He was not a consummate
general; military men will point out his errors; in that respect
Fortune did not favour him, save by throwing the lustre of
adversity over all his virtues. He sustained defeat after defeat,
but always rose _adversa rerum immersabilis unda_. Looking merely
at his shining qualities and achievements, I admire him as I do a
Scipio, a Regulus, a Fabius; a model of tranquil courage,
undeviating probity, and armed with a resoluteness and constancy
in the cause of truth and freedom, which rendered him superior to
the accidents that control the fate of ordinary men.
"But this is not all--I feel that to him, under God, I am, at this
moment, indebted for the enjoyment of the rights which I possess
as a subject of these free countries; to him I owe the blessings
of civil and religious liberty, and I venerate his memory with a
fervour of devotion suited to his illustrious qualities and to
his godlike acts."
This is not so magnificent a panegyric as that of Grattan in his written
tribute to Chatham, but, enhanced by the gesture and voice of the
great orator, it was reputed to have left a deep impression upon all who
heard it.
But few speeches, however eloquent, survive, while the printed work of
the writer may long endure; but to the orator is given what the writer
never experiences--the fierce enjoyment, amounting almost to rapture,
of holding an audience entranced under the spell of the spoken
cadences; and English, Antony, has a splendour all its own when
uttered by a master of its august music.
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