but in kindling its enthusiasm for the glory of universal Greece. All his and their hopes fell prostrate at Cheronæa, but how nobly docs he justify his conduct!

made, in the solemn form of the law, as the voice of our country. And, truly, if the only qualification to come forward then, had been an anxiety for the public safety, all of you, and every other Athenian too, might "This decree (drawn up by himself, and have risen and ascended the rostrum, for I am unsurpassed for its wisdom and eloquence) well aware that all were anxious to save the caused the danger which then environed the state. If wealth had been the qualification, city to pass away like a cloud. Now the we might have had the Three Hundred; if duty of a good citizen was to declare publicly munificence, those who in the sequel, became at the time if he had any better measure to such ample voluntary contributors, evincing propose, and not now to condemn them. at once their riches and their patriotism. For an honest adviser, and a false accuser, But that was manifestly the crisis-that the resembling each other in no one thing, differ day not merely for a wealthy and patriotic most of all in this-that the one declares his individual to bear a part, but for me, who opinion before the events happen, and renders had from the very first kept pace with the himself responsible to those who adopt his progress of affairs, and happily penetrated counsel, to fortune, to events, to any one the motives and designs of Philip. For a who may call him to account; but the other, man, unacquainted with these-one, who keeping silence when he ought to speak out, had not anxiously surveyed them from their and making a reverse of fortune, if any first appearance, might be ever so rich and should happen, the foundation of unjust ever so zealous, and yet be none the more accusations. That, then, was the season, as likely to descry the best course, and to give I have already said, for a man to come foryou the soundest counsel. In that day, then ward who had the good of his country at such a man was I-and standing up, I heart and give honest advice. But I go spoke to you, what you must once more attentively listen to, with two views-first, that you may perceive, how alone of all the orators and statesmen, I did not abandon the post of patriotism in the hour of danger, but both by my words and by my actions, discharged my duty to you in the last emergency;-next, that at the expense of a little time, you may acquire a fuller insight into our whole policy for the future.”

further, and to so extravagant a length, that if at this moment any one can point anything better to be done, or if, upon the whole, anything was possible, except that I adopted, I will admit that I did wrong; for if any can now be discovered that would have been of advantage had it been then resorted to, I avow that it ought not to have escaped me. But if there neither is nor was—and no man even at this hour, can suggest any such thing There are few who will not admire this, -what ought a statesman to have done? not more for its pictorial beauty than the Ought he not to have chosen whatever was noble light in which it displays the character the best under existing circumstances, and of Demosthenes. All these had witnessed out of the means within his reach? This is the occurrence to which he alludes, so that the very thing I did, Eschines, when the he would not dare to misstate. When a public herald demanded, 'Who wished to terrible panic had struck the city, none had address the people,' not 'Who wishes to find the boldness to come forward: he alone was fault with past events!' or 'Who wishes to found true to his own convictions, as well pledge himself for what is to happen?' as to his country. Where was Eschines- Whilst you at this crisis, sat silent in the where were the factious demagogues then? assembly, I came forward and spoke. But -chuckling at the success of Philip. States- if you could not then, at least point out now men, orators, and all, abandoned Athens; let us hear what resource, which I ought one man alone was found to stand be- to have discovered-or what opportunity tween her and destruction; his honest which I ought to have improved, was then and patriotic advice restored public confi- omitted by me in behalf of the country? dence, and for a season, upheld the liberty What alliance? what single measure? what of his country. In no one part of his char- should I have actually persuaded the people acter, did he plume himself so much as on to pursue in preference to what was actually the alliance effected with Thebes. It was adopted?" a great master-stroke of policy, and he not only succeeded in gaining over that state,

How overwhelming must this candid exposition of his conduct have been to his

and upon his tackle being strained, or wholly giving way, were to suffer shipwreck, and then some one should blame himWhy I had not the control of the vessel,' he might reply-any more than I had the command of the army, or was the master of Fortune, instead of her being the mistress

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adversaries! What influence must it have everything for the purpose, and with the had on his audience, who remembered the prospect of safety, should encounter a storm, great hopes entertained by all the friends of Grecian freedom when that alliance was effected? However, the greater part of mankind will always test the soundness or unsoundness of measures by the most irrefragable of all arguments, the actual result; and laboring on this unfair mode of estimating the policy of a measure, Eschines of everything. He bitterly taunted him with Cheronæa. charged him with imbecility, cowardicewith "those runaway feet of his" which had so shamelessly betrayed the best interests of his country. With a people so sensitive of valour as the Athenians, this must have told severely; it required all the skill of Demosthenes to remove it, and it is removed with a beauty, and feeling, and wisdom, that must have evoked some tears, and not a little applause. How weak are the calculations of man! What little knowledge has he of the course of events! How poor his insight into the mysterious workings of Providence! He founds results on data to him fixed and immutable; they are changed, they vanish, failure, or a result different from what there he cannot tell by what agency. It is not ought to be-forth comes Eschines, just human, for he has guarded against that with as old fractures and sprains foresight, wisdom and caution. Fortune afresh, when the body is attacked by dis alone is to blame the charge lies at her ease.' feet!

