depth of thought, or breadth of view, or philosophy, or sagacity, or knowledge of human nature, or experience of human life, tho these additional gifts he may have, and the more he has of them the greater he is; but I ascribe to him, as his characteristic gift, in a large sense the faculty of expression. He is the master of the twofold Logos, the thought and the word, distinct, but inseparable from each other. He may, if so be, elaborate his compositions, or he may pour out his improvisations, but in either case he has but one aim, which he keeps steadily before him, and is conscientious and single-minded in fulfilling. That aim is to give forth what he has within him; and from his very earnestness it comes to pass that, whatever be the splendor of his diction or the harmony of his periods, he has with him the charm of an incommunicable simplicity. Whatever be his subject, high or low, he treats it suitably and for its own sake. If he is a poet, "nil molitur ineptè." If he is an orator, then, too, he speaks not only distinctè" and "splendidè," but also "aptè." His page is the lucid mirror of his mind and life.

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He writes passionately, because he feels keenly; forcibly, because he conceives vividly; he sees too clearly to be vague; he is too serious to be otiose; he can analyze his subject, and therefore he is rich; he embraces it as a whole and in its parts, and therefore he is consistent; he has a firm hold of it, and therefore he is luminous. When his imagination wells up, it overflows in ornament; when his heart is touched, it thrills along his verse. He always has the right word for the right idea, and never a word too much. If he is brief, it is because few words suffice; when he is lavish of them, still each word has its mark, and aids, not embarrasses, the vigorous march of his elocution. He expresses what all feel, but all can not say; and his sayings pass into proverbs among his people, and his phrases become household words and idioms of their daily speech, which is tessellated with the rich fragments of his language, as we see in foreign lands the marbles of Roman grandeur worked into the walls and pavements of modern palaces.

Such preeminently is Shakespeare among ourselves; such

preeminently Vergil among the Latins; such in their degree are all those writers who in every nation go by the name of classics. To particular nations they are necessarily attached from the circumstances of the variety of tongues, and the peculiarities of each; but so far they have a catholic and ecumenical character, that what they express is common to the whole race of man, and they alone are able to express it.

If then the power of speech is a gift as great as any that can be named-if the origin of language is by many philosophers even considered to be nothing short of divine-if by means of words the secrets of the heart are brought to light, pain of soul is relieved, hidden grief is carried off, sympathy conveyed, counsel imparted, experience recorded, and wisdom perpetuated-if by great authors the many are drawn up into unity, national character is fixt, a people speaks, the past and the future, the east and the west are brought into communication with each other—if such men are, in a word, the spokesmen and prophets of the human family-it will not answer to make light of literature or to neglect its study; rather we may be sure that, in proportion as we master it in whatever language, and imbibe its spirit, we shall ourselves become in our own measure the ministers of like benefits to others, be they many or few, be they in the obscurer or the more distinguished walks of life-who are united by us by social ties, and are within the sphere of our personal influence.

When a man aims directly at originality, he usually misses it. When he tries to appear to be something other than he is, he is almost certain to become unreal and ineffective. Emerson said: "Eloquence is the power to translate a truth into language perfectly intelligible to the person with whom you speak." The following is an amusing but instructive illustration of the passion for big words and unusual expressions:

MY BRETHREN: The cosmical changes continually occurring, manifest a concatenation of causes for the multiferous forms

that present themselves for meditation and study. As we pursue our investigations in the various departments, we realize more distinctly the ever present and eternal relation of things. Cosmological philosophy demonstrates that force is persistent, and hence is indestructible, therefore this indestructibility is grounded upon the absolute. To prove this to your entire satisfaction, it is only necessary for me to quote the formula: "The absolutoid and the abstractoid elementisms of being, echo or reappear by analogy within the concretoid elaborismus." We reject the theory of the eternity of matter as well as the hypothesis of an infinite series, and contend that matter in its primordial condition is but a term in a system of causations; that after illimitable duration passed through changes of manifold particularities which we have ultimated in an endless multiplicity of forms that have produced the present complicated condition of things.

