tion. This belief enters into the very depth of my conscience. The
whole history of man proves it. DANIEL WEBSTER."
I cannot help wishing that this declaration, in all its original
fulness, were engraved on one of the sides of yonder monu
mental base, in letters which all the world might read. Amid
all the perplexities which modern Science, intentionally or unin
tentionally, is multiplying and magnifying around us, what con
solation and strength must ever be found in such an expression
of faith from that surpassing intellect !
I congratulate you, my friends, that your Park is to be per
manently adorned with this grand figure, and that the inscrip
tion on its massive pedestal is to associate it for ever with the
great principle of " Union and Liberty, one and inseparable."
Nor can I conclude without saying, that, from all I have ever
known of Mr. Webster s feelings, nothing could have gratified
him so much as that, in this Centennial Year, on this memorable
Anniversary, nearly a quarter of a century after he had gone to
his rest, when all the partialities and prejudices, all the love
and the hate, which wait upon the career of living public men,
should have grown cold or passed away, a Statue of himself
should be set up here, within the limits of your magnificent
IN THE CENTRAL PARK, NEW YORK. 445
City, and amid these superb surroundings. Quite apart from
those personal and domestic ties which rendered New York so
dear to him, of which we have a touching reminder in the
presence of the venerable lady who was so long the sharer of
his name and the ornament of his home, quite apart from all
such considerations, he would have appreciated such a tribute
as this, I think, above all other posthumous honors.
There was something congenial to him in the grandeur of this
great Commercial Metropolis. He loved, indeed, the hills and
plains of New Hampshire, among which he was born. He de
lighted in Marshfield and the shores of Plymouth, where he was
buried. He was warmly attached to Boston and the people of
Massachusetts, among whom he had lived so long, and from
whom he had so often received his commissions as their Repre
sentative and their Senator in Congress. But in your noble
City, as he said, he recognized " the commercial capital, not
only of the United States, but of the whole continent from the
pole to the South Sea." u The growth of this City," said he,
" and the Constitution of the United States are coevals and con
temporaries." " New York herself," he exclaimed, " is the
noblest eulogy on the Union of the States." He delighted to
remember that here Washington was first inaugurated as Presi
dent, and that here had been the abode of Hamilton and John
Jay and Rufus King. And it was at a banquet, given to him,
at your own Niblo s Garden in 1837, and under the inspira
tion of these associations, that he summed up the whole lesson
of the past and the whole duty of the future, and condensed
them into a sentiment, which has ever since entered into the
circulating medium of true patriotism, like an ingot of gold
with the impress of the eagle : " One Country, One Constitu
tion, One Destiny."
Let that motto, still and ever, be the watchword of the hour,
and whatever momentary perplexities or perils may environ us,
with the blessing of God, no permanent harm can happen to
our Republic.
In behalf of my fellow-citizens of New England, I thank Mr.
Burnham for this great gift to your Central Park ; and I con-
446 STATUE OF DANIEL WEBSTER.
gratulate him on having associated his name with so splendid a
tribute to so illustrious a man. A New Englander himself, he
long ago decorated one of the chief Cities of his native State
with a noble Statue of a venerated father of the Church to
which he belongs. 1 He has now adorned the City of his resi
dence with this grand figure of a pre-eminent American States
man. He has thus doubly secured for himself the grateful
remembrance of all by whom Religion and Patriotism, Church-
manship and Statesmanship, shall be held worthy of commemo
ration and honor, in all time to come.
1 A bronze Statue of the Rt. Rev. Thomas Church Brownell, D.D., for more than forty
years the Bishop of Connecticut, and, at his death, in 1865, the presiding Bishop of the Prot
estant Episcopal Church in the United States, was presented to Trinity College, Hartford,
of which he was the Founder, by his Son-in-law, Mr. Burnham, and was unveiled in the
College Grounds, on the llth of November, 1869.
OLYMPIA MORATA.
REMARKS AT A MEETING OF THE MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY,
FEBRUARY 8, 1877.
THE paper which has just been read has carried us back a
hundred years, and given an interesting account of one whose
name was probably known to but few of us, until we listened
to it. Meantime, I will venture to go back more than three
hundred years, and to call attention to a name which may be
even less familiar to most of those present.
It will be remembered, perhaps, that I have more than once
made reference to an old manuscript volume, which seems to
have been a kind of Commonplace-Book of Adam Winthrop,
the father of our Governor. From that little farrago libelli, as
it might well be called, I have, at one time, derived a contem
poraneous account of the execution of Mary Queen of Scots ;
and, at another time, a detailed description of the last sad scene
in the life of Sir Walter Raleigh, with the words which he
uttered on the scaffold.
