- >- GIFT OF Saacrort LIBRARY THE SELECT ACADEMIC SPEAKER; CONTAINING |tomtor & 1* ^ $j$r0jriaie fiws, FOR PROSE DECLAMATION, POETICAL RECITATION, AND DRAMATIC READINGS. CAREFULLY SELECTED FROM THE BEST AUTHORS, AMERICAN, ENGLISH, AND CONTINENTAL ARRANGED IN A RHETORICAL ORDER, AND ADAPTED TO THE WANTS OP CLASSES IN SCHOOLS, ACADEMIES, AND COLLEGES. BY HENRY COPPEE, LL.D., PRESIDENT OF THE LEIIIGH UNIVERSITY. FOURTH EDITION. PHILADELPHIA: PUBLISHED BY E. H. BUTLER & CO. 1867. Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1860, by E. H. BUTLER & CO., In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, in and for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. 64 FT OF Bancroft LIBRARY PREFACE. THE great extent and variety of English and American litera- ture, are a* sufficient warrant for publishing a new book of extracts from their valuable stores. Add to this the importance which literature has attained in this age ; the new authors of merit and genius who are almost daily appearing, and the correspondent increase in our standard litera- ture, and what was before simply warrantable, becomes almost a necessity. Without disparagement of many excellent books already pub- lished, it must be said that we have delayed too long upon the hackneyed though beautiful periods of a few favorite orators or authors; and that those acquainted with the wants of academies and colleges, know how difficult it is, in any such work, to find what young speakers, and their hearers, alike crave, some- thing new. Such is the experience of the compiler of this volume, an experience of years in the suggestion and selection of pieces for declamation by students : and this has prompted the publication of the present volume. To meet these wants, he offers the following as among the claims of " The Select Academic Speaker": The selections are with few exceptions new: they have not (3) 86I3I4 iv PREFACE. appeared before in books of this character. A very small number of old favorites have been admitted, which from their sterling merits seemed to demand this recognition. While care has been taken to bring new pieces together, they have been selected not for this quality alone, but also for their real merits, the finest efforts of oratory and the varied enunciation of true poetry are here collated, with the hope that their study and recitation will instruct and refine the student's heart. Another aim has been to present short pieces : the time allotted to the individual speaker in seminaries where there are many students, is but small; and, besides, the complaint of those who have many studies to carry on connectedly, is, that the pieces ordinarily selected are too long to be easily learned during the pressure of other lessons. On account of the brevity of the extracts, and the small but clear type in which the book is printed, a greater number of pieces, and a more numerous collection of authors, have been presented than ID any similar book. Care has been taken to do justice to the great minds of all parts of our country, and as far as possible, by avoiding all sectional and sectarian bias, to fit the book for the great popular wants of education throughout the Union. With the earnest hope that he has succeeded in his honest attempt, the compiler places his book in the hands of the instruct- ors and students of the United States. H. C. UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA, June 1860. THE present edition of the ACADEMIC SPEAKER has been thoroughly revised, and a few new and beautiful pieces have been substituted for those which the compiler has found, by his use of the book, least adapted to the wants and tastes of his pupils. His thanks are due to the teachers who have introduced the Speaker into their institutions, and who have given their hearty commendations of it. UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA, Ftbruary 1, 1865. CONTENTS. PART I. DECLAMATIONS IN PROSE. ACADEMIC AND POPULAR. PAGE The Orator's Art, JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, . 27 The Orator's Gift, ABBE BAUTAIN, ... 28 The Wonders of the Dawn, EDWARD EVERETT, . . 28 The Duties of the Historian, MITCHELL KING, ... 29 Popular Government in America, DANIEL WEBSTER, . . 30 Language and Poetry, JOSEPH R. INGERSOLL, . 31 The Glory of Athens, JOSEPH R. INGERSOLL, . 32 The True Inspiration of the Orator, .... ABBE BAUTAIN, ... 32 The Statesman's Panoply, JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, . 33 Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim, JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, . 34 Early Astronomy, LORD MACAULAY, . . 35 Installation Speech at Glasgow, LORD MACAULAY, . . 36 The Influence of Byron, LORD MACAULAY, . . 36 The Miracles of Nature, THOMAS CARLYLE, . . 37 Mysteries, THOMAS CARLYLE, . 38 The Origin of Universities, THOMAS CARLYLE, . . 39 Atheism Absurd, THOMAS CARLYLE, . . 39 Theism and its Tenets, THOMAS CARLYLE, . . 40 Kings' Desires, LORD BACON, .... 41 Studies, LORD BACON, .... 42 Beauty aud Utility, WIELAND, 43 English Valor, DR. JOHNSON, .... 44 Truth, LORD BACON, .... 45 Mental and Moral Greatness, DR. STEVENS, .... 45 Pacific Railroad, CALVIN COLTON, ... 46 The Exile's Hope, VICTOR HUGO, .... 47 Golden Grain, EDWARD EVERETT, . . 48 The New Olympiad, MORTON McMicHAEL, . 49 The Preservation of the Union, EDWARD EVERETT, . . 49 The Sons of Georgia, BISHOP ELLIOTT, ... 50 The Sculptor's Art, HENRY REED, .... 51 The Great Mountains, JOHN RUSKIN, ... 51 The Student's Duties, . JAMES WALKER, D.D., 52 Calvert and the Maryland Charter, .... WILLIAM GEORGE REED, 53 The Finite and the Infinite, R. C. WINTHROP, . . 54 Florence and its Treasures, EDWARD EVERETT, . . 55 Tolerant Christianity the Law of the Land, . DANIEL WEBSTER, . . 55 The Obstacles to Christianity, ....... STEPHEN COLWELL, . . 56 Christian Courage, WILLIAM C. RIVES, . . 57 I* (5) I vi CONTENTS. PAGE The Demon of Speculation, DR. BOARDMAN, ... 57 The Influence of the Classics, ...... JOSEPH STORY, ... 58 Modern Authorship, JOSEPH STORY, ... 59 The Demeanor of Books, JOHN MILTON, ... 00 National Vigor, JOHN MILTON, .... 60 England and America, GEORGIA P. MARSH, . 61 Degrees of Imagination, LE*IGH HUNT, .... 61 The Cataract of Niagara, CHATEAUBRIAND, ... 63 Italy, HORACE BINNEY WALLACE, 63 The New World and the Old, ARNOLD GUYOT, ... 64 Vathek in the Hall of Eblis, WILLIAM BECKFORD, . 66 The Dramatic Age, HENRY REED, .... 66 Culture of the English Language, .... HENRY REED, .... 67 Byron's Tomb, . . WASHINGTON IRVING, . 68 Address of Nicias to his Troops, THUCYDIDES, .... 69 Common Things Important, R. C. WINTHROP, . . . 69 The Physician's Duty and Responsibility, . . DR. J. W. FRANCIS, . . 70 The Smithsonian Institute, JOEL R. POINSETT, . . 71 The First Predicted Eclipse, 0. M. MITCHEL, ... 71 Kepler's Discovery of the Third Law, ... 0. M. MITCHEL, ... 73 The Treaty of Shackamaxon, HENRY D. GILPINT, . . 74 The Settlement of Pennsylvania, HENRY D. GILPIN, . . 74 Canova's Triumph, CARDINAL WISEMAN, . 75 Devotion to Science, AUGUSTLN THIERRY, . 76 European Names in America, AUGUSTIN THIERRY, . 76 The Progress of Civilization, GUIZOT, 77 The Pilgrims of New England, S. S. PRENTISS, ... 78 The Value of the Union, S. S. PRENTISS, ... 79 English Opinions of France, DR. DURBIN, . . . 80 Napoleon's Tomb, DR. DURBIN, .... 80 Man's Immortality, WILLIAM PROUT, . . 81 The Stone Age, WALTER SCOTT, ... 82 Penn and Lycurgus, GULIAN C. VERPLANCK . 83 The Spread of Knowledge, W. E. CHANNING, . . 84 The Heavens Proclaim the Deity, ...... 0. M. MITCHEL, ... 86 The Franks, AUGUSTIN THIKRRY, . 86 The House of Refuge, JOHN SERGEANT, ... 88 The Dutch Republic, GULIAN C. VERPLANCK, 88 The Use of Knowledge, CARDINAL WISEMAN, . 89 English Prisons, SYDNEY SMITH, ... 90 Ireland and Grattan, SYDNEY SMITH, ... 91 Rapid Progress in Agriculture, W. M. MEREDITH, . . 92 The Wonders of the Deep, ANONYMOUS, .... 93 Aspects of the Ocean, ANONYMOUS, .... 93 Farewell to the Army at Fontainebleau, 1814, NAPOLEON BONAPARTE, 94 Charlemagne, MONTESQUIRU, ... 95 Proclamation to the Army of Italy, .... NAPOLEON BONAPARTE, 95 Washington, CHARLES PHILLIPS, . 96 Inauguration of the Monument to Henry Clay, JOHN TYLER, .... 97 The Great Merits of Henry Clay, JOHN TYLER, .... 98 English Culture, LOUD JoiiN'R,ussELL, . 99 The Egotistical Talker, J. B. OWEN, .... 100 The Sense of Beauty, ^ .... W. EL CHANNING, . . 101 Books, "...-. W. E. CHANNINU, . . 102 CONTENTS. vii JUDICIAL, FORENSIC, AND PARLIAMENTARY. PACE Impressment of American Sailors, HENRY CLAY, . . . 103 Abuse of Napoleon, HENRY CLAY, .... 104 Reply to John Randolph, HENRY CLAY, .... 105 The Building of National Roads, HENRY CLAY, .... 105 Address to Lafayette, HENRY CLAY, .... 107 The Juryman's Duty, DANIEL WEBSTER, . . 107 The Murderer's Self-Betrayal, DANIEL WEBSTER, . . 108 The Murderer's Plan, DANIEL AVEBSTER, . . 109 The Bunker Hill Monument, DANIEL WKBSTER, . . 110 England and America, J. C. CALHOUN, . . . Ill Federal Government, J. C. CALHOUN, ... Ill The Roman System, J. C. CALHOUN, . . . 112 The Roman System Continued, J. C. CALHOUN, . . . 113 Reply to the Charge of ^Eschines, DEMOSTHENES, . . . 114 The Commonwealth and its Ambassadors, . . DEMOSTHENES, . . . 114 Religious Liberty, WILLIAM GASTON, . . 115 False Philanthropy, R. Y. HAYNE, .... 116 South Carolina in the Revolution, .... R. Y. HAYNE, .... 117 Laws Concerning the Slave Trade, .... JAMES M. WAYXE, . . 118 Friendship with England, RUFUS KING, .... 118 American Influence, H. W. HILLIARD, . . 119 Hamilton, GOUVERNEUR MORRIS, . 120 On the Distribution Bill, THOMAS H. BENTON, . 121 To the Noblesse of Provence, MIRABEAU, 122 Monomania, DAVID PAUL BROWN, . 123 Actions and Motives, DAVID PAUL BROWN, . 123 An Independent Judiciary, JAMES A. BAYARD, . . 124 Switzerland, an Example, PATRICK HENRY, ... 125 Amendments to the Constitution, PATRICK HENRY, . . . 126 James II. and George III. . .' WILLIAM H. DRAYTON, . 127 American Rights, JOSEPH WARREN, . . 128 The Southern Campaign, JOHN RUTLEDGE, . . . 129 English Presumption, JAMES MADISON, . . . 129 Faction and Tyranny, ALEXANDER HAMILTON, 130 The Achievers of our Liberty, JOHN HANCOCK, ... 131 Inaugural Address, GEORGE WASHINGTON, . 132 The Rule of American Conduct, GEORGE WASHINGTON, . 133 The Appeal to Arms, JOHN DICKINSON, ... 134 The Necessity of Independence, SAMUEL ADAMS, . . . 134 Call to Americans, JOSIAH QUINCY, JR., . 135 Address to a Jury, JOSIAH QUINCY, JR., . 136 A Stable Government for America, .... BENJAMIN RUSH, . . . 137 Washington, HENRY LEE, .... 138 Acknowledgments to England, JOHN RANDOLPH, . . . 139 The Injuries of England, JOHN RANDOLPH, . . . 139 The Character of Lafayette, JOHN QUINCY ADA*MS, . 140 The Future Glory of America, DAVID RAMSAY, ... 141 Capital Punishment, EDWARD LIVINGSTON, . 142 Judges among Men, TRISTRAM SURGES, . . 143 The Congress of 1776, WILLIAM WIRT, ... 144 Address to a Jury, DAVID PAUL BKOWN, . 144 The Banner of Union, FRANKLIN PIERCE, . . 145 American Policy, DE WITT CLINTON, . . 146 viii CONTENTS. PAGE The Value of a Navy, JAMES A. BAYARD, . . 147 War in Self-Defence, JOHN RANDOLPH, . . . 148 The Excise System, JOHN RANDOLPH, . . . 148 The Excise System Impossible hi America, . JOHN RANDOLPH, . . . 149 American Valor, LEWIS CASS, .... 150 Barbarous Warfare, LORD CHATHAM, . . . 151 England and her Children, EDMUND BURKE, . . . 152 Milton and " The Age of Reason," .... T. ERSKINE, .... 152 The East Indian Government, EDMUND BURKE, . . . 153 French Legitimacy, CHARLES PHILLIPS, . . 154 Lafayette in America, THOMAS H. BENTON, . 155 The Ceded Laftds, JOHN M. BERRIEN, . . 155 The Protective System, GEORGE McDuFFiE, . . 156 The Charter of Runnymede, LORD CHATHAM, . . . 157 The French Revolution, SIR JAMES MC!NTOSH, . 157 American Petitions, LORD CHATHAM, . . . 158 The Exile's Fate, RICHARD LALOR SHEIL, 159 Religious Charity, RICHARD LALOR SHKIL, 160 Defence of John O'Connell, RICHARD LALOR SHEIL, 160 Iron Links, RUFUS CHOATE, . . . 161 The Learning for a Judge, RUFUS CHOATE, . . . 162 The Incorruptible Judge, RUFUS CHOATE, . . . 162 States Protected by the General Government, T. F. MARSHALL, . .163 Modern Toleration, T. F. MARSHALL, ... 163 State Laws, . . ALEXANDER HAMILTON, 164 The Constitution a Bill of Rights, .... ALEXANDER HAMILTON, 164 The Power of the Constitution, JAMES MADISON, . . 165 Eulogy on Franklin, ABBE FAUCHET, . . . 166 The American Motive to War, CHARLES JAMES Fox, . 167 The Reign of Terror, LORD BROUGHAM, . . 167 Denunciation of Lord Castlereagh, .... LORD BROUGHAM, . . 168 The Valor of the Irish Aliens, RICHARD LALOR SHEIL, 168 Retirement from the Senate, HKNRY CLAY, .... 170 The Deeds of General Taylor, JEFFERSON DAVIS, . . 171 Constitutional Responsibility, STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS, . 172 The French War, J. J. CRITTENDEN, . . 173 Jewish Disability, LORD JOHN RUSSELL, . 174 Aid to Hungary, Louis KOSSUTH, ... 175 The Limit of Intervention, JUDGE DUER, .... 176 The Cause of Hungary, R. M. T. HUNTER, . . 178 Catiline Denounced, CICERO, 179 Beneticial Effects of the War, b. A. \\ ASHBURNE, D.D., KSU HISTORICAL, BIOGRAPHICAL, AND DESCRIPTIVE. History Properly Written, LORD MACAULAY, . . 181 Civil and Religious Liberty, WILLIAM SMYTH, . . 182 England and America, WILLIAM SMYTH, . . 181 Addison's Hymns, . . . ^ W. M. THACKERAY, . 183 Fielding's Fame, W. M. THACKERAY, . 183 John Locke and William Penn, GEORGE BANCROFT, . 184 Milton and Dryden, LOUD MACAULAY, . . 185 Wonders of English Rule in India, .... LORD MAHON, . . . 186 The Black Hole of Calcutta, LORD MAHON, . . . 186 Macaulay's Oratory, New York Daily Times, 188 CONTENTS. ix PAGE The Wounded After a Battle, London Time*, . . . 188 Architecture in Venice, JOHN RUSKIN, . . . 189 The Execution of Audre, Harper's Moyaz'un-, . 190 The Hospital at Sebastopol, London Times, . . . 191 Byron and Burns, THOMAS CARLYLE, . . 192 The Assault on the Malakoff, London Times, . . . 193 The Struggle in the Redan, London Times, . . . 1'.'3 Napoleon and Josephine, Franer's Magazine, . . 191 The Oratory of Pitt, LORD BROUGHAM, . . 195 The Character of Fox, LORD BROUGHAM, . . 19(5 The Eloquence of Burke, LORD BROUGHAM, . . 190 Lord North's Policy, LORD BROUGHAM, . . 197 The Administration of Pitt (Lord Chatham), . LORD BROUGHAM, . . 198 The Handwriting of Junius, LORD BROUGHAM, . . 198 The Oratory of Canning, LORD BROUGHAM, . . 199 Relics at Abbotsford, WASHINGTON IRVING, . 199 Machiavelli, LORD MACAULAY, . . 200 Robespierre, LORD BROUGHAM, . . 201 The Court of Charles II., LORD JOHN RUSSELL, . 202 The Character of James I., SANFORD, .... 202 The Policy of Queen Elizabeth, LORD MACAULAY, . . 