LECTURES ON SUBJECTS CONNECTED WITH LITERATURE AND LIFE. BY EDWIN P. WHIPPLE, FIFTH EDITION. BOSTON: TICKNOR AND FIELDS. M DCCC LIX. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1849, by E. P. WHIPPLE, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts LECTURE I.* AUTHORS IN THEIR RELATIONS TO LIFE. called at THERE has existed in all ages a class of men, different periods by different names, but generally comprehended under the name of authors. They hold the same relation to the mind of man that the agriculturist and manufacturer bear to his body; and by virtue of their sway over the realms of thought and emotion, they have exercised a vast influence upon human affairs, which has too often been overlooked or denied by earth's industrial and political sovereigns. Operating as they do on unseen substances, and working silent and mysterious changes in the inward man, without altering his external aspect, they have strangely puzzled the whole horde of bigots and tyrants, and have written their Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin on the walls of earth's proudest palaces. On the occasion of a literary anniversary like yours, I am aware of no more appropriate * Delivered before the Literary Societies of Brown University, Sept. 1, 1846. |