what we have seen to be the laws of effect. And while his work presents to the reader that variety needful to prevent continuous exertion of the same faculties, it will also answer to the description of all highly-organized products, both of man and of nature; it will be not a series of like parts simply placed in juxtaposition, but one whole made up of unlike parts that are mutually dependent.

Complete. From the text in the Humboldt Library.

DAVID A. HARSHA

(1827-)

ARSHA'S "Eminent Orators and Statesmen," is one of the most interesting collections of biography and anecdote bearing on the subject of which it treats. He has the admirable faculty of reverencing greatness, and it enables him to draw those life-like portraits which are the despair of mere criticism. He was born at South Argyle, New York, in 1827. His Eminent Orators and Statesmen," was first published in 1855. He has written biographies of Bunyan, Watts, Addi

son, and others.

Ο

THE METHODS OF BURKE

On

NE of the greatest men of the eighteenth century was Edmund Burke. the page of history his name will shine with the purest lustre to the latest posterity. Mankind will ever contemplate with admiration the character of this mighty orator, statesman, and philosopher, whose name is enrolled in the records of immortality, side by side with Cicero and Bacon. The amplitude of his mind; the exuberance of his fancy; the comprehensiveness of his understanding; the subtlety of his intellect; the grandeur and variety of his expression; the magnificence of his language; the richness and splendor of his eloquence; and above all, the boundless stores of knowledge which he possessed, will always create delight and wonder in the mind.

To assist us in forming a proper estimate of his oratorical character, we must have recourse to the descriptive sketches of his contemporaries, whose united opinion will corroborate what we unhesitatingly affirm, that in many respects Edmund Burke was the most consummate orator, the wisest statesman, and the most powerful debater the world has ever seen.

"The variety and extent of his powers in debate was greater than that of any other orator in ancient or modern times. No one ever poured forth such a flood of thought; so many original combinations of inventive genius; so much knowledge of man and the working of political systems; so many just remarks on the relation of government to the manners, the spirit, and even the prejudices of a people; so many wise maxims as to a change in constitutions and laws; so many beautiful effusions of lofty and generous sentiment; such exuberant stores of illustration, ornament, and apt allusion; all intermingled with the liveliest sallies of wit, or the boldest flights of a sublime imagination.»

No one can contemplate Mr. Burke without admiring the vast extent of his knowledge, the beauty of his imagery, the richness, variety, and splendor of his eloquence. In what follows we have the leading traits of his character as an orator noticed.

Sir N. W. Wraxall, a parliamentary contemporary, thus writes of Burke: "Nature had bestowed on him a boundless imagination, aided by a memory of equal strength and tenacity. His fancy was so vivid that it seemed to light up by its own powers, and to burn without consuming the aliment on which it fed; sometimes bearing him away into ideal scenes created by his own exuberant mind, but from which he, sooner or later, returned to the subject of debate; descending from his most aërial flights by a gentle and imperceptible gradation, till he again touched the ground. Learning waited on him like a handmaid, presenting to his choice all that antiquity has culled or invented, most elucidatory of the topic under discussion. He always seemed to be oppressed under the load and variety of his intellectual treasures. Every power of oratory was wielded by him in turn; for he could be, during the same evening, often within the space of a few minutes, pathetic and humorous; acrimonious and conciliating; now giving loose to his indignation or severity; and then, almost in the same breath, calling to his assistance wit and ridicule. It would be endless to cite instances of this versatility of disposition and of the rapidity of his transitions,

(From grave to gay, from lively to severe,'

that I have, myself, witnessed. »

"The political knowledge of Mr. Burke might be considered almost as an encyclopædia; every man who approached him received instruction from his stores. He irradiated every sphere in which he moved. What he was in public, he was in private; like the star which now precedes and now follows the sun, he was equally brilliant whether he

(Flamed in the forehead of the morning sky,'

or led on with a milder lustre the modest hosts of evening."