203 The Cathedral at Rouen, DR. DURBIN, .... 204 Art in Antwerp, DR. DURBIN, .... 204 Domestic Comfort in the Fifteenth Century, . HALLAM, 205 Tacitus as a Historian, LORD MACAULAY, . . 206 Monticello, WILLIAM WIRT, . . 207 Eulogy on Calhoun, DANIEL WEBSTER, . . 208 Murder of Thomas a Becket, A.THIERRY, .... 210 The Cosmos, BAYARD TAYLOR, . . 212 La Valetta at Malta, PRESCOTT, .... 213 The Mahometan Corsair, PRESCOTT, .... 213 Dr. Arnold at Rugby, HUGHES, 214 The Death of Major Hodson at Lucknow, . . HUGHES, 216 Washington's Presence, SPARKS, ..... 217 Washington's Moral Character, SPARKS, 218 The Fate of Andre, C. J. BIDDLE, ... 219 West Point, LOSSING, 220 The Impossible, ROBERT DALE OWEN, . 221 Havelock's Highlanders, W. BROCK, .... 223 The News from Lexington, GEORGE BANCROFT, . 223 Allen's Capture of Ticonderoga, GEORGE BANCROFT, . . 224 The Downfall of Napoleon, THOMAS ARNOLD, D.D , 225 Isabella of Spain and Elizabeth of England, PRESCOTT, .... 226 Venice, G. S. HILLARD, ... 227 Spring, HAWTHORNE, . . . 228 Scandinavian Amazons, H. WHEATON, . . . 228 Christmas in St. Peter's, G. S. HILLARD, . . . 229 Washington at Germantown, SIDNEY G. FISHER, . 231 Manhattan in the Olden Time, WASHINGTON IRVING, . 232 Fashionable Parties in New Netherlands, . . WASHINGTON IRVING, . 233 Sheridan's Classical Powers, ANONYMOUS, .... 235 Irving's Washington, G. W. GREENE, . . . 235 Common Conversation, T . BULWER, 236 The Counsel of Queen Caroline, DR. DORAN, .... 23S X CONTENTS. RELIGIOUS, MORAL, AND DIDACTIC. PAGK The Voice of the Preacher, JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, . 239 The Queen of England at her Accession, . . SYDNEY SMITH, . . . 2;J9 The Office of a Judge, SYDNEY SMITH, . . . 240 The Abuse of Conscience, LAURENCE STERNE, . 241 Reflection, COLERIDGE, . . 242 Life, ARCHBISHOP LEIG^HTON, 242 Suffering enhances Virtue, BARROW, 243 The Great Assize, JOHN WESLEY, ... 244 Modern Infidelity, ROBERT HALL, ... 244 The Ministry of the Sciences, DR. STEVENS, ... 245 Man Justified, MARTIN LUTHER, . . 246 Safety of God's Children, MELANCTHON, ... 247 Heavenly Glory, A. CARSON, .... 247 The Few Chosen, JOHN BAPTIST MASSILLON, 248 The King's Power, JOHN KNOX, . . . 249 The King's Power Continued, JOHN KNOX, .... 250 Moral Courage, DR. Bo A RDM AN, . . 250 The Influence of Literature, ALONZO POTTER, D.D., . 251 Bishop White, ALONZO POTTER, D.D., . 252 Penn's Motive, ALONZO POTTER, D.D., . 252 Life is an Education, F. W. ROBERTSON, . . 253 The Sophistry of Infidels, ROBERT HALL, . . . 254 Righteousness exalteth a Nation, .... DR. STEVENS, . . . 254 The Glory of Christianity, JOHN McLAURiN, . . 256 The Hour and the Event of All Time, . . . HUGH BLAIR, . . . 256 The Expulsive Power of a New Affection, . . THOMAS CHALMERS, . 257 The Voice of Scripture, EDWARD IRVING, . . 258 The Voice of Scripture Continued, . . . EDWARD IRVING, . . 259 David's Sin, BISHOP WHITE, . . . 260 Belief in God's Existence, JONATHAN MAXEY, . . 260 The Gospel for the Poor, JOHN M. MASON, . . 261 The Society of Heaven, GREGORY T. BEDELL, . 262 Influence of Heavenly Glimpses, . . . . H. MELVILL, .... 263 The Important Truth, H. MELVILL, . . .-263 Christianity in America, . R. J. BRECKENRIDGE, . 264 Science and Religion, M. HOPKINS, .... 265 Man's Love to God, J. MCCLINTOCK, . . . 266 Religionists, F. D. HUNTINGTON, . . 267 Duelling, ELIPHALET NOTT, . . 268 The Cheerfulness of Piety, DR. DURBIN, 269 Duty and Praise, J. B. KERFOOT, ... 270 The Confirmation of Faith, BISHOP WHITE, ... 271 The Beauty of Goodness, J. B. KERFOOT, . . . 272 The Resurrection, BISHOP MC!LVAINE, . 273 The Purposes of Christianity, F. WAYLAND, ... 274 Christian Motives, GEORGE F. PIERCE, . 275 Songs in the Night, C. H. SPURGEON, . , 275 The Danger of Delay, J. C. YOUNG, .... 276 The Universal Empire of Death, . . . . D. S. DOGGETT, . . . 277 National Error, T. P. AKERS, ... 278 The Great Price, J. H. NEWMAN, . . .278 The Millennium, - ... ARCHBISHOP WHATELY, 280 Patriotism a Christian Virtue, .... HUNTINGTON, .... 281 Kind Listeners, F. W. FABER, . . .' 2S1 The Desire of Death . . F. W. FABER, . . 282 CONTENTS. xi PART II. RECITATIONS IN POETHY. EPIC, LYRIC, AND DESCRIPTIVE. PAGE Human Life, J. R. LOWELL, . . . 283 The Burial at Gettysburg, E. A. WASHBURNE, D.D., 284 The Skies, MARY E. LEE, ... 285 Westminster Abbey, THOMAS MILLER, . . 287 Don Garzia, ROGERS, 288 Requiem, JULIA R. MCMASTERS, 290 Address to Light, MILTON, 291 Eternal Truth, COWPER, 292 Country and Town, COWPER, 293 The Bull-Fight, LORD BYRON, ... 294 The Coliseum, LORD BYRON, . . . 296 The Destiny of America, BRYANT, 297 Religion, YOUNG, 297 To the Past, BRYANT, 298 Adonais, SHELLEY, 300 The Occultation of Orion, LONGFELLOW, . . . 301 The Builders, LONGFELLOW, . . . 303 Sand of the Desert in an Hour-glass, . . . LONGFELLOW, ... 304 The Temptation of Christ, MILTON, 305 The Minstrel's Farewell to his Harp, . . . SIR WALTER SCOTT, . 306 The Highland Chase, SIR WALTER SCOTT, . 307 The Cloud, SHELLEY, . . . . . 308 Speed the Prow, ... MONTGOMERY, . . . 311 The Field of the World, MONTGOMERY, . . . 312 An Incident at Ratisbon, BROWNING, .... 312 Ginevra, ROGERS, 314 The Four Eras, ROGERS, 316 To-Night, SHELLEY, 317 Better Moments, N. P. WILLIS, . . . 218 Death of General Harrison, N. P. WILLIS, . . .319 Hymn to the Flowers, HORACE SMITH, . . . 320 The Mummy, HORACE SMITH, . . . 322 Song of the Stars, BRYANT, 324 Small Things, CHARLE.S MACKAY, . . 325 Forgive and Forget, CHARLES SWAIN, . . 326 The First Prayer, CHARLES SWAIN, . . 327 The Deep, BRAINARD, .... 327 The Old Man's Carousal, PAULDING, .... 328 Children of Light, BERNARD BARTON, . . 329 The Fourth of July, PIERPONT, .... 330 The True Glory of America, G. MELLEN, ..... 331 The Suppliant, DEAN TRENCH, . . . 333 Weary of Life, BOKER, 334 The Celestial Army, T. B. READ, .... 335 Napoleon's Exile, MRS. BROWNING, . . 336 Southern Autumn, W. H. TIMROD, . . . 337 Evening in Winter, T. B. READ, .... 338 xii CONTENTS. PAGE To Time, " The Old Traveller," W. II. TIMROD, . . . 338 The Mystery of Song, ANONYMOUS, .... 339 The Banner of the Cross, ANONYMOUS, .... 340 Ode to Duty, WORDSWORTH, ... 342 I give my Soldier Boy a Blade, MAGINN, 343 The Influence of Fame, JOANNA BAILLIE, . . 344 The Last Man, CAMPBELL, .... 344 Napoleon's Final Return, MRS. BROWNING, . . 345 My Father, H. R. JACKSON, ... 346 The Closing Year, GEORGE D PRENTICK, . 349 The Village Schoolmaster, GOLDSMITH, .... 350 The Traveller's Eyrie, GOLDSMITH, .... 351 Washington, ELIZA COOK, .... 351 The Pauper's Death-Bed, MRS. SOUTHKY, . . . 353 The Settler, A. B. STREET, ... 354 The Coral Grove, PERCIVAL, .... 355 Apostrophe to the Sun, ........ PERCIVAL, .... 356 " Let there be Light !" MRS. F. H. COOKE, . . 357 All's for the Best, M. F. TUPPER, ... 358 Echo and Silence, SIR EGERTON BRYDGES, 359 The Four-Leaved Shamrock, LOVER, 359 The Blest of Earth, J. GILBORNE LYONS, . 360 The Homes of England, MRS. HEMANS, . . . 360 The Magnetic Telegraph, J. GILBORNE LYONS, . 362 Matin Bells, A. C. COXE, .... 362 Light, W. P. PALMER, ... 364 The Worship of Nature, WHITTIER, .... 305 Fingal at Carric-Thura, . . OSSIAN, 366 Forgiveness, . . . ANONYMOUS, .... 36S Sonnet, . .' DEAN TIU.NCH, . . . 369 The Execution, BARIIAM, 370 The British Bow, BISHOP HF.BER, ... 371 Morning, KEBLE, 372 Evening, KEBLE, 373 The Haunted Palace, E. A. POE, .... 375 Stand like an Anvil, BISHOP DOANE, . . . 376 Life in the Autumn Woods, P. PENDLKTON COOKE, . 377 Night Study, DR. BETHUNE, . . . 379 Columbus, B. SIMMONS, .... 380 Address to the Sun, OssiAN, 382 The Power of Poetry, HOLMES, 383 The Sleep, MRS. BROWNING, . . 383 The Seraph and Poet, MRS. BROWNING, . . 385 Milton on his Blindness, ELIZABETH LLOYD, . . 385 The Live-Oak, H. R. JACKSON, ... 387 The Famine, LONGFELLOW, . . . 388 Heaven's Sunrise to Earthly Blindness, . . MRS. BROWNING, . . 390 NATIONAL ODES AND BATTLE-PIECES. National Songs, ANONYMOUS, .... 391 The American Flag, JOSEPH ROOM AN. DRAKE, 391 The'Star-Spangled Banner, FRANCIS SCOTT KEY, . 393 The Charge at Waterloo, SIR WALTER SCOTT, . . 394 The Battle March, GERALD MASSEY, . . 395 CONTENTS. xiii PAGE Laissez Aller ! FRANKLIN LUSHINGTON, 397 My Fatherland, KCERNER, 398 The Good News from Ghent to Aix, .... ROBERT BROWNING, . . 399 The Happy Warrior, WORDSWORTH, .... 400 The German's Native Land, UHLAND, ... . . . 401 Gustavus's Battle-Song, ALTENBURG, .... 402 The Song of the Sea-King, ANONYMOUS, .... 402 Ye Mariners of England, CAMPBELL, 403 Battle of the Baltic, CAMPBELL, 404 War Song of the Royal Edinburgh Light ) _, Dragoons, ...........} SlR WALTER Sc TT > ' ' 4 6 The Charge of the Light Brigade, ALFRED TENNYSON, . . 407 Soldier, Wake ! the Day is Peeping, .... SIR WALTER SCOTT, . . 408 There came from the Wars on a Jet-Black ) . gteed L ANONYMOUS, .... 409 The Norman Battle Song, ANONYMOUS, .... 410 The Battle of Ivry, LORD MACATTLAY, . . 411 Magyar Hussar Song, GABRIEL DOBRENTCI, . 412 Song of the Greeks, CAMPBELL, 413 War Song of the Greeks, BARRY CORNWALL, . . 414 Moorish Song: Abdallah's Battle Call, . . . ANONYMOUS, .... 415 Hainet arousing the Citizens of Granada, . . ANONYMOUS, .... 416 Spanish National Air, ANONYMOUS, .... 417 Hymn of the Moravian Nuns at Bethlehem, at 1 T the Consecration of Pulaski's Banner, . . } LONGFELLOW > - 418 The Death-Song of Outalissi, CAMPBELL, 419 The Tenth Avatar, CAMPBELL, 420 Waterloo, LORD BYRON, .... 421 Hugo before his Father, LORD BYRON, .... 422 Grongar Hill, JOHN DYER, .... 423 The Death of the Brave, WILLIAM COLLINS, . . 424 Flodden Field, D. M. Mom, .... 425 The Battle of Buena Vista, ALBERT PIKE, . . ^. 426 The Battle of Cerro Gordo, ANONYMOUS, .... 427 " Bois Ton Sang, Beaumanoir," MRS. OSGOOD, .... 428 The Lamentation of Don Roderick, .... J. G. LOCKHART, . . . 429 The Lord of Butrago, J. G. LOCKHART, . . . 430 The Cavaliers' March to London, LORD MACAULAY, . . 431 The Combat of Henninius and Mamilius, . . LORD MACAULAY, . . 433 Attila on the Battle-Field of Chalons, . . . W. HERBERT, .... 434 The Bended Bow, MRS. HEMANS, . . . 435 The Lyre and Sword, GEORGE LUNT, . . . 436 The Cavalier's Song, WM. MOTHERWELL, . . 437 Rio Bravo. A Mexican Lament, C. F. HOFFMAN, . . . 438 The Origin of the Marseillaise, HOLMES, 439 " Qtii Vive !" HOLMKS, 439 England's Dead, MRS. HEMANS, ... 440 The Death of General Worth, G. W. CUTTER, .... 442 Balaklava, DEAN TRENCH, ... 443 'H TAN, 'H 'EHI TAN, DEAN TRENCH, . . 444 Monterey, C. F. HOFFMAN, ... 444 The Brigade of Fontenoy, BARTHOLOMEW BOWLING, 445 The Grasp of the Dead, L. E. LANDON, ... 447 Image of War, . LORD BYRON, . 448 xiv CONTENTS. WIT AND HUMOR, IN VERSE. PARE The Height of the Ridiculous, HOLMES, 449 Nux Postcrenatica, HOLMES, 450 American Genius, PIERPONT, 452 Fashion, SAXE, 453 No ! . . THOMAS HOOD, . . . 454 The Donkey and his Panniers, THOMAS MOORE, . . . 454 Cardinal Wolsey, ANONYMOUS, .... 450 School and School-Fellows, PRAED, 457 The Rush of the Train, ANONYMOUS, .... 459 Saying not Meaning, W. B. WAKE, .... 460 An Echo, ANONYMOUS, .... 462 On Factotum Ned, THOMAS MOORE, . . . 462 The Lobsters, Punch, 464 The Bandit's Fate, Punch, 464 Boys, SAXE, 465 The Railway Traveller's Farewell, .... Punch, .466 The Rich Man and the Poor Man, .... KHEMNITZER, .... 467 The Vicar, PRAED, 468 The March to Moscow, ROBERT SOUTHED, . . 470 The Chameleon, MERRICK, . ... 474 Dermot O'Dowd, , LOVER, 476 My only Client, . . Punch, 477 The Last Stanzas of Yankee Doodle, . . . Punch, 479 The Song of Hiawatha, Punch, 480 Rhyme of the Rail, SAXE, 482 A Serenade, THOMAS HOOD, . . . 484 Morning Meditations, THOMAS HOOD, . . . 485 The Season, THOMAS HOOD, . . . 486 Spring, THOMAS HOOD, . . . 487 The Music Grinders, HOLMES, 488 A Parental Ode to my Son, aged three years ) _ and five months, . . ... . . . . .} THOMAS HOOD, ... 491 Provincial Speech, HOLMES, 492 A Rhymed Lesson, HOLMES, 493 PART III. THE DRAMA. SOLILOQUIES AND MONOLOGUES. Manfred. The Invocation, LORD BYRON, .... 495 Macbeth's Soliloquy, SHAKSPEARE, .... 496 Beleses' Address to the Sun, LORD BYRON, .... 496 The Two Kings, SHAKSPEARE, .... 497 Falstaff's Soldiers, SHAKSPEARK, .... 498 Polonius to Laertes, SHAKSPEARE, .... 499 The Lady in Coinus, MILTON, 500 The Student's Reverie, LONGFELLOW, .... 500 Jaques' Fool, SHAKSPEARE, .... 502 Oassius to Brutus, SHAKSPEARE, .... 502 CONTENTS. XV PAGE Earth's Regeneration, BAILEY, 503 Norman's Description to Violet, BULWER, 504 Toll's Refusal of Homage to Gesler's Cap, . . KNOWLICS, 505 Richelieu's Soliloquy, . . BULWER, 506 Music by Moonlight, SHAKSPEARE, .... 507 Bolingbroke's Triumph, SHAKSPEARE, .... 508 Prologue to Addison's Cato, POPE, 510 Nothing to Wear, W. A. BUTLER, . . . 512 DIALOGUES AND COLLOQUIES. The Cardinal's Exculpation, BULWER, 513 The Seaman's Pride, BULWER, 515 Conscience Triumphant, G. LILLO, 517 An Incorruptible Farmer, THOMAS MORTON, . . 520 Justice to the Lowly, THOMAS MORGAN, . . 522 The Spanish Student, LONGFELLOW, .... 524 The Trial of Anne Boleyn, BOKER, ..;... 527 Literary Stratagem, S. FOOTE, 529 The Hypocrite Unmasked, ....... GOLDSMITH, .... 532 Jones at the Barber's Shop, Punch, 535 Scene from Bombastes Furioso, ANONYMOUS, .... 536 Conjugal Quarrels, li. B. SHERIDAN, . . . 539 Awkward Servants, GOLDSMITH, . . . . 541 The Enthusiasm of the Huntress, D. L, BOURCICAULT, . 543 Family Obstinacy, . SHERIDAN, 545 Scene from Pizarro, ......... KOTZEBUE, 548 The Country Squire, CHARLES DANCE, . . 550 The Serenade, LONGFELLOW, .... 554 The Murder of Clytus, NATHANIEL LEE, . . . 556 Caudle and Mrs. Caudle, E. STIRLING, . , . . 560 The Quarrel Adjusted, SHERIDAN, 562 The Death of Cardinal Beaufort, SHAKSPEARE, .... 565 King Lear's returning Sanity, SHAKSPEARE, .... 566 The Enlistment, GEORGE FARQUHAR, . 569 Consultation of Physicians in Paris, .... MOLIERE, 570 NAMES OF AUTHORS. ADAMS, JOHN QTJINCY, 27, 33, 34, 140, 239 ADAMS, SAMUEL, 134. AKERS, T. P., 278. ALTENBURG, 402. ANONYMOUS, 93, 235, 339, 340, 368, 391, 402, 409, 410, 415, 416, 417, 427, 456 459, 462. ARNOLD, THOMAS, D.D., 225. BACON, LORD, 41, 42. BAILEY, 503. BAILLIE, JOANNA, 344. BANCROFT, GEORGE, 184, 223, 224. BARHAM, 370. BARROW, 243. BARTON, BERNARD, 329. BAUTAIN, ABBE, 28, 32-. BAYARD, JAMES A., 124, 147. BEDELL, GREGORY T., 262. BECKFOKD, WILLIAM, 66. BENTON, THOMAS H., 121, 155. BERRIBN, J. M., 155. BETHUNE, DR. GEORGE W., 379. BIDDLE, CHARLES J., 219. BLAIR, HUGH, 256. BOARDMAN, DR. HENRY A., 57, 250. BOKER, GEORGE H., 334, 527. BONAPARTE, NAPOLEON, 94, 95. BOUKCICAULT, DION L., 543. BRAINARD, 327. BRECKEMRIDGE, ROBERT J., 264. BROCK, W., 223. BROUGHAM, LORD, 195, 196, 197, 198 199, 201, 167, 168. BROWN, DAVID PAUL, 123. 