record. But there is another element that enters into the formation of the American character. With the noble traits that raised the Greeks and the Romans above every other nation of their day, there are to be associated in the American the more refined qualities of character which render him pre-eminent as a social and religious being. And without these qualities the American character is incomplete; they are essential to its exhibition in the perfection of its beauty.
I do not say that the youth of Greece and Rome were entirely destitute of those social qualities which I recognise as being the peculiar adornment of the American character. These qualities were certainly possessed in a degree by the men of those nations. But what I say is, that they were lost sight of in the requirements for the forum and the field, and obscured in the brilliance of the statesman’s honors and glare of military glory. Thus it is clear that it was the patriot which those ages were most likely to exhibit, while other and equally essential parts of character were overlooked and obscured. The domestic altar was wanting, in its softening and subduing influence, to mould the man for the domestic circle, and for the refined intercourse it demands.
[PROPER ELEMENTS OF CHARACTER.]
The elements of which character is composed have been combined in the various nations of the past in different proportions. And if we continue our remarks in relation to the Greeks and Romans, as partially representative of them all, we cannot fail to see that the passion for the cabinet or the field has been predominant in proportion as either has commanded the most of these elements. But it appears as if it were left for the American to combine into a perfect character all the elements of which it is composed, and to hold that character up an improvement upon the past, and as a guide and pattern for the future. And that this perfect character is not yet fully developed in a national point, is most clearly certain. When it is, the world will look upon what it has not yet seen; a nation combining in right proportions the elements which make man a social and religious being, with those which make him a patriot. Then may the man be regarded as the representative of his nation; and the elements of which the character of his nation is composed, will be found to centre in himself.