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THE POPULAR EDUCATOR 



READING AND ELOCUTION. XXY. 



EXERCISES ON EXPRESSIVE TONE (concluded). 



THE following is an extract from a debate for young speakers, 

 and forms a useful exercise in elocution : 



XIX. CHARACTER OP JULIUS OffiSAR. 



FIKST SPEAKER. " Was Caesar a great man ?" What revolution has 

 taken place in the first appointed government of the universe what 

 new and opposite principle has begun to direct the operations of 

 nature what refutation of their long-established precepts has deprived 

 reason of her sceptre, and virtue of her throne, that a character which 

 forms the noblest theme that ever merit gave to fame, should now 

 become a question for debate ? 



No painter of human excellence, if he would draw the features of 

 that hero's character, need study a favourable light or striking attitude. 

 In every posture it has majesty ; and the lineaments of its beauty are 

 prominent in every point of view. 



It is a generally-received opinion, that uncommon circumstances 

 make uncommon men : Caesar was an uncommon man in common cir- 

 cumstances. The colossal mind commands your admiration, no less 

 in the pirate's captive, than in the victor at Pharsalia. Who but the 

 first of his race could have made vassals of his savage masters, mocked 

 them into reverence of a superior nature, and threatened, with security, 

 the power that held him at its mercy ? Of all the striking incidents 

 of Caesar's life, had history preserved for us but this single one, it 

 would have been sufficient to make us fancy all the rest at least, 

 we should have said, " Such a man was bom to conquest, and to 

 empire ! " 



To expatiate on Caesar's powers of oratory, would only be to add 

 one poor eulogium to the testimony of the first historians. Cicero 

 himself grants him the palm of almost pre-eminent merit ; and seems 

 at a loss for words to express his admiration of him. His voice was 

 musical, his delivery energetic, his language chaste and rich, appro- 

 priate and peculiar. And it is well presumed that, had he studied 

 the art of public speaking with as much industry as he studied the 

 art of war, he would have been the first of orators. Quintilian says, 

 he would have been the only man capable of combating Cicero ; but 

 granting them to have been equal in ability, what equal contest could 

 the timid Cicero whose nerves fail him, and whose tongue falters 

 when the forum glitters with arms what equal contest could he have 

 held with the man whose vigour chastised the Belgae, and annihilated 

 the Nervii, that maintained their ground till they were hewn to pieces 

 on the spot ? 



His abilities as a master of composition were undoubtedly of the 

 first order. How admirable is the structure of his Commentaries ! 

 What perspicuity and animation are there in the details ! You fancy 

 yourself upon the field of action ! You follow the development of his 

 plans with the liveliest curiosity ! You look on with unwearied at- 

 tention, as he fortifies his camp or invests his enemy, or crosses the 

 impetuous torrent ! You behold his legions, as they move forward 

 from different points to the line of battle ! You hear the shout of the 

 onset, and the crash of the encounter ; and, breathless with suspense, 

 mark every fluctuation of the awful tide of war ! 



As a politician, how consummate was his address ! how grand his 

 projections ! how happy the execution of his measures ! He governs 

 his province with such equity and wisdom, as add a milder but a fairer 

 lustre to his glory, and by their fame prepare the Roman people for 

 his happy yoke. Upon the very eve of his rupture with Pompey, he 

 sends back, on demand, the borrowed legions ; covering with rewards 

 the soldiers that may no longer serve him, and whose weapons on the 

 morrow may be turned against his breast presenting here a noble 

 example of his respect of right, and of that magnanimity which main- 

 tains that gratitude should not cease, though benefits are discontinued. 

 When he reigns sole master of the Roman world, how temperate is 

 his triumph ! how scrupulous his respect for the very forms of the 

 laws ! He discountenances the profligacy of the patricians, and en- 

 deavours to preserve the virtue of the state by laying wholesome 

 restraints upon luxury. He encourages the arts and sciences, pa- 

 tronises genius and talent, respects religion and justice, and puts in 

 practice every means that can contribute to the welfare, the happiness, 

 and the stability of the empire. 



It is unnecessary to recount the military exploits of Caesar. Why j 

 should I compel your attention to follow him, for the hundredth time, 

 through hostile myriads, yielding at every encounter to the force of 

 his invincible arms ? As a captain, he was the first of warriors ; nor 

 were his valour and skill more admirable than his abstinence and 

 watchfulness, his disregard of ease and his endurance of labour, his 

 moderation and his mercy. Perhaps, indeed, this last quality forms 

 the most dominant feature in his character ; and proves, by the con- 

 sequences of its excess, that virtue itself requires restraint, and has 

 its proper bounds, which it ought not to exceed for Caesar's modera- 

 tion was his ruin ! 



That Caesar had a heart susceptible of friendship, and alive to the 

 finest touches of humanity, is unquestionable. Why does he attempt 

 BO often to avert the storm of civil war ? Why does he pause so long 

 upon the brink of the Rubicon ? Why does he weep when he beholds 



the head of his unfortunate rival ? Why does he delight in pardoning 

 his enemies even those very men that had deserted him ? 



