f orphans' tears wept on him."

It is surely a just subject of national, as well as professional pride,
that an American lawyer can thus, pointing to the example of such a man
as JOHN MARSHALL, hold up his character, his reputation, his usefulness,
his greatness, as incentives to high and honorable ambition; and
especially, his life of unblemished virtue, and single-hearted
purity,--after all, his highest praise, for, as old Shirley says,

"When our souls shall leave this dwelling,
The glory of one fair and virtuous action
Is above all the scutcheons on our tomb."

Is it possible that a being so fearfully and wonderfully made as man,
and animated by a spirit still more fearful and incomprehensible, was
created for the brief term of a few revolutions of the planet he lives
on? Shall his own physical and intellectual productions so long survive
him? The massive piles of Egypt have endured for thousands of years:
fluted column and sculptured architrave have stood for generations,
monuments of his labor and skill. A poem of Homer, an oration of
Demosthenes, an ode of Horace, a letter of Cicero, carry down to the
remotest posterity the memorial of their names. Men found empires,
establish constitutions, promulgate codes of laws; there have been
Solons, Alexanders, Justinians, and Napoleons. There have been those
justly called Fathers of their country, and benefactors of their race.
Have they, too, sunk to become clods of the valley? The mind, which can
look so far before and after--can subdue to its mastery the savages of
the forests, and the fiercer elements of Nature--can stamp the creation
of its genius upon the living canvas, or the almost breathing, speaking
marble--can marshal the invisible vibrations of air into soul-stirring
or soul-subduing music--can pour forth an eloquence of words, with magic
power to lash the passions of many hearts into a raging whirlwind, or
command them with a "peace, be still"--can make a book, a little book,
which shall outlive pyramids and temples, cities and empires--can
perceive and love beauty, in all its forms, and above all, moral beauty,
and God, the infinite perfection of moral beauty,--no, this mind can
never die. Its moral progress must go on in an unending existence, of
which its life of fourscore years on earth is scarce the childhood. Let
us beware then of raising these objects of ambition, wealth, learning,
honor, and influence, worthy though they be, into an undu