Oh, Athenians! examine the character of my public conduct-I invite you to itand do not unjustly upbraid me with the event. For the termination of all things must ever be at the disposal of Providence, and it is only from the measures he proposes that any judgment can be formed of the intelligence of the statesman. Never let it be attributed to me as any offence, if it did so fall out that Philip won the battle, for the issue of that was in the hands of God, and not of me. But show that I did not select such measures as, according to human foresight, and what was practicable, were the best-and that I did not faithfully, and honestly, and laboriously (even beyond my strength) execute them, or that the course proposed by me was not honorable and worthy of our country, and necessary show me this, and then accuse me. But if that tempest or thunder-clap which came upon us was too powerful, not only for us, but for all the rest of Greece to resist, what was to be done? Just as if the master of a vessel, after having done every thing possible for security, and equipped it with

"That scoundrel, for whom the misfortunes of the Greeks are reserved as a source of glory, ought rather to suffer death himself than accuse another; and he cannot be well affected to his country, who has such an identity of interests with its enemies, as that the same circumstances should be at once profitable to both. By the habits of your life and private conduct by what you do in public affairs, and by what you decline doing, you manifest what you are. Is there anything going on from which there is a prospect of advantage to the country— Eschines is dumb. Has there been any

rack us

It would be no difficult matter to multiply forcible extracts from this magnificent speech; but to give the English reader a fair notion of its great excellence, we should far surpass the limits allowed in this paper. It is from beginning to end an intense furnace of boldness, freedom, contempt, and indignation-all supporting and never falling short of the argument. In the midst of his inflammatory career this is never abandoned. Here is the celebrated oath which he seems to have derived from the peroration of Eschines, but which throws that and all the appeals that ever were utter ed into oblivion.

"If now I affected to say that I induced you to adopt opinions worthy of your ancestors, there is no man who ought not justly to reprehend me; but as it is, I am showing that before my time the state entertained those sentiments, though a share in the execution of everything that has been done I do affirm to be mine. But this Eschines, in condemning the whole in a lump, and exhorting you to regard me with aversion, as the cause of the terror and danger that befel the country, is indeed desirous of de

ORATORY OF SHERIDAN.

priving me of my temporal glory, but is at the same time robbing you of the praises which are your due through all future ages. THOUGH his education had not been negFor if you should condemn Ctesiphon on lected, for he was bred at Harrow, and with the ground that my public measures were Dr. Parr, yet, he was an idle and listless not the best possible, you will appear to boy, learning as little as possible, and sufhave been in error, and not to have suffered fering as much wretchedness-an avowal, that which had happened through the blind which to the end of his life, he never ceased caprice of fortune. But it cannot be it to make, and to make in a very affecting cannot be that you have erred, oh men of manner. Accordingly he brought away Athens, in encountering danger for the com- from school a very slender provision of mon liberty and safety of Greece. No-classical learning; and his taste, never corBy those ancestors I swear, who for this rect and chaste, was wholly formed by cause courted death at Marathon, and who acquaintance with the English poets and stood in the van of the battle at Platxa-dramatists, and perhaps a few of our more and by those who fought the sea-fights at ordinary prose writers; for in no other Salamis and off Årtemisium, and so many language could he read with anything apother valiant men who lie buried in the proaching to ease. Of those poets, he public sepulchres of their country, all of most professed to admire and to have studied whom this state interred, Eschines, with- Dryden; he plainly had most studied Pope, out distinction, deeming them worthy of whom he always vilified and always imitaequal honor, and not only those who were ted. But of dramatists his passion evident. successful and won the victory. And ly was Congreve, and after him Vanbrugh, justly for the duty of brave men was Farquhar, even Wicherly: all of whom equally done by all, but the fortune which served for the model, partly even for the they met was at the disposal of Providence."

