tóil for it, but they will toil in vain. Words and phráses | may be marshaled in every way, but they can not còmpass it. It must exist in the man, in the subject, and in the occasion. 2. Affected pássion, intense expréssion, the pomp of declamation, àll | may aspire after it; they cannot reach it. It cómes, if it come at áll, like the outbreaking of a fòuntain from the earth, or the bursting forth of volcanic fìres, with spontàneous, original, nátive fòrce. 3. The graces | taught in the schools, the costly órnaments and studied contrivances of speech, shóck and disgust men, when their own lives, and the fate of their wives, their children, and their country, hang on the decision of the hour. Then, words have lost their power, rhetoric is vain, and all elaborate óratory contemptible. Even genius itself | then feels rebuked and subdùed, as in the presence of higher qualities. Then, pàtriotism | is éloquent; then, self-devòtion | is èloquent. 4. The cléar concèption, outrunning the deductions of lògic, the high purpose, the firm resolve, the dauntless spirit, speaking on the tongue, béaming from the eye, informing every feature, and urging the whole mán | onward, right onward, to his object-this, this | is éloquence; or, rather, it is something greater and higher than all eloquence it is àction, nòble, sublime, godlike action. 2. NATIONAL GREATNESS. 1. I believe there is no permanent greatness to a nation except it be based upon moràlity. I do not care for military greatness or military renówn. I care for the condition of the people among whom I live. There is no man in England who is less likely to speak irreverently of the crown and monarchy of England than I am; but crówns, córonets, míters, military display, the pomp of war, wide cólonies, and a huge empire are, in my view, all trifles light as air, and not worth considering, unless with them you can have a fair share of cómfort, conténtment, and happiness among the great body of the people. 2. Pálaces, baronial castles, great hálls, stately mánsions, do not make a nátion. The nation, in every country, dwells in the cottage; and unless the light of your constitution can shine thère, unless the beauty of your legislation and excellence of your statesmanship are impressed there in the feelings and condition of the péople, rely upon it you have yet to learn the duties of gòvernment. JOHN BRIGHT. 3. THE PASSING OF THE RUBICON. [An example of impassioned argumentative declamation.] 1. A gentleman, Mr. President, speaking of Cæsar's benevolent disposition, and of the reluctance with which he entered into the civil wár, obsérves, "How long did he pause upon the brink of the Rubicon?" How càme he to the brink of that river? How dared he cròss it? Shall private men respect the boundaries of private property, and shall a man pay no respect to the boundaries of his country's rights? How dared he cross that river? O, but he paused upon the brink! He should have perished upon the brink ere he had crossed it! 2. Why did he pause? Why does a man's heart palpitate when he is on the point of committing an unlawful deed? Why does the very mûrderer, his victim sleeping before him, and his glaring eye taking the measure of the blow, strike wide of the mortal part? Because of conscience! "T was that made Cæsar pause upon the brink of the Rubicon. 3. Compassion! What compassion! The compassion of an assassin, that feels a momentary shudder as his weapon begins to cùt! Cæsar paused upon the brink of the Rubicon? What was the Rubicon? The boundary of Cæsar's province. From what did it separate his province ? From his country. Was that country a désert? No: it was cultivated and fèrtile; rích and populous! Its sons were men of génius, spírit, and gènerosity! Its daughters were lovely, susceptible, and chàste! Friendship was its inhabitant! Love was its inhabitant! Domestic affèction was its inhabitant! Liberty was its inhabitant! All bounded by the stream of the Rubicon! 4. What was Cæsar, that stood upon the brink of that river? A traitor, bringing war and pestilence into the heart of that country! No wonder that he paused— no wonder if, his imagination wrought upon by his cónscience, he had beheld blood instead of water; and heard groans instead of murmurs! No wonder if some gorgon horror had turned him into stone upon the spot! But, no! he cried, "The die is cast!" He plunged!-he crossed!-and Rome was free no more! KNOWLES. 4. OUR DUTIES TO OUR COUNTRY. . [An example of oratorical declamation. Movement, slow; quality, orotund; prevailing inflections, falling.] 1. This lovely lánd, this glorious liberty, these benign institútions, the dear purchase of our fáthers, are òurs; ours to enjoy, ours to presérve, ours to transmit. Generations pást, and generations to come, hold us responsible for this sacred trùst. Our fathers, from behind, admonish us, with their anxious paternal vòices; posterity calls out to us, from the bosom of the future; the world turns hither its solicitous eyes-àll, àll conjure us to act wisely, and faithfully, in the relations which we sustain. 2. We can never, indeed, pay the debt which is upòn us; but by virtue, by morálity, by religion, by the culti vation of every good prínciple and every good hábit, we may hope to enjoy the blessing through our day, and to leave it unimpaired to our children. Let us feel deeply how much of what we are, and what we posséss, we owe to this liberty, and these institutions of government. 3. Nature has, indeed, given us a soil which yields bounteously to the hands of industry; the mighty and fruitful ocean is before us, and the skies over our heads shed health and vigor. But what are lands, and sèas, and skies, to civilized mán, without society, without knowledge, without mòrals, without religious cùlture? and how can these be enjoyed, in all their extént, and all their éxcellence, but under the protection of wise institutions and a free government? 4. Fellow-cítizens, there is not one of us here présent who does not, at this moment, and at every moment, experience in his own condítion, and in the condition of those most near and déar to him, the influence and the benefits of this liberty, and these institutions. Let us then acknowledge the blessing; let us feel it deeply and powerfully; let us cherish a strong affèction for it, and resolve to maintain and perpètuate it. The blood of our fathers, let it not have been shed in vàin; the great hope of postérity, let it not be blasted. WEBSTER. 5. THE AMERICAN WAR. 1. These abominable prínciples, and this more abominable avówal of them, demand the most decisive indignation! I call upon that Right Reverend Bench, those holy ministers of the Gospel, and pious pastors of our Church; I conjure them to join in the holy wórk, and to vindicate the religion of their God! I appeal to the wisdom and the law | of this learned Bench, to de fend and support the justice of their country! I call upon the Bishops | to interpose the unsullied sanctity | of their lawn, upon the judges | to interpose the púrity | of their èrmine, to save us from this pollution! 2. I call upon the honor of your Lordships, to reverence the dignity of your ancestors, and to maintain your own! I call upon the spirit and humánity of my country, to vindicate the national character! I invoke the génius of the Constitution! From the tapestry that adorns these walls, the immortal ancestor of the noble Lórd frowns with indignation at the disgráce of his country! 3. Turn forth into our settlements, among our ancient connections, friends, and relations, the merciless cannibal, thirsting for the blood of mán, woman, and child? Send forth the infidel savage? Against whom? Against your brethren! To lay waste their country, to desolate their dwellings, and extirpate their ráce and name, with these horrible hounds of savage wàr! 4. Spáin armed herself with blood-hounds to extirpate the wretched natives of Amèrica; and we | improve on the inhuman example of even Spanish crùelty; -we turn loose these savages, these fiendish hounds, against our brethren and countrymen in Amèrica, of the same language, laws, liberties, and religion-endéared to us by every tie that should sanctify humànity! PITT. 6. FREEDOM. I will speak the words of Freedom; I will listen to her mùsic; I will acknowledge her impulses; I will stand beneath her fiàg; I will fight in her ranks; and, when I do só, I shall find myself surrounded by the great, the wise, the good, the brave, the noble of every land. If I could stand for a moment upon one of your high |