Page images
PDF
EPUB

power possessed by the fortunate, not by the worthy, and more than all we are every moment made to perceive that these over-mighty ones resist with all their strength the just demands of men and the progression of the world. In the other we see a form of government which, however objectionable in theory and disadvantageous in operation, at any rate is calculated to produce, and does produce, and call forth, man's mightiest and best and noblest energies. We behold unrivalled national industry and perseverance; we perceive an estimate of nobility which, although opposed to our long established, and-to tell the truth-prejudiced notions of aristocracy and greatness, is a true and proper view of real superiority-vast national and commercial advantages, unconquerable resolution, and an unslakeable thirst for advancement, combined with an ardent love for liberty of thought and conscience.

And what is the result of this comparison? There can be but one reply-namely, That the sceptre of the world is changing hands by a gradual but still a sure and certain revolution, and is at length to be swayed by the New world over the Old.

CHAPTER XX.

THE ODD MAN SAYS A FEW WORDS ABOUT ORATORY GREECE AND DEMOSTHENES.

IT is frequently said that the infancy of a nation is extremely favourable to the development of Oratory; and, undoubtedly, this is the case. A young state is strong in its new-found strength. It is as it were fresh from savage life, and it brings with it a taste for freedom that will not be quelled. Its intellect is uncultivated, but it is keen, and clear, and far-seeing. Its taste is unrefined, but it is also uncorrupted. Its love for liberty may be lawless, but it is pure and unconquerable. Its energies are rude, but they are mighty.

A young state may be likened to a human being in strong and vigorous youth-who feels the great powers within him, and longs to exercise and employ them. Its ideas and thoughts, like his, are fresh and pleasing. New scenes, new objects, new associations, present themselves. It desires, like him, to grasp and hold the fair visions that rise upon its sight, and it longs, like him, to raise the right arm of its strength, and hew itself a way into the history of the world. It is this strength, this energy, seeking vent in speech, that gives the Oratory of young nations, and of young men, so fervent and eloquent a character. The ideas of the mind-whether of a state or of an individual-will appear in its words; and hence we are enabled to judge of the maturity of the individual, and of the civilization of the state. As the man grows older, his opinions and views are modified and influenced, and softened down. The fierce fire of youthful impetuosity subsides into the less brilliant, but more steady and more enduring, flame of the matured judgment that comes with experience. And so with a state. As it grows more civilized, it becomes less impetuous and eager in its character. It loses some of its activity in its reflection, and it acquires a taste for pursuits of a less bold and energetic nature than suited it in the earlier part of its career.

But if the rise of a nation be favourable to the development of

Oratory, it seems unquestionable to me that the decline of a nation is as much, if not more so.

It is observable in all things that before they die they put forth their best energies, and exhibit their noblest powers; as if to remind us of their value, and as if, whilst they stay to bid us farewell, they gather themselves up to smile upon us to the last. Thus the last ray of the sun is the fairest that he sheds. The last hue of autumn's leaves is the richest that they bear. The last sigh of the spring is the sweetest that she breathes. On the cheek of the dying how often a beautiful flush is spread! On the eye how frequently the brightest spark of the soul is enthroned! On the lip how often the richest carnation is painted! And the mind, when it is on the threshold of its change, how it collects its energies and displays its powers, and exerts its strength; as if, while it stays to linger for a moment upon earth, it girds itself up by a mighty and superhuman effort, for the grand and glorious flight that is before it!

And this putting forth of strength is in nothing so observable as in an expiring state. While subsiding into oblivion it is reacted upon. Its ancient glory returns to its remembrance, its coming cloud casts a shadow before. The fading spark of its energies revives, and is fanned into a blaze. It struggles with tremendous, but alas! unavailing strength against the deathly arms that are open to embrace it, and its last effort, as it sinks into its eternal tomb, is generally the brightest in its history.

Thus it was with Greece! After a glorious career, in which it sowed happiness and liberty for future ages, and other nations, it sank into a state of indolence and apathy, and became an easy prey to its conqueror. But ere it fell it exhibited a noble glimpse of its ancient splendour; and while it showed what had been the amazing extent of its power and glory, it read a lesson of surpassing importance to the nations which were to follow in the history of the world.

