Tezcuco, King of........... The Seal! The Seal!........ 424 Wakefield, Family of......... 522 Wakefield Family in Affliction......... 228 Themistocles, Aristides, and Composition 379 Wakefield Family in Prosperity. Thoughts and Aphorisms..... Thurlow, Josephus, and Tacitus......... our......... Translation, Dryden on............................................... Unbelievers, Expostulation with...... Vanities, Burning of..................................... 127 War, Horrors of...... 229 280 167 1890 OF WISCONSIN.! GREAT AUTHORS OF ALL AGES. "The history of eloquence at Athens is remarkable. From a very early period great speakers had flourished there. Pisistratus and Themistocles are said to have owed much of their influence to their talents for debate. We learn, with more certainty, that Pericles was distinguished by extraordinary oratorical powers. The substance of some of his speeches is transmitted to us by Thucydides, and that excellent writer has doubtless faithfully reported the general line of his arguments."-LORD MACAULAY: On the Athenian Orators: Knight's Quarterly Magazine, August, 1824, and in his works, complete, 1866, 8 vols., 8vo, vii. 668. "His oration upon those who fell in the first campaign of the Peloponnesian war has been pronounced the most remarkable of all the compositions of antiquity."-REV. JAMES TAYLOR, D.D.: Imperial Dict. of Univ. Biog., iii. 644. ened by a long acquaintance, and warm in thing unfavourably expressed, in respect to his affections, may quickly pronounce everywhat he wishes and what he knows; whilst the stranger pronounceth all exaggerated, through envy of those deeds which he is conscious are above his own achievement. For the praises bestowed on others are then only to be endured when men imagine they can do those feats they hear to have been done; they envy what they cannot equal, and immediately pronounce it false. Yet, as this solemnity has received its sanction from the authority of our ancestors, it is my duty to obey the law, and to endeavour to procure, so far as I am able, the good will and approbation of all my audience. I shall therefore begin first with our forefathers, since both justice and decency require that we should, on this occasion, bestow on them an honourable remem THE ORATION WHICH WAS SPOKEN BY PERI-brance. In this our country they kept CLES AT THE PUBLIC FUNERAL OF THOSE ATHENIANS WHO HAD BEEN FIRST KILLED IN THE PELOPONNESIAN War. (From THUCYDIDES.) Many of those who have spoken before me on occasions of this kind have commended the author of that law which we are now obeying, for having instituted an oration to the honour of those who sacrifice their lives in fighting for their country. For my part, I think it sufficient for men who have approved their virtue in action, by action to be honoured for it-by such as you see the public gratitude now performing about this funeral; and that the virtues of many ought not to be endangered by the management of any one person, when their credit must precariously depend on his oration, which may be good, and may be bad. Difficult indeed it is, judiciously to handle a subject where even probable truth will hardly gain assent. The hearer, enlight to themselves always firmly settled; and, through their valour, handed it down free every since succeeding generation. Worthy, indeed, of praise are they, and yet more worthy are our immediate fathers; since, enlarging their own inheritance into the extensive empire which we now possess, they bequeathed that, their work of toil, to us their sons. Yet even these successes, we ourselves, here present, who are yet in the strength and vigour of our days, have nobly improved, and have made such provisions for this our Athens, that now it is all-sufficient in itself to answer every exigence of war and of peace. I mean not here to recite those martial exploits by which these ends were accomplished, or the resolute defences we ourselves and our forefathers have made against the formidable invasions of Barbarians and Greeks. Your own knowledge of these will excuse the long detail. But by what methods we have rose to this height of glory and power; by what 9 polity, and by what conduct, we are thus aggrandized, I shall first endeavour to show, and then proceed to the praise of the deceased. These, in my opinion, can be no impertinent topics on this occasion; the discussion of them must be beneficial to this numerous company of Athenians and of strangers. ship like men; but we, notwithstanding our easy and elegant way of life, face all the dangers of war as intrepidly as they. This may be proved by facts, since the Lacedemonians never invade our territories barely with their own, but with the united strength of all their confederates. But when we invade the dominions of our neighbours, for the most part we conquer without difficulty, defence of their own habitations. The strength of our whole force no enemy hath ever yet experienced, because it is divided by our naval expeditions, or engaged in the different quarters of our service by land. But if anywhere they engage and defeat a small party of our forces, they boastingly give it out a total defeat; and if they are beat, they were certainly overpowered by our united strength. What though from a state of inactivity, rather than laborious exercise, or with a natural, rather than an acquired, valour, we learn to encounter danger; this good at least we receive from it, that we never droop under the apprehension of possible misfortunes, and when we hazard the danger, are found no less courageous than those who are continually inured to it. In these respects our whole community deserves justly to be admired, and in many we have yet to mention. In our manner of living we show an elegance tempered with frugality, and we cultivate philosophy, without enervating the mind. We display our wealth in the season of beneficence, and not in the vanity of discourse. A confession of poverty is disgrace to no man; no effort to avoid it is disgrace indeed. There is visibly, in the same persons, an attention to their own private concerns and those of the public; and in others engaged in the labours of life there is a competent skill in the affairs of government. For we are the only people who think him that does not We are happy in a form of government which cannot envy the laws of our neigh-in an enemy's country, those who fight in bours; for it has served as a model to others, but is originally at Athens. And this our form, as committed not to the few, but to the whole body of the people, is called a democracy. How different soever in a private capacity, we all enjoy the same general equality our laws are fitted to preserve; and superior honours, just as we excel. The public administration is not confined to a particular family, but is attainable only by merit. Poverty is not a hindrance, since whoever is able to serve his country meets with no obstacle to preferment from his first obscurity. The offices of the state we go through without obstructions from one another, and live together in the mutual endearments of private life without suspicions; not angry with a neighbour for following the bent of his own humour, nor putting on that countenance of discontent which pains, though it cannot punish; so that in private life we converse together without diffidence or damage, whilst we dare not, on any account, offend against the public, through the reverence we bear to the magistrates and the laws, chiefly to those enacted for