time. In his Preface to the work, referring to what Mr. Macaulay had said of the eminent qualifications of Fox and Mackintosh for writing history, "that they had spoken history, acted history, and lived history," Mr. Benton says, "I can say I have these advantages.' While this was true, there was a largeness in the application that only a veteran egotist would have risked. "Old Bullion," as his friends loved to call him, because, denouncing paper money, he advocated measures that would make "gold to glisten through the interstices of every man's silken purse," was a man of much intellectual force, sustained by the most vigilant industry, and he must be included among the first dozen statesmen of his country during his era; but he was his own towering darling, and belonged to that class alluded to by Washington Irving when he referred to a man of some pomposity as "a great man, and, in his own estimation, a man of great weight. When he goes to the west, he thinks the east tips up." Mr. Benton, when his famous expunging resolution was upon its final passage after three years of agitation, exclaimed: "Solitary and alone, and amidst the jeers and taunts of my opponents, I put this ball in motion."

Colonel Frémont did not marry his daughter, Jessie Benton, so the Senator asserted, but Jessie Benton married Colonel Frémont; and in the notice of the wedding in the newspapers at the time, the name of the lady was put first.

B. 1793.

THADDEUS STEVENS.

D. 1868.

THE repartee of Thad. Stevens was unequalled, and swift wit and dry humor marked his daily career. As an example, not of vanity, but of the "Great Commoner's" hope of intellectual immortality, I will cite his questions to the two stout officers of the House of Representatives who, in his last days, used to carry him in a large arm-chair from his lodgings across the public grounds up the broad stairs of the National Capitol: "Who will be so good to me and take me up in their strong arms when you two mighty men are gone?"

There are some people who imagine they rob themselves by the bestowment of any praise, and that their "basket and store" of merits will be increased by hearty detraction of others. They are rare critics, and will only "look at the reverse side of all tapestry, and see nothing in work not done by themselves but the fag-ends of thread;" but these are all obedient to the maxim, "Never speak evil of yourself; your friends will speak enough."

B. 1794.

WILLIAM C. BRYANT.

D. 1878.

"So shalt thou rest: and what if thou withdraw
Unheeded by the living, and no friend
Take note of thy departure? All that breathe
Will share thy destiny. The gay will laugh
When thou art gone, the solemn brood of Care

Plod on, and each one, as before, will chase

His favorite phantom; yet all these shall leave

Their mirth and their employments, and shall come
And make their bed with thee."

B. 1795.

DAVID PAUL BROWN.

THIS Philadelphia lawyer and eminent platform orator published a work entitled "The Forum," in two thick octavo volumes, where, not content with unveiling his professional success and great merits as a lawyer and orator, he inserted about sixty pages under the head of "Ornamenta Rationalia; or, Germs and Gems of Genius," being a few extracts from Shakspeare and other eminent poets, but made up for the most part of blank verses signed "B," of which he was the eminent author; and very blank these "Gems" appear to be. The fame of the distinguished orator is still remembered, with his fine voice and faultless gesticulation, although the poet has vanished, or perhaps never existed. He should have remembered that when Cicero had the vanity to attempt poetry, he only obtained credit for doggerel. A copy of a few of these verses, in the form of scraps, as presented by Mr. Brown, will show what he esteemed most worthy of preservation :

"Bear up, my soul, and, worthy of thyself,

Endure approaching peril as the past:

Dying as all should die who hope to live
In the proud pages of futurity."

The biography prefixed to "The Forum," referring to the author, says: "It matters little 'to whom related, or by whom begot.'" If true, was it not rather blunt?

B. 1799.

RUFUS CHOATE.

D. 1859.

In his Diary, Mr. Choate is ever prescribing more methodical reading of history and of the classics, and sometimes seems to have had an idea of writing a work on Greece, and sometimes of composing a series of lectures. Unfortunately he did neither. In 1844 he writes: "I seem to myself to think it is within my competence to be master of the law as an administrative science."

Doubtless through life Mr. Choate was considerably annoyed by the abundance of tributes paid to his eloquence at the expense of his sound legal learning; and this may explain his rather emphatic self-assertion as found in his Diary of Sept. 29, 1844: “A little attention to things and persons and reputations about me teaches that uncommon professional exertions are necessary to recover business to live; and a

case.

trial or two teaches me that I can very zealously and very thoroughly, and con amore, study and discuss any How well I can do so compared with others, I shall not express an opinion on paper-but, if I live, all blockheads which are shaken at certain mental peculiarities shall know and feel a reasoner, a lawyer, and a man of business."

The general verdict now is that he was not only a great orator but a great lawyer.

B. 1803. RALPH WALDO EMERSON. D. 1882.

In his essay upon "Greatness," Emerson says:"There is a prize we are all aiming at, and the more power and goodness we have, so much more the energy of that aim. Every human being has a right to it, and in the pursuit we do not stand in each other's way. . . . I prefer to call it greatness. It is the fulfilment of a natural tendency in each man. It is a fruitful study. It is the best tonic to the young soul. And no man is unrelated; therefore we admire eminent men, not for themselves, but as representatives. It is very certain that we ought not to be, and shall not be, contented with any goal we have reached. Our aim is no less than greatness; that which invites all belongs to us all to which we are all sometimes untrue, cowardly, faithless, but of which we never quite despair, and which in every sane moment we resolve to make our own."