Yes, gentlemen, either America will regenerate the condition of the old world, or it will be degenerated by the condition of the old world.

Sir, I implore you (Mr. Emerson), give me the aid of your philosophical analysis, to impress the conviction upon the public mind of your nation that the Revolution, to which CONCORD was the preface, is full of a higher destiny—­of a destiny broad as the world, broad as humanity itself.  Let me entreat you to apply the analytic powers of your penetrating intellect, to disclose the character of the American Revolution, as you disclose the character of self-reliance, of spiritual laws, of intellect, of nature, or of politics.  Lend the authority of your judgment to the truth, that the destiny of American revolution is not yet fulfilled; that the task is not yet completed; that to stop half way, is worse than would have been not to stir:  repeat those words of deep meaning which once you wrote about the monsters that looked backward, and about the walking with reverted eye, while the voice of the Almighty says, “up and onward for ever more,” while moreover the instinct of your people, which never fails to be right, answered the call of destiny by taking for its motto the word ahead.

Indeed, gentlemen, the monuments you raised to the heroic martyrs who fertilized with their hearts’ blood the soil of liberty—­these monuments are a fair tribute of well-deserved gratitude, gratifying to the spirits who are hovering around us and honourable to you.  Woe to the people which neglect to honour its great and good men; but believe me, gentlemen, those blessed spirits would look down with saddened brows to this free and happy land, if ever they were doomed to see that the happy inheritors of their martyrdom imagined that the destiny to which that martyr blood was consecrated, is accomplished, and its price fully paid in the already achieved results, because the living generation dwells comfortably and makes TWO DOLLARS out of one.

No, gentlemen, the stars in the sky have a higher aim than merely to illumine the night-path of some lonely wanderer.  The course your nation is called to run, is not yet half performed.  Mind the fable of Atalanta:  it was a golden apple thrown into her way which made her fall short in her race.

Two things I have met here in these free and mighty United States, which I am at a loss how to make concord.  The two things I cannot harmonize are:—­First, that all your historians, all your statesmen, all your distinguished orators, who wrote or spoke, characterize it as AN ERA in mankind’s history, destined to change the condition of the world, upon which it will rain an everflowing influence.  And secondly, in contradiction to this universally adopted creed, I have met in many quarters a propensity to believe that it is conservative wisdom not to take any active part in the regulation of the outward world.