There are a few other passages in the same miscellaneous
scrap-book not unworthy of notice ; and one of them I propose
to deal with briefly this morning. It will at least afford me the
opportunity of relating one of those little incidents or accidents
of travel by which my visit to Europe, two or three years ago,
was diversified.
In looking at this ancient manuscript book, I had more than
once observed, on some of the most closely and crabbedly writ
ten pages, a name with which I had no associations whatever ;
[447]
448 OLYMPIA MORATA.
and I had turned over the leaves again and again, without feel
ing any impulse to decipher or copy them. The name alone had
lingered in my memory, and that somewhat faintly and flicker-
ingly. But, in driving through the streets of Heidelberg, in
the autumn of 1874, after having just come down from a visit to
the magnificent ruins of Heidelberg Castle, I passed the Church
of St. Peter, an old Lutheran church, on the walls of which, it
was said, Luther himself had affixed one of his famous Theses ;
and, on asking the friend who accompanied me whether there was
any thing within the church of special interest, I was told that
there was nothing except a monument to a remarkable woman
named OLYMPIA MORATA. The church was closed, and it was
too late for me to obtain an entrance. But, feeling sure that
Olympia Morata was the name I had once or twice spelt out in
Adam Winthrop s Commonplace-Book, I requested my friend
to send me a copy of the inscription on the monument, with a
reference to any account of her life which might be extant. It
appeared that a careful biography of her had been written in
French, not many years ago, by M. Jules Bonnet, of which I
have now here the fourth edition, and which has been thought
worthy of being " crowned," as the phrase is, by the French
Academy. A most interesting little volume it is, which might
well be translated, and find a place among our literary and
religious biographies.
A more remarkable woman, certainly, has seldom lived, in
any age or land, than Olympia Morata. Born in Ferrara, in
1526, about the time of the great Revival of Letters, she seems
to have exhibited in her earliest years a most precocious and
marvellous talent for the languages of ancient Rome and Greece ;
and, under the tuition of her father and other professors, she
soon mastered the works of Virgil and Cicero and Homer. Be
fore she had completed her sixteenth year, she had composed a
defence of Cicero against some of his critics and calumniators.
About the same time she wrote observations on Homer, and
translated parts of the Iliad, " with great strength and sweetness."
Meantime, she composed many and various poems herself, with
great elegance, and dialogues in Greek and in Latin, in imitation
of Plato and Cicero. " I have heard her at court," writes Curio,
OLYMPIA MORATA. 449
" declaiming in Latin, speaking Greek, and answering questions,
as well as any of the females among the ancients could have
done. Do not feel a doubt respecting the Sapphic Ode, in
which she celebrates the praises of the Most High." This ode
or hymn was even compared with those of Pindar.
She of course became celebrated far beyond the immediate
circle in which she moved, and was chosen as the special com
panion and friend of the eldest daughter of the Duke of
Ferrara.
But the Revival of Letters, as we know, was the immediate
precursor of the great Reformation in Religion. It was the age
of Luther ; and his doctrines and writings speedily found their
way to the parts of Italy in which Olympia resided, agitating
the whole mass of Italian as well as German society. Her
young heart soon caught the spirit of the reformers, and she
became absorbed in the new religious movement. She was dis
charged from the Duke s household, and compelled to fly from
Ferrara. Meantime, she had found a protector in Professor
Andre* Grunthler, a distinguished physician, whom she married,
in 1550 ; and together they went first to Augsburg, and after
wards to Schweinfurt. Then came the civil wars, with the
terrible siege of Schweinfurt, which lasted fourteen months.
Escaping from there at great peril, they at length reached Hei
delberg, where her husband was made a Lecturer in the Univer
sity. But, two years afterwards, the plague broke out there,
with great fury ; and on the 26th of October, 1555, she fell a
victim to it, and died at twenty-nine years of age.
The inscription on her tomb affords contemporaneous testi
mony to the exalted estimation in which she was held at Heidel
berg ; while, at Schweinfurt, the house in which she had lived
for three years was ordered by the municipality to be restored
at the public expense, and inscribed as follows :
" A POOR AND HUMBLE MANSION, BUT NOT WITHOUT GLORY; IT WAS INHABITED
BY OLYMPIA MORATA."