144. BROWNING, MRS., 312, 336, 345, 383, BROWNING, ROBT., 399. [385, 390. BRYANT, WILLIAM C., 297, 298, 324. BRYDGES, SIR EGERTON, 359. BULWER, EDWARD LYTTON, 236, 504, 506, 513, 515. BURGES, TRISTRAM, 143. BURKE, EDMUND, 152, 153. BUTLER, W. A., 512. BYRON, LORD, 294, 296, 421, 422, 423, 448, 495, 496. CALHOUN, JOHN C., Ill, 112, 113. CAMPBELL, THOMAS, 344, 403, 404, 413, 419, 420. CARLYLE, THOMAS, 37, 38, 39, 40, 192. CARSON, A., 247. CASS, LEWIS, 150. CHALMERS, THOMAS, 257. CHANNING, W. E., 84, 101, 102. CHATEAUBRIAND, 63. CHATHAM, LORD, 151. 157, 158. CHOATE, RIJFUS, 161, 162. CICERO, 179. CLAY, HENRY, 103, 104, 105, 107, 170. CLINTON, DE WITT, 146. COLERIDGE, SAMUEL T., 242 COLLINS, WILLIAM, 424. COLTON, CALVIN, 46. COLWELL, STEPHEN, 56. COOKE, ELIZA, 351. COOKE, Mus. F. H., 357. COOKE, P. PENDLETON, 377. CORNWALL, BARRY, 414. COWPER, WILLIAM, 292, 293. COXE, A. C.. 362. CRITTENDEN, JOHN J., 173. CUTTER, G. W., 442. DANCE, CHARLES, 550. DAVIS, JEFFERSON, 171. DEMOSTHENES, 114. DICKINSON, JOHN, 134. DOANE, BISHOP, 37(i. DOBRENTCI, GABRIEL, 412. DOGGETT, D. S., 277. DORAN, DR., 238. DOUGLAS, STEPHEN A., 172. BOWLING, BARTHOLOMEW, 445. DRAKE. JAMES RODMAN, 391. DRAYTON, WILLIAM H., 127. DUER, JUDGE, 176. DUBBIN, DR., 80, 204, 269. DYER, JOHN, 423. ELLIOTT, BISHOP, 50. EIISKINE, THOMAS, 152. EVERETT, EDWARD, 28, 48, 49, 55. (xvi) NAME3 OF AUTHORS. xvu FABER, F. W., 281, 282. FAKQUHAR, GEORGE, 569. FAUCHET, ABBE, 166. FISHER, SIDNEY G., 231. FOOTS, SAMUEL, 529. Fox, CHARLES JAMES, 167. FKANCIS, DR. J. W., 70. ERASER'S MAGAZINE, 194. GASTON, WILLIAM, 115. GILPIN, HENRY D., 74. GOLDSMITH, OLIVER, 350, 351, 532, 541, GREENE, G. W., 235. GUIZOT, 77. GUYOT, ARNOLD, 64. HALL, ROBERT, 244, 254. HALLAM, 205. HAMILTON, ALEXANDER, 130, 1.64. HANCOCK, JOHN. 131. HARPER'S MAGAZINE, 190. HAWTHORNE, NATHANIEL, 228. HAYNE, ROBERT Y., 116, 117. II EBB it, BISHOP, 371. HEMANS, F. D., 360, 435, 440. HENRY, PATRICK, 125, 126. HERBERT, W., 434. HILLARD, GEORGE S.. 227, 229. MILLIARD, H. W., 119. HOOD, THOMAS, 454, 484, 485, 486, 487, 491. HOFFMAN, CHARLES F., 438, 444. HOLMES, OLIVER W., 383, 449, 450, 488, 492, 493, 439. HOPKINS, M., 265. HUGHES, 214, 216. HUGO, VICTOR, 47. HUNT, LEIGH, 61. HUNTER, R. M. T., 178. HUNTINGTON, F. D., 267, 281. INGERSOLL, JOSEPH R., 31, 32. IRVING, EDWARD, 258, 259. IRVING, WASHINGTON,^, 199, 232, 233. JACKSON. II. R., 346, 387. JOHNSON, DR. SAMUEL, 44, 45. KEBLE, JOHN, 372, 373. KERPOOT, J. B., 270, 272. KEY, FRANCIS SCOTT, 393. KHEMNITZER, 467. KING, MITCHELL, 29. KING, RUKUS. 118. KNOWLKS. JAMES SHERIDAN, 505. KNOX, JOHN. 249, 250. KCERNER, 398. KOSSUTH, Louis, 175. KOTZEBUE, 548. LANDON, L. E., 447. LEE, HENRY, 138. 2* B LEE, MARY E., 285. LEE, NATHANIEL, 556. LEIGHTON. ARCHBISHOP, 242. LILLO, G., 517. LIVINGSTON, EDWARD, 142. LLOYD, ELIZABETH, 385. LOCKHART, J. G., 429, 430. LONDON TIMES, 188, 191, 193. LONGFELLOW, HENRY W., 301, 303, 388, 418, 500, 524, 554. LOSSING, B. J., 220. LOVER, SAMUEL, 359, 476. LOWELL, J. R., 283. LUNT, GEORGE, 436. LrsniNGTON, FRANKLIN, 397. LUTHER. MARTIN, 246. LYONS, J. GILBORNE, 360, 362. MACAULAY, LORD, 35, 36, 181, 185, 200, 203, 206, 411, 431, 432. MACKAY, CHALES. 325. MADISON, JAMES, 129, 165. MAGINN, WILLIAM, 343. MAHON, LORD, lSt>. MARSH, GEORGE P., 61. MARSHALL, THOMAS F., 163. MASON. JOHN M., 261. MASSEY, GERALD, 395. MASSILLON, JOHN BAPTIST, 248. MAXEY, JONATHAN, 260. McCLINTOCK. J., 266. McDuFFiE. GEORGE, 156. MCILVAINE, BISHOP, 273. MclNTosti, SIR JAMES, 157. MCLAURIN, JOHN, 256. McMASTEits, JULIA R., 290. McMicHAEL, MORTON, 49. MELANCTHON, 247 MKI.LEN, G., 331. MELVILL, II., 263. MEREDITH, WILLIAM M., 92. MERRICK, 474. MILLER, THOMAS, 287. MILTON, JOHN, 60, 291,305, 500. MIRABEAU, 122. MITCHEL, 0. M., 71, 73, 85. Mom, D. M., 425. Mo LI ERE, 570. MONTESQUIEU, 95. MONTGOMERY, W. W., 311, 312. MOORE, THOMAS, 462, 454. MORGAN, THOMAS, 522. MORRIS, GOUVERNEUR, 120. MORTON, THOMAS, 520. MOTHERWELL, WlLLIAM, 437. NEWMAN, J. II., 278. NEW YORK DAILY TIMES, 188. NOTT, ELIPHALET, 268. OWEN, J. B., 100. OWEN, ROBERT DALE, 221. XV1H NAMES OF AUTHORS. OSGOOD, MRS. F. S., 428. OSSIAN, 366, 382. PALMER, W. P., 364. PAULDING, JAMES K., 328. PERCIVAL, JAMES G., 355, 356. PHILLIPS, CHARLES, 96, 154. PIERCE, FRANKLIN, 145. PIERCE, GEORGE F., 275. PIERPONT, JOHN, 330, 452. PIKE, ALBERT, 426. POE, EDGAR A., 375. POINSETT, JOEL R., 71. POPE, ALEXANDER, 510. POTTER, ALONZO, 251, 252. PRABD, W. M., 457, 468. PRENTICE, GEORGE D., 349. PRENTISS, S. S., 78, 79. PRESCOTT, WILLIAM H., 213, 226. PROUT, WILLIAM, 81. PUNCH, 464, 466, 477, 479, 480, 535. QUINCY, JOSIAH, JR., 135, 136. RAMSAY, DAVID, 141. RANDOLPH, JOHN, 139, 148, 149. READ, THOMAS B., 335, 338. REED, HENRY, 51, 66, 67. READ, WILLIAM GEORGE, 53. RIVES, WILLIAM C., 57. ROBERTSON, I W.. 253. ROGERS, SAMUEL, 314, 316, 288. RUSH, BENJAMIN, 137. RUSKIN, JOHN, 51, 189. RUSSELL, LORD JOHN, 99, 174, 202. RUTLEDGE, JOHN, 129; SANFORD, 202. SAXE, JOHN G., 453, 465, 482. SCOTT, SIR WALTER, 82, 306, 307, 394, 406. 408. SERGEANT, JOHN, 88. SHAKSPEARE, WILLIAM, 496, 497, 498, 499, 502, 503, 507, 508, 565, 566. SHEIL, RICHARD LALOR, 159, 160, 168. SHELLEY, PERCY B., 300, 308, 317. SHERIDAN, R. B., 539, 545, 562. SIMMONS, B., 380. SMITH, HORACE, 320, 322. SMITH, SYDNEY, 90, 91, 239, 240. SMYTH, WILLIAM, 182. SOUTH EY, MRS., 353. SOUTHEY, ROBERT, 470. SPARKS, JARED, 217,218. SPURGKON, CHARLES H., 275. STERNE, LAURENCE, 241. STEVENS, DR. WILLIAM B., 45, 245, 254, STIRLING. E., 560. STOKY, DH. JOSEPH, 58, 59. STREET, A. B., 354. SWAIN, CHARLES, 326, 327. TAYLOR. BAYARD, 212. TENNYSON, ALKRED, 407. THACKARAY, W. M., 183. THIERRY, AUGUSTIN, 76, 86, 210. THUCYDIDES, 69. TIMROD, W. H., 337, 338. TRENCH, DEAN, 333, 369, 443, 444. TUPPER, MARTIN F., 358. TYLER, JOHN, 97, 98. UHLAND, 401. VERPLASCK, OULIAN C., 83, 88. WAKE. W. B.. 4fiO. WALKER. JAMKS, D.D., 52. WALLACE, HORACE BINNEY, 63. WARREN, JOSEPH, 128. WASHBURNE, E. A., D.D., 180, 2*1. WASHINGTON, GEORGE, 132, 133. WAYLAND, FRANCIS, 274. WAYNE, JAMES M., 118. WEBSTER, DANIEL, 30, 55, 107, 108, 109, 110, 208. WESLEY. JOHN, 244. WHATELY, ARCHBISHOP, 280. WHEATON, H., 228. WHITE. BISHOP, 260, 271. WnfiTiER, J. G., 365. WIELAND, 43. WINTHROP, ROBERT C., 54, 69. WILLIS. N. P. 318. 319. WIRT, WILLIAM, 207, 144. WISEMAN, CARDINAL, 75, 89. WORDSWORTH, W., 342. YOUNG, EDWARD, 297. YOUNG, J. C., 276. INTRODUCTION. IT is not the intention of the author, to do more, in this brief introduction, than to offer a few practical remarks on the subject of Elocution, and to give a few directions to students, to guide them in the choice and declamation of the pieces contained in this volume. Within" the space allotted to such an introduction, it would be difficult to present a system of elocution, or even a concise set of rules to compass the whole subject. This is the duty and province of the professed elocutionist ; and it is hoped this book may fall into the hands of many such, in order that it may meet with proper illustration and use. Such instructors fcgree, however, in asserting and in teaching, that nature is the basis of true elocution, and that she only needs the guiding and controlling hand of art to mature her powers. And here let it be observed, that, as good habits and gentle manners in life are obtained by long culture, beginning in our earliest youth, so elocution, which is the appli- cation of good manners to the delivery of discourse, should be commenced early in life, and made the subject of constant practice in schools and institutions of learning. I. The first direction offered to the student is, to select his piece according to a fair estimate of his own powers. Do not attempt a difficult piece at first; begin with the simplest, and pass gradually to those which demand more thought, action, and culture. When chosen, let the piece be read with great care, before the effort is made to memorize it. Put yourself, as far as possible, into the position of the orator or author, and attain to the spirit which animated him. By this means you find the natural emphasis, that which the thought requires, and the first great lesson which the declamation was designed to teach is already learned. With many (xix) xx INTRODUCTION. students the first step is to learn, parrot-like, the words of the speech, with as little regard to its meaning as though it had none, leaving the understanding and due expression of it for after consideration. This is inverting the true order, and makes it difficult to invest the unintelligible words with their real meaning afterwards. II. It seems almost unnecessary to say that the next important step is to learn it thoroughly. But this is no truism. Leaving out of the account those who break down, when called upon the platform, in the middle of the speech, how many there are who betray painfully to the audience, by their lack-lustre eye, and hesitating manner, that their thoughts are not addressed to them, but are busy drawing up from the wells of memory something which needs the constant effort, and is resistant of it at the end of every period. The appearance of this should be avoided, by so thorough a memo- rizing as to make the matter of the speech your own. It has been said, put yourself into the orator's place : By this is meant only to think and feel as he must have done ; and then to render his thought yourself, not as he rendered it, but as it ought to be rendered. It cannot be doubted that many a school-boy does more oratorical justice to Burke or Macaulay than those speakers did to themselves. III. Having thoroughly prepared, and intelligently appreciated the piece, the next and the true objective part of the elocution, is its delivery. In this comprehensive term are included the manage- ment of the voice; the use of the hands, the eyes, and the person, all which are included in the wprd gesture. Of the Voice. The general discussion of this subject is based upon a division of voice according to its quality and its power. By quality is meant the character of the voice itself as smooth or rough, as harsh or melodious, as guttural or nasal. By power is meant its ability to give greater or less volume of sound, as loud or soft. Little need be said of the quality in this connection; by constant practice and training much may be done to correct the unpleasant characteristics to make a harsh voice smooth, and a rough one melodious. In speaking of the power of the voice, it is observed that it is of great importance to give a sufficient volume of voice to fill the hall in which the declamation is made, to be heard by the audience, without requiring an intensity of listening attention, as where the sound is barely loud enough to >e heard with eifort. INTRODUCTION. xxi Articulation, or Enunciation. By articulation is meant the clear utterance of every part of each word, so that if the sound be heard, the word will be also heard and understood. This is not unfrequently called clear enunciation. Many persons have quite enough volume of voice, but, by reason of their want of proper enunciation, especially of final consonants, they make a jumble of sounds quite as indistinct as those which are almost inaudible. Sometimes this proceeds from what is called mouthing : from opening the mouth too wide in speaking, and from a want of vigor and exactness in the use of the lips and tongue, as in sound- ing p and b, d and t, and making the distinction between them respectively. A clear enunciation frequently makes a speaker heard without much power of voice : an adjustment should be made between the two, so as not to exert the voice more than is evidently required. Another direction is as to the modulation of the voice. By this something more is meant than an adaptation of the sound to the character of the thought in different sentences or clauses. As a matter of practice it is found that some persons find it very diffi- cult to get out of a continued monotone, one dead level of voice, like a song all on one note , or with a slight cadence of intonation which recurs at the end of every sentence, or alternate sentence, until it becomes extremely painful to the ear, and mars the thought entirely. Others begin on a medium note, and in a long paragraph find themselves falling lower and lower, until they fall below the compass of their voice into an impracticable bass. Others, still, with fine voices, seem to lose control over them, and they run up and down the oratorical gamut like the singular sounds of a wind harp. It must rest with professed elocutionists, with copious vocal illustrations, to teach the proper modulation of the voice, as it must necessarily vary with each piece to be declaimed. In the consideration of the voice are also included the subjects of accent, emphasis, and inflection, which can only be thoroughly taught by an elocutionist. Nature, however, which dictates our emphasis and inflection in ordinary conversation, or in the earnest, unaffected speech of the common people, is the foundation of this instruction. By accent is meant the stress laid upon one or more syllables of a word. By emphasis is meant the increase of force given to a word by a louder sound, or by a pause upon it, to mark it as the principal word in the sentence. Sometimes there are xxii INTRODUCTION. more emphatic words than one in a sentence, and differences of emphasis, which should be distinctly marked. There is such a thing as too much emphasis ; there are certain speakers who dwell upon more than half the words in a sentence, giving a sort of hammering and jerking sound, peculiarly disagree- able. It is greatly better to have too little than too much, for in the clear and well-enunciated utterance, the hearer will supply his own emphasis; but there is a just medium, which, by marking the few words of decided importance, gives great force and vigor to the expression. By inflection is meant the rise or fall of the voice on a parti- cular word, to give a certain effect. It is usual to express inflection by the grave and acute accent, thus : v and ' . Thus, a direct question ends with the rising inflection; and the direct answer usually with the falling : " Where have you ~been''l I have been in the country"" But this is not universal. The nature of the question and answer, and of the circumstances, must decide the character of the inflection. A false inflection frequently alters the meaning of a sentence entirely ; delicate adaptations and changes of inflection give great variety and interest to speech. It is chiefly in poetry that young speakers are led into false em- phasis and inflection, by reason of the rhythm and the rhyme, which seem to demand a sort of invariableness of emphasis, as at the caesu- ral pauses, and of inflection, with the rhyme. This is wrong; we should not neglect the rhythm or the recurring cadence entirely, nor should we be so bound