Excerpt from An Oration Delivered at Newburyport, on the Forty-Sixth Anniversary of American Independence, July 4, 1822 The progress of the human mind towards improve ment is irresistable, but slow. Here and there arises a man. Or a class of men, superior to the opinions of their age. But much time must elapse, before truths, clear and familiar to them, become undoubted and notorious principles. Hence the causes, which produced the wonderful changes for which our times are remarkable, had been accumulating in number, and force, for ages, before they were sufficiently ripe, to leave a general and permanent effect on the structure of society. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.