THE SECOND CHILDHOOD.—Orpheus C. Kerr. As age advances, ails and aches attend, Empty endeavor enervately ends, Fancy furiously feigns forgotten friends; Intentions imbecile invent ideas, Justly jocunding jolly jokers jeer; Knowledge's keen kingdom knur k able known Lingers, lamenting life's long lasting loan. Mammonly mumming, magnifying motes, Nurtures numb Nature's narrowest nursery notes, Qualmishly querying, quarrelsomely quaint, Rousing rife ridicules, repealed restraint Speaking soft silliness, such shallow show, That tottering toysters, tickled, titter too. Useless, ungainly, unbeloved, unblest, Virtue's vague visor, vice's veiling vest; Wheezingly whimpering, wanting wisdom, wit, One of the favored of favorite American humorists is John G. Saxe, whose wit and humor so run together that the most acute cannot tell where one begins or the other ends. No writer has written more funny things in verse. These "rhymed laughs" usually read and recite with good effect. What Tom Hood is to British literature Saxe is to American. This poem here given is an example in Inquiry (9) and Affirmation (28), but the reverse of serious inquiry or affirmation. EGO AND ECHO.-John G. Saxe. I asked of Echo, t'other day (Whose words are few and often funny), What to a novice she could say Of courtship, love, and matrimony? Quoth Echo, plainly-" Matter-o'-money!' Whom should I marry?-should it be A dashing damsel, gay and pert, A pattern of inconstancy; Ör selfish, mercenary flirt? Quoth Echo, sharply-"Nary flirt!" What if, aweary of the strife That long has lured the dear deceiver, She promises to amend her life, And sin no more: can I believe her? Quoth Echo, with decision-"Leave her!" EGO AND ECHO. But if some maiden with a heart, But what if, seemingly afraid To bind her fate in Hymen's fetter, Quoth Echo, rather coolly-"Let her !" What if, in spite of her disdain, I find my heart entwined about Quoth Echo, laughingly-" Get out!" But if some maid with beauty blest, As pure and fair as Heaven can make her, Will share my labor and my rest Till envious Death shall overtake her? 83 As specimens of the Oration proper-which is defined as "combining Eloquence and Elocution "-we have nothing finer than the masterpieces of Webster, Clay, and the men of their times. To-day we sadly lack good orators. Speakers we have in plentyy-some of whom are very forcible in legislative halls and on the public platform; but there is a great and surprising lack of true eloquence of the Ciceronean standard. With Webster and Clay the classic oration seems to have passed under an eclipse. In Congress not one solitary man stands forward to-day as gifted with that genius of speech which sways audiences as the wind sways the reeds, and brings either smiles or tears, anger or pleasure, scorn or stern resolve, at will. It may seem strange, but it is true, that out of the late tremendous Civil War there sprang no genius of eloquence like that which touched the lips of a Patrick Henry or inspired the tongue of sturdy John Adams—which made orators of men unused to the forum, and missionaries of Liberty of the untutored and rude. Surely, the crisis was imminent enough—the incentive to feeling and emotion powerful enough. Why, then, out of the array of able men in our legislative halls-of brilliant minds on the open platform-of devoted men in the pulpit and the press-have we been denied the greatness and glory of a Pitt, a Fox, a Burke, a Sheridan, a Curran? It is one of those novel mysteries of our times which the acute intellect of a Buckle might have been unable to explain. And "the West," which has produced so many glorious men of speechwho is there now to replace Clay, Corwin, Benton, Lincoln, Douglas, Baker, Jo. Daviess, etc. etc. Plenty of men like Morton, Sherman, Shellabarger, Schurz, Trumbull, etc. etc., but, amid them all, not one truly eloquent ! It remains for the now rising generation to supply this dearth, for, truly, it is not possible long to suppress a talent such as ought to be indigenous to our glorious, liberty-loving, free country. As examples of the Oration, we have reproduced several of those passages in great speeches by Webster, Clay, etc., which, it seems to us, embody many of the qualities of true eloquence, and necessitate in their delivery those graces of expression and action which are essential to true oratory. In their delivery, first let the student commit them perfectly in memory, that there may be no fear in his mind, or labor to remember. This fear and labor always make the speech appear forced and unnatural. Having it perfectly in mind leaves the speaker to perfect freedom in his action, and gives an ease of manner which, in itself, inspires confidence. As to emphasis and action, we again repeat-study, yourself, to interpret the author. Having committed the piece to memory, seek to understand every sentence and expression. Then, having gained a full apprehension of the author's meaning, you will show your own powers of delivery by the manner in which you reproduce the example. Seek, above all things, to discover the emphasized words-those words whose power is only properly expressed when they are, as it were, lifted above the common level of the speech, and made to be especially noticeable. This power of emphasis is one of the greatest significance. It must be studied by practice and application, for in it largely lies the secret of success or failure in many a speech or recitation. Experiment, for instance, with the old and trite example, "Do you ride to town to-day? You will perceive that, as you emphasize a different word, you really express a different meaning, although not a word is varied. This is true in a wider sense, and in some wellknown dramatic instances the sense of an author is debatable—each party's emphasis of particular words affecting the signification. The student will, therefore, especially study the example to discover its emphasized words or passages, adapting his bodily action and manner to the language which he sees in the composition. LIBERTY AND UNION.