ation of almost the largest mass of people congregated
upon the globe. [Applause.]

Contemplating these marvellous changes, past and to come, our
reflections are not all pleasant. Often do we regret with Washington
living the passing away of the Arcadian simplicity which once prevailed
upon this island. Often do we recall his plaintive words, applied to
this very community: "Let no man congratulate himself when he beholds
the child of his bosom or the city of his birth increasing in magnitude
and importance." Yet mournful reflections over the passing away of
childhood's days have small place in the ceaseless activity of modern
life. New York can no more again become the happy village whose
departure Irving laments, than the river which nears the ocean can turn
back and again become a tiny stream. Like a man approaching his prime,
it must go forward to its destiny--and what a destiny seems to await our
city! As the nineteenth century--greatest of periods known to man--draws
to a close, and opens the way for its successor which we expect will be
rich with broader and greater and higher achievements still than the
century of our birth, what a future seems to await our city of New York!
Is it not manifest destiny that old Nieuw Amsterdam, the present New
York, should become a greater city than any on the earth to-day? And it
seems to me, sir, that it is in a very large measure, indeed, to the
rugged industry--to the sturdy honesty--to the indomitable will of your
Dutch ancestors,--to the spirit which animated William the Silent, to
the spirit and the qualities which sustained the early Dutch settlers
upon this island, Wouter Van Twiller and Peter Stuyvesant and the men of
their generation, that we and our children must look, to maintain civic
virtue, to foster commercial enterprise, and to make the city of New
York in the twentieth century the metropolis of the civilized world.
[Applause.]

WILLIAM E. H. LECKY

THE ARTISTIC SIDE OF LITERATURE

[Speech of William B. H. Lecky at the annual banquet of the Royal
Academy, London, May 5, 1888. Sir Frederic Leighton, the President of
the Academy, said in introducing him: "In connection with 'Letters,' I
turn to yet another son of that many-gifted sister island [This toast
was coupled with that of "Science," to which John Tyndall was called
upon to respond.] on which all Englishmen must heartily invoke the
blessings of prosperity and of peace restored [cheer