It seems as if he lived the lover of mankind, and fell as the bard 

 expresses it vanquished, not so much by the weapons as by the in- 

 gratitude of his murderers. 



If a combination of the most splendid talents for war with the most 

 sacred love of peace of the most illustrious public virtue with the 

 most endearing private worth of the most unyielding courage with 

 the most accessible moderation, may constitute a great man, that title 

 must be Caesar's ! 



SECOND SPEAKER. No change has taken place in the first appointed 

 government of the universe ; the operations of nature acknowledge 

 now the same principle that they did in the beginning ; Reason still 

 holds her sceptre, Virtue still fills her throne; and the epithet of 

 great does not belong to Caesar ! 



I would lay it down, as an unquestionable position, that the worth 

 of talents is to be estimated only by the use we make of them. If 

 we employ them in the cause of virtue, their value is great ; if W3 

 employ them in the cause of vice, they are less than worthless they 

 are pernicious and vile. Now let us examine Caesar's talents by this 

 principle, and we shall find, that neither as an orator nor as a poli- 

 tician neither as a warrior nor as a friend was Caesar a great 

 man ! 



If I were asked, " What was the first, the second, and the last prin- 

 ciple of the virtuous mind?" I should reply, "It was the love of 

 country." It was the love of parent, brother, friend ! the love of 

 MAN ! the love of honour, virtue, and religion ! the love of every 

 good and virtuous deed ! I say, then, if I were asked, " What was 

 the first, the second, and the last principle of the virtuous mind?" 

 I should reply, "It was the love of country!" Without it man is 

 the basest of his kind! a selfish, cunning, narrow speculator ! a 

 trader in the dearest interests of his species ! reckless of every tie 

 of nature, sentiment, affection ! What was Caesar's oratory ? How 

 far did it prove him to be actuated by the love of country ? It jus- 

 tified for political interest the invader of his honour! sheltered the 

 incendiary! abetted treason! flattered the people into their own 

 undoing ! assailed the liberties of his country, and bawled into silence 

 every virtuous patriot that struggled to uphold them ! He would 

 have been a greater orator than Cicero ! I question the assertion I 

 deny that it is correct ! He would have been a greater orator than 

 Cicero! Well! let it pass he might have been a greater orator, 

 but he never could have been so great a man. Which way soever 

 he directed his talents, the same inordinate ambition would have 

 led to the same results; and had he devoted himself to the study 

 of oratory, his tongue had produced the same effects as his sword, and 

 equally desolated the human kingdom. 



But Caesar is to be admired as a politician ! I do not pretend to 

 define the speaker's idea of a politician ; but I shall attempt to put 

 you in possession of mine. By a politician, I understand a man who 

 studies the laws of prudence and of justice as they are applicable to 

 the wise 'and happy government of a people, and the reciprocal obliga- 

 tions of states. Now, how far was Caesar to be admired as a politician? 

 He makes war upon the innocent Spaniards, that his military talents 

 may not suffer from inaction. This was a ready way to preserve the 

 peace of his province, and to secure its loyalty and affection ! That 

 he may be recorded as the first Roman that had ever crossed the Rhine 

 in a hostile manner, he invades the unoffending Germans, lays ivaste 

 their territories with fire, and plunders and sacks their country. Here 

 was a noble policy ! that planted in the minds of a brave and formidable 

 people the fatal seeds of that revenge and hatred which finally assisted 

 in accomplishing the destruction of the Roman empire ! In short, 

 Caesar's views were not of that enlarged nature which could entitle 

 him to the name of a great politician ; for he studied not the happiness 

 and interest of a community, but merely his own advancement, which 

 he accomplished by violating the laws and destroying the liberties 

 of his country. 



That Caesar was a great conqueror, I do not care to dispute. His 

 admirers are welcome to all the advantages that result from such a 

 position. I will not subtract one victim from the hosts that perished 

 for his fame ; or abate, by a single groan, the sufferings of his van- 

 quished enemies. But I will avow it to be my opinion, that the 

 character of a great conqueror does not necessarily constitute that of 

 a great man ; nor can the recital of Caesar's victories produce any 

 other impression upon my mind than what proceeds from the con- 

 templation of those convulsions of the earth, which in a moment 

 inundate with ruin the plains of fertility and the abodes of peace ; 

 or, at one shock, convert whole cities into the graves of their living 

 population ! 



But Caesar's munificence, his clemency, his moderation, and his 

 affectionate nature, constitute him a great man ! What was his mu- 

 nificence, his clemency, or his moderation ? the automaton of his 

 ambition ! It knew no aspiration from the Deity. It was a thing 

 from the hands of the mechanician ! an ingenious mockery of nature ! 

 Its action seemed spontaneous its look argued a soul but all the 

 virtue lay in the finger of the operator. He could possess no real 

 munificence, moderation, or clemency, who ever expected his gifts to 