The tidings of her death, it is said, spread deep distress through
the Reformed Churches in Germany, Switzerland, and France ;
and the warmest and most unqualified testimonies to her ex-
29
450 OLYMPIA MORATA.
traordinary genius and accomplishments were paid by De Thou,
Beza, Melchior Adam, and others of the most distinguished
writers of the time. There is a brief notice of her in the
" Crudities " of the old pedestrian traveller, Thomas Coryat,
first printed in 1611 ; and the " Itinerum Delicife " of Chytrseus,
printed in 1594, contains the inscription on her monument in
Heidelberg. 1
All of her writings which had been saved from the siege of
Schweinfurt were carefully collected and printed by Celius Se-
cundo Curio, Professor of Roman Eloquence in the University
of Basle, to whom she had bequeathed them on her death-bed.
The first edition was printed at Basle, in 1558 ; and a second,
in 1562, which was dedicated to Queen Elizabeth.
Of her printed letters, one was in Greek, two in Italian, and
forty-five in Latin. I know not how early any of them were
printed in English ; but here, in the old Commonplace-Book of
Adam Winthrop, I find two of them carefully written out in
English, 2 whether translated by himself or not I have no
means of knowing. This old manuscript volume must have
been familiar to his son, and perhaps was prepared for his
edification and instruction.
It is, then, hardly too much to say, that Olympia Morata was
one of the characters from which some of our Puritan ancestors
drew their examples ; and I confess, as I have cursorily reviewed
her career in this little volume, the figure of this young Italian
girl, of whom, I regret to say, there is no adequate or authentic
likeness, has seemed to rise before me from the dust, I had
almost said from the oblivion, of centuries, to claim a place
and a memory among those who, by their genius and fortitude
and piety, animated and inspired the men and women who
planted the land, which her great compatriots, Columbus, Ves-
pucius, and Cabot, had discovered.
It is in this relation only that I have ventured to introduce
her name here to-day.
1 These volumes are in the library of Mr. Charles Deane, to whom I am in
debted for the references.
2 See next page.
OLYMPIA MORATA. 451
Olympia Morata, the wife of Andrew Grunthler, unto her sister Victoria
Morata, sendethe greetinge.
