The inaugural oration, spoken on the 4th day of November 1815, at the ceremony of laying the first stone of the London Institution for the Diffusion of Science and Literature / By Charles Butler.

  • Butler, Charles, 1750-1832.
Date:
1816
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The inaugural oration, spoken on the 4th day of November 1815, at the ceremony of laying the first stone of the London Institution for the Diffusion of Science and Literature / By Charles Butler. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    It was during this height of her glory, that Sannazar addressed to her the celebrated verses,_ ^ iderat Hadriacis Venetam Neptunus in undis “ Stare Urbem, et toto ponere jura Mari: “ ^unc mihi farpeias, quantum vis, Jupiter, arces Objice, et ilia tui maenia Martis, ait: Si Pelago Tiberim praefers,—Urbem aspice utramque : “ -^am homines dices, hanc posuisse Deum.” With a liberality equally honourable to the poet and the patrons, the Senate of Venice presented the poet with one hundred Crowns of Gold for every verse. To this splendid state of prosperity, the new system of commerce, introduced into Europe, in consequence of the discovery of America, and the opening of a direct course of navigation to the East Indies, by the Cape of Good Hope were fatal. From that time, Venice declined; but, though shorn of her beams, she preserved a dig¬ nified independence, and some rays of her antient glory played round her, till the treaty of Campo Formio consigned her to Austria. It is observable that the two first classes ot the nobility of this Commercial Island, produce a pedigree, supported by certain and positive evidence, of more remote antiquity, than any sovereign, or any private family. The certain Pedigrees of the Houses of Guelph, Savoy, Lorraine,