THE LA.NGUAGL OF TASSIO^. 27-5 



was a victory. But look ! from one kingdom he proceeds to ariolhery 

 haranguing tlie crowds, that everywhere attend him, with all the earnest- 

 ness of an inspired prophet; his spirit is quickly imparled to others, 

 and it spreads in every direction like a fire in the Prairies-. Mail-clad 

 kings, war-worn nobles, chivalric knights, and beauteous damsels attend 

 his preaching, and yet stranger to relate, ejnbrace his faith. Be unfurls 

 his banner and the bands are formed in deep and terrible array, Here is 

 youth, with its fair and dauntless brow, manhood well-poised in its con- 

 firmed strength, and wrinkled age leaning on its tottering crutch. The 

 civilian side by side with the warrior, the libertine with the patriot^, 

 the fearless Scott with his goodly claymore, the adventurous Saxon with 

 his trusty blade, the fair-haired Gaul with his well-tried lance, the blue- 

 eyed German with his puissant pike — all hurried onward by the wild 

 enthusiasm of Peter the Hermit. And although we cannot see such 

 striking and powerful exhibitions of eloquence in ages of greater refine- 

 ment, yet the orator of the heart is in all countries, and all ages, a po- 

 tent wizzard. Look at the Earl of Chatham and his son Wra. Pitt, Fox 

 and Erskine, Grattan and Plunkett, and the ferocious Mirabeau ! They 

 established their high reputation as orators, not by the deep, learned or 

 chaste disquisitions of the closet, but by the overwhelming, resistless, 

 lava-like torrents of fierce declamation, while their souls were on fire 

 with the subject, and every nerve strung up with excitement. And why 

 did Edmund Burke, the profound scholar, the far-seeing statesman, and 

 the erudite metaphysician so often address ''a beggarly account of empty 

 boxes" .•* It was because he was the orator of the head ; cool, logical 

 and dispassionate, he could pursue a long and connected series of pure 

 ratiocination with all the truth of a mathematical demonstration; he 

 could delight the fancy by the freshness and beauty of his variegated 

 flowers — he was an original, profound and transcendent genius ; but he 

 possessed not that magic power by which the true orator of nature can 

 sweep the sympathetic chords of the human heart and attune it in pei- 

 fect unison with its own emotions. Of this style of eloquence, which 

 is doubtless the highest, our own America may boast some bright and 

 shining examples, whose names are their own sufficient eulogy. Hers 

 is an Adams, a Rutledge, an Otis, an Ames, and greatest of all, a Henry ; 

 more recently others, too, whom History will not neglect. 



Such is the power of Passion over Language. It does not, however 

 slop here ; but ascending the heavens, it is this which gives the softest 

 and most ravishing tones to the Seraph Hosannas, as hymned around the 

 throne of the Eternal, and which joins the Archangel's lofty notes of 

 praise in subhme concert with "the music of the lolling spheres."' 



