Excerpt from The Presbyterian Quarterly and Princeton Review, Vol. 6: April, 1877 From this source is to come the power which will adjust the complications which confront us. From this standpoint, it will be well for us to look out upon the epoch which now Opens, and trace the lines of problem which stretch away from us. Let us first stand for a moment at the college of a century ago, and note the problems which educated minds then had to meet. Look at the intellectual vigor in those educated and educating councils. Genius often takes shape in art and poetry and polite culture, but the loftier forms of intellectual power are those which discern the principles and laws which affect a race, which penetrate centuries of palpitating life, and which sweep out upon the hopeful progress of mankind. The noble literature of our Revolutionary period belonged to that loftier range. The writings, addresses, speeches, and the great resultant papers of that time, contain those bold com pre hensive topics which run, like the established currents of the air, like beams and hues of light, like rocks of geology, above and through and beneath universal society. To these, with the grandest impulse, the eager instincts of the mind then sprang. I. What a marvelous sifting had gone on, for example, for more than a century before even those strong men knew well their rights, and knowing, dared maintain them. The works of' creation are clear after chaos has departed. Along the thin coast of colonies, how much of brooding chaos lay, in respect to the simplest principles of true freedom, from the settlement of Jamestown and Plymouth, until the very hour of seventy six. Vast numbers of the primitive population were in the mist, thick as an ocean fog, Light was created, but day did not dawn till revolution began. Adams put forth his solid strength. Hamilton beamed in firm and lucid exposition. Witherspoon glowed in sermon and in speech. Jefferson ar rayed his keen philosophical analysis. Washington, in his se vere and majestic wisdom, shed light. The whole energy of some of those men. And of others like them, was required to compel the common mind to discern the plain lines along which the security of their own rights lay. Security of personal rig/its was the first problem for the educated mind then. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.