William Campbell Preston. mous terms and words of kindred meaning until he got the one that suited him. Not so with Mr. Preston. The happy thought and the felicitous expression were always ready and came forth spontaneously. In deed, his thoughts even in the embryonic state seemed instinctively to clothe them selves in proper garb, and when they were brought forth, they were fully panoplied so far as form and expression were concerned. Mr. Preston's style of writing and speak ing was just the opposite of that of Mr. Calhoun. It was copious, diffuse, and florid, rather than plain, concise, and barren. Mr. Preston preferred to err on the side of an excess of ornament and a profusion of flowers, rather than on that of sterility and barren ness. He amplified rather than condensed. He aimed to be elegant rather than severely plain. While his style was classic and his diction choice, still he would at times devi ate from this elegant precision and would use the language of the common people, adopting the popular expressions and the current phrases of the day, and employing them with fine effect. This phase of his style. Colonel Thomas presents as follows: "The elegance of his diction was not less agreea ble because of his terms, rude sometimes but graphic — like the horse came down the street 'ripping and tearing.'" He advocated the use of good old Saxon words as much as possible. Miss Martin says that he gave her two rules to follow: first, never use a long word when a short one will do as well; and, secondly, avoid derivatives as much as possible. Mr. Magoon, in his "Living Orators of America," gives us so beautiful a description of Mr. Pres ton's style, that I am sure the reader will thank me for quoting from it. He says: "Some men seem to have dreamed of an angel's face in early youth, and spent their whole subsequent life in trying to embody, in every word they utter, something of its loveliness. 'In act most graceful and humane, their tongue drops manna.' Mr. Preston is one
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of this order in eloquence, inasmuch as he abounds in fervid imagery, genial sentiments, and elegant variety. There is less frigid simplicity than animated propriety in his composition. His language often resembles that of the Norman troubadour who com pared the object of his love with a bird, whose plumage assumes the hues of every flower and precious stone. He habitually depends almost entirely on the circumstances of the occasion, or the excitement of the hour; and such men succeed admirably or universally fail. They never drudge along with the uniform calmness of stupid medi ocrity. They speak only when they are manifestly inspired, and then they appear like an Oriental sun, announced by no dawn, and succeeded by no twilight." Mr. Magoon presents in charming con trast the style of Webster and of Preston : "Webster and Preston used to sit close to each other in the American Senate. How unlike! Listening to one is like going from solemn, swelling music, into a stately sculp ture-gallery, where you are surrounded with god-like forms, which give you the impres sion of distinct proportion and severest beauty, and which yet, by their majesty, bend you low in awful reverence. The other resembles an Italian parterre in full bloom, melodious with sparkling fountains, embel lished with graceful vases and dancing fawns, redolent of sweet odors, and resounding with happy voices chatting and singing near, while the volcano burns on the view, and a fearful thunder-gust is beginning to obscure the sun." I notice that Dr. Laborde also likens Mr. Preston's mind "to a. parterre of evergreens and flowers, all arranged with exquisite taste, ornamented with fountains and statuary, and winding, pebbly brooks." As Mr. Preston's face varied greatly, pre senting an entirely different appearance in the placidness of repose from what it did when transformed and animated by action, lighted up by expression and illumined by