"Let me," says Dr. Parr, "speak what my mind prompts of the eloquence of Burke; of Burke, by whose sweetness Athens herself would have been soothed; with whose amplitude and exuberance she would have been enraptured, and on whose lips that prolific mother of genius and science would have adored, confessed, the Goddess of Persuasion.» «Who is there,” adds the same learned critic, "among men of eloquence or learning more profoundly versed in every branch of science? Who is there that has cultivated philosophy, the parent of all that is illustrious in literature or exploit, with more felicitous success? Who is there that can transfer so happily the result of laborious and intricate research to the most familiar and popular topics? Who is there that possesses so extensive, yet so accurate an acquaintance with every transaction recent or remote? Who is there that can deviate from his subject for the purposes of delight with such engaging ease, and insensibly conduct his readers from the severity of reasoning to the festivity of wit? Who is there that can melt them, if the occasion requires, with such resistless power to grief or pity? Who is there that combines the charm of inimitable grace and urbanity with such magnificent and boundless expansion ? »

In what high terms of praise and admiration do his contemporaries speak of him as an orator! On viewing Ballitore, the scene of his early acquisitions in knowledge, one writes: "The admiration, nay, astonishment, with which I so often listened to Mr. Burke gave an interest to every spot connected with his memory, and forcibly brought to my recollection the profundity and extent of his knowledge, while the energy, warmth, and beauty of his imagery captured the heart and made the judgment tributary to his will. As an orator he surpassed all his contemporaries, and was perhaps never exceeded.»

"As an orator,” adds another, "notwithstanding some defects, he stands almost unrivaled. No man was better calculated to arouse the dormant passions, to call forth the glowing affections of the human heart, and to 'harrow up' the inmost recesses of the soul. Venality and meanness stood appalled in his presence; he who was dead to the feelings of his own conscience was still alive to his animated reproaches; and corruption for awhile became alarmed at the terrors of his countenance. »

One of his biographers states, that in the more mechanical part of oratory— delivery - his manner was usually bold, less graceful than powerful, his enunciation vehement, and unchecked by any embarrassment, his periods flowing and harmonious, his language always forcible, sometimes choice, but when strongly excited by the subject, acrimonious or sarcastic, his epithets numerous, and occasionally strong or coarse, his invective furious, and sometimes overpowering.

As an interesting sketch of Mr. Burke's manner and power in debate, drawn by an eye-witness, we introduce the graphic description of the Duke de Levis of France. The occasion, it is stated, was on the French Revolution:—

"The man whom I had the greatest desire to hear was the celebrated Mr. Burke, author of the essay On the Sublime and Beautiful,' and often himself sublime. At length he rose, but in beholding him I could scarcely recover from my surprise. I had so frequently heard his eloquence compared to that of Demosthenes and Cicero, that my imagination, associating him with those great names, had represented him to me in a noble and imposing garb. I certainly did not expect to find him in the British Parliament dressed in the ancient toga; nor was I prepared to see him in a tight brown coat, which seemed to impede every movement, and, above all, the little bobwig with curls. . . In the meantime he moved into the middle of the House, contrary to the usual practice, for the members speak standing and uncovered, not leaving their places But Mr. Burke, with the most natural air imaginable, with seeming humility, and with folded arms, began his speech in so low a tone of voice that I could scarcely hear him. Soon after, however, becoming animated by degrees, he described religion attacked, the bonds of subordination broken, civil society threatened to its foundations; and in order to show that England could depend only upon herself, he pictured in glowing colors the political state of Europe; the spirit of ambition and folly which pervaded the greater part of her governments; the culpable apathy of some, the weakness of all. When in the course of this grand sketch he mentioned Spain, that immense monarchy, which appeared to have fallen into a total lethargy, 'What can we expect,' said he, 'from her?-mighty indeed, but unwieldy; vast in bulk, but inert in spirit, a whale stranded upon the seashore of Europe.' The whole House was silent; all eyes were upon him, and this silence was interrupted only by the loud cries of, Hear! hear! a kind of accompaniment which the friends of the speaking member adopt in order to direct attention to the most brilliant passages of his speech. But these cheerings were superfluous on the present occasion; every mind was fixed; the sentiments he expressed spread themselves with rapidity; everyone shared his emotion, whether he represented the ministers of religion proscribed, inhumanly persecuted and banished, imploring the Almighty in a foreign land to forgive their ungrateful country; or when he depicted in the most affecting manner the misfortunes of the royal family, and the humiliation of the daughter of the Cæsars. Every eye was bathed in tears at the recital of these sad calamities supported with such heroic fortitude. Mr. Burke, then, by an easy transition, passed on to the exposition of those absurd attempts of inexperienced men to establish a chimerical liberty; nor did he spare the petulant vanity of upstarts in their pretended love for equality. The truth of these striking and animated pictures made the whole

