were. But we reckoned without our host. Mr. Webster stepped forward. His great eyes looked, as I shall always think, straight at me. I pulled off my hat. James pulled off his. We both became as cold as ice, and as respectful as Indian coolies. I saw James turn pale. He said I was livid. And when that great creature began that most beautiful exordium, our scorn turned to deepest admiration-from abject contempt, to belief and approbation."

ROMAN MATRONS.

Speaking one day, of the early Romans, Mr. Webster said that he could almost believe everything related by historians of their extraordinary virtues, public and domestic, when he dwelt upon the fact that though their laws authorized divorce, yet for the first five hundred years, no individual ever availed himself of such a license. "It was the domestic training" he said; "It was the mothers who made a Publicola, a Camillus, and CoriolaWomen protected by the inviolability of the nuptial bond, were invested with a dignity that gave authority to instruction, and made the domestic hearth the nursery of heroes.

nus.

"Public virtue," he said, "fell with private morality. Under imperial Rome, divorces were sought for, and obtained under the most frivolous pretexts, and all domestic confidence was destroyed. The inevitable consequence was the loss of all public morality. Men who had been false to their private obligations, would not be true to their public duties; Cæsar divorced his wife, and betrayed

his country. The sanctity of the nuptial bond, is, in my opinion, one of the principal, if not the chief cause of the superior refinement, freedom, and prosperity enjoyed at the present time by Christian nations."

LITERARY STYLE.

In reply to the question concerning the formation of his literary style, Daniel Webster answered: "When I was a young man, a student in college, I delivered a Fourth of July oration. My friends thought so well of it that they requested a copy of it for the press.

"It was printed, and Joseph Dennie, a writer of great reputation at that time, wrote a review of it. He praised parts of the oration as vigorous and eloquent; but other parts, he criticised severely and said that they were mere emptiness.

"I thought his criticism was just, and I resolved that whatever else should be said of my style, from that time forth, there would be no emptiness in it.

"I read such English authors as fell in my way-particularly Addison, with great care. Besides I remembered that I had to earn my bread by addressing the understanding of common men-by convincing juries, and that I must use language perfectly intelligible to them. You will find therefore, in my speeches to juries, no hard words, no Latin phrase.

"I early felt the importance of thought. I have rewritten sentence after sentence and pondered long upon each alteration. For depend upon it, it is with our thoughts as with our persons-their intrinsic value is mostly undervalued unless expressed in attractive garb.

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"Longinus tells us that the most sublime passage to be found in any language is this: 'And God said, Let there be light and there was light'-the greatest effort of power in the tersest and fewest words-the command and the record, one exertion of thought. So should we all aim to express things in words."

Again he says: "From the time that at my mother's feet, or on my father's knees I first learned to lisp verses from the Sacred Writings, they have been my daily study and vigilant contemplation.

"If there be anything in my style or thoughts worthy to be commended, the credit is due to my parents, for instilling into my mind an early love for the scriptures."

FAVORITE STUDIES.

Mr. Webster was fond of some of the Latin authors, and one day he read to his friend Professor Felton several pages from Cicero's De Natura Deorum. He chose that portion of the dialogue in which one of the speakers discourses most eloquently on the Divine Being, and in refutation of the Epicurean philosophy.

"The deep feeling, and the earnest tone," writes Felton, "with which he read the harmonious Latin sentences of the great Roman gave the fullest meaning to these immortal speculations; and recommending the passage to the careful study of his guest, he closed the volume and retired."

In subsequent conversation, Mr. Webster spoke of his love of science, and the attention he had bestowed upon it, in the fragments of time snatched from other and more absorbing pursuits.

ological regions.

His knowledge of geology was quite extensive, and he had studied the principal works on this subject in connection with trips which were made through interesting geHe had also employed a competent scholar to make a collection of specimens for him, arranging them on the shelves in the order of the successive layers of the crust of the earth, in order that while studying in his library, he might see before him the arrangement of Nature.

Among the books which occupied his thoughts largely during the last year of his life, Humboldt's "Cosmos" held a prominent place. He had read it through, carefully noting its contents. He quoted passages from it, with expressions of admiration for their scientific precision and poetic beauty. His general remarks upon the plan and details of the work, showed that he fully appreciated it.

He spoke with regret of the fact that he had so seldom enjoyed for any length of time, the society of scientific and literary men. "I have kept very bad company," he laughingly said, "I have lived among lawyers, and judges, jurymen and politicians, when I should have lived with Nature and in company with students of Nature."

FORGIVENESS.

Mr. Webster's secretary, G. J. Abbott, while with him. at Marshfield during his last illness, writes to a friend under date of September 12, of a stormy Sunday in the great house.

"This day has been stormy, and we did not go to church. This morning, when Mr. and Mrs. Webster,