Cromwell, I charge thee, fling away ambition; Still in thy right hand carry gentle peace To silence envious tongues. Be just, and fear not. Thy God's, and truth's; then, if thou fall'st, O Cromwell! And-Prithee, lead me in: There, take an inventory of all I have, To the last penny; 'tis the king's :-my robe, I dare now call my own! O Cromwell, Cromwell, I serv'd my king, he would not in my age Have left me naked to mine enemies!-SHAKSPEARE. RODERICK DHU AND FITZ-JAMES. He whistled shrill And he was answered from the hill; Like the loose crags, whose threatening mass As if an infant's touch could urge Their headlong passage down the verge. The Mountaineer cast glance of pride Along Benledi's living side, Then fixed his eye and sable brow Full on Fitz-James:-" How sayest thou now! These are Clan-Alpine's warriors true; And, Saxon,-I am Roderick Dhu!" Fitz-James was brave:-though to his heart Sir Roderick marked-and in his eyes Short space he stood-then waved his hand: Where heath and fern were waving wide.-SCOTT. LOCHIEL'S WARNING. Wizard. Lochiel! Lochiel! beware of the day Oh weep! but thy tears cannot number the dead; Lochiel. Go, preach to the coward, thou death-telling seer! Or, if gory Culloden so dreadful appear, Draw, dotard, around thy old wavering sight, This mantle, to cover the phantoms of fright! Wizard. Ha! laugh'st thou, Lochiel, my vision to scorn? Proud bird of the mountain, thy plume shall be torn! Say, rush'd the bold eagle exultingly forth, From his home, in the dark-rolling clouds of the north, But down let him stoop from his havoc on high! For the blackness of ashes shall mark where it stood, Lochiel. False Wizard, avaunt! I have marshall'd my clan : Their swords are a thousand, their bosoms are one! They are true to the last of their blood and their breath, Wizard. Lochiel, Lochiel, beware of the day! Now, in darkness and billows, he sweeps from my sight: Lochiel. Down, soothless insulter! I trust not the tale: For never shall Albin a destiny meet So black with dishonour, so foul with retreat. Tho' my perishing ranks should be strew'd in their gore Lochiel, untainted by flight or by chains, While the kindling of life in his bosom remains, With his back to the field, and his feet to the foe! Look proudly to Heaven from his death-bed of fame. CAMPBELL. THE NATURE OF TRUE ELOQUENCE. When public bodies are to be addressed on momentous occasions, when great interests are at stake, and strong passions excited, nothing is valuable in speech, farther than it is connected with high intellectual and moral endowments. Clearness, force, and earnestness, are the qualities which produce conviction. Trué eloquence, indeed, does not consist in speech. It cannot be brought from far. Labour and learning may toil for it, but they will toil in vain. Words and phrases may be marshalled in every way, but they cannot compass it. It must exist in the man, in the subject, and in the occasion. Affected passion, intense expression, the pomp of declamation, all may aspire after it; they cannot reach it. It comes, if it comes at all, like the out-breaking of a fountain from the earth, or the bursting forth of volcanic fires, with spontaneous, original, native force. The graces taught in the schools, the costly ornaments and studied contrivances of speech, shock and disgust men, when their own lives, and the fate of their wives, their children, and their country, hang on the decision of the hour. Then, words have lost their power, rhetoric is vain, and all elaborate oratory contemptible. Even genius itself then feels rebuked, and subdued, as in the presence of higher qualities. Then, patriotism is eloquent; then, self-devotion is eloquent. The clear conception, out-running the deductions of logic, the high purpose, the firm resolve, the dauntless spirit, speaking on the tongue, beaming from the eye, informing every feature, and urging the whole man onward, right onward to his object-this is eloquence; or, rather, it is something greater and higher than all eloquence, it is action, noble, sublime, godlike action.-MARTIN. UNIVERSAL EMANCIPATION. Universal Emancipation! I speak in the spirit of the British law, which makes liberty commensurate with, and inseparable from, British soil; which proclaims even to the stranger and sojourner, the moment he sets his foot on British earth, that the ground on which he treads is holy, and consecrated by the genius of Universal Emancipation. No matter in what language his doom may have been pronounced;-no matter what complexion incompatible with freedom, an Indian or an African sun may have burned upon him;-no matter in what disastrous battle his liberty may have been cloven down; no matter with what solemnities he may have been devoted upon the altar of slavery: the first moment he touches the sacred soil of Britain, the altar and the god sink together in the dust; his soul walks abroad in her own majesty; his body swells beyond the measure of his chains, that burst from around him; and he stands redeemed, regenerated, and disenthralled by the irresistible genius of Universal Emancipation !— CURRAN. LORD CHANCELLOR BROUGHAM AGAINST SLAVERY. Tell me not of rights-talk not of the property of the planter in his slaves. I deny his right-I acknowledge not the property. The principles, the feelings of our common nature, rise in rebellion against it. Be the appeal made to the understanding or to the heart, the sentence is the same that rejects it. In vain you tell me of laws that sanction such a claim! There is a law above all the enactments of human codes-the same throughout the world-the same in all times; such as it was before the daring genius of Columbus pierced the night of ages, and opened to one world the sources of power, wealth, and knowledge, to another all unutterable woes such as it is at this day; it is the law written by the finger of God on the heart of man; and by that law, unchangeable and eternal-while men despise fraud, and loathe rapine, and hate blood-they shall reject with indignation the wild and guilty fantasy, that man can hold property in man! In vain you appeal to treaties, to covenants between nations. The covenants of the Almighty denounce such unholy pretensions. To these laws did they of old refer, who maintained the African trade. Such treaties did they cite-and not untruly; for, by one shameful compact you bartered the glories of Blenheim for the traffic in blood. Yet, in spite of law and of treaty, that infernal traffic is now destroyed, and its votaries put to death like other pirates. How came this change to pass? Not, assuredly, by Parliament leading the way, but the country at length awoke; the indignation of the people was kindled; it descended in thunder, and smote the traffic, and scattered its guilty profits to the winds. Now, then, let the planters beware -let the government at home beware-let the Parliament beware! The same country is once more awake-awake to the condition of Negro slavery; the same indignation kindles in the bosom of the same people; the same cloud is gathering that annihilated the slave trade; and if it shall descend again, they on whom its crash may fall, will not be destroyed before I have warned them; but I pray that their destruction may turn away from us the more terrible judgments of God. ADAMS ON THE DECLARATION OF AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE. Sink or swim, live or die, survive or perish, I give my hand and my heart to this vote! It is true, indeed that, in the beginning, we aimed not at independence. But there's a Divinity which shapes our ends. The injustice of England has driven us to arms; and-blinded to her own interest, for our good-she has obstinately persisted, till independence is now within our grasp. We have but to reach forth to it, and it is ours. Why then, should we defer the declaration? Sir, I know the uncertainty of human affairs; but I see, I see clearly, through this day's business. You and I, indeed, may rue |