New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1859-12-26
The Power OF Words.

word is the body of a thought and the very
| common mistake of not looking beyond the mere
/ EXTERNAL is made as often here as elsewhere 1t
leads men, and sensible men, too, who happen not
10 pc wise upon this point, to refer to mere pow
er Oh words, effects and influences which belong to
the thought within. 1t is such a mistake as that
which should attribute to mans muscles the tri-
umpn winch ne had won by his mind, or to the
excellent material and form of his cIothing-work
which only the strong frame within could do,
There are triumphs which muscles alone can win !;
there is charm which dress alone may possess.
But the triumphs are not those which men. men
with souls as we'll as bodies, should estimate yery
highly; and the charm of dress is one which is not
usually valued greatly by those whose high estima
ton IS very desirable. And yet it is surprising how
constantly the mistake OF referring to words Alone
TO the mere power of utterance, work and sue
cess which are due to faculties of which those
words are but the instruments, is made by sensi
BILE men.
In the life of George Stevenson, the engineer. a
man Of very remarkable ability, / recently met
with this anecdote: AT a dinner party at Sir Robert
Peers, whom he was visiting, with a large COM
pany, ne engaged in controversy with DR.. Buck
land upon some question of geology, and the DR..
fell in with Sir William Follett, then the leading
lawyer of England, and complained to him of his
de eat. !" It Is too bad y said he, for l know
was ght s and # had only Backands power of
amused himself with mastering the points and
principles of the question, and the next day at
Gunner TIE subject was again brought up, and Fol
lett joined in the conversation and very speedily
and effectually baftied and silenced Buckland.
-, what do you say to that, Mr.. Stevenson" said
Sir Robert Peel. 'Why," said he, 81 will only
say this, that Of all the powers above and under
tle earth, tnere seems to me no power SO great as
the gift of the gab
by this somewhat coarse expression, Stevenson
simply meant the gift of words the power of ut
terance. But was it the gift of speech which en-
abied the lawyer to look through the msts of their
VIII
right and could be defended? Or was it in the
clear and trained intellect, and the prompt and
perfect logic, which gave Follett the power of pen
etratng to the very heart of the question, and of
keeping his opponent to the exact point at ISSUE
and of compelling him to abandon sophstries and
side issues, and when lie had been driven to his in
most citadel of forcing him to surrender that as
utterly untenable. And yet, not Stevenson only,
but very possibly every man at the table, as they
enjoyed this gladiatorial amusement of the great
lawyer, looked upon it as mere victory of words.
have related this anecdote because it seems to
me 10 Illustrate perfectly very common mistake i
IN relation to Mr. Choate. His victories, too were
sometimes regarded as victories of words.
cannot but regard word-painting as among the
fine arts, and as standing very high among them,
word, gentlemen, is it not the instrument of mind
as much as the pencil the chisel? Will it not
present to the minds eye the beauty of thought
ana feeling nay, all that human heart can offer
to another of majestic truth, of tenderness, of
strength, OF purity of grace? An anecdote, which
mas come down to us from the land and the age
OF Phdias imports that the sculptor finds his statue
IN the marble, and that it is his work to berate it
from the stone. Not so the canvas and the mar.
Die only present. transferred to their natural sub.
stance, the lines the hues and forms which must |
first exist in the mind of the artist 1t is his first
work to bid them live definitely and completely in
ms Inauguration 1t is his second workto bring them
from Within without, and invest them for the EN-.
ployment and the instruction of others in the per
manent material he employs.