House pass in an instant from the tenderest emotions of feeling to bursts of laughter; never was the electric power of eloquence more imperiously felt; this extraordinary man seemed to raise and quell the passions of his auditors with as much ease, and as rapidly, as a skillful musician passes into the various modulations of his harpsichord. I have witnessed many, too many, political assemblages and striking scenes where eloquence performed a noble part, but the whole of them appear insipid when compared with this amazing effort.»

From "Eminent Orators and Statesmen."

A

ERSKINE AS A FORENSIC ORATOR

MONG forensic orators of ancient or modern times, Lord Erskine stands in the foremost rank. In some respects-in the grandeur of his diction; in the mellifluence of his voice; in the fascination of his manner, and in the splendor of his eloquence he surpasses all lawyers in modern times, and may be considered the ablest and most accomplished advocate that ever graced the bar.

By universal consent, Lord Erskine stands at the head of our forensic eloquence. In whatever light we view him in the forum, he appears to be the same exalted character, commanding our respect by the dignity of his appearance, exciting our admiration by the gracefulness of his action, the propriety of his enunciation, the beauty of his language, the sweetness of his tones, and fascinating us by the light of his eye and the magic of his sublime, overpowering declamation.

The oratory of Lord Erskine was admirably adapted to impress and sway a court or jury. It exercised an unrivaled power over them. By its secret, fascinating influence, success, in almost all important cases, was inevitable. Lord Erskine's great power lay in addressing a court or jury. Whenever he rose to speak, he poured forth such a rapid stream of unbroken eloquence that both court and jury were carried away in astonishment. It has been curiously remarked of him, as of Scarlett, that "he had invented a machine by the secret use of which, in court, he could make the head of a judge nod assent to his propositions; whereas his rivals, who tried to pirate it, always made the same head move from side to side.» All this was the effect of genuine, soul-stirring eloquence.

"The oratory of Erskine owed much of its impressiveness to his admirable delivery. He was of the medium height, with a slender, but finely turned figure, animated and graceful in gesture, with a voice somewhat shrill but beautifully modulated, a countenance beaming with emotion, and an eye of piercing keenness and power." His eye, like that of Chatham's, was his most wonderful feature; and to its keen lightning his eloquence was indebted for much of its splendor and power. Carrying conviction and insuring victory, it impressed the court and jury with awe, and held them in breathless attention. "Juries," in the words of Lord Brougham, "have declared that they felt it impossible to remove their looks from him when he had riveted, and, as it were, fascinated them by his first glance; and it used to be a common remark of men who observed his motions that they resembled those of a blood horse; as light, as agile, as much betokening strength and speed, as free from all gross superfluity or incumbrance.

"Then hear his voice of surpassing sweetness, clear, flexible, strong, exquisitely fitted to strains of serious earnestness, deficient in compass, indeed, and much less fitted to express indignation or even scorn than pathos, but wholly free from either harshness or monotony. All these, however, and even his chaste, dignified, and appropriate action, were very small parts of this wonderful advo