Gallipolis journal. [volume] (Gallipolis, Ohio) 1837-1919, 1855-06-28
From the Presbyterian Quarterly for June.

From the Presbyterian Quarterly for June.l ]
TIE CHARACTER OF Glars ELo-
oUEScE.--Itwas our good fortune to hear
the peroration of Henry Clay's great
speech on the removal of the deposits.
He was Western man, of this Western
hemisphere; a kind of incarnation of
American genius, self-taught; with lit
tie cultivation of any kind from books,
like one of the magnificent trees of his
own Kentucky, an outgrowth of nature.
If we had not heard him, we feel quite
sure that we should have gone to the
grave without the knowledge ofthe anna
sing superiority of spoken words over
the silent eloquence of the printed page.
We never before knew the meaning of
the word orGtory. There was not syl-
liable of rant, there was not one tone of
vociferation. Our readers, who never
heard Mr.. Clay, will hardly believe us
when we say that, in the very tempest,
torrent, and whirlwind of his passion,
he spoke slolcly. deli5erately--every stone
about the weight of talent. We will
tell the reader Of our fancy, not quite
sure that he will understand it; it put US
in mind of the trained horses Of Apollo.
who drew the chariot of the Sun. The
chariot was of the richest and most bril-
liant workmanship, the harness of divine
fabric, and the steeds were demi-gods.
The inconceivable strength and veloci-
ty was perfectly even, and musical
balance; they kept pace to an inch, and
every trace was of precisely the same
traction, and never overstrained. Mr.
Clay's tone, when it sunk nearly to a
whisper, was distinctly audible as a
distant running water at midnight, and
his out pouring of denunciation was slow
and steady as the tread of Nemesis
Every syllable, we had almost said ey-
cry letter, was distinctly audible, and as
musical as the fall of water in a marble
fountain; the very lightning that scathed
TO the bone, eurled first beautifully |
around his arm, like that of Phidian |
Jove, and was launched, as by stealth,
but with a deliberation that would ex-
ceed belief. His language had, by the
instinct of wonderful genius, clas-
sic polish, which is usually only learned |
by slow and sedulous cultivation; there
was indeed no richness of quota
ton or allusion, no bubeling up from
concealed fountains of learning, no faint
oders of the flowers long ere while
plucked in the haunts Of MUSES., but, in
stead of kind of creative power, as one
who had interviewer in his nature
and escence, all that he could have
learned of the force of language if he
had studied, as of one who had been
to the penetralia of the temple, and did
not need to hearken to its priests. The
result was, not like Webster, or Burke,
or Cicero, but it sras like Chattam, and
still more like the oration for the Crown,
and the traditions we have of Demos
themes.
Our conclusion is, that if, in the
greatest of orators, consummate genius
led not to wildness or eccentricity, not to
dislocation or vociferation, nor to any
thing rough or inelegant, but to ma
tive beauty, a balanced symmetry,
yelled glory. and sublimity which yet
had in it noble simplicity, that We, who
have not his wonderous gifts, must seek
by cultivation what he possessed as his
birth-right; and if he did not think it
well or wise to throw himself out Of har-
nony with nature or the great model
lrt which have Appropriated nature
most nearly, it is scarcely becoming
n us to act differently. If the master
Iept within tempered bounds. might not
his alone be well for the scholar?