-Webster. I profess, sir, in my career hitherto, to have kept steadily in view the prosperity and honor of the whole country, and the preservation of our federal Union. It is to that Union we owe our LIBERTY AND UNION. 85 safety at home, and our consideration and dignity abroad. It is to that Union that we are chiefly indebted for whatever makes us most proud of our country. That Union we reached only by the discipline of our virtues in the severe school of adversity. It had its origin in the necessities of disordered finance, prostrate commerce, and ruined credit. Under its benign influences, these great interests immediately awoke, as from the dead, and sprang forth with newness of life. Every year of its duration has teemed with fresh proofs of its utility and its blessings; and although our territory has stretched out wider and wider, and our population spread farther and farther, they have not outrun its protection or its benefits. It has been to us all a copious fountain of national, social, and personal happiness. I have not allowed myself, sir, to look beyond the Union, to see what might lie hidden in the dark recess behind. I have not coolly weighed the chances of preserving liberty when the bonds that unite us together shall be broken asunder. I have not accustomed myself to hang over the precipice of disunion, to see whether, with my short sight, I can fathom the depth of the abyss below; nor could I regard him as a safe counsellor in the affairs of this government, whose thoughts should be mainly bent on considering, not how the Union should be best preserved, but how tolerable might be the condition of the people when it shall De broken up and destroyed. While the Union lasts, we have high, exciting, gratifying prospects spread out before us, for us and our children. Beyond that, I seek not to penetrate the veil. God grant that in my day, at least, that curtain may not rise! God grant that on my vision never may be opened what lies behind! When my eyes shall be turned to behold for the last time the sun in heaven, may I not see him shining on the broken and dishonored fragments of a once glorious Union; on States dissevered, discordant, and belligerent; on a land rent with civil feuds, or drenched, it may be, in fraternal blood! Let their last feeble and lingering glance rather behold the gorgeous ensign of the republic, now known and honored throughout the earth, still full high advanced, its arms and trophies streaming in their original lustre, not a stripe erased or polluted, nor a single star obscured, bearing for its motto no such miserable interrogatory as What is all this worth?" nor those other words of delusion and folly, "Liberty first, and Union afterwards;" but everywhere, spread all over in characters of living light, blazing on all its ample folds, as they float over the sea and over the land, and in every wind under the whole heavens, that other sentiment, dear to every true American heart-Liberty and Union, now and forever, one and inseparable! INFLUENCE OF NATIONAL GLORY.-Clay. We are asked, what have we gained by the war? I have shown that we have lost nothing in rights, territory, or honor; nothing for which we ought to have contended, according to the principles of the gentlemen on the other side, or according to our own. Have we gained nothing by the war? Let any man look at the degraded condition of this country before the war, the scorn of the universe, the contempt of ourselves, and tell me if we have gained nothing by the war. What is our present situation? Respectability and character abroad, security and confidence at home. If we have not obtained, in the opinion of some, the full measure of retribution, our character and constitution are placed on a solid basis, never to be shaken. The glory acquired by our gallant tars, by our Jacksons and our Browns on the land--is that nothing? True, we had our vicissitudes: there were humiliating events which the patriot cannot review without deep regret; but the great account, when it comes to be balanced, will be found vastly in our favor. Is there a man who would obliterate from the proud pages of our history the brilliant achievements of Jackson, Brown, and Scott, and the host of heroes on land and sea, whom I cannot enumerate? Is there a man who could not desire a participation in the national glory acquired by the war? Yes, national glory, which, however the expression may be condemned by some, must be cherished by every genuine patriot. What do I mean by national glory? Glory such as Hull, Jackson, and Perry have acquired. And are gentlemen insensible to their deeds--to the value of them in animating the country in the hour of peril hereafter? Did the battle of Thermopyla preserve Greece but once? Whilst the Mississippi continues to bear the tributes of the Iron Mountains and the Alleghanies to her Delta and to the Gulf of Mexico, the eighth of January shall be remembered, and the glory of that day shall stimulate future patriots, and nerve the arms of unborn freemen in driving the presumptuous invader from our country's soil. Gentlemen may boast of their insensibility to feelings inspired by the contemplation of such events. But I would ask, does the recollection of Bunker's Hill, Saratoga, and Yorktown, afford them no pleasure? Every act of noble sacrifice to the country, every instance of patriotic devotion to her cause, has its beneficial influence. A nation's character is the sum of its splendid deeds; they constitute one common patrimony, the nation's inheritance. They awe foreign powers-they arouse and animate our own people. I love true glory. It is this sentiment which ought to be cherished; and, in spite of cavils, and sneers, and attempts to put it down, it will finally conduct this nation to that height to which God and Nature have destined it. |