IRISH ORATORS. 135 



sidercd the master spirits of modern eloquence. 

 The works of the two latter are to be found in 

 every bookstore and every library : ihey are 

 read and admired, and admired and read l)y all 

 reading men, women, and children, in America. 

 Phillips — the orator of fustian and borabast has 

 run through several editions. 



The really great orator of Ireland was Edmund 

 Burke, a man of a rich mind, adorned with a 

 luxuriant imagination — stored with various and 

 profound knowledge — and embellished by a cor- 

 rect and classical taste. His speeches at the com- 

 mencement of the American revolution are models 

 of genuine eloquence, and exemplars of political 

 wisdom. 



After him came Grattan — the orator of epigram 

 and antithesis. His eloquence was formed under 

 the ascendancy of false taste. We admire the 

 poignancy of his satire, the vehemence of his de- 

 nunciations, the intrepidity of his demeanor, and 

 the felicity of his language — but we soon become 

 fatigued with his elaborate attempts, his involved 

 sentences, and his quaint ideas We turn aside 

 irom his condiments, and require substantial food 

 for the mind. In attempting to condense like 

 Tacitus, he has fallen into the conceits of Seneca. 



Next came Curran, a man of lofty intellect, 

 but laboring still under the same fatal ascendaij- 



