He gesticulated with his whole body. Wendell Phillips most
irreverently as well as most unjustly compared him to a monkey
in convulsions. His bowings down and straightening himself
again were spoken of by another critic, not unfriendly, as
opening and shutting like a jack-knife. His curly black hairs
seemed each to have a separate life of its own. His eyes
shone like coals of fire. There is a passage of Everett's
which well describes Choate, and is also one of the very best
examples of Everett, who, with all his fertility of original
genius, borrowed so much, and so enriched and improved everything
that he borrowed. Cicero said of Antonius:
"Omnia veniebant Antonio in mentem; eaque suo quaeque loco,
ubi pluimum proficere et valere possent, ut ab imperatore
equites pedites levis armatura, sic ab illo in maxume opportunis
orationis partibus conlocabantur."
Now see what Everett does with this thought in his eulogy,
spoken in Faneuil Hall, the week after Choate's death:
"He is sometimes satisfied, in concise epigrammatic clauses,
to skirmish with his light troops, and drive in the enemy's
outposts.
Pages:
1339
1340
1341
1342
1343
1344
1345
1346
1347
1348
1349
1350
1351
1352
1353
1354
1355
1356
1357
1358
1359
1360
1361
1362
1363