little of the spirit which is said to be able to raise mortals to the skies, I have yet none, as I trust, of that other spirit which would drag angels down! 5. When I shall be found, sir, in my place here in the senate, or elsewhere, to sneer at public merit, because it happens to spring up beyond the little limits of my own State or neighborhood; when I refuse, for any such cause, or for any cause, the homage due to American talent, to elevated patriotism, to sincere devotion to liberty and the country; or, if I see an uncommon endowment of Heaven,-if I see extraordi nary capacity and virtue in any son of the South,and if, moved by local prejudice, or gangrened by State jealousy, I get up here to abate the tithe of a hair from his just character and just fame, may my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth! 6. Sir, let me recur to pleasing recollections; let me indulge in refreshing remembrances of the past; let me remind you that in early times, no States cherished greater harmony, both of principle and feeling, than Massachusetts and South Carolina. Would to God that harmony might again return! Shoulder to shoulder they went through the revolution; hand in hand they stood round the administration of Washington, and felt his own great arm lean on them for support. Unkind feeling, if it exist, alienation and distrust are the growth, unnatural to such soils, of false principles since sown. They are weeds, the seeds of which that same great arm never scattered. 7. Mr. President, I shall enter on upon Massachusetts; she needs none. behold her and judge for yourselves. history; the world knows it by heart. least, is secure. There is Boston, and Concord, and Lexington, and Bunker Hill, and there they will remain forever. The bones of her sons, falling in the great struggle for independence, now lie mingled with the soil of every State, from New England to Georgia; and there they will lie forever. no encomium 8. And, sir, where American liberty raised its first voice, and where its youth was nurtured and sustained, there it still lives, in the strength of its manhood, and full of its original spirit. If discord and disunion shall wound it,-if party strife and blind ambition shall hawk at and tear it,-if folly and madness,—if uneasiness, under salutary and necessary restraint, shall succeed to separate it from that union, by which alone 'ts existence is made sure, it will stand in the end by the side of that cradle in which its infancy was rocked; it will stretch forth its arm with whatever of vigor it may still retain, over the friends who gather around it; and it will fall at last, if fall it must, amidst the proudest monuments of its own glory, and on the very spot of its origin. QUESTIONS.-1. In what does Mr. Webster claim a part of the honor and pride? 2. What does he say of the great men of South Carolina? 3. How does he repel the imputation of envy? 4. What pleasing recollections does he recur to in the 6th paragraph? 5. In what terms does he allude to Massachusetts in the 7th and 8th paragraphs? LESSON CLV. 2. SUR PASS' ING LY, ex SPELL AND DEFINE.-1. SUBT' LE, acute. ceedingly. 3. IN DUO' TION, the act of deriving general inferences from particular facts. 4. COM BIN' ED, united; associated. 5. CIVIL' IAN, one versed in law and government. 6. CON' TRO VERT ED, disputed. 7. CON CED' ED, yielded; granted. 8. Un ap pROACH' A BLE, that can not be approached. 9. IN TENSE LY, to an extreme degree; very closely. 10. PREC E DENTS, previous examples or decisions. 11. IM PER CEP TI BLY, in a manner not to be perceived. 12. Fo' RUM, a court; a tribunal. 13. PUB' LI CIST, one who treats of the rights of nations. 14. UN DIS TIN' GUISH A BLE, not to be perceived. 15. CE MENT' ED, firmly united. 16. CON SOL' I DA TED, made solid; compact. 17. VE' HE MENCE, animated fervor. 18. MASS IVE, Weighty; ponderous. 1. THOM' AS ERS' KINE, a most celebrated English lawyer, born in 1750, died in 1823. 2. AL EX AN DER HAM 'IL TON, a celebrated American statesman, was born in 1757 and was killed in a duel with Colonel Burr, at Hoboken, in New Jersey, nearly opposite to the city of New York, on the 11th of July, 1804. 3. DE MOS' THE NES, (see note, p. 56.) 4. CICE RO, a celebrated Roman orator, born B. C. 106, and died B. C. 43. 5. JOHN MIL' TON, (see note, p. 228.) 6 ED' MUND BURKE, (see note, p. 212.) 7 WEST MIN STER, a city of Middlesex, England, the seat of gov errment, the residence of royalty, and the center of fashion, is now Bo united with London, that, in appearance, they form one city though they have separate jurisdictions. DANIEL WEBSTER AS AN ORATOR. WILLIAM H. SEWARD. 