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PRACTICE

ON

PART II. OF THE SECOND DIVISION.

EXTRACT FROM A SPEECH OF THE HON. HENRY CLAY, ON THE EMANCIPATION OF SOUTH AMERICA.

THUS, upon the ground of strict right, upon the footing of a mere legal question governed by forensic rules, the Colonies, being absolved by the acts of the parent country from the duty of subjection to it, had an indisputable right to set up for themselves.

But, sir, I take a broader and a bolder position. I maintain that an oppressed people are authorized, whenever they can, to rise and break their fetters. This was the great principle of the English revolution; it was the great principle of our own. We must pass sentence of condemnation upon the founders of our liberty-say that they were rebels, traitors-and that we are, this moment, legislating without competent powers, before we can condemn the cause of Spanish America. Our revolution was mainly directed against the mere theory of tyranny. Our intrepid and intelligent fathers saw, in the usurpation of the

power to levy an inconsiderable tax, the long train of oppressive acts that were to follow. They rose-they breasted the storm-they achieved our freedom! Spanish America, for centuries, has been doomed to the practical effects of an odious tyranny. If we were justified, she is more than justified.

I am no propagandist. I would not seek to force upon other nations our principles and our liberty, if they do not want them. I would not disturb the repose even of a detestable despotism. But if an abused and oppressed people will their freedom; if they seek to establish it; if, in truth, they have established it, we have a right, as a sovereign power, to notice the fact, and to act as circumstances and our interest require. I will say, in the language of the venerated father of my country, "Born in a land of liberty, my anxious recollections, my sympathetic feelings, and my best wishes, are irresistibly excited, whensoever, in any country, I see an oppressed nation unfurl the banners of freedom." Whenever I think of Spanish America, the image irresistibly forces itself upon my mind of an elder brother whose education has been neglected, whose person has been abused and maltreated, and who has been disinherited by the unkindness of an unnatural parent. And when I contemplate the glorious struggle which that country is now making, I think I behold that brother rising by the power and energy of his fine native genius to the manly rank which nature and nature's God intended for him.

THE MATERIAL AND SPIRITUAL IN POETRY.

Or all the poets who have introduced into their works the agency of supernatural beings, Milton has succeeded best. Here Dante decidedly yields to him. And, as this is a point on which many rash and illconsidered judgments have been pronounced, we feel inclined to dwell on it a little longer. The most fatal error which a poet can possibly commit in the management of his machinery, is that of attempting to philosophize too much. Milton has been often censured for ascribing to spirits many functions of which spirits must be incapable. But these objections, though sanctioned by eminent names, originate (we venture to say) in profound ignorance of the art of poetry. What is spirit? What are our own minds-the portion of spirit with which we are best acquainted? We observe certain phenomena. We cannot explain them into material causes: we, therefore, infer that there exists something which is not material. But of this something we have no idea. We can define it only by negatives. We can reason about it only by symbols. We use the word, but we have no image of the thing: and the business of poetry is with images, and not with words. The poet uses words, indeed; but they are merely instruments of his art, not its objects. They are the materials which he is to dispose in such a manner as to present a picture to the mental eye. And if they are not so disposed, they are no more en

titled to be called poetry, than a bale of canvas and a box of colors are to be called a painting.

Logicians may reason about abstractions, but the great mass of mankind can never feel an interest in them. They must have images. The strong tendency of the multitude, in all ages and nations, to idolatry, can be explained on no other principle. The first inhabitants of Greece, there is every reason to believe, worshipped an invisible Deity. But the necessity of having something more definite to adore, produced, in a few centuries, the innumerable crowd of gods and goddesses. The history of the Jews is the record of a continual struggle between pure Theism, supported by the most terrible sanctions, and the strangely fascinating desire of having some visible and tangible object of adoration. Perhaps none of the secondary causes which Gibbon has assigned for the rapidity with which Christianity spread over the worldwhile Judaism scarcely ever acquired a proselyteoperated more powerfully than this feeling. God, the uncreated, the incomprehensible, the invisible, attracted few worshippers. A philosopher might admire so noble a conception; but the crowd turned away in disgust from words which presented no image to their minds. It was before Deity, embodied in a human form, walking among men, partaking of their infirmities, leaning on their bosoms, weeping over their graves, slumbering in the manger, bleeding on the Cross, that the prejudices of the synagogue, and the doubts of the academy, and the pride of the portico, and the fasces of the lictor, and the swords of thirty

legions, were humbled in the dust!* Soon after Christianity had achieved its triumph, the principles which had assisted it began to corrupt. It became a new Paganism. Patron saints assumed the offices of household gods. St. George took the place of Mars. St. Elmo consoled the mariner for the loss of Castor and Pollux. The Virgin Mother and Cecilia succeeded to Venus and the Muses. The fascination of sex and loveliness was again joined to that of celestial dignity; and the homage of chivalry was blended with that of religion. Reformers have often made a stand against these feelings; but never with more than apparent and partial success. The men who demolished the images in cathedrals have not always been able to demolish those which were enshrined in their minds. It would not be difficult to show that in politics the same rule holds good. Doctrines, we are afraid, must be embodied before they can excite strong public feeling. The multitude is more easily interest

* The members of the compound series contained in this sentence, should be thus classified and inflected:

It was before Deity, embodied in a human form walking among men partaking of their infirmities leaning on their bosoms weeping over their graves slumbering in the manger bleeding on the crossand the doubts of the

that the prejudices of the synagogue academy and the pride of the portico

lictor and the swords of thirty legions dust.

and the fasces of the were humbled in the

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