The

magazine, of his own dramatic writings, as Pope did of his verses. The Duenna, In these days, when the eloquence of however, is formed after the fashion of Gay, reason is substituted for that of passion, of whom it falls further short than the and men are more governed by what appeals School for Scandal does of Congreve. to their understanding than their sensations That his plays were great productions for and feelings, it is impossible to form any any age, astonishing for a youth of twentynotion of the effect produced on the lively three and twenty-five, is unquestionable. and enthusiastic spirit of the Athenians. Johnson has accounted for the phenomenon They looked, as the orator from the rostrum of Congreve, at a still earlier period of life, conjured up the illustrious dead, to the im- showing so much knowledge of the world, mortal plain of Marathon-below them by observing that, on a close examination, rolled the blue waves of Salamis-around his dialogues and characters might have them stood the sepulchres where rested the been gathered from books "without much sacred ashes of their heroes-the statues actual commerce with mankind." that gave them all but life the temples same can hardly be said of the School for consecrated to their memory-and when Scandal; but the author wrote it when he Demosthenes, with an inspired eye and convulsive frame, pointed to the very scenes where the swords and triremes of the eter- Thus, with an ample share of literary nal city accomplished those imperishable and dramatic reputation, but not certainly deeds in behalf not of her own, but of hu- of the kind most auspicious for a statseman man liberty, must not the reader fail in with a most slender provision of knowl picturing the almost insane excitement? Before it the most powerful declamations of Burke, or Fox, or Erskine, dwindle into insignificance. Chatham may have produced something like it in the speech on the American war. We can only again repeat with his adversary, "What if we had heard him?"-Recollections of Ancient Literature, by an Irish Barrister.

was five years older than Congreve had been at the date of the Old Bachelor.

edge at all likely to be useful in political affairs-with a position, by birth and profession, little suited to command the respect of the most aristocratic country in Europethe son of an actor, the manager himself of a theatre-he came into that parliament which was enlightened by the vast and various knowledge, as well as fortified and adorned by the more choice literary fame

secret note books of this famous wit; and can trace the jokes, in embryo, with which he has so often made the walls of St. Stephen's shake, in a merriment excited by the happy appearance of sudden, unpremeditated effusion."

of a Burke, and which owned the sway of was well mingled also with humor, occaconsummate orators like Fox and Pitt. His sionally descending to farce. How little it first effort was ambitious, and was unsuc- was the inspiration of the moment, all men cessful. Aiming at but a low flight, he were aware who knew his habits; but a failed in that humble attempt. An expe- singular proof of this was presented by rienced judge, Woodfall, told him" it would Mr. Moore when he came to write his life; never do," and counselled him to seek again for we there find given to the world the the more congenial atmosphere of Drury Lane. But he was resolved that it should do; he had taken his part; and, as he felt the matter was in him, he vowed not to desist till he brought it out." What he wanted in acquired learning, and in natural quickness, he made up by indefatigable The adroitness with which he turned to industry; within given limits, towards a account sudden occasions of popular excitepresent object, no labor could daunt him; ment, and often at the expense of the whig and no man could work for a season with party, generally too indifferent to such more steady and unwearied application. advantages, and too insensible to the damage By constant practice in small matters, or they thus sustained in public estimation, is before private committees; by diligent at- well known. On the mutiny in the fleet tendance upon all debates; by habitual in- he was beyond all question right; on the tercourse with all dealers in political wares; French invasion, and on the attacks upon from the chief of parties and their more refined Napoleon, he was almost as certainly wrong; coteries to the providers of daily discussion but these appeals to the people, and the for the public and the chroniclers of par- national feelings of the house tended to liamentary speeches, he trained himself to make the orator well received, if they added a facility of speaking absolutely essential to little to the statesman's reputation; and of all but first rate genius, and all but necessary the latter character he was not ambitious. even to that, and he acquired what acquaint- IIis most celebrated speech was certainly the ance with the science of politics he ever one upon the "Begum charge," in the propossessed or his speeches ever betrayed. ceeding against Hastings, and nothing can He rose by these steps to the rank of a first exceed the accounts left us of its unprecerate speaker, and as great a debater as a want dented success. Not only the practice then of readiness and need of preparation would first began, which was gradually increased permit. He had some qualities which led till it greets every good speech, of cheering, him to this rank, and which only required on the speaker resuming his seat; but the the habit of speech, to bring out into suc- Minister besought the house to adjourn the cessful exhibition; a warm imagination, decision of the question, as being incapathough more prone to repeat the variations citated from forming a just judgment under of others, or to combine anew their crea- the influence of such powerful eloquence; tions, than to bring forth original produc- whilst all men on all sides vied with each tions; a fierce, dauntless spirit of attack; a other in extolling so wonderful a performance. familiarity, acquired from his dramatic studies, with the feelings of the heart, and the ways to touch its chords; a facility of epigram and point, the yet more direct gift of the same theatrical apprenticeship; an excellent manner not unconnected with that experience; and a depth of voice which perfectly suited the tone of his declamation, be it invective, or be it descriptive, or be it impassioned. His wit, derived from the same source, or sharpened by the same previous habits, was eminently brilliant, and almost always successful; it was like all his speaking, exceedingly prepared, but it was skillfully introduced and happily applied, and it