1. Daniel Webster's mind was not subtle, but it was clear. It was surpassingly logical in the exercise of induction, and equally vigorous and majestic in all its movements; and yet he possessed an imagination so strong, that if it had been combined with even a moderated enthusiasm of temper, would have overturned the excellent balance of his powers. The civilian rises in this, as in other Republics, by the practice of eloquence, and so Daniel Webster became an orator-the first of orators. 2. Whatever else concerning him has been controverted by anybody, the fifty thousand lawyers of the United States, interested to deny his pretensions, conceded to him an unapproachable supremacy at the bar. How did he win that high place? Where others studied laboriously, he meditated intensely. Where others appealed to the prejudices and passions of courts and juries, he addressed only their understandings. Where others lost themselves among the streams, he ascended to the fountain. While they sought the rules of law among conflicting precedents, he found them in the eternal principles of reason and justice. 3. But it is conceding too much to the legal profession to call Daniel Webster a lawyer. Lawyers speak for clients and their interests; he seemed always to be speaking for his country and for truth. So he rose imperceptibly above his profession; and while yet in the Forum, he stood before the world a Publicist. In this felicity he resembled, while he surpassed 'Erskine, who taught the courts at Westminster the law of moral responsibility; and he approached 'Hamilton, who educated the courts at Washington in the Constitution of their country and the philosophy of government. 4. An undistinguishable line divides this high prov ince of the Forum from the Senate, to which his philosophy and eloquence were perfectly adapted. Here, in times of stormy agitation and bewildering excitement, when as yet the union of these States seemed not to have been cemented and consolidated, and its dissolution seemed to hang, if not on the immediate result of the debate, at least upon the popular passion that that result must generate, Daniel Webster put forth his mightiest efforts, confessedly the greatest ever put forth here or on this continent. 5. Those efforts produced marked effect on the Senate. They soothed the public mind, and became enduring lessons of instruction to our countrymen on the science of constitutional law, and the relative powers and responsibilities of the Government, and the rights and duties of the States and of citizens. 6. Tried by ancient definitions, Daniel Webster was not an orator. He studied no art, and practiced no action. Nor did he form himself by any admitted model. He had neither the directness and vehemence of "Demosthenes, nor the fullness and flow of 'Cicero, nor the intenseness of 'Milton, nor the magnificence of 'Burke. It was happy for him that he had not. The temper and tastes of his age and country required eloquence different from all these, and they found it in the pure logic and the victorious, yet massive rhetoric which constituted the style of Daniel Webster. QUESTIONS.-1. What is said of the character of Mr. Webster's mind in the 1st paragraph? 2. How was he regarded as a lawyer among lawyers? 3. How did he win that high place? 4. In what respect did he resemble Erskine, and approach Hamilton? 5. What is said of his efforts in the Senate? 6. How does he compare as an orator with the four persons named in the 6th paragraph? LESSON CLVI. SPELL AND DEFINE.-1. TEST, that which discloses the true charac ter of any thing. 2. HYP' O CRITE, dissembler. 3. DET ES TA' TION, abhorrence; extreme hatred. 4. BAR BAR' I TY, cruelty; inhumanity. 5. DIF FUS' ED, spread; dispersed. 6. RO MAN' TIC, wild; extravagant. 7. LOATH, reluctant; unwilling. 8. CORSE, corpse. 9. BLA' SON, display; celebrate. THE TEAR. 1. When friendship or love our sympathies move, The lips may beguile with a dimple or smile. 2. Too oft is a smile but the hypocrite's wile, Give me the soft sigh, while the soul-telling eye, 3. Mild charity's glow, to us mortals below, BYRON. 4. The man doomed to sail, with the blast of the gale, As he bends o'er the wave, which may soon be his grave, 5. The soldier braves death for a fanciful wreath But he raises the foe, when in battle laid low, 6. Sweet scene of my youth! seat of friendship and truth Where love chased each fast-fleeting year, Loath to leave thee, I mourned, for a last look I turned, 7. Ye friends of my heart! ere from you I depart, |