Page:The World's Famous Orations Volume 9.djvu/167

RUFUS CHOATE shall have ceased to live — in such scenes, un- fettered by the laws of forensic or parliamentary debate, multitudes uncounted lifting up their eyes to him; some great historical scenes of America around; all symbols of her glory and art and power and fortune there; voices of the past, not unheard; shapes beckoning from the future, not unseen — sometimes that mighty in- tellect, borne upward to a height and kindled to an illumination which we shall see no more, WTOught out, as it were, in an instant a picture of vision, warning, prediction; the progress of the nation; the contrasts of its eras; the heroic deaths; the motives to patriotism; the maxims and arts imperial by which the glory has been gathered and may be heightened — wrought out, in an instant, a picture to fade only when all record of our mind shall die. In looking over the public remains of his oratory, it is striking to remark how, even in that most sober and massive understanding and nature, you see gathered and expressed the char- acteristic sentiments and the passing time of our America. It is the strong old oak which ascends before you ; yet our soil, our heaven, are attested in it as perfectly as if it were a flower that could grow in no other climate and in no other hour of the year or day. Let me in- stance in one thing only. It is a peculiarity of some schools of eloquence that they embody and utter, not merely the individual genius and character of the speaker, but a national con- 157