Page:History of Delaware County (1856).djvu/26

 2 IIiyTORY OF period, and by following down its pages over the vast empires and mighty cities now engulphed in oblivion, but which the faithful historian presents in a living light before us, we are enabled profitably to compare and form a more correct appre- ciation of our own relative position. It is the saying of an eminent historian" that Libei-ty and History go hand in hand, the health and vigor of the one dependent upon and coexistent with that of the other/^ And it is certain that the more enlightened and free a people become, the more the government devolves upon themselves ; and hence the necessity of a careful study of history, which, by showing the height to which man as an intellectual being is capable of elevating himself in the scale of usefulness and moral worth, teaches that the virtues of the good man are held in sacred emulation by his countrymen for ages succeeding, long after the scythe of time has gathered the earthly remains of the actor to the silent grave. Such thoughts, or rather such reflections as these, inspire within the human bosom an ardent desire to attain that which is good and shun that which is evil, an honest and laudable ambition to become both great and good; or as another has beautifully written, G-reat only as we are good." To illustrate more fully. Who would not be a Washington? whose name and virtues are virtually asso- ciated with those eventful times, that chaos of the last century, from which sprung what was afterward destined to become the mightiest republic on the globe; '^it was the hand of Wash- ington that lit the flame," that flame which baffled the skill and prowess of the engines of the old world to extinguish, and which for seventy-nine ylars has spread as with a magic wand, North, East, South, and West — spreading and burning still ; while kings and haughty monarchs pause, behold and tremble, as they sit upon their tottering thrones, lest a burn- ing spark from the unquenchable fire of freedom should strike root in the stronghold of their own despotism, and deprive