by it as to spoil the connection and the sense. IV. The next important topic is gesture, and here the most deplorable diflidence often seizes the young declaimer. Gesture should speak to the eye what the words do to the ear, and conse- quently the action of the body must harmonize with the thought which is uttered. Gesture, in its widest compass, subsidizes the whole body to give force and expression to the speech. It is not the arms and hands alone which the orator should use, but he should make the head, the eye, the muscles of the face, the shoulders, the chest, the attitude, the feet, do their important part in acting out and illustrating the spoken thought. A toss of the head betrays indifference ; a contracted brow denotes displeasure ; a dilated eye tells of astonishment; a distension of the nostrils evinces alarm; a curled lip betokens disdain; a compressed mouth indicates firmness; a shrug of the shoulders expresses doubt; the INTRODUCTION. xxiii chest, thrown forward shows manliness; -an erect bearing evinces clumsy; a well-planted foot marks strength of purpose; and a frequent change of position betrays restlessness and irresolution. These, in all their possible varieties and combinations, in connec- tion with the arms, the great levers of oratory, should be cultivated by the student who would learn the art of gesture. The errors to be avoided, are, too much action, constrained action, inappropriate action, forced action, untimely action ; and the points to be culti- vated, are, graceful action, illustrative action, variety, freedom, and naturalness of action : thus we should judiciously adapt the sign- language of gesture to the word-language of the lips. The student cannot be too earnestly advised, after all that has been said, to cultivate a deliberate and poised manner. Most beginners find themselves hurrying over the pieces, with a con- stantly increasing momentum, which threatens destruction to all understanding of the piece. This can be avoided by deliberation. Most of what has been said has particular reference to the decla- mation of prose pieces really addressed as are the efforts of the rostrum, the pulpit, and the bar to the persons of the hearers. Poetry, notwithstanding its divorce from music, addresses itself to the heart of every reader ; but has an indefiniteness of aim, and an impersonality, when recited before an audience. The words in a certain sense are not directly addressed by the speaker to the audience, but cast forth like a melody upon the air, and designed, like music, to claim for itself, and not him who pronounces it, the meed of praise and admiration. Poetry requires, therefore, a less personal, less direct utterance , it should be recited, and not declaimed; the general rules of expression are, however, the same ; but the tone of the voice is more nearly akin to music than ordinary speech. Let the prosody be carefully observed ; give every line its proper part in the melody, but do not spoil the sense by a sing-song cadence, too commonly indulged in by beginners. To the drama, the directions already given refer : but there i$ one important difference. In oratory, we immediately address and are concerned about the audience before us ; what we say is entirely for them and to them ; the orator is in the closest personal com- munication with those before him; and in poetry, the beautiful thoughts uttered in musical speech are for the behoof of the hearers; but in the drama, by a fiction of the play, each speaker is xxiv INTRODUCTION. to act unconsciously of an audience ; the other speakers are his audience, and he a part of theirs : the true aim, the*n, in dialogue, should be to act for your fellow actors, and neither by look .or innuendo to appear to be acting at or to the audience. This is the secret of success ; and to him who bears his part in the drama most naturally, supposing it to be a real scene, is awarded the applause and praise of the audience. And now let it be observed, that all our practice in declamation and recitation, as important as it is, is so because it is preparatory to another step of far greater importance in the drama of life. Its object is to prepare the youth to write and speak his own speeches, and to enable him to rise and make extemporaneous addresses, in his own sphere, upon topics of great and manifold interest. No educated American, in the nineteenth century, should be " unac- customed to public speaking," or should be called on " unex- pectedly," when the interests of his country, of education, of philanthropy, are at stake. The spirit of a free people is the true spirit of oratory ; because it is natural, fearless, and earnest. American natural orators are everywhere renowned, and even the Indians, our unfortunate pre- decessors in this goodly land, give us, without the excellent culture of the schools, matchless models of eloquence, subsidizing nature, inventing rhetoric, and extorting our praise. This brings us to the point from which we started, viz. : that nature is the true source of the best oratory, and that art is only its handmaid and adorner. The Latin poet knew the value of this naturalness when he wrote * Si vis me flere, dolendum est Primum ipsi tibi;" for that naturalness is the earnest of human sympathy, and true sympathy makes all oratory interesting and attractive. If to this we add that culture which, based upon nature and sympathy, is only intended to develop the powers of nature to the utmost; to detract nothing from its reality, but to give it new avenues of power and beauty, we shall do proper homage to the most expressive of the arts, at once useful and aesthetic, ELOCUTION. In closing these introductory remarks on the subject of elocu- tion, the compiler desires to explain the divisions which he has INTRODUCTION. xxv made in classifying and arranging his selections. The classifica- tion is based upon general rhetorical principles. It is as follows : I. DECLAMATIONS IN PROSE. II. RECITATIONS IN POETRY. III. THE DRAMA. I. DECLAMATIONS IN PROSE. Under the general head of Declamations in Prose are included extracts from all kinds of public discourse, as the subdivision will show. The first part of this subdivision is 1. Academic and Populhr. In this part are included such efforts as are found in special orations, in seminaries and colleges, before literary societies, in addresses on great anniversaries, in speeches before public meetings on issues other than political ; in a word, this part comprises a very varied selection from occasional discourses of literary or popular interest. To these are added eloquent extracts from certain written works of the same general character, and specially adapted to be spoken to an audience. 2. Judicial, Forensic, and Parliamentary. This part easily explains itself, as containing extracts from the charges of judges on the bench, the speeches of lawyers at the bar, and addresses in houses of legislation, such as the English Parliament, our own Con- gress, and our state legislatures. 3. Historical, Biographical, and Descriptive. In this subdivi- sion will be found extracts from historical and biographical lectures, and from written histories and biographies, with a few descriptive sketches from books of travel and cognate works. The custom so prevalent in our day of lecturing in public on such themes, offers, it is evident, a new avenue for the teacher of elocution and the compiler of such books as this volume. This subdivision has been virtually neglected in other books of this description, and has been monopolized heretofore by the Readers or Reading Class-Books. 4. Religious, Moral, and Didactic. In most books of extracts for reading and speaking, this part is entirely neglected, or most inadequately supplied. ' The .truth is, there is in amount more eloquence and rhetorical power from the pulpit than from all the other sources of oratory combined. It has been deemed proper to collect here a fair representation of pulpit orators, and as varied as possible, including numerous denominations of Christians. 3 xxvi INTRODUCTION. II. RECITATIONS IN POETRY. It was unnecessary under this grand division to designate many varieties. They are all included under three heads, for the sake of convenience of reference. 1. Epic, Lyric, and Descriptive. This is a large and varied department, in which will be found many new pieces, unhackneyed by that constant repetition which has robbed some of the finest English pieces of their original charm. 2. National Odes and Battle Pieces. This subdivision of stirring and patriotic selections, gives some idea of the enthusiasm of the human heart in all countries when called out to defend its father- land. The author feels sure that it will be generally regarded as an interesting and distinguishing feature of this book. 3. Wit and Humor in Verse. Under this title have been grouped many entirely new pieces, containing unforced wit and true humor. With two or three exceptions, the author has aimed to present what the student will not find in similar works. III. THE DRAMA. Although the Drama must be written in prose or poetry, and might fairly come under one of the two principal heads already mentioned in a rhetorical arrangement, for convenience and dis- tinction it has been classified as separate from either. It has also two subdivisions. 1. Soliloquies and Monologues. All the best dramas abound in passages of this nature, which, when extracted, make excellent separate speeches; but which, in such portion- of the drama itself as could be placed in a work of this compass, would be too long and tedious in colloquy. 2. Dialogues and Colloquies. Varied extracts from dramas, old and new, tragic and comic, are included in this part, and complete the volume. They have been chosen with great care, and with special regard to eliminating that license and immorality which have so infected the stage drama in our day. It is hoped they will give ease of colloquy to students, while at the same time they offer them a new and extensive selection from the works of English and American dramatists. THE . jjjr , SELECT ACADEMIC SPEAKER ;,; PART I. DECLAMATIONS IN PEOSB. ACADEMIC AND POPULAR. THE OKATOR'S ART. JOHN QUINCT ADAMS. THE eloquence of the college is like the discipline of a review. The art of war, we are all sensible, does not consist in manoeuvres on a training-day; nor the steadfastness of the soldier in the hour of battle, in the drilling of his orderly sergeant. Yet the superior excel- lence of the veteran army is exemplified in nothing more forcibly than in the perfection of its discipline. It is in the heat of action, upon the field of blood, that the fortune of the day may be decided by the exactness of manual exercise ; and the art of displaying a column, or directing a charge, may turn the balance of victory, and change the history of the world. The application of these observations is as direct to the art of oratory as to that of war. The exercises to which you are here accustomed are not intended merely for the display of the talents you have acquired. They are instruments put into your hands for future use. Their object is not barely to prepare you for the composi- tion and delivery of an oration to amuse an idle hour on some public anniversary. It is to give you a clue for the labyrinth of legislation in the public councils ; a spear for the conflict of judicial war in the public tribunals ; a sword for the field of religious and moral victory ip the pulpit. From " Lectures on Rhetoric and Oratory,", delivered at Harvard, 1808. (27) 28 THE SELECT ACADEMIC SPEAKER. THE ORATOR'S GIFT. ABBE BAUTAIW- ART may develop and perfect the talent of a speaker, but cannot produce it. The exercises of grammar and of rhetoric will teach a pe.rtfoft how;to/ sp.'epk ^correctly and elegantly; but nothing can teach him to be eloquent, or give that eloquence which comes from the heart and gCj.es to the heart. All 'the precepts and artifices on earth can but form 'iihs appearances o.r semblance of it. Now this true and natural eloquence which moves, persuades and transports, consists of a soul and a body, like man, whose image, glory, and word it is. The soul of eloquence is the centre of the human soul itself, which, enlightened by the rays of an idea, or warmed and stirred by an impression, flashes or bursts forth to manifest, by some sign or other, what it feels or sees. This it is which gives movement and life to a discourse; it is like a kindled torch, or a shuddering and vibrating nerve. The body of eloquence is the language which it requires in order to speak, and which must harmoniously clothe what it thinks or feels, as a fine shape harmonizes with the spirit which it contains. The material part of language is learnt instinctively, and practice makes us feel and seize its delicacies and shades. The understanding then, which sees rightly and conceives clearly, and the heart which feels keenly, find naturally, and without effort, the words and the arrangement of words most analogous to what is to be expressed. Hence the innate talent of eloquence, which results alike from certain intellectual and moral aptitudes, and from the physical constitution, especially from that of the senses and of the organs of the voice. From " The Art of Extempore Speaking." THE WONDERS OF THE DAWN. EDWARD EVERETT. MUCH as we are indebted to our observatories for elevating our con- ceptions of the heavenly bodies, they present even to the unaided sight scenes of glory which words are too feeble to describe. I had occasion, a few weeks since, to take the early train from Providence to Boston ; and for this purpose rose at two o'clock in the morning. Everything around was wrapt in darkness and hushed in silence, broken only by what seemed at that hour the unearthly clank and rush of the train. It was a mild, serene, midsummer's night, the sky was without a cloud, the winds were whist. The moon, then in the last quarter, had just risen, and the stars shone with a spectral lustre but little affected by her presence. Jupiter, two hours high, was the herald of DECLAMATIONS IN PROSE. 