Page:Address on the opening of the Free Public Library of Ballarat East, on Friday, 1st. January, 1869.djvu/24

 18 And uniting in a population so composite as is ours the qualities, the memories, the traditions—not of a single people, but of all which represent civilisation; formed, like that of Great Britain itself, of the sons of many soils, it may he said without presumption that we have come into the possession of our estate in the full vigor of matured manhood, with, for our guidance, all the material advantages which the ripe experience of other nations in affairs social, commercial, scientific, practical, affords; and for our inheritance, all which in religion, charity, literature, and the arts cultivates, refines, and gives dignity to man.

Have we not, then, a smile for such commiseration?

In the migrations of ancient times the household gods and the statues of heroes accompanied the adventurous wanderers. The Greek of Asia, of Africa, of Sicily, of Naples, of Marseilles bethought him with a patriotic glow of his Homer, his Æschylus, Miltiades, Aristides, Phidias, or Zeuxis. The Roman of Gaul, of Germany, of Spain, of Britain, looked back with equal delight on his simple and hardy predecessors who had scorned the yoke of kingly tyranny, and raised to its proud pre-eminence the power of the commonwealth.

So in like manner our new compatriots, who enjoy with us the same freedom, engage themselves in the same toils, who are affected by the like trials, touched by the like sympathies, have brought with them the revered names of their illustrious men, now common to us all alike, to be enshrined amongst us with our Bacon, Shakspere, Milton, Newton, and the other countless men who have rendered Britain glorious.

We may now have visibly before; us the noble acts of patriotism, heroism, piety, and virtue, not of the