of his colloquial powers, I do not mean to awaken any notion analogous to that which Boswell has given us, when he so frequently mentions the colloquial powers of Dr. Johnson. The conversation of the latter continually reminds one of " the pomp and circumstance of glorious war." It was, indeed, a perpetual contest for victory, or an arbitrary and despotic exaction of homage to his superior talents. It was strong, acute, prompt, splendid and vociferous, as loud, stormy, and sublime, as those winds which he represents as shaking the Hebrides, and rocking the old castles that frowned upon the dark rolling sea beneath. But one gets tired of storms, however sublime they may be, and longs for the more orderly current of nature. Of Franklin no one ever became tired. There was no ambition of eloquence, no effort to shine, in any thing which came from him. There was nothing which made any demand either upon your allegiance or your admiration.

His manner was as unaffected as infancy. It was nature's self. He talked like an old patriarch; and his plainness and simplicity put you, at once, at your ease, and gave you the full and free possession and use of all your faculties.

His thoughts were of a character to shine by their own light, without any adventitious aid. They required only a medium of vision like his pure and simple style, to exhibit, to the highest advantage, their native radiance and beauty. His cheerfulness was unremitting. It seemed to be as much the effect of the systematic and salutary exercise of the mind as of its superior organization. His wit was of the first order. It did not show itself merely in occasional coruscations; but, without any effort or force on his part, it shed a constant stream of the purest light over the whole of his discourse. Whether in the company of commons or nobles, he was always the same plain man; always most perfectly at his case, his faculties in full play, and the full orbit of his genius forever clear and unclouded. And then the stores of his mind were inexhaustible. He had com. menced life with an attention so vigilant, that nothing had escaped his observation, and a judgment so solid, that every incident was turned to advantage. His youth had not been wasted in idleness, nor overcast by intemperance. He had been all his life a close and deep reader, as well as thinker; and, by the force of his own powers, had wrought up the raw materials, which he had gathered from books, with such exquisite skill and felicity, that he had added a hundred fold to their original value, and justly made them his own. -WIRT.

CHARACTER OF CHIEF JUSTICE MARSHALL.

This extraordinary man, without the aid of fancy, without the advantages of person, voice, attitude, gesture, or any of the ornaments of an orator, deserves to be considered as one of the most eloquent men in the world; if eloquence may be said to consist in the power of seizing the attention with irresistible force, and never permitting it to elude the grasp until the hearer has received the conviction which the speaker intends.

His voice is dry and hard; his attitude, in his most effective orations, was often extremely awkward, as it was not unusual for him to stand with his left foot in advance; while all his gesture proceeded from his right arm, and consisted merely in a vehement, perpendicular swing of it, from about the elevation of his head to the bar, behind which he was accustomed to stand.

As to fancy, if she hold a seat in his mind at all, which I very much doubt, his gigantic genius tramples with disdain on all her flower-decked plats and blooming parterres. How, then, you will ask, with a look of incredulous curiosity, how is it possible that such a man can hold the attention of an audience enchained through a speech of even ordinary length? I will tell you.

He possesses one original, and almost supernatural faculty, the faculty of developing a subject by a single glance of his mind, and detecting at once the very point on which every controversy depends. No matter what the question though ten times more knotty than "the gnarled oak," the lightning of heaven is not more rapid nor more resistless than his astonishing penetration. Nor does the exercise of it seem to cost him an effort. On the contrary, it is as easy as vision. I am persuaded that his eyes do not fly over a landscape, and take in its various objects with more promptitude and facility, than his mind embraces and analyzes the most complex subject.

Possessing while at the bar this intellectual elevation, which enabled him to look down and comprehend the whole ground at once, he determined, immediately, and without difficulty, on which side the question might be most advantageously approached and assailed. In a bad cause, his art consisted in laying his premises so remotely from the point directly in debate, or else in terms so general and specious, that the hearer, seeing no consequence which could be drawn from them, was just as willing to admit them as not; but, his premises once admitted, the demonstration, however distant, followed as certainly, as cogently, and as ine. vitably, as any demonstration of Euclid."

All his eloquence consists in the apparently deep self-conviction and emphatic earnestness of his manner; the cor respondent simplicity and energy of his style; the close and logical connexion of his thoughts; and the easy gradations by which he opens his lights on the attentive minds of his hearers.