Yes! it was when Athens was on the brink of the gulf into which she was doomed to fall, that she more than ever displayed the godlike majesty of her real character, and the impetuous strength of her gigantic power. Her heart swelled with her emotions; she longed to give them utterance; and it was when those words could no longer be restrained, that DEMOSTHENES arose to give them shape and sound. In the speeches of Demosthenes may be heard the last words of Athens; and mighty words they are; living burning words; the solemn and emphatic words of dissolution and decay.

Those mighty words-ah! how much, falling England! might they not teach to thee!

CHAPTER XXI.

THE ODD MAN SPEAKS OF BYRON.

LORD Byron is frequently said to be a selfish Poet. It is affirmed that he drew from himself alone, and had no sympathy with aught out of his own breast. He is often contrasted with Shakspere in this respect. It is said that Shakspere was so universal in his sympathies that he became what he represented, and never exhibited his real self in his writings. Thus we never see Shakspere, but always the cha

racter. The writer was Lear and Hamlet and Othello, because he had the power of sensitively conceiving, and readily becoming identified with, their feelings. Byron, on the other hand, (it is affirmed) had no conception of aught save himself, and drew Childe Harold, Lara, and Conrad, because Harold, Lara, and Conrad were Byron.

Now, the premises of this argument are good, but the conclusion is false. Shakspere became what he drew, Byron drew what he became. Shakspere, therefore, in becoming what he drew, drew from himself as much as Byron did; each wrote what he felt; each felt what he wrote. The charge of exhibiting self, therefore, is as fairly maintainable against Shakspere as against Byron.

The difference between the two writers is this; that Shakspere's sympathies were universal, Byron's only partial. Shakspere could feel and become identified with every kind and degree of feeling and passion; pity, love, hatred, revenge, benevolence, grief, pride, and even madness. Whatever he saw, heard, or felt, he became; and becoming it, he described it. Byron could sympathize with but one order of passion and sentiment-that which is dark, tempestuous, wild and sublime in nature and in soul; and feeling that, he described it-feeling no more, he described no more.

It seems to me a very absurd charge to bring against a writer at all. Unless a man feels what he writes, his writings are worth nothing, and if he does feel what he writes, he must draw from himself.

I wish to Heaven men drew from themselves a little more than they do. If every man were to follow Robert Nicoll's example, and "write their hearts" in their works, there would be a great deal more truth and virtue in the world. Whenever a man writes from his heart he does good. All real feeling is real truth; and truth can never be spoken or written without doing service to the cause of humanity. Truth is the language of the soul, and the more the soul speaks, the more will men become exalted and happy.

Shakspere's soul was the largest soul ever born into the world. That soul spoke-and behold the good it has done! Byron's was a great soul too, and it also spoke! It spoke darkly, but its words. were grand and sublime, and it awoke a thousand slumbering spirits, which are now mightily agitating the long-stagnant pools of human thought.

O! that the eight hundred millions of human souls might each conceive and speak one sentiment of truth! How Old Falsehood's throne would totter!

CHAPTER XXII.

THE ODD MAN DISCOURSETH ON THE AGE.

Ir was very wisely said by an ancient Philosopher, that there is but one Truth in the Universe; and that all differences of opinion and belief arise from viewing that Truth in a different aspect, or from a different elevation. And I warmly cherish the-perhaps somewhat visionary, and it may be unwarranted-belief, that every fresh improvement and discovery tends to the simplification of Truth, and that Perfection will be-UNIVERSAL UNITY.

I think I see the progress of this principle of Universal Union in the features of the present age.

There is at the present moment a fraternizing principle at work, which is gradually, but surely and firmly, extending itself over the whole habitable earth, and including, one by one, the vast family of man in its mighty and majestic embrace. Wherever we turn our eyes, we see it in operation. Wherever we bend our ears we hear its magnificent Voice, and its words are these: "Man has lived long enough in enmity with his kind; in quarrellings; in differences; in hate. It is time he should learn the Great Truth that Union is strength that Contention and Strife are the foes of Happiness and Right. War has been long enough the arbiter of the Human Kind: its desolating course must cease. The Fiat has been pronouncedPeace on Earth; the glorious doctrine has been proclaimed'Goodwill to Man.'" And the voice must spread till it covers the earth as the waters cover the seas, for it is the decree of the Irresistible, and it has for its agents the whole forces and stores of the Universe-matter spirit, and intelligence, moral might and Religious

[ocr errors]

Truth.

