meaning in them that fascinated, while they startled. His thoughts in their statuesque beauty merely would have gained all critical judgment; but he realized the antique fable, and warmed the marble into life. There was a sense of power in his language,-of power with-held and suggestive of still greater power,-that subdued, as by a spell of mystery, the hearts of all. For power, whether intellectual or physical, produces in its earnest development a feeling closely allied to awe. It was never more felt than on this occasion. It had entire mastery. The exulting rush of feeling with which he went through the peroration threw a glow over his countenance, like inspiration. Eye, brow, each feature, every line of the face seemed touched, as with celestial fire. The swell and roll of his voice struck upon the ears of the spellbound audience, in deep and melodious cadence, as waves upon the shore of the far-resounding sea. The Miltonic grandeur of his words was the fit expression of his thought, and raised his hearers up to his theme. His voice, exerted to its utmost power, penetrated every recess or corner of the Senate-penetrated even the anterooms and stairways, as he pronounced in deepest tones of pathos these words of solemn significance: "When my eyes shall be turned to behold, for the last time, the sun in heaven, may I not see him shining on the broken and dishonored fragments of a once glorious union; on States dissevered, discordant, belligerent! on a land rent with civil feud, or drenched, it may be, in fraternal blood! Let their last feeble and lingering glance rather behold the gorgeous ensign of the Republic, now known and honored throughout the earth, still full high advanced, its arms and trophies streaming in their original lustre, not a stripe erased nor polluted, not a single star obscured, bearing for its motto no such miserable interrogatory as, What is all this worth? Nor those other words of delusion and folly, Liberty first and Union afterward; but everywhere, spread all over in characters of living light, blazing on all its ample folds, as they float over the sea, and over the land, and in every wind under the whole heavens; that other sentiment, dear to every American heart, Liberty And Union, Now And Forever, One And Inseparable." The speech was over, but the tones of the orator still lingered upon the ear, and the audience, unconscious of the close, retained their positions. The agitated countenances, the heaving breast, the suffused eye, attested the continued influence of the spell upon them. Hands that in the excitement of the moment had sought each other, still remained closed in an unconscious grasp. Eye still turned to eye, to receive and repay mutual sympathy;-and everywhere around seemed forgetfulness of all but the orator's presence and words. In this great intellectual conflict-this collision of mind with mind, Mr. Webster won laurels as unfading as ever graced a Senator's brow. CCXXVI. ALEXANDER'S FEAST. 'Twas at the royal feast, for Persia won Aloft in awful state The godlike hero sate On his imperial throne: His valiant peers were placed around; The lovely Thais by his side Sat, like a blooming eastern bride, None but the brave, None but the brave, None but the brave deserves the fair. Timotheus, placed on high Amid the tuneful choir, With flying fingers touched the lyre: The trembling notes ascend the sky, The song began from Jove, Who left his blissful seat above, Such is the power of mighty love! The listening crowd admire the lofty sound; A present deity the vaulted roofs rebound: The monarch hears, Assumes the god, Affects to nod, And seems to shake the spheres. The praise of Bacchus then the sweet musician sung, Of Bacchus ever fair, and ever young: The jolly god in triumph comes; Flushed with a purple grace He shows his honest face. Now give the hautboys breath; he comes! he comes! Drinking joys did first ordain : Sweet the pleasure; Sweet is pleasure after pain. Soothed with the sound, the king grew vain : Fought all his battles o'er again : And thrice he routed all his foes; and thrice he slew the slais. His glowing cheeks, his ardent eyes; Soft pity to infuse: He sung Darius great and good, By too severe a fate, Fallen, fallen, fallen, fallen, The various turns of fate below; The mighty master smiled to see If the world be worth thy winning, Take the good the gods provide thee. The many rend the skies with loud applause; Gazed on the fair Who caused his care, And sighed and looked, sighed and looked, At length with love and wine at once oppressed, Now strike the golden lyre again; A louder yet, and yet a louder strain. And rouse him like a rattling peal of thunder. Has raised up his head, As awaked from the dead, And amazed he stares around. Revenge, revenge, Timotheus cries; See the snakes that they rear, And the sparkles that flash from their eyes! Behold a ghastly band, Each a torch in his hand; These are Grecian ghosts, that in battle were slain, Inglorious on the plain; To the valiant crew: Behold how they toss their torches on high! How they point to the Persian abodes, And glittering temples of their hostile gods! The princes applaud, with a furious joy; And the king seized a flambeau, with a zeal to destroy; Thais led the way, To light him to his prey, "And, like another Helen, fired another Troy. While organs yet were mute; Timotheus to his breathing flute And sounding lyre, Could swell the soul to rage, or kindle soft desire. Inventress of the vocal frame; The sweet enthusiast, from her sacred store, With Nature's mother-wit, and arts unknown before. Or both divide the crown: He raised a mortal to the skies; JOHN DRYDEN. CCXXVII.-LORD CHATHAM. LORD CHATHAM has been generally regarded as the most powerful orator of modern times. He certainly ruled the British senate as no other man has ever ruled over a great deliberative assembly. There have been stronger minds in that body, abler reasoners, profounder statesmen, but no man has ever controlled it with such absolute sway by the force of his eloquence. His success, no doubt, was owing, in part, to his extraordinary personal advantages. Few men have ever received from the hand of Nature so many of the outward qualifications of an orator. His figure was tall and erect; his attitude imposing; his gestures energetic even to vehemence, yet tempered with dignity and grace. Such was the power of his eye, that he very often cowed down an antagonist in the midst of his speech, and threw him into utter confusion, by a single glance of scorn or contempt. Whenever he rose to speak, his countenance glowed with animation, and was lighted up with all the varied emotions of his soul, so that Cowper describes him, in one of his bursts of pathetic feeling, "With all his country beaming in his face." "His voice," says a contemporary, "was both full and clear. His lowest whisper was distinctly heard; his middle notes were sweet and beautifully varied; and, when he elevated his voice to its highest pitch, the House was completely filled with the volume of sound. The effect was awful, except when he wished to cheer or animate; then he had spirit-stirring notes which were perfectly irresistible." |