29 the day ; the Pleiades just above the horizon shed their sweet influence in the east ; Lyra sparkled near the zenith ; Andromeda Veiled her newly-discftvered glories from the naked eye in the south ; the steady pointers far beneath the pole looked meekly up from the depths of the north to their sovereign. Such was the glorious spectacle as I entered the train. As we pro- ceeded, the timid approach of twilight become more perceptible ; the intense blue of the sky began to soften ; the smaller stars, like little children, went first to rest ; the sister-beams of the Pleiades soon melted together ; but the bright constellations of the west and north remained unchanged. Steadily the wondrous transfiguration went on. Hands of angels hidden from mortal eyes shifted the scenery of the heavens ; the glories of night dissolved into the glories of the dawn. The blue sky now turned more softly gray ; the great watch-stars shut up their holy eyes ; the east began to kindle. Faint streaks of purple soon blushed along the sky ; the whole celestial concave was filled with the inflowing tides of the morning light, which came pouring down from above in one great ocean of radiance ; till at length, as we reached the Blue Hills, a flash of purple fire blazed out from above the horizon, and turned the dewy tear-drops of flower and leaf into rubies and diamonds. In a few seconds, the everlasting gates of the morning were thrown wide open, and the lord of day, arrayed in glories too severe for the gaze of man, began his state. From " Address at the Inauguration of the Dudley Observatory," 1856. THE DUTIES OF THE HISTORIAN. MITCHELL KINO. THE first duty of the man, who contemplates the arduous task of writing a history, would seem to be, to estimate his own strength, and ascertain how far he is, or can make himself, competent for the under- taking. To know one's self, is perhaps the most difficult part of human knowledge. Few, very few, have attained that yvioOc, aeaorov Know thyself which the satirist says, E ccelo descendit came down from heaven, and was inscribed in golden letters on the portals of the temple of Delphos. It is necessary for the historian, as well as the poet, to ascertain quid ferre recusent, Quid valeant humeri ; and not to take up a load which he is unable to carry. If he err greatly in this estimate, he may look in vain for success. An accurate and comprehensive acquaintance with the events of the times of which he undertakes to write, and with the characters of the 3* 30 THE SELECT ACADEMIC SPEAKER. men who acted in them, is indispensable to the historian. No paina can be too* great, no research too persevering, to acquire this informa- tion. Without it, correct history cannot be written. It musfbe sought in every quarter in which it can be obtained ; in the public archives of a people in the repositories of individuals in the ephemeral, in the enduring literature of the day in the private letters in the monu- ments of the age. Herodotus visited himself the places which he describes ; and examined the records of the people of whom he writes, whenever they were accessible to him ; and when he relates anything which he had not himself seen, or learned, from what he considered sufficient authority, he generally qualifies his narrative with an " it is said," or " they say," and leaves the reader to form his own conclusion. Thucydides lived, we know, in the midst of the interesting events which he so admirably commemorates mingled largely in them heard, per- haps, the very speeches which he puts in the mouths of Pericles, and of others of his contemporaries ; and possessed ample means of which he has well availed himself for obtaining the information which he required. Polybius travelled through Gaul and Spain followed Scipio into Africa was present with him at the taking of Carthage by his assistance had access to all the archives of Rome ; and was indefatigable in collecting materials for the composition of that history, which, mutilated as it is, deserves to be more read and studied. Examples similar to these might be accumulated almost without end ; but these may serve to show the care and industry required in collecting the information necessary for the historian. From " A Discourse before the Georgia Historical Society." POPULAK GOVERNMENT IN AMERICA. DANIEL WEBSTER. WHEN the battle of Bunker Hill was fought, the existence of South America was scarcely felt in the civilized world. The thirteen little colonies of North America habitually called themselves the " Conti- nent." Borne down by colonial subjugation, monopoly, and bigotry, those vast regions of the south were hardly visible above the horizon. But, in our day, there hath been, as it were, a new creation. The southern hemisphere emerges from the sea. Its lofty mountains begin to lift themselves into the light of heaven ; its broad and fertile plains stretch out in beauty to the eye of civilized man, and, at the mighty being of the voice of political liberty, the waters of darkness retire. We are not propagandists. Wherever other systems are preferred, either as being thought better in themselves, or as better suited to exist- ing condition, we leave the preference to be enjoyed. Our history DECLAMATIONS IN PROSE. 31 hitherto proves, however, that the popular form is practicable, and that, with wisdom and knowledge, men may govern themselves ; and the duty incumTbent on us is, to preserve the consistency of this cheering example, and take care that nothing may weaken its authority with the world. If, in our case, the representative system ultimately fail, popu- lar governments must be pronounced impossible. No combination of circumstances more favorable to the experiment can ever be expected to occur. The last hopes of mankind, therefore, rest with us ; and if it should be proclaimed, that our example had become an argument against the experiment, the knell of popular liberty would be sounded throughout the earth. These are excitements to duty ; but they are not suggestions of doubt. Our history and our condition, all that is gone before us, and all that surrounds us, authorize the belief, that popular governments, though subject to occasional variations, perhaps not always for the better, in form, may yet, in their general character, be as durable and permanent as other systems. We know, indeed, that, in our country, any other is impossible. The principle of free governments adheres to the American soil. It is bedded in it immovable as its mountains. From " Oration at tlie Laying of the Corner Stone of the Bunker Hill Monument?' LANGUAGE AND POETEY. J. R. INGERSOLL. WHAT has so much adorned and characterized an age as its poetic fame ? Look back through the annals of every nation that has been distinguished by the various properties of greatness, and the eye will rest with its intensest interest on those periods which the historian has been delighted to describe as the days when language was pure, and when poets were honored and renowned the days of Pericles, of Augustus, of Elizabeth, of Louis XIV. You are familiar with the observation of Kennett, that it was a common saying, that if all arts and sciences were lost, they might be found in Virgil. His knowledge and his verse were not the less amiable for the absence of rhyme, which marked not his writings only, but those of all the classic poets. The classic language of Rome was coeval with Roman glory, which faded with the pollution of its vigorous and expressive dialect. Rome ceased to be the Mistress of the world only when she forgot to speak the Latin tongue. " Obliti sunt Romas loqui lingua Latina." History is not wanting in other proofs, equally authentic and memo- rable, of the association between the inspired efforts of poetry and national greatness, or even the essential spirit of liberty. Edward the 32 THE SELECT ACADEMIC SPEAKER. First ordered the Welsh Bards to be murdered, and braved the penalty of " Cambria's curse and Cambria's tears ;" as the most effectual method of extinguishing the national spirit. From " An Address delivered at Athens, Ga." 1847. THE GLORY OF ATHENS. J. R. INGERSOLL. IT is with unfeigned pleasure that I exchange congratulations with yourselves, gentlemen, and with all this assembly, upon our being in the midst of Athens. Not personally in that Athens which was the light of Greece, but in another classic residence, adopting for wise pur- poses of emulation and resemblance a name which was once a signal for everything brilliant in arts, glorious in arms, successful in com- merce, accomplished in manners, and distinguished in wit, wisdom, and elegant literature. Egypt yielded her supremacy to this, the bright inheritrix of her learning. Imperial Rome, awaking from the rugged sway of military habit and authority, sent to the schools of Athenian philosophy her favorite sons, who brought back the elements of an Augustan age. All the world did homage to the light which shone from the temple of Minerva on the top of the Acropolis. The source of it has been long since extinguished ; but the influences of it have not ceased to radiate during the interval of two thousand years. An example sufficiently obvious for distinct examination, connected with much that might be unbecoming, or ill adapted to the uses of modern times, affords an interesting study for the scholar, who, without the evils, may profit by many advantages in the history of the ancient metropolis. Works of art remain in imperishable grandeur for the instruction and admira- tion of mankind. Pagan religion and false philosophy have passed away. Objects which served in their proud supremacy to adorn them, still present in venerable ruin monuments of exploded error, and models of taste and elegance. A people, among whom deities were to be found scarcely less readily than men who, having exhausted the fabulous calendar of the skies, erected an altar to the unknown God have given to a remote posterity the mutilated but beautiful memorials of a delu- sive worship for the uses of a better faith. From " An Address delivered at Athens, Ga." 1847. THE TEUE INSPIRATION OF THE ORATOR. ABBE BACTAIN. HE who feels the importance and the danger of speaking, who has any notion of what the orator ought to be, any notion of all that he DECLAMATIONS IN PROSE. 33 needs to accomplish his task, the obstacles he must surmount, the diffi- culties he must overcome, and, on the other hand, how slight a matter suffices to overthrow or paralyze him, he who understands all this, can well conceive also that he requires to be breathed upon from on high in order to receive the inspiration, the light, fire, which shall make his discourse living and efficacious. For all life comes from Him who is life itself, life infinite, life eternal, inexhaustible, and the life of minds more still than of bodies, since God is spirit. It is but just, therefore, to pay Him homage for what He has vouchsafed to give us, and to refer to Him at the earliest moment the fruit or glory of what we have received. This is the more fitting, because there is nothing more intoxicating than the successes of eloquence ; and in the elation which its power gives, owing to a consciousness of strength, and the visible influence which one is exercising over one's fellow-creatures, one is naturally prone to exalt oneself in one's own conceit, and to ascribe to oneself, directly or indirectly, wholly or partially, the effect produced. One should beware of these temptations of pride, these illusions of vanity, which are invariably fatal to true talent. From " The Art of Extempore Speaking." THE STATESMAN'S PANOPLY. J. Q. ADAMS. WOULD it be an unlicensed trespass of the imagination to conceive, that on the night preceding the day of which you now commemorate the fiftieth anniversary on the night preceding that thirtieth of April, one thousand seven hundred and eighty-nine, when from the balcony of your city hall, the chancellor of the state of New York administered to George Washington the solemn oath, faithfully to execute the office of President of the United States, and to the best of his ability, to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States that in the visions of the night, the guardian angel of the Father of our country had appeared before him, in the venerated form of his mother, and, to cheer and encourage him in the performance of the momentous and solemn duties that he was about to assume, had delivered to him a suit of celestial armor a helmet, consisting of the principles of piety, of justice, of honor, of benevolence, with which from his earliest infancy he had hitherto walked through life, in the presence of all his brethren a spear, studded with the self-evident truths of the Declaration of Independence a sword, the same with which he had led the armies of his country through the war of freedom, to the summit of the tri- umphal arch of independence a corselet and cuishes of long experience and habitual intercourse in peace and war with the world of mankind, C 34 THE SELECT ACADEMIC SPEAKER. his cotemporaries of the human race, in all their stages of civilization and last of all, the Constitution of the United States, a SHIELD embossed by heavenly hands, with the future history of his country. Yes, gentlemen ! on that shield, the CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES, was sculptured (by forms unseen, and in characters then invisible to mortal eye) the predestined and prophetic history of the one confederated people of the North American Union. From " The Jubilee of the Constitution," 1839. MOUNT EBAL AND MOUNT GEEIZIM. J. Q. ADAMS. WHEN the children of Israel, after forty years of wanderings in the wilderness, were about to enter upon the promised land, their leader, Moses, who was not permitted to cross the Jordan with them, just before his removal from among them, commanded that when the Lord their God should have brought them into the land, they should put the curse upon Mount Ebal, and the blessing upon Mount Gerizim. This injunction was faithfully fulfilled by his successor Joshua. Immedi- ately after they had taken possession of the land, Joshua built an altar to the Lord, of whole stones, upon Mount Ebal. And there he wrote upon the stones a copy of the law of Moses, which he had written in the presence of the children of Israel : and all Israel, and their elders and officers, and their judges, stood on the two sides of the ark of the covenant, borne by the priests and Levites, six tribes over against Mount Gerizim, and six over against Mount Ebal. And he read all the words of the law, the blessings and cursings, according to all that was written in the book of the law. Fellow-citizens, the ark of your covenant is the Declaration of Inde- pendence. Your Mount Ebal is the confederacy of separate state sovereignties, and your Mount Gerizim is the Constitution of the United States. In that scene of tremendous and awful solemnity, narrated in the Holy Scriptures, there is not a curse pronounced against the people upon Mount Ebal, not a blessing promised them upon Mount Gerizim, which your posterity* may not suffer or enjoy, from your and their adherence to, or departure from, the principles of the Declaration of Independence, practically interwoven in the Constitution of the United States. Lay up these principles, then, in your hearts, and in your souls bind them for signs upon your hands, that they may be as frontlets between your eyes teach them to your children, speaking of them when sitting in your houses, when walking by the way, when lying down and when rising up write them upon the doorplates of your houses, and upon your gates cling to them as to the issues of DECLAMATIONS IN PROSE. 