A valedictory address delivered before the medical class of the University of Vermont, May 31st, 1865 / by John Ordronaux.
- John Ordronaux
- Date:
- 1865
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: A valedictory address delivered before the medical class of the University of Vermont, May 31st, 1865 / by John Ordronaux. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.
30/32 page 30
![for bringing ns to this haven of peace wliere we would be. Not imto 118—but unto Him, the great Judge and Arl)iter of tlia destiny of nations, belongs all the glory and niajesty of this sublime national epic. When kingdoms tremble through ]x>litical convulsions they totter, when they totter they fall. Their safety lies in their stagnation. China and Ja])an, the embodiments of petrified immobility, have outlived all chronology; while the four famous monarchies of the ancient world, the theatres of great transitional events, have almost rotted out of history and been forgotten. The Temple of the Sun at Baalbeck, and the lonely columns of Persepolis and Palmyi-a in the desert, are the only remnants of the proud Assyrian empire. Osiris sleeps in the Isle of Philoe amid the ruins of his dismantled temple. The hundred- gated Thebes has not a solitary watchman upon her towers. Grass grows about the portico of the Acropolis at Athens, and desolation sits enthroned in the Coliseum at Rome. Not one of this proud train of Pagan empires but fell, sapped to the very core by violations of that ethical code which forms part of the law of nature and anticipates all positive and institutional legislation. Not one but had inwrought into its organic law injustice and oppression—sycophancy towards power—cruelty towards weakness—charity towards none. Surfeited with con- quest, luxury, and vice, they were smitten in the dust, and made the servants of their own despised subjects, by that spirit of eternal justice which Never yet of human vsroiig Lost the unbalanced scale—great Nemesis. Remembering that this mighty power of sleepless eye and unforgiving heart is ever driving the retreating criminal, be it man or nation, to some final tribunal of retributive justice, let us give thanks for our escape from those stupendous dangei-s which so seriously threatened our national life. For awhile, indeed, the face of Providence seemed veiled from our eyes, until Faith herself began to tremble lest we had transceTided the measure of Divine forgiveness and been handed over to the sword of destruction.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b22304137_0032.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
