The Madisonian. [volume] (Washington City [i.e. Washington, D.C.]) 1837-1845, 1838-07-28
TRIBUTE TO GENUS.

Professor Bascom, the pulpit orator, upon whose
eoquence delighted thousands in this city have SO
often hung until their minds became exalted and
their hearts were made better, is now delivering
course of religious lectures in New York. In the
last number of the Knickerbocker Magazine is The
annexed notice of one of his dscourses; it does no
more than justice 10 his high powers:
When the hymn was concluded Mr. Bascomb
arose. That hrst appeal, which is 10 the eye,' was
greatly in his favor His person has commanding
presence, and as well in this particular as in the
firm, compressed mouth the ample brow, and large,
searching black eye, ne bears very striking resem
blance TO Daniel Webster. The expression of his
counenance was thoughtful and impressive;
deep on his from. engraven,
Deliberation sat, and public care; his look
Drew audience and attention still as night,
Or Summers noontide air.
Naming his text, in voice deep but slightly husky,
he proceeded somewhat tamcly as it appeared to u.s.
although Systematically, TO lay down his premises,
array his arguments, and marshal sproofs. While
we were yet in state Of dubiety whether or no his
audience were not 10 be treated to merely nebulous
disquisition, OF no particular merit, and asking,
mentally, whether Mis could be the man whom Henry
Clay had pronounced the greatest natural orator he
had ever heard when brilliant thought, wreaked
upon eloquent and original expression, unclaimed
our attention. and henceforward to the close Of the
discourse, We wiSt not that we were occupying mar
row spot in the middle OF a crowded aisle cabined
cribbed, confined, bound in'-wh the thermometer
at ninety. When once fully engrossed with his sub
ject Qhc progress and effects OF The Christian faith
and the arguments in favor Of its promulgalidn)
every eye in the congregation was upon the speaker
and each heart beat quicker, as glowing thoughts
dropped from his tongue His smiles are vivid and
striking 10 degree; his impressions of nature and
the comparisons which he draws from her external
aspects, are not minute and in detail They are
upon broad scale taking in whole continents and
seas. Such was the character Of that portion Of his
discourse, wherein he sIake Of the past ages to
whom The great volume of nature was a sealed
book; who saw. no God in the works of his hand;
who could read the starry rythm of the heavens sur
vey the towering mountains, the rivers sweeping 10
the main; who could hear the roar Of the great
ocean, and the far sounding cataract and in all
these no evidence of the Power THAI spake, and they
existed 49,.
He was scarcely less effective in describing the
origin and spread OF the Christian faith. The good
seed have ben sown and for eighteen hundred years
il had, in one way another, been producing fruit.
The germ expanded, and the tree had arisen and
spread, until the nations of the world sat under its
branches Efforts had often been made root il out
and to destroy il. The lgh,nings of persecution
had scahed 1.-THE axe of the wicked had sought to
lop its bowsthe wild boar Of the forest had whetted
its tusk against its timeworn trunkyet STILL in liv-
ing green, ii spreads its inviting arms abroad, every
where overshadowing evil with good. Kingdoms
had arisen, fourished and fallen. The wrecks of
dead empires-the long labors of cmperors and
kings of principaies and powers--had passed
away that deluge-hood OF earthly grandeur ever
rolling onward to the ocean Of eternity-yet still
afar widened the blessings Of Christianity. Like
The beams of the sun, each ray has radated in sepa
rate streams OF light; but they were soon swallowed
up in glad effulgence blessing all upon whom it
fell even as the common light of heaven. These
membranes can afford the reader little save a
faint idea Of the general character of one or Of
his positions and illustrations. The nervous style,
the appropriate gesture the beaming eye, may be
imagined but must be seen 10 be realized The
very hesitation, which our orator occasionally mani
tests in making selection from thoughts which are
pressing for uiterancc is in itself essential feature
treasure the intellectual food rolls on with resist
less force, the greater for having been pent up and
kept back; while the speakers language illustrates
and adorns his thoughts as light, streaming through
coored glass heightens the objects il falls upon