citizens, touching; and the solemnity with which it urges the observance of moral duties, and impresses the power of religious obligation, gives to it the highest character of truly disinterested, sincere, parental advice."

The following topical analysis will show the nature and object of the address:

WASHINGTON'S FAREWELL ADDRESS

SUBJECT: THE WELFARE OF THE COUNTRY

I. Retirement from office.

1. Resolution not to be a candidate for reëlection.
2. Resolution compatible with duty and gratitude.

3. Step, desired four years before, prevented by critical
condition of affairs.

4. Determination to retire not now prevented by external or internal concerns.

5. Retirement favored by personal considerations.

6. Gratitude to the country for its support and prayer for its welfare.

II. Scope of the address.

1. Sentiments offered for the country's review.

2. Recommendation of love of liberty unnecessary.

III. The unity of government.

1. Immense value of the national union

2. Every inducement of sympathy leading to union.
3. Interest a more weighty consideration.

4. The North, South, East, and West dependent upor.
each other's productions and resources.

5. The strength of union preventing rivalling wars and military establishments.

6. Continuance of union demanded without fear of ex

cessive size.

IV. Dangers to the union.

1. Sectional misrepresentation an expedient of party.
2. Alliances no substitute for established government.
3. Obstruction to the execution of laws a work of fatal

tendency.

4. Associations directed by unprincipled men subversive of popular power.

5. The spirit of innovation on the principles of govern

ment.

V. The spirit of party.

1. Party spirit baneful.

2. Party spirit natural and rankest in popular govern

ment.

3. The frightful despotism of party.

4. The restraint of party spirit.

5. Public administration enfeebled by party.

6. Spirit of liberty carried too far by party spirit.

VI. Elements of strength and security.

1. No encroachment of one department of government upon another.

2. Religion and morality indispensable supports.

3. No indifference to attempts to shake them.
4. Importance of general diffusion of knowledge.
5. The cherishing of public credit.

VII. The treatment of foreign nations.

1. Good faith and justice toward all nations.

2. Inveterate antipathies or passionate attachments for nations excluded. The result of antipathy.

3. The evils of a passionate attachment for another nation.

4. Such attachment alarming to independence.

5. Foreign influence a foe of republican government. 6. Little political connection in commercial relations. 7. Europe's primary interests not ours.

8. The independence of our distant situation.

9. No object in interweaving our destiny with Europe. 10. No permanent alliance with any portion of the foreign world.

11. Trust in temporary alliances for emergencies.

12. Liberal intercourse with all nations.

VIII. Personal hope and action.

1. Hope that these counsels may be of benefit.

2. Administration guided by these principles.

3. Plan during the subsisting war in Europe.
4. Duty of neutral position.

5. Right of position admitted by Powers.

6. Neutral conduct obligated by duty of peace and

amity.

7. The inducement of interest.

IX. Parting words.

1. Desire that the unintentional errors of administration

be forgotten.

2. Pleasing expectation of remaining years under a free government.

VII

THE FIRST BUNKER HILL ORATION

THIS is a work of art, a great masterpiece of literature. As to know the Sistine Madonna one must stand before that matchless work of Raphael and look and look until the divine faces become fastened in his soul forever, so one must read and reread with sympathetic voice this oration, the greatest long occasional address of all time, if he would really appreciate it. But after all, the art of the orator is the most evanescent of all the arts. The work of the painter remains as it came from his brush, except as the hand of time changes it. The great dramatic poet writes his immortal thoughts for the actor, and a new actor may arise who can interpret them with greater power than they were ever grasped before. The occasion, the audience, the personality of the orator, all make the eloquence, and they cannot be reproduced. Yet with the help of the imagination

their place can be somewhat supplied, and the work can be made real again.

After careful study has brought before the mind the man, the time, the place, and the occasion of this oration, and the oration has been read under their light, its naturalness and spontaneity will be apparent at once. The vast audience, the laying of the cornerstone of a wonderful structure, the spot hallowed by the dead, the presence of the aged heroes and La fayette, the fateful battle fought on the hill, -al naturally claim recognition, and in felicitous phrase the recognition is given. But that is not enough; some noble thought suggested by the event commemorated, that vies in loftiness of sentiment with the glory of the battle, is needed to satisfy the expectation of the occasion. Thus a natural unity is given to the address. With wonderful skill the parts are made to glide into each other in a natural way, but still so as to bring a pleasing variety. While occasional addresses allow greater freedom in subject than argumentative orations from the nature of their purpose, this oration excels in its well-defined unity.

Since this oration is a masterpiece, it would be well, instead of judging Webster's style by rules of rhetoric and composition, to learn from a