imperious mind, which
seems fit to defy the universe, is ever subordinate, by a kind of
fascination, to the perfect law of grace. In the highest of his
intellectual flights--and who can follow the winged rush of that eagle
mind?--in the widest of his mental ranges-and who shall measure their
extent?--he is ever moving within the severest line of beauty. No one
would think of saying that Mr. Webster's speeches are thrown off with
ease, and cost him but little effort; they are clearly the result
of the intensest stress of mental energy; yet the manner is never
discomposed; the decency and propriety of the display never interfered
with; he is always greater than his genius; you see "the depth out not
the tumult" of the mind. Whether, with extended arm, he strangles
the "reluctantes dracones" of democracy, or with every faculty called
home, concentrates the light and heat of his being in developing into
principles those great sentiments and great instincts which are his
inspiration; in all, the orator stands forth with the majesty and
chastened grace of Pericles himself. In the fiercest of encounters
with the deadliest of foes, the mind, which is enraged, is never
perturbed; the style, which leaps like the fire of heaven, is never
disordered. As in Guido's picture of St. Michael piercing the dragon,
while the gnarled muscles of the arms and hands attest the utmost
strain of the strength, the countenance remains placid, serene, and
undisturbed. In this great quality of mental dignity, Mr. Webster's
speeches have become more and more eminent. The glow and luster
which set his earlier speeches a-blaze with splendor, is in his
later discourses rarely let forth; but they have gained more, in the
increase of dignity, than they have parted with in the diminution
of brilliancy. We regard his speech before the shop-keepers, calling
themselves merchants, of Philadelphia, as one of the most weighty
and admirable of the intellectual efforts of his life. The range of
profound and piercing wisdom; the exquisite and faultless taste; but
above all, the august and indefectible dignity, that are illustrated
from the beginning to the end of that great display of matured
and finished strength, leave us in mingled wonder and reverence.
There is one sentence there which seems to us almost to reach the
_intellectual_ sublime; and while it stirs within us the depths of
sympathy and admiration, we could heartily wish that the young men of
America w