Excerpt from Lecture on National Character, Delivered at the Jamaica Lyceum, L. I., April 25th, 1843 The Gothic ages lasted for a thousand years, during which, nations were without character, and a dreary night of ignorance and barbarism prevailed in the world. Two men, however, whose enlightened views were far in ad vance of their times, and whose achievements bear the stamp of gigantic power and commanding genius, appeared in Europe to illumine this age of barbarism. The light of their talents and services reflected increased lustre on their character, emanating, as it did, from surrounding darkness, and their names long stood prominent as beacon-lights for their own and for succeeding ages. 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.