DEARE SISTER, "Wee are yet (throughe the love of God towards
us) safelie escaped out of the great shipwracke of our wedded countrie : for
w ch you also, sister, are bounde to render thanckes to the almightie &
good God, who hathe preserved us, beinge plucked from the fire & sworde,
& even out of the jawes of utter distruction. If I shoulde declare to you
the dangers & miseries of warre w ch wee have suffered, I shoulde rather
compile a greate volume than an epistle : ffor wee were xiiij monethes
full, whilst the citie was beeseeged, in great distresse, & night & daie
amonge the shotte of gunnes : so as if I shoulde tell you the number of
shotte that battered the walles in one daie, jDchance it woulde seeme in
credible. But God woulde have the citie holde out so longe that he
might reduce the people to goodnes, ffor whilest wee were beeseeged fewe
of ours were slaine ; & the citie was impregnable, though it was not very
greate, nor sufficientlie defended against so great force & munitions of the
enymie. But at lengthe, when we thought they had bin gonne (as the
Empero r himselfe & other princes of the Empire had comanded), & that
all thinges now had bin quiet, see, upon the suddaine, & not w th out
treacherie, they rushe into the citie, & when they had rifeled it, they set
it on fire. This sore wounde did Germanic (otherwise happie) receive
in her bowelles throughe civil dissention of the princes. In this so grete
feare & astonishment, when, as my husbande & I were even thinckinge
to get us into the Churche as into a sanctuary, a souldio r , whom we
knewe not, came runninge, & advized us forthw th to flie out of the cittie,
or otherwise wee shoulde be burned w th it. And trulie, if we had bin in
the Churche, the very smoke had stifeled us, as it did others, who fled
thether. Therefore we obeied his warninge, whosoever he was ; wh ch
whilest wee doe, we fall amongst the soldiours, who spoile us ; and my
husbande also is twice taken of them, w ch I tooke most heavilie of all : who,
if hee had bin any longer detained, & God had deferred his helpe (for
God did give him to mee at my petition), I had surelie died throughe the
bitternesse of my greefe. The losse of all other thinges I easily endured
(for I had only my smocke lefte to cover my bodie), but the losse of my
most deare husbande I coulde no waie have borne. But God our father
hearde my sobbes,. not onlie at that present time, but after also, ffor he
beinge our guide, wee came to divers Counts (as nowe a daies they call
them, beinge lordes of townes & castelles), of whom we were honorablie
received, & had bestowed uppon us clothes & other necessaries : amonge
452 OLYMPIA MORATA.
whom there is one whose wife is the daughter of one of the most noble
Dukes of the Germans, who are called Palsgraves. This Ladie enter
tained mee w th suche love & godlie affection, beinge brought verie lowe,
that when I was sicke shee ministred to me w th her owne handes ; &
besides that shee gave me a faire gowne, worthe about five powndes. An
other noble man, whom we had not so muche as hearde of before, sent us,
whilst wee were in o r iournie, a good supplie of monye. By their liber-
alitie, wee were sustained in so great straightes untill my husbande was
called to Heidelberge (where wee nowe bee) by the most illustrious
prince Pallatine, one of the seven Electors of the Empire, to be the pub-
licke reader of Phisicke there, for it is one of the Univ r sities of Germanic,
& not the meanest of them. Althoughe in this calamitous & turbulent
time, there is more preparinge for armes than for artes. The Bisshops
have a greate armye, & the others have the like, so as they spoile, rifle, &
burne all thinges. Also in Englande the godlie are greevouslie afflicted.
I heare that Bernardino Ocello, of Tene, a true Xtian man, is fled to
Geneva. So that every where he that wilbe a Christian must beare his
Crosse. And truelie for my part I had rather suffer, so it be w th Christ,
than to inioie the whole earthe w th out Christ. Neither do I desire any
thinge more but him. Althoughe I am riot ignorant that our forepassed
sufferinges shall not be the last, many other thinges abide us to be suf
fered hereafter if wee live ; nay, not at this very time are wee free from
troubles. One thinge I pray for, that God will give me faithe & con-
stancie unto the ende, w ch I also trust that he will doe, for he hathe prom
ised to heare my prayers, as often as I call uppon him. And I doe dailie
powre out my soule before him. Neither is it in vaine, for I feele myselfe
so strengthened & confirmed that I have not given place to his adversa
ries who abounde in all places, no not a haires breadthe, in the cause of
religion. Neither in any thinge doe I consent w th those Epicures, who
pretende the sacred name of the Gospel, to cover their filthie lustes.
Thus thou seest (Deare Sister) that no place is cleare of enemies, the
worlde, the Devil, & the fleshe. But it is farre better to suffer afflictions
w th the Churche of God, in this most short life, then to be condemned w th
the adversaries to everlasting sorrow, where the eyes are closed up to
eternal night. Wherefore I earnestlie pray thee (good sister) to have
respecte to thy salvation, & to feare him more, who w th one worde created
all thinges, who hathe made you, who hathe saved you, & heaped so
many benefites uppon you, then a fewe unprofitable burthens of the earthe,
then the shadowe of the worlde allthoughe it threaten, or ells smile &
fawne uppon you. ffor all thinges that you looke uppon, what are they
but a thynne vapour, or vanishinge smoke, or as stubble & haie, suddenlie
OLYMPIA MOBATA. 453
to be consumed by fire. If so be that you feele yo r selfe weake in this
waie that leadeth to heaven, take heede that you excuse not yo r weakenes ;
for the concealinge of a disease makes it the greater, & it is displeasinge
unto God : for this cause the prophet David (Psa. cxli. 4) praiethe that
God woulde not suffer his heart to incline so muche, as that he shoulde
pretende an excuse for his sinnes. What must you doe then ? Confesse
yo 8 disease unto the lorde, the true physition : beseche him that he would
applie some medicine to you ; that he woulde adde strengthe to yo r weak-
cues ; & that he woulde cause you to love & feare him more then men,
ffor therfore in the psalmes he is so often called the God of our strengthe,
to the ende that he may fortifie us & make us stronge, so that wee will
knowe ourselves, & aske it of him ; for he wilbe prayed to continually
that he may be iutreated. And be assured that he heareth thy praiers,
& will doe what thou desirest ; yea, & above thy request, seinge he is
liberall, & bountifull towardes all those that seeke him heartelye. But
take heede (my sister) that you despise not the voice of the gospell &
saie, if, indeed, if I bee one of those that bee chosen, & appointed to sal
vation, I cannot perishe, for this were to tempt God, who willeth us, by
the obedience of the gospel, & praier, to obtaine salvation, ffor albeit
election be certaine, & the salvation of those who be pdestinate be sure,
w ch such as are Christes doe feele in the inner man ; yet is it not w th out
Christ, & those thinges w ch doe adorne the Christian profession. Paul
tells us, that faithe is by hearinge, & hearinge by the worde of God.