Prolixity soon wearies an audience. Too much brilliancy of style easily dazzles the eyes, and loftiness of expression may shoot so high over the heads of the hearers as to defeat its purpose. Sublime thought does not necessarily demand big words and elegant language. "And God said let there be light: and there was light" is an eloquent example of great thought in simple words. Coleridge once said: "If men would only say what they have to say in plain terms, how much more eloquent they would be!" Amateur speakers are too prone to look at the objective effect of their language, instead of at the subjective quality of their thought. This will sometimes lead them into Fourth-of-July bombast, such as this:

There is a divinity that shapes our ends, and that same divine inspiration revealed to the American patriots who fought against colonial oppression, the symbol of liberty that was destined to float in the cause of humanity until the end of time.

Looking aloft in the evening glow they saw a great, white cloud; the sun, e'er setting, smiled on it and shot seven golden red rays through its fleecy whiteness, forming thirteen alternating stripes. A square piece of the sky came down and fastened itself in the upper left corner, whereupon thirteen glorious stars left the firmament of heaven, formed a symmetrical setting, and glowed from the blue union. Atop this emblem was a guardian angel holding in her left hand the scales of justice, and in her right, with point down, a sword, not typical of war, but of a determination to uphold peace. On the shield that

rested against her robe was the promise that whenever a new State entered the Union another star would descend from the sky, and guaranteeing to the generations to come that this inspired flag would be a world-respected symbol of man's humanity to man.

There must be affluence of thought before one can safely attempt elegance of style, and even then it is better that it arise naturally and unconsciously. Here, again, the right foundation is to be found in sincerity. Some men think in large ways, like certain artists who paint with broad sweeps of the brush, and in striking colors. Their souls are too large for the pedantic and formal, and they must find means of their own. Such a man was Webster, who gave to common words a new import and personality, as in his use of the word "respectable" in the following:

I would cheerfully put the question to-day to the intelligence of Europe and the world, what character of the century, upon the whole, stands out in the relief of history, most pure, most respectable, most sublime; and I doubt not, that, by a suffrage approaching to unanimity, the answer would be Washington!

Elegance of language has, of course, its legitimate use, and gives enduring pleasure when exhibited by a real artist. But it is a dangerous plaything for amateurs. An illus

tration of masterly magnificence of style is the following passage from Lacordaire:

It might well have been thought that the force of that confession would never have been surpassed, whether in regard to the genius of the man who wrote it, the authority of his unbelief, the glory of his name, and the circumstances connected with the age which received it; but it would have been an error. Another man, another expression, another glory, another phase of unbelief, another age, another avowal, were greater altogether, if not in each separate part, than those you have just heard. Our age commenced by a man who outstript all his contemporaries, and whom we, who have followed, have not equaled. A conqueror, a soldier, a founder of empire, his name and his ideas are still everywhere present. After having unconsciously accomplished the work of God, he disappeared, that work being done, and waned like a setting sun in the deep waters of the ocean. There, upon a barren rock, he loved to recall the events of his own life; and from himself going back to others who had lived before him, and to whom he had a right to compare himself, he could not fail to perceive a form greater than his own upon that illustrious stage whereon he took his place. He often contemplated it; misfortune opens the soul to illuminations which in prosperity are unseen. That form constantly rose before him— he was compelled to judge it. One evening in the course of that long exile which expiated past faults and lighted up the road to the future, the fallen conqueror asked one of the few companions of his captivity if he could tell him what Jesus Christ really was. The soldier begged to be excused; he had been too busy during his sojourn in the world to think about that question. "What!" sorrowfully replied the inquirer, "you have been baptized in the Catholic Church, and you can not tell me, even here upon this rock which consumes us, what Jesus Christ was! Well, then, I will tell you": and, opening the Gospel, not with his hands, but from a heart filled by it, he compared Jesus Christ with himself and all the great characters of history; he developed the different characteristics