erate Romans the ancient spirit which had fled when demagogues
began their reign. How mournful was the eloquence of this great patriot,
this experienced statesman, this wise philosopher, who, in spite of all
his weaknesses, was admired and honored by all who spoke the Latin
tongue. But had he spoken with the tongue of an archangel it would have
been all the same, on any worldly or political subject. The old
sentiments had died out. Faith was extinguished amid universal
scepticism and indifference. He had no material to work on. The
birthright of ancient heroes had been sold for a mess of pottage, and
this he knew; and therefore with his last philippics he bowed his
venerable head, and prepared himself for the sword of the executioner,
which he accepted as an inevitable necessity.

These great orators appealed to traditions, to sentiments which had
passed away, to glories which could not possibly return; and they spoke
in vain. All they could do was to utter their manly and noble protests,
and die, with the dispiriting and hopeless feeling that the seeds of
ruin, planted in a soil of corruption, would soon bear their wretched
fruits,--even violence and destruction.

But the orators who preached a new religion of regenerating forces were
more cheerful. They knew that these forces would save the world,
whatever the depth of ignominy, wretchedness, and despair. Their
eloquence was never sad and hopeless, but triumphant, jubilant,
overpowering. It kindled the fires of an intense enthusiasm. It kindled
an enthusiasm not based on the conquest of the earth, but on the
conquests of the soul, on the never-fading glories of immortality, on
the ever-increasing power of the kingdom of Christ. The new orators did
not preach liberty, or the glories of material life, or the majesty of
man, or even patriotism, but Salvation,--the future destinies of the
soul. A new arena of eloquence was entered; a new class of orators
arose, who discoursed on subjects of transcending comfort to the poor
and miserable. They made political slavery of no account in comparison
with the eternal redemption and happiness promised in the future state.
The old institutions could not be saved: perhaps the orators did not
care to save them; they were not worth saving; they were rotten to the
core. But new institutions should arise upon their ruins; creation
should succeed destruction; melodious birth-songs should be heard above
the despairing death-songs. There