The audience are never permitted to pause for a moment. There is no stopping to weave garlands of flowers to be hung in festoons around a favourite argument. On the contrary, every sentence is progressive; every idea sheds new light on the subject; the listener is kept perpetually in that sweetly pleasurable vibration, with which the mind of man always receives new truths; the dawn advances in easy but unremitting pace; the subject opens gradually on the view; until, rising in high relief in all its native colours and proportions, the argument is consummated by the conviction of the delighted hearer.-WIRT.

Rule 11. History is a successive and connected account of the events which have affected particular nations or people. Such are, the history of England; the history of the Jews, &c.

Rule 12.-The substance of history is termed chronology, which is merely a list of the events which have occurred to any nation or people, with the dates when each of those events happened.

The limits of this work do not admit examples of this branch of composition. It is mentioned here, in order to complete an arrangement which includes every species of writing. But, in order to assist the pupil in the habits of understanding, discriminating, and retaining, what he reads or hears of history; let him adhere to the following precepts: Rule 13.. - Observe the geographical situation of the country where the events took place; its latitude and longitude, climate, the countries adjoining, &c.

F

Rule 14.- Ascertain the chronology of the events; and observe what was passing at the same time in the countries with which that one under consideration had intercourse.

Rule 15.-Remark what the religion of the people is, and its particular ceremonies.

Rule 16.-Observe what the government is: whether monarchical (consisting of one person, as a king); aristocratical (consisting of several persons, as nobles, who enjoy the dignity by descent); democratical (consisting of persons chosen by the people, as in the United States); mixed (consisting of these together, as that of Great Britain); ecclesiastical (consisting of priests, or those appointed by ministers of religion); or military (consisting of persons appointed or supported by the army).

OF THE DESCRIPTIVE

Rule 17.-A description is a detail of the particular circumstances, by which persons, places, and objects are distinguished from the rest of their species.

In the following examples, the distinguished circumstances are printed in italics.

Rule 18.-The description of a person sometimes refers only to the figure and countenance.

PERSON OF PATRICK HENRY.

He was nearly six feet high; spare, and what may be called raw-boned, with a slight stoop of the shoulders; his com. plexion was dark, sunburnt, and sallow, without any ap pearance of blood in his cheeks his countenance grave, thoughtful, penetrating, and strongly marked with the linea. ments of deep reflection - the earnestness of his manner, united with an habitual contraction or knitting of his brows, and those lines of thought with which his face was profuse. ly furrowed, gave to his countenance, at some times, the appearance of severity-yet such was the power which he had over its expression, that he could shake off from it in an instant all the sternness of winter, and robe it in the brightest smiles of spring. His forehead was high and straight; yet forming a sufficient angle with the lower part of his face-his nose somewhat of the Roman stamp, though, like that which we see in the bust of Cicero, it was rather long, than remarkable for its Cæsarean form-of the colour of his eyes, the accounts are almost as various as those which we have of the colour of the chameleon-they are said to have been blue, grey, what Lavater calls green, hazel, brown, and black-the fact seems to have been, that they were of a bluish grey, not large; and being deeply fixed in his head, overhung by dark, long and full eyebrows, and farther slided by lashes that were both long and black, their apparent colour was as variable as the lights in which they were seen but all concur in saying that they were, unquestionably, the finest feature in his face-brilliant-full of spirit, and capable of the most rapidly shifting and power. ful expression-at one time piercing and terrible as those of Mars, and then again soft and tender as those of Pity herself-his cheeks were hollow-his chin long, but well formed, and rounded at the end, so as to form a proper counterpart to the upper part of his face. It is difficult to describe his mouth; in which there was nothing remarkable except when about to express a modest dissent from some opinion on which he was commenting-he then had a sort of half smile in which the want of conviction was perhaps more strongly expressed, than the satirical emotion, which probably prompted it. His manner and address to the court and jury might be deemed the excess of humility, diffidence, and modesty. If, as rarely happened, he had occasion to answer any remark from the bench, it was impossible for meekness herself to assume a manner less presumptuous but in the smile which has just been spoken of, you might anticipate the want of conviction, expressed in his answer, at the moment that he submitted to the superior wisdom of the