Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1849-10-11

llllit Oh space and time, formed the theme
OF The great orators impassloned conclu-
sion
These were the topics upon which Mr..
Webster had come prepared to express him
sell; but he was once or twice again upon
his feet, during the evening, and, in taking
his leave he made parting address that
was OF different tenor aud meditation. 49,
Unable, from illness, to join III the convv-
lality ol the evening, he was, possibly, sad
dencd 10y mirh with which his spirits
could not keep pace; aud, at the same
time, surrounded by those who had met
there from love to him, and whose pride and
IDOL he had always been, his kindest and
warmest feelings we're uppermost, and his
heart alone was in what lie had to say. His
aitectlonate attachment to New England
was the leading sentiment, but, through his
illusions To his own advancing aye aud
present illness, there was recognizable a
wish to say what he might wish to have
SAID, should he never again be surrounded
and listened to- 1t was the most brilliant
example of manly and restrained pahos, it
seemed to me, of which language and looks
could be capable. No one who heard it
could doubt the existence of deep well of
tears under that lofty temple of intellect and
power
Sickness, like low tide, shows the true
depths aud shadows of the harbor of en-
preston i'll face, and | looked long and
earnestly at the noble invalid, both as he
sat and as he spoke, to see, if possible,
where his tide-channels lay, and where his
ever-buoyant greatness had, at least, come
nearest to running aground. He was real
ly ill-much thinner than had ever seen
him, and SO debllltated, that, i'll his least
emphatic sentences, the more difficult words
failed of complete utterance. Without col
or, without the excitement of high spirits,
fallen away in flesh and, evidently, com
petely unconscious of the observation of
those around, he was there without the ad.
vantages of an ordinary public appearance
himself, aud at the ebb. Sombre as the
lines are, unlighted with health or impulse
the eyes so cayernous and dark, the eye
lids so livid, eyebrows so heavy and black,
aud the features SO habItualy grave-it is
face of strong affections, genial, and for
eign to all unkindness. There is not a
trace IN it where "A pettiness or Il peevisll-
ness could lodge and no means in its sal
low muscles for the expression of an intel
lcctual littleness or perverslon. 1t is all
broad-al maies,ic-all expansive and GEM
erous. The darkness in it is the shadow of
a Salvador Rosa, a helghtening of grandeur
without injury to the clearness. 1t is easy
to imagine, looking at his ponderous fore
head alone, how Webster might have been
Unbalanced with n lit:le difference of na-
tnre. Less physically powerful, or with less
strong sensuous affections, he might have
been an intellectual man, without a states
mans dcep-plowng propulsion, or without
a practical mans appreciation of the COM
mon-pIace, and consistency of everyday pur-
pose--he might have been great poet, in
short, with iniirmitlcs enough to have made
good biography. With less intellect, on
the contrary, the powerful animal that he is
wouo have developed, perhaps, IN antagou-
Ism ana passionate violence, aud we might
have had ,mob'swaying politician, blind
with headlong impulses and intoxicated
with his power 1t Is IN this consistent and
proporlonate endowment, that his greatness
lies. lis physical superiority, and his no
bic disposition, nj his grand face, IN the
subsidized lines OF Illness, tells truly to my
readlng) are IN Just balance with his mind,
ana keep Its path broad and It's policy open.
1t is the great m'nd with the small heart
which makes dwindlIng and illiberal old
age. Webster --lncapable of the forecast
harrowness which makes the scope OF char
acter converge when meridian ambition and
occupation I'LL 1t no longer-will walk the
broadening pain that mas been divergent ana
hberaiizIng from his childhood to the pres
ent hour, I'll he steps from It's expanding
lines INTO his grave
In my previous visit to Plymouth, graf
lied my admlring curiosity by "A drive to
Of y;s;,nn .co"s;",a mU "a' WI, ,ho o "u rna,