35 life adhere to them as to the cords of your eternal salvation. So may your children's children at the next return of this day of jubilee, after a full century of experience under your national Constitution, celebrate it again in the full enjoyment of all the blessings recognised by you in the commemoration of this day, and of all the blessings promised to the children of Israel upon Mount Gerizim, as the reward of obedience to the law of God. From " TJie, Jubilee qfUie. Constitution," 1839. EAKLY ASTRONOMY. LORD MACAULAT. ASTRONOMY was one of the sciences which Plato exhorted his disciples to learn, but for reasons far removed from common habits of thinking. " Shall we set down astronomy," says Socrates, " among the subjects of study?" "I think so," answers his young friend Glaucon : "to know something about the seasons, about the months -and the years, is of use for military purposes, as well as for agriculture and navigation." " It amuses me," says Socrates, " to see how afraid you are lest the common herd of people should accuse you of recommending useless studies." He then proceeds in that pure and magnificent diction, which, as Cicero said, Jupiter would use if Jupiter spoke Greek, to explain, that the use of astronomy is not to add to. the vulgar comforts of life, but to assist in raising the mind to the contemplation of things which are to be perceived by the pure intellect alone. The knowledge of the actual motions of the heavenly bodies he considers as of little value. The appearances which make the sky beautiful at night are, he tells us, like the figures which a geometrician draws on the sand, mere examples, mere helps to feeble minds. We must get beyond them ; we must neglect them ; we must attain to an astronomy which is as independent of the actual stars as geometrical truth is independent of the lines of an ill-drawn diagram. This is, we imagine, very nearly, if not exactly, the astronomy which Bacon compared to the ox of Pro- metheus a sleek, well-shaped hide, stuffed with rubbish, goodly to look at, but containing nothing to eat. He complained that astronomy had, to its great injury, been separated from natural philosophy, of which it was one of the noblest provinces, and annexed to the domain of mathematics. The world stood in need, he said, of a very different astronomy of a living astronomy, of an astronomy which should set forth the nature, the motion, and the influences of the heavenly bodies, as they really are. From " Critical and Miscellaneous Essays" 36 THE SELECT ACADEMIC SPEAKER. INSTALLATION SPEECH AT GLASGOW. LORD MACAULAY. I TRUST, that when a hundred years more have run out, this ancient college will still continue to deserve well of our country and of man- kind. I trust that the installation of 1949 will be attended by a still greater assembly of students than I have the happiness now to see before me. The assemblage indeed may not meet in the place where we have met. These venerable halls may have disappeared. My suc- cessor may speak to your successors in a more stately edifice, in an edifice which, even among the magnificent buildings of the future Glasgow, will still be admired as a fine specimen of architecture which flourished in the days of the good Queen Victoria. But though the site and the walls may be new, the spirit of the institution will, I hope, be still the same. My successor will, I hope, be able to boast that the fifth century of the University has been even more glorious than the fourth. He will be able to vindicate that boast, by citing a long list of eminent men, great masters of experimental science, of ancient learning, of our native eloquence, ornaments of the senate, the pulpit, and the bar. He will, I hope, mention with high honor some of my young friends who now hear me ; and he will, I also hope, be able to add that their talents and learning were not wasted on selfish or ignoble objects, but were employed to promote the physical and moral good of their species, to extend the empire of man over the material world, to defend the cause of civil and religious liberty against tyrants and bigots, and to defend the cause of virtue and order against the enemies of all divine and human laws. I have now given utterance to a part, and a part only, of the recollections and anticipations of which on this solemn occasion my mind is full. I again thank you for the honor which you have bestowed on me ; and I assure you that while I live I shall never cease to take a deep interest in the welfare and fame of the body with which, by your kindness, I have this day become connected. From " Critical and Miscellaneous Essays." THE INFLUENCE OP BYRON. LORD MACAULAT. AMONG that large class of young persons whose reading is almost entirely confined to works of imagination, the popularity of Lord Byron was unbounded. They bought pictures of him, they treasured up the smallest relics of him ; they learned his poems by heart, and did their best to write like him, and to look like him. Many of them practised at the glass, in the hope of catching the curl of the upper lip, and the DECLAMATIONS IN PROSE. 37 scowl of the brow, which appear in some of his portraits. A few dis- carded their neckcloths, in imitation of their great leader. For some years, the Minerva press sent forth no novel without a mysterious, unhappy, Lara-like peer. The number of hopeful under-graduates and medical students who became things of dark imaginings, on whom the freshness of the heart ceased to fall like dew, whose passions had con- sumed themselves to dust, and to whom the relief of tears was denied, passes all calculation. This was not the worst. There was created in the minds of many of these enthusiasts a pernicious and absurd asso- ciation between intellectual power and moral depravity. This affectation has passed away ; and a few more years will destroy whatever yet remains of that magical potency which once belonged to the name of Byron. To us he is still a man, young, noble, and un- happy. To our children he will be merely a writer ; and their impartial judgment will appoint his place among writers, without regard to his rank or to his private history. That his poetry will undergo a severe sifting ; that much of what has been admired by his contemporaries will be rejected as worthless, we have little doubt. But we have as little doubt, that, after the closest scrutiny, there will still remain much that can only perish with the English language. From " Review of Moore's Life of Byron." THE MIRACLES OF NATURE. THOMAS CARLYLE. You remember that fancy of Aristotle's, of a man who had grown to maturity in some dark distance, and was brought on a sudden into the upper air to see the sun rise. What would his wonder be, says the Philosopher, his rapt astonishment, at the sight we daily witness with indifference ! With the free open sense of a child, yet with the ripe faculty of a man, his whole heart would be kindled by that sight, he would discern it well to be Godlike, his soul would fall down in worship before it. Now, just such a childlike greatness was in the primitive nations. The first Pagan Thinker among rude men, the first man that began to think, was precisely the child-man of Aristotle. Simple, open as a child, yet with the depth and strength of a man. Nature had as yet no name to him ; he had not yet united under a name the infinite variety of sights, sounds, shapes, and motions, which we now collectively name Universe, Nature, or the like, and so with a name dismiss it from us. To the wild deep-hearted man all was yet new, not veiled under names or formulas ; it stood naked, flashing in on him there, beautiful, awful, unspeakable. Nature was to this man, what to the Thinker and Prophet it for ever is, preternatural. This green flowery rock-built earth, the trees, the mountains, rivers, many- 4 38 THE SELECT ACADEMIC SPEAKER. sounding seas ; that great deep sea of azure that swims overhead ; the winds sweeping through it ; the black cloud fashioning itself together, now pouring out fire, now hail and rain: what is it?. Ay, what? At bottom we do not yet know ; we can never know at all. It is not by our superior insight that we escape the difficulty ; it is by our superior levity, our inattention, our want of insight. It is by not thinking that we cease to wonder at it. Hardened round us, encasing wholly every notion we form, is a wrappage of traditions, hearsays, mere words. We call that fire of the black thunder-cloud " electricity/' and lecture learnedly about it, and grind the like of it out of glass and silk ; but what is it? "What made it? Whence comes it? Whither goes it? Science has done much for us ; but it is a poor science that would hide from us the great deep sacred infinitude of Nescience, whither we can never penetrate, on which all science swims as a mere superficial film. This world, after all our science and sciences, is still a miracle ; won- derful, inscrutable, magical and more, to whosoever will think of it. From " Heroes and Hero Worship." MYSTERIES. THOMAS CARLTLE. THAT great mystery of TIME, were there no other; the illimitable, silent, never-resting thing called Time, rolling, rushing on, swift, silent, like an all-embracing ocean-tide, on which we and all the Universe swim like exhalations, like apparitions which are, and then are not : this is for ever very literally a miracle ; a thing to strike us dumb, for we have no word to speak about it. This Universe, ah me ! what could the wild man know of it ; what can we yet know ? That it is a Force, and thousandfold Complexity of Forces ; a Force which is not we. That is all ; it is not we, it is altogether different from us. Force, Force, every- where Force ; we ourselves a mysterious Force in the centre of that. " There is not a leaf rotting on the highway but has Force in it : how else could it rot?" Nay surely, to the Atheistic Thinker, if such a one were possible, it must be a -miracle too, this huge illimitable whirlwind of Force, which envelops us here ; never-resting whirlwind, high as Immensity, old as Eternity. What is it? God's Creation, the religious people answer ; it is the Almighty God's 1 Atheistic science babbles poorly at it, with scientific nomenclatures, experiments and what not, as if it were a poor dead thing, to be bottled up in Leyden jars, and sold over counters ; but the natural sense of man, in all times, if he will honestly apply his sense, proclaims it to be a living thing, ah, an unspeakable, godlike thing ; towards which the best attitude for us after never so much science, is awe, devout prostration and humility of soul ; worship if not in words, then in silence. From " Heroes and Hero Worship." DECLAMATIONS IN PROSE. 39 THE OEIGIN OF UNIVERSITIES. THOMAS CARLYLE. UNIVERSITIES are a notable, respectable product of the modern ages. Their existence, too, is modified, to the very basis of it, by the exist- ence of books. Universities arose while there were yet no books pro- curable ; while a man, for a single book, had to give an estate of land. That, in those circumstances, when a man had some knowledge to communicate, he should do it by gathering the learners round him, face to face, was a necessity for him. If you wanted to know what Abelard knew, you must go and listen to Abelard. Thousands, as many as thirty thousand, went to hear Abelard and that metaphysi- cal theology of his. And now for any other teacher who had also something of his own to teach, there was a great convenience opened : so many thousands eager to learn were already assembled yonder ; of all places the best place for him was that. For any third teacher it was better still; and grew ever the better, the more teachers there came. It only needed now that the king took notice of this new phenomenon ; combined or agglomerated the various schools into one school ; gave it edifices, privileges, encouragements, and named it universitas, or school of all sciences : the University of Paris, in its essential characters, was there. The model of all subsequent universities ; which, down even to these days, for six centuries now, have gone on to found themselves. Such, I conceive, was the origin of universities. From " Heroes and Hero Worship." ATHEISM ABSUKD. THOMAS CARLYLE. DIDEROT was an Atheist, then ; stranger still, a proselytizing Atheist, who esteemed the creed worth earnest reiterated preaching, and en- forcement with all vigor! The unhappy man had "sailed through the Universe of Worlds and found no Maker thereof; had descended to the abysses where Being no longer casts its shadow, and felt only the rain-drops trickle down ; and seen only the glimmering rainbow of Creation which originated from no Sun ; and heard only the everlasting storm which no one governs ; and looked upwards for the DIVINE EYE, and beheld only the black, bottomless, glaring DEATH'S EYE-SOCKET:" such, with all his wide voyages, was the philosophic fortune he had realized. Sad enough, horrible enough : yet, instead of shrieking over it, or howling and Ernulphus'-cursing over it, let us, as the more profitable method, keep our composure, and inquire a little, What possibly it may mean? The whole phenomenon, as seems to us, will explain itself 40 THE SELECT ACADEMIC SPEAKER. from the fact above insisted on, that Diderot was a Polemic of decided character in the Mechanical Age. With great expenditure of words and froth, in arguments as waste, wild-weltering, delirious-dismal as the chaos they would demonstrate which arguments one now knows not whether to laugh at or to weep at, and almost does both, have Diderot and his sect perhaps made this apparent to all who examine it : That in the French System of thought (called also the Scotch, and still familiar enough everywhere, which, for want of a better title, we have named the Mechanical), there. is no room for a Divinity; that to him for whom " intellect, or the power of knowing and believing, is still sy- nonymous with logic, or the mere power of arranging and communicat- ing," there is absolutely no proof discoverable of a Divinity ; and such a man has nothing for it but either (if he be of half spirit, as is the frequent case) to trim despicably all his days between two opinions ; or else (if he be of whole spirit) to anchor on the rock or quagmire of Atheism, and further, should he see tit, proclaim to others that there is good riding there. So much may Diderot have demonstrated : a con- clusion at which we nowise turn pale. Was it much to know that Metaphysical Speculation, by nature, whirls round in endless Mael- stroms, "both creating and swallowing itself?" For so wonderful a self-swallowing product of the Spirit of Time, could any result to arrive at be fitter than this of the ETERNAL No ? We thank Heaven that the result is finally arrived at ; and so now we can look out for something other and further. But, above all things, proof of a God? A probable God ! The smallest of Finites struggling to prove to itself (that is to say, if we consider it, to picture out and arrange as diagram, and in- clude within itself) the Highest Infinite ; in which, by hypothesis, it lives, and moves, and has its being 1 This, we conjecture, will one day seem a much more miraculous miracle than that negative result it has arrived at, or any other result a still absurder chance might have led it to. He who, in some singular Time of the World's History, were reduced to wander about, in stooping posture, with painfully con- structed sulphur-match and farthing rushlight (as Gowkthrapple Naigeon), or smoky tar-link (as Denis Diderot), searching for the Sun, and did not find it ; were he wonderful and his failure ; or the singular Time, and its having put him on that search ? From " Essay on Diderot." THEISM AND ITS TENETS. THOMAS CARLYLE. THE second consequence seems to be that this whole current hypo- thesis of the Universe being " a Machine," and then of an Architect, DECLAMATIONS IN PROSE. 