The same he writes also in the epistle to the Galathians, & in the Actes
of the Apostles it appeares by the very place, that those were endued
w th the holy Ghost w ch had hearkened to the voice of the gospel. Let
that also never be forgotten of you, w ch both Paul & James doe affirnie,
that the faith is approved of the lorde w ch is lovelie & workinge by love,
& not that w ch is idle & unprofitable. If it be so that you want libertie
to heare, yet let no daie passe w th out readinge the holy scripture & prayer ;
that God woulde inlighten yo r mynde, to und r stande & gather out the
thinges w b may further you to live well & happilie. But if also you
have little spare time from yo r mistres buysines, arise somewhat the more
earlie in the morninge, & goe a little the later to bed in the eveninge, &
so in yo r private bedchamber pforme those duties that serve for yo r salva
tion, ffor the lorde comandes us to seeke his kingedome & the righteousnes
thereof, before all thinges. Those duties pformed, intende yo r m re8 ser
vice w th that willingnes & faithefulnes, w th that respecte & hono r w ch may
well beseeme a Christian maiden wel brought up. Speake to Lavinia yo r
mistres that shee also may seeke ease of her griefes & vexations from
Christian philosophic, together w th rest from all cares. Wee shall shortlie
454 OLYMPIA MORATA.
arive in the wished haven. Time passeth swiftelie, as wel in adversitie,
as in prosperitie. But if her sufferinges seeme longer & harder, let her
consider that shee suffers w th the citizens of heaven & of Christ, yea, w th
Christ himselfe. ffor even that noble woman, whom I mentioned before,
dothe beare her Crosse, & that no light one neither. And thoughe she be
borne of a roial race & stocke, of w h there have also bin some Emperors,
yet shee is as content w h this meaner condition, w ch hathe befallen her.
This ladie, in xix yeares space, had scarse one daie free from sicklies ; yea,
nowe also shee is & hathe bin many daies so dangerouslie sicke, that it is
gretlie doubted of her life. Shee is a woman most religious & continuallie
talketh of God, and of the life to come, w th an ernest desire & fervencie of
spirite to be there. Her husbande & shee have bin oftentimes brought into
the hazarde of their lives & goodes for the gospels sake. my deare sister,
praye you w th Moses in the 90 Psalme. Teache me, Lorde, to number
my dayes, & to have alwaies before myne eyes the fewnesse of them ;
that contemnirige this vaine lyfe, I may wholy addicte myselfe to wis-
dome, & to the contemplation of eternitie. Seeke the lorde whilest he
may be founde, pray to him continually, when you take yo r foode give
him thanckes ; resigne yo r selfe wholly to his love. Walke not in the
waie of the wicked. Keep yo r harte pure & chaste ; that at lengthe
overcoming you may receive y r rewarde. Salute hartilie in my name
those matrons & damselles that be w th you. Write unto me a large letter
of all yo r afaires. The l res of your deare Ladie Lavinia (whose name I
hono r ) I do greatlie desire : hir sweete behaviou r & godlines are never
out of my mynde. I sent hir some little bookes, but chefelie of Celius
Secundus makinge. I longe to knowe whether shee received them, & if
they were welcome unto her. My husbande & brother Emilius doe kisse
& most hartilie salute you. ffarewell, my deere & -sweete sister Victoria.
ffrom Hidelberghe, 6 Aug. 1554.
An JSpistle of Olympia Morata, unto Celius Secundus Curio.
I suppose, well-beloved Celius, I neede not nowe to use any excuse to
you why I have not answered your l res , delivered unto me longe since, for
that the warre itself e doothe sufficiently cleere me, where w th for the space
of xiiij monethes we were so vexed, that by it we received all maner of
calamities. For so sone as Marquis Albert, by reason of the fitnesse
of the place, had placed his hoste in Swynforde, then his enymies w ch
were many, began to beseege the cittie, & to assaulte it, & daie & night
\v Tth their gunnes to beate the walles on all sides, when neverthelesse wee
were also afflicted w tb in the walles by the Marquesses soldiers w tb many
OLYMPIA MORATA. 455
injuries, neither was any man safe ynoughe in his owne house. Beesides
so oft&n as their wages was not paide them, when it was due, they did