Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1852-1859, 1859-10-07
cnoATE's woRp.PA1NrINa.

VIZ 1tUsl VI SetecUnS from some classic author
passage OF peculiar fDrce aud beauty. and
translating it into English in the most nerG.ct
nanner. He would return day after flay to the
same passage, and never leave it until he had
exhausted the resources of the language in
giving to the sentence eXactncSs, strength aud
elegance have been told that there were GER
tam writers whom he often read. or. rather Stus
died, as hiS.maSterS Of speech. Jeremy Faylor
was one. of these; and have often thought that
ne reSetnhled and perhaps cqnaed Taylor in
the Sptcndor, the iucXlIaustiblc variety, aud
pie etnreSque beauty of his dirtinn And he re-,
Sembled him also in sometimes yielding to his
love Tor word painting, until one oC his long
sentences, with its accumulation Of epithets, it's
involved phrases and its crowd Of beautiful
" MordS and images reSembIed not so much
finished picture, as the palette OF the artist rich
anu glowing with hneS of every tone, laid each
IN ITS place as the artist knows, but seeming to
he there only where accident placed them
THE POWER OF WORDS.
a word is the body ofa thought and the very
common mistake Of not looking beyond the mere
external, is made as often here As elsewhere
II leads mcn, and sensible men too, whu happen
not To hc wise upon this point, tn refer to a
mere power of words, effects and influence
which belong to- the Thought within. ItiS such
81 mistake that which Shonl,l attribute tD
mans muscles the triumph which he had won
by his mind, or to the excellent material aud
HA vi VI hI>=SAuAIlllISS M'lTh WHlSu OHif llt
strong frame within could do. There are Lii-
umphS which muscles alone can win, there is a
charm winch dress alone utav possess. But the
triumphS aIe not those which men, men with
souls as wcll as bodies, should estimate very
highly; and the charm OF dress is one which is
not usually valued greatly by those whose high
estimation is very desirable. And yet it is sur.
prising how constantly the mistake of referring
to words alone, to the me,e power Of utterancc,
n work and u success which are due to faculties
of which these words are but the instruments.
Is made by sensible men.
Ia the life of George Stevenson the engineer,
man Of very remarkable ability, | recently met
with this .anecdotc: Al a dinuer party ut Sir
Robert PeelS, whom lie was visiting with
large company, hr engaged in controversy
with DIR. Buckand upon Sume question Of geul-
0gy, and the Doctor Silcncc,l him soon and
easily. After the dinner he fell in with Sir
William Fuliett then the leading lawyer of
England, and complained tn him of his defeat
ut is too bad, u said he FOR know Iswas right
and il had only Buckand's power of words,
should have made ii appear" Follett amused
hUnsetF with mastering theDoints aud principles
oi the question: and the next day at dinner, the
subject was again brought up, and Foilelt joined
IN The conversation, and very speedily and cf>
fcctual'y bafiied aud Silenced Buckland. what
d" you say TO that, Mr.. Stevenson!" said Sir,
Robert Peel "Why," said he. "i will say only
this, that Of all the powers above and under the
earth, there seems to me no power so great as
the gift of tie gah."
BY this somewhat coarse expression, Steven
son simply meant the gift OF words: the power
of utterance. but was it the gift of sneech
which enabled The lawy r to unk through the
mStS of their loose talk aud see plainly where
Stevenson was right and could be defendet?.-
Or was it the clear and trained intellect and the
prompt and perfect logic, which gave Fnllettthe
power Of penetrating to the very henrt of the
n ion uTOfl Mt l-unT,
eXact point at issue, and of compelling him to
abandon sophiStrieS and side issues and when
lie had been driven TO his inmOSt citadel of fnr-
cling him to surrender that as utterly uutenahlc
And yet, not Stevenson only, but very possible
every man at the table, as they enjoyed this
g!adiatoriai amusement of the great lawyer
looked upon it rs mere victory Of words
have related this anecdote becanse it seems to
me to illustrate perfectly very common uis-
take in relation to Mr.. Choate. His victories,
too. were sometimes regarded as victories of
words.
cannot but regard word painting MS among
the fine arts and as standing vary high among
them. word, gentlemen, is it not the nslru.
ment of mind as much as the pencil or the CHS
el? Is it not its instrument for us high pnr<
pose? Will it not present to the minds eye the
beauty of thought and feeling, nay, all that one
human soul can offer to another of n1ieslic
truth, of tenderness, of strength, of purity of
grace: An anecdote which has come down. to
us from the land and the age of Phidias, i'm
ports that the sculptor finds his statue in the
marble, and thntis his work to liberatrit from
the stone. Not so. The canvass and the mar
he only present, transferred to their natural
substance, the lines the hueS aud forms which
must first existin the mind of the artist II is
his first work to bid them live definitely and
completely inhiS imagination. 1t is his second
work to bring them from within, without, and
invest them for the employment aud the in