41 who constructed it, sitting, as it were, apart, and guiding it, and seeing it go, may turn out an inanity and nonentity ; not much longer tena- ble : with which result likewise we shall, in the quietest manner, recon- cile ourselves. " Think ye," says Goethe, "that God made the Uni- verse, and then let it run round his finger (am Finger aufen liessef") On the whole, that Metaphysical hurly-burly (of our poor, jarring, self-listening Time) ought at length to compose itself: that seeking for a God there, and not here; everywhere outwardly in physical Nature, and not inwardly in our own Soul, where alone he is to be found by USj begins to get wearisome. Above all, that " faint possible Theism" which now forms our common English creed, cannot be too soon swept out of the world. What is the nature of that individual, who, with hysterical violence, theoretically asserts a God, perhaps a revealed Symbol and Worship of God ; and, for the rest, in thought, word, and conduct, meet with him where you will, is found living as if his theory were some polite figure of speech, and his theoretical God a mere dis- tant Simulacrum, with whom he, for his part, had nothing further to do ? Fool ! The ETERNAL is no Simulacrum ; God is not only There, but Here, or nowhere, in that life-breath of thine, in that act and thought of thine, and thou wert wise to look to it. If there is no God, as the fool hath said in his heart, then live on with thy decencies, and lip-homages, and inward Greed, and falsehood, and all the hollow cunningly-devised halfness that recommends thee to the Mammon of this world : if there is a God, we say, look to it ! But, in either case, what art thou ? The Atheist is false ; yet is there, as we see, a fraction of truth in him : he is true compared with thee ; thou, unhappy mortal, livest wholly in a lie, art wholly a lie. From " Essay on Diderot." KINGS' DESIRES. LORD BACON. IT is a miserable state of mind to have few things to desire, and many things to fear ; and yet that commonly is the case with kings, who being at the highest, want matter of desire, which makes their minds more languishing, and have many representations of perils and shadows, which make their minds the less clear : and this is one reason also of that effect which the Scripture speaketh of, " That the king's heart is inscrutable ;" for multitude of jealousies, and lack of some predominant desire, that should marshal and put in order all the rest, maketh any man's heart hard to find or sound. Hence it comes like- wise, that princes many times make themselves desires, and set their hearts upon toys ; sometimes upon a building ; sometimes upon erect- 4* 42 THE SELECT ACADEMIC SPEAKER. ing of an Order ; sometimes upon the advancing of a person ; some- times upon obtaining excellency in some art, or feat of the hand as Nero for playing on the harp ; Domitian for certainty of the hand with the arrow; Commodus for playing at fence; Caracalla for driving chariots ; and the like. This seemeth incredible unto those that know not the principle, that the mind of man is more cheered and refreshed by profiting in small things, than by standing at a stay in great. We see also that kings that have been fortunate conquerors in their first years, it being not possible for them to go forward infinitely, but that they must have some check or arrest in their fortunes, turn in their latter years to be superstitious and melancholy ; as did Alexander the Great, Dioclesian, and in our memory Charles V., and others ; for he that is used to go forward, and findeth a stop, falleth out of his own favor, and is not the thing he was. From " JSssays." STUDIES. LORD BACON. STUDIES serve for delight, for ornament, and for ability. Their chief use for delight is in privateness, and retiring ; for ornament, is in dis- course ; and for ability, is in the judgment and disposition of business ; for, expert men can execute, and perhaps judge of particulars, one by one ; but the general counsels, and the plots and marshalling of affairs, come best from those that are learned. To spend too much time in studies, is sloth ; to use them too much for ornament, is affectation ; to make judgment wholly by their rules, is the humor of a scholar ; they perfect nature, and are perfected by experience for natural abilities are like natural plants, that need pruning by study ; and studies them- selves do give forth directions too much at large, except they be bounded in by experience. Crafty men contemn studies, simple men admire them, and wise men use them, for they teach not their own use ; but that is a wisdom without them, and above them, won by observation. Read not to contradict and confute, nor to believe and take for granted, nor to find talk and discourse, but to weigh and consider. Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested : that is, some books are to be read only in parts ; others to be read, but not curiously ; and some few to be read wholly, and with diligence and attention. Some books also may be read by deputy, and extracts made of them by others ; but that would be only in the less important arguments, and the meaner sort of books ; else distilled books are, like common distilled waters, flashy things. Reading maketh a full man, conference a ready man, and writing an exact man ; and, therefore, if a man write little, he had need of a great memory ; if he DECLAMATIONS IN PROSE. 43 confer little, he had need have a present wit ; and if he read little, he had need have much cunning, to seem to know that he doth not. His- tories make men wise ; poets witty ; the mathematics subtle ; natural philosophy deep ; moral, grave ; logic and rhetoric, able to contend. From " Essays" BEAUTY AND UTILITY. WlELAND. SOCRATES exhorts the painter and the sculptor to unite the beautiful and the agreeable with the useful ; as he encourages the pantomimic dancer to ennoble the pleasure that his heart may be capable of giving, and to delight the heart at the same time with the senses. According to the same principle, he must desire every laborer who occupies him- self about something necessary, to unite the useful as much as possible with the beautiful. But to allow no value for beauty, except where it is useful, is a confusion of ideas. Beauty and grace are undoubtedly united by nature itself with the useful ; but they are not, therefore, desirable because they are useful ; but because, from the nature of man, he enjoys a pure pleasure in their contemplation a pleasure precisely similar to that which the contem- plation of virtue gives ; a necessity as imperative for man as a reason- able being, as food, clothing, and a habitation are for him as an animal. I say for him as an animal, because he. has much in common with all or most other animals. But neither these animal wants, nor the capability and desire to satisfy them, make him a man. While he procures his food, builds himself a nest, takes to himself a mate, leads his young, fights with any other who would deprive him of his food, or take possession of his nest ; in all this he acts, so far as it is merely corporal, as an animal. Merely through the skill and manner in which, as a man, he performs all these animal-like acts (where not reduced to and retained in an animal state by external compulsory causes), does he distinguish and elevate himself above all other animals, and evince his human nature. For this animal that calls itself man, and this only, has an inborn feeling for beauty and order, has a heart disposed to social communication, to compassion and sympathy, and to an infinite variety of pleasing and beautiful feelings ; has a strong tendency to imitate and create, and labors incessantly to improve whatever it has invented or formed. All these peculiarities together separate him essentially from the other animals, render him their lord and master, place earth and ocean in his power, and lead him step by step so high through the nearly illimitable elevation of his capacity for art, that he is at length in a 44 THE SELECT ACADEMIC SPEAKER. condition to remodel nature itself, and from the materials it affords him to create a new, and, for his peculiar purpose, a more perfectly adjusted world. From " Oriticism upon Balzort." I ENGLISH VALOK. DR. JOHNSON. - BY those who have compared the military genius of the English with that of the French nation, it is remarked, that the French officers will always lead, if the soldiers will follow; and that the English soldiers will always follow, if their officers will lead. In all pointed sentences, some degree of accuracy must be sacrificed to conciseness : and, in this comparison, our officers seem to lose what our soldiers gain. I know not any reason for supposing that the English officers are less willing than the French to lead ; but it is, I think, universally allowed that the English soldiers are more willing to follow. Our nation may boast, beyond any other people in the world, of a kind of epidemic bravery, diffused equally through all its ranks. We can show a peasantry of heroes, and fill our armies with clowns, whose courage may vie with that of their general. Whence then is the courage of the English vulgar ? It proceeds, in my opinion, from that dissolution of dependence, which obliges every man to regard his own character. While every man is fed by his own hands, he has no need of any servile arts ; he may always have wages for his labor ; and is no less necessary to his employer than his employer is to him. While he looks for no protection from others, he is naturally roused to be his own protector ; and having nothing to abate his esteem of himself, he consequently aspires to the esteem of others. Thus every man that crowds our streets is a man of honor, disdainful of obligation, impatient of reproach, and desirous of extending his reputation among those of his own rank ; and as courage is in most frequent use, the fame of courage is most eagerly pursued. From this neglect of subordina- tion I do not deny that some inconveniences may from time to time proceed : the power of the law does not always sufficiently supply the want of reverence, or maintain the proper distinction between different ranks ; but good and evil will grow up in this world together ; and they who complain in peace of the insolence of the populace, must remember that their insolence in peace is bravery in war. From " Political T>-acts." DECLAMATIONS IN PEOSE. 45 TRUTH. LORD BACON. THE first creature of God, in the works of the days, was the light of the sense, the last was the light of reason, and his Sabbath work, ever since, is the illumination of his Spirit. First he breathed light upon the face of the matter, or chaos, then he breathed light into the face of man ; and still he breatheth and inspireth light into the face of his chosen. The poet, that beautified the sect, that was otherwise inferior to the rest, saith yet excellently well, " It is a pleasure to stand upon the shore, and to see ships tost upon the sea ; a pleasure to stand in the window of a castle, and to see a battle, and the adventures thereof below ; but no pleasure is comparable to the standing upon the vantage- ground of truth (a hill not to be commanded, and where the air is always clear and serene), and to see the errors, and wanderings, and mists, and tempests, in the vale below ;" so always that this prospect be with pity, and not with swelling or pride. Certainly it is heaven upon earth to have a man's mind move in charity, rest in providence, and turn upon the poles of truth. To pass from theological and philosophical truth to the truth of civil business, it will be acknowledged, even by those that practise it not, that clear and round dealing is the honor of man's nature, and that mixture of falsehood is like alloy in coin of gold or silver, which may make the metal work the better, but it embaseth it ; for these winding and crooked courses are the goings of the serpent, which goeth basely upon the belly, and not upon the feet. There is no vice that doth so cover a man with shame as to be found false and perfidious ; and there- fore Montaigne saith prettily, when he in^u'fred the reason why the word of the lie should be such a disgrace, and such an odious charge, "If it be well weighed, to say, that a man lieth, is as much as to say that he is brave towards God, and a coward towards man ; for a lie faces God, and shrinks from man." Surely the wickedness of falsehood and breach of faith cannot possibly be so highly expressed as in that it shall be the last peal to call the judgments of God upon the generations of men : it being foretold, that when " Christ cometh," he shall not " find faith upon earth." From " Essays" MENTAL AND MORAL GREATNESS. DR. STEVENS. BEHIND the high altar, in the cathedral of Cologne, is a costly shrine, in which are placed the silver-gilt coffins of three kings. The skulls of these kings are crowned with golden diadems, studded with jewels, 46 THE SELECT ACADEMIC SPEAKER. and inscribed with their names written in rubies. This