Never was there
such a triumphant debut; and a peroration of genuine eloquence, because
of genuine feeling, concluded amid the long and renewed cheers of all
parties.
The truth is, Eloquence is the child of Knowledge. When a mind is full,
like a wholesome river, it is also clear. Confusion and obscurity are
much oftener the results of ignorance than of inefficiency. Few are
the men who cannot express their meaning, when the occasion demands
the energy; as the lowest will defend their lives with acuteness,
and sometimes even with eloquence. They are masters of their subject.
Knowledge must be gained by ourselves. Mankind may supply us with facts;
but the results, even if they agree with previous ones, must be the work
of our own mind. To make others feel, we must feel ourselves; and to
feel ourselves, we must be natural. This we can never be, when we
are vomiting forth the dogmas of the schools. Knowledge is not a mere
collection of words; and it is a delusion to suppose that thought can
be obtained by the aid of any other intellect than our own. What is
repetition, by a curious mystery ceases to be truth, even if it were
truth when it was first heard; as the shadow in a mirror, though it move
and mimic all the actions of vitality, is not life.
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