* Take an instance from this author, giving extracts from the common-place book of the wit: "He employs his fancy in his narrative, and keeps his recollections for his wit." Again, the same idea is expanded into"When he makes his jokes you applaud the accuracy of his memory; and 'tis only when he states his facts that you admire the flights of his imagination." But the thought was too good to be thus wasted on the desert air of a common-place Look. So forth it came at the expense of Kelly, who, having been a composer of music, became a wine merchant. "You will," said the wine." Nor was this service exacted from the old idea ready wit, "import your music, and compose your thought sufficient: so in the house of commons an easy and apparent off-hand parenthesis was thus filled with it at Mr. Dundas' cost and charge-("who generally resorts to his memory for his jokes, and to his imagination for his facts.")

Nevertheless, the opinion has now become them," said he, in eighteen hundred and ten, greatly prevalent, that a portion of this and in a far higher strain of eloquence, success was owing to the speech having so "a corrupt house of lords; give them a greatly surpassed all the speaker's former venal house of commons; give them a tyranefforts; to the extreme interest of the topics nical prince; give them a truckling courtwhich the subject naturally presented, and to and let me but have an unfettered press, I the artist-like elaboration and beautiful deliv- will defy them to encroach a hair's breadth ery of certain fine passages, rather than to upon the liberties of England." Of all his the merits of the whole. Certain it is, speeches there can be but little doubt that that the repetition of a great part of it, pre- the most powerful, as the most chaste, was sented in the short-hand notes of the speech his reply in eighteen hundred and five, upon on the same charge in Westminster Hall, the motion he had made for repealing the disappoints every reader who has heard of Defence act. Mr. Pitt had unwarily thrown the success which attended the earlier effort. out a sneer at his support of Mr. Addington, In truth, Mr. Sheridan's taste was very far as though it was assiduous. Such a stone, from being chaste, or even moderately cor- cast by a person whose house on that aspect rect; he delighted in gaudy figures; he was one pane of glass, could not fail to call was attracted by glare, and cared not whether down a shower of missiles; and they who the brilliancy came from tinsel or gold, from witnessed the looks and gestures of the the broken glass or the pure diamond; he aggressor under the pitiless pelting of the overlaid his thoughts with epigrammatic dic- tempest which he had provoked, represent tion; he played to the galleries," and it as certain that there were moments when indulged in, of course, an endless succes- he intended to fasten a personal quarrel sion of claptraps. His worst passages by upon the vehement and implacable declaimfar were those which he evidently preferred er.*-Edinburgh Review.

or

A SKETCH,

FOR MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS.

GRACE was the pet of the village-pretty, lively, and, like all other pets, very selfwilled; but the effects of this latter quality were softened down and rendered quite loveable by her open, generous disposition, which would not allow her to injure another, even to gratify that ruling passion. Some said that Grace thought herself sufficiently handsome, and termed it vanity. True, perhaps, when each Sabbath morning found her ready decked for the sunny walk to the parish church on the hill-side, or the weekday's evening saw her in her little chamber window plying her needle-yes, perhaps then, as she caught a side-long glance at herself in the little mirror, she might think

himself-full of imagery, often far-fetched, oftener gorgeous, and loaded with point that drew the attention of the hearer away from the thoughts to the words; and his best by far, were those where he declaimed, with his deep, clear voice, though somewhat thick utterance, with a fierce defiance of some adversary, or an unappeasable vengeance against some oppressive act; reasoned rapidly, in the like tone, upon some plain matter of fact, or exposed as plainly to homely ridicule, some puerile sophism; and in all this his admirable manner was aided by an eye singularly piercing, and a countenance which, though coarse, and even in some features gross, was yet animated and expressive, and could easily assume the figure of rage and menace and scorn. The few sentences with which he thrilled the house on the liberty of the press, in eighteen hundred and ten, were worth, perhaps, more than all his elaborated epigrams and forced flowers on the Begum charge, or all his denunciation of Napoleon, "whose it no such great wonder that the young men morning orisons and evening prayers are for gazed as they passed her, or that they the conquest of England, whether he bends looked so curiously at the bow-pots and to the god of battles, or worships the god- flowering geraniums perched on the sill of dess of reason;" certainly far better than her casement-perhaps, too, she might think such pictures of his power as having "thrones for his watch-towers, kings for his sentinels, and for the palisades of his castle, sceptres stuck with crowns." "Give

*Mr. Sheridan wrote this speech during the debate at a coffee-house near the hall, and it is reported most his own notes. accurately in the parliamentary debate, apparently from