is political greatness a skull crowned with gold a name written in rubies. Touching comment on the mock greatness and the fleeting glory of kings and statesmen ! And is not moral greatness superior to this ? Is not a crown of glory around brows that never die better than a diadem of gold upon a flesh- less skull ? Is not a name, written with the finger of God in the book of life, better than a name written over the shrine of our bones with rubies? Yet, with all this contest, sense wrestles with faith and the flesh generally gains the mastery over the spirit, forgetting " that the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal." Mental greatness is nobler than martial or political greatness.. There is something sublime in beholding the struggles and achievements of a great mind. To see it silently gather to itself new energies new- forces and with these to make new onsets in the dominion of thought, seeking to rule, an intellectual king, over its realms. These sights are grand, whether we behold them in the philosopher, fathoming the depths of mind in the geologist, quarrying out science from the rock and the fossil or in the chemist, deducing the laws of life and death from the crucible and the laboratory ; whether we see them in the artist, busielTIirthe magnificent creations of the chisel and the pencil in the poet, entering into the treasure-houses of imagination, and stringing those rosaries of thought, the jewelled epic and the spark- ling song or in the astronomer, soaring to the planets, measuring their paths weighing their masses, and calling them by their names. But after all, what is it? A few systems a few poems a few discoveries the writing of a few names in rubies and that is all of mental greatness ! From " Discourse on Washington's Birth-Day," 1846. PACIFIC RAILROAD. CALVIN COLTON. THE social and political results of such a road, such a universal path, will be as important and notable as any yet recorded in history. The people of Asia and of Europe will thus be introduced to each other, and made neighbors and friends ; whereas now they are almost total strangers. Universal liberty will receive a new stimulus from this great construction. America, the land of the free, will then be in the centre of the world ; and it will diffuse the blessings of freedom to the continents and nations that gird it round. It will teach them the lessons which it has learned. It will inspire them to greater things by its example. It will control the universal public opinion of the world DECLAMATIONS IN PROSE. 47 by its superior intelligence. Such is to be the future of America. It is to rise in importance in the eyes of the nations. It will be the greatest of empires. Upon us the ends of the world will come. Eng- land will no longer be the first maritime power of the world. The old Queen of the Atlantic will be surpassed in beauty, freshness, and power, by her young daughter, who is soon to be crowned Queen of the greater Pacific. The star of empire, which takes its way westward, is about to stand still over the great and vigorous young republic, which the American citizen is proud to call his native land. From " Discourse before tft American Geographical Society," 1855. VICTOR Huao. You are wrung with grief, but you have courage and faith. You do well, my friends. Courage, then ! Courage ! more than ever ! As I have already said, it grows more evident, from day to day, that, at this instant, France and England have left to them but one path, one outlet of safety the emancipation of the peoples the insurrection in mass of the prostrate nationalities the REVOLUTION ! Sublime alternative ! It is grand that safety has become identified with justice. It is in this that Providence breaks forth in splendor. Ay, have courage, more than ever. In the hour of utmost peril Danton exclaimed, " Daring ! daring! and yet more daring!" In adversity we should ery out, " Hope ! hope ! and still more hope I" Friends and brothers ! the great republic, the democratic, social, and free republic, will, ere long, blaze out in magnificence again ; for it is the office of the empire to give it a new birth, as it is the office of the night to usher in the day. These men of tyranny and misery will disappear. Their time to stay is now counted by quick minutes. They are backing to the edge of the abyss, and we, who are already in the gulf, can see their heels that quiver already beyond the borders of the precipice. Oh, exiles ! I call forth in testimony the hemlock the Socrates have drank; the Golgothas the Christs have climbed ; the Jerichos the Joshuas have caused to crumble. I summon up in testimony the baths of blood taken by the Thraseas ; the faggots whence John Huss, and those of this world like him, have cried, the swan will yet be born ! I summon in testimony these seas that beat around us, and which the Columbuses have passed beyond ; I call upon yonder stars which shine above us, and which the Galileos have questioned, to bear witness, exiles and brethren, that liberty can never die : she is immortal, and, exiles, Truth is eternal ! Progress is the very stride of God. Then let those who weep be comforted ! and those who tremble, if 48 THE SELECT ACADEMIC SPEAKER. any such there be among us, be assured. Humanity ignores self murder, and God lays not aside his omnipotent control. No, the peoples shall not for ever grope in darkness, knowing not what hour has been reached in science, what hour in philosophy, what hour in art, what hour in human mind, and, with their eyes fixed npon despotism, that black dial of gloom on which the double needle, at once sword and sceptre, for ever motionless, for ever marks Midnight. From " Speech Catholic ; the Episcopalian Church, with its lofty spire pointing heaven- ward ; the plain temple of the Quaker ; the log church of the hardy pioneer of the wilderness ; the mementos and memorials around and about us the graveyards their tombstones and epitaphs their silent vaults -their mouldering contents all attest it. The dead prove it as well as the living ! The generation that is gone before speak to it, and prtmounce it from the tomb ! We feel it ! All, all, proclaim that Christianity general, tolerant Christianity Christianity independent of sects and parties that Christianity to which the sword and the faggot are unknown general, tolerant Christianity, is the law of the land! From "An Argument in favor of Religious Instruction," 1844. THE OBSTACLES TO CHKISTIANITY. STEPHEN COLWELL. WE believe that the outward manifestations of Christianity do not keep up with the circumstances of the age in which we live, nor with its intelligence ; and, above all, they do not correspond to the oppor- tunities and privileges of the land in which we live. In every age since the Christian era, and in every country, there have been circum- stances, external or internal, in the condition of the people, which have prevented the free expansion and proper growth of Christianity. Some- times it has been a defective ecclesiastical system, sometimes the repressive character of the temporal governments and the superstition or improper education of the people ; but now at this day and in this country, the Christian whether statesman, man of science, or philoso- pher may look in what direction and pursue what line of inquiry, religious or social, he pleases, when he is considering how he can most promote the interests of Christianity and the temporal well-being of his fellow-men. From " The Position of Christianity in the United State* " DECLAMATIONS IN PROSE. 57 CHRISTIAN COURAGE. WILLIAM C. RIVES. COURAGE, gentlemen, exerted in a good cause and sustained by right principles, is one of the noblest attributes of humanity. The adver- saries of Christianity, from Celsus down to Hume, have sought to assail it by imputing to it a want of courage as a necessary consequence of its doctrines of humility and forbearance. Strange that one of its champions, and in other respects one of its ablest champions, should sanction the unjust reproach by exhibiting the same misconceived view of the holy cause he defends ! Humility before God is the highest boldness towards man. Christ himself, while inculcating the fear of God, solemnly warns his disciples, whom again he calls friends, to dis- card all fear of man : " I say unto you, my friends, be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do ; but I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear : Fear Him which, after he hath killed, hath power to cast into hell; yea, I say unto you, fear him." A religion which teaches its followers to regard all temporal possessions, even the most cherished, as of but little worth compared with the great interests of eternity to " count life itself as not dear, so that they may finish their course with joy" which holds out its high rewards in another and never-ending life which enjoins every- thing to be done and suffered for conscience' sake : such a religion must needs be the parent and nurse of the loftiest courage in whatever cause is sanctified by a sense of duty. From "Discourse before the Young Men's Christian Association at Richmond," 1855. THE DEMON OF SPECULATION. DR. BOARDMAN. THE demon of speculation has seized not upon the mercantile, but the railroad interest of the country ; and found or made willing instru- ments for the achievement of his purposes. When the probe came to be applied, one corporation after another was discovered to be a stupendous engine of fraud. Moving " In perfect phalanx, to the Dorian mood Of flutes and soft recorders/' they had carried on a scheme of swindling which astonished by its vastness, as much as it shocked by its atrocity. Individuals were swindled. Banks were swindled. Municipal corporations were swin- dled. Lies were spoken with the same complacency as though they had been truth. Spurious certificates of stock; fictitious vouchers; 58 THE SELECT ACADEMIC SPEAKER. made-up schedules of liabilities and assets; statements which, however true in one sense, were false in the sense in which it was known they would be understood ; oaths emasculated by mental reservations ; the whole machinery of which these things form a part, was put in requisi- tion, and plied with consummate tact and vigor. And when at length the bubbles burst, and the gulfs were laid open into which 'deluded capitalists and helpless widows had been casting their money, all confi- dence was at an end. Credit, the most sensitive of all creations in the realm of commerce, locked up its coffers and double-bolted them. The funds which you, gentlemen, should have had for your legitimate traffic, had been usurped by others for reckless speculation or were now placed beyond your reach for safe-keeping. And the whole force of this Titanic villany came down with a terrific crash upon your ranks, who had had so little agency in nurturing it. What wonder if some should have been swept away by the avalanche ! The only marvel is, that its ravages have been so restricted. From "Address before the Merchants 9 Fund," 1855. THE INFLUENCE OF THE CLASSICS. JOSEPH STORY. A LANGUAGE may be built up without the aid of any foreign mate- rials, and be at once flexible for speech and graceful for composition ; the literature of a nation may be splendid and instructive, full of interest and beauty in thought and in diction, which has no kindred with classical learning ; in the vast stream of time, it may run its own current unstained by the admixture of surrounding languages ; it may realize the ancient fable, " Doris amara suam non intermisceat undam;" it may retain its own flavor, and its own bitter saltness, too. But I do deny that such a national literature does in fact exist, in modern Europe, in that community of nations of which we form a part, and to whose fortunes and pursuits in literature and arts we are bound by all our habits, and feelings, and interests. There is not a single nation from the north to the south of Europe, from the bleak shores of the Baltic to the bright plains of immortal Italy, whose literature is not imbedded in the very elements of classical learning. The literature of England is, in an emphatic sense, the production of her scholars, of men who have cultivated letters in her universities, and colleges, and grammar- schools, of men who thought any life too short, chiefly because it left some relic of antiquity unmastered, and any other fame humble, because it faded in the presence of Roman and Grecian genius. He who studies English literature without the lights of classical learning, loses half the charms of its sentiments and style, of its force and feel- DECLAMATIONS IN PROSE. 59 ings, of its delicate touches, of its delightful allusions, of its illustra- tive associations. Who that reads the poetry of Gray does not feel that it is the refinement of classical taste which gives such inexpressi- ble vividness and transparency to his diction? Who that reads the concentrated sense and melodious versification of Dryden and Pope, does not perceive in them the disciples of the old school, whose genius was inflamed by the heroic verse, the terse satire, and the playful wit of antiquity ? Who that meditates over the strains of Milton does not feel that he drank deep At " Siloa's brook, that flowed Fast by the oracle of God ;" that the fires of his magnificent mind were lighted by coals from ancient altars ? From " Address at Harvard," 1826. MODERN AUTHORSHIP. JOSEPH STORY. AUTHORS no longer depend upon the smiles of a favored few. The patronage of the great is no longer submissively entreated or exultingly proclaimed. Their patrons are the public : their readers are the civil- ized world. They address themselves not to the present generation alone, but aspire to instruct posterity. No blushing dedications seek an easy passport to fame, or flatter the perilous condescension of pride. No illuminated letters flourish on the silky page, asking admission to the courtly drawing-room. Authors are no longer the humble com- panions or dependants of the nobility ; but they constitute the chosen ornaments of society, and are welcomed to* the gay circles of fashion and the palaces of princes. Theirs is no longer an unthrifty vocation, closely allied to penury ; but an elevated profession, maintaining its thousands in lucrative pursuits. It is not with them as it was in the days of Milton, whose immortal " Paradise Lost" drew five sterling pounds, with a contingent of five more, from the reluctant bookseller. My lord Coke would hardly find good authority, in our day, for his pi-ovoking commentary on the memorable statute of the fourth Henry, which declares that " none henceforth shall use to multiply gol