This form of address, taking an anniversary, a great historical event or character, a celebration, or occasion of any sort as a starting point, permits either a close adherence to the original text or the widest latitude of treatment.

The field is a broad and inviting one.

That it promises an easy success is shown by the innumerable productions of this kind which, for many years, have been showered upon the country.

That the promise is fallacious is proved by the very small number among the countless host of such addresses which survive the moment of their utterance.

The facility of saying something is counterbalanced by the difficulty of saying anything worth hearing.