We may see the truth at work-First, in the increase of the means of communication. By their rapidity and magnitude, shores and realms that once were hopelessly distant, are now as familiar to the traveller as the spot of his birth. Oceans, forest, deserts, spread themselves before him, but the difficulties they present to him serve only to call forth the full powers of his mind, and he overcomes them all. From hemisphere to hemisphere he passes like the wind-and like the wind, bearing blessings in his train. He finds fellow-beings in the regions to which he goes; ignorant, wild, and barbarous; he teaches he civilizes-he improves them; he tells them of his happiness, his hopes, his Heaven, his God and at length the ignorant and barbarous savage becomes to him a brother and a friend. Nations are thus being brought together and assimilated. The various people of the earth have discovered that they are brethren, the sons of one Great God and Father, and brotherly love and kindness are beginning to prevail.

We may see the operation of this splendid truth in the fact that useless and idle distinctions are being fast broken down. Arbitrary and unnatural superiorities are gradually giving way. The Many are rising and the Few are falling. Contrast the noble and the peasant of a hundred years ago with the noble and the peasant of to-day! How much nearer does the peasant now seem to the nobleman than he did then. In intelligence frequently, perhaps mostly, but little beneath him; in morality-I mean that morality which makes men good subjects, and worthy members of society-more than his equal; in religion positively his superior. Whence the change? There can be but one reply the assimilating principle has been at work, and these are its fruits.

We may see it, too, in passing events. In the growing peacefulness of nations; in the grand inventions of the day; in the world's thirst for knowledge; it is to be seen in all these. It is to be seen

in the passing away of empires. Why does the throne of the Ottoman tremble to its foundations? It is to be seen in the setting up of king

doms. Why is the land of the Pharaohs rising from its threethousand-years'-grave? The answer to these questions is plain. The days of the Mussulman are numbered. His throne and his creed are impediments in the way of enlightenment, and they must fall; and from their ruins, carried to Egypt's sands, a glorious fabric must be reared, a pyramid more stupendous than that land has ever yet possessed; a pile whose foundation is Eternal Truth, and whose Architect is Christianity.

Look to the far East! One cannot trace the events now passing in China, in the Indies, and in the Holy Land, without perceiving in them more than the finger of man. No! for in them may be seen the future subjugation and civilization of those immense but benighted lands, and the accomplishment of that beautiful prophecy which says THERE SHALL BE BUT ONE FOLD AND BUT ONE SHEPHERD. And who will say that this view is not a true and a wise one? Not the man of sense, for his reason must predict the advent of such a period. Not the philosopher, for his wisdom assures him of a magnificent consummation; not the man of religion, for his soul and his belief must tell him that the day of perfect light has dawned, and that the sun is mounting in the Heavens.

The principle is asserted, too, in the evidently increasing assimilation of classes, and sects, and creeds. Individual opinion is becoming more tolerant than of yore, and men are more inclined than they were to listen to, and respect, and consider the opposition and the opponents that they meet. The champions of the different systems of Philosophy and Politics are beginning to merge their differences, and to amalgamate their doctrines, for they find that they have been wrong in giving up to party what was meant for mankind, and that they can better promote truth by united efforts than by strife and opposition. The true syncretic principle is at work, consolidating hitherto diffused strength, and gathering together the powers and forces of the world, till now distributed and separate.

And the triumphant progress of this principle is to be observed, more than in any thing else, in matters of Faith and Religion. Those who look upon the aspect of the world in this respect, cannot fail to be struck with wonder at the great change now silently but surely progressing. It is remarkably evident that men are gradually getting rid of the asperities and harshnesses and uncharitablenesses which used at one time to be so gloried in. Persecution for religious opinion is now-thanks be to the Great Peace-maker-getting somewhat rare. Religion is felt to be more a matter of heart than of profession; a thing to be judged of by God, and not by man. Creeds are gradually growing nearer to one another; different sects and bodies of religionists coalesce and unite; and charity and liberality of sentiment are taking the places of prejudice and pride. This might be illustrated at length by what is taking place in many parts of the world around us, were the present a fit occasion, but it is not; and we must, therefore, content ourselves with reposing on the belief that seeds are sown in the earth, which one day-and that if appearances are to be weighed, not a very distant one-cannot fail to produce an abundant harvest of happiness and peace.

Universality is unquestionably the great feature of the age in which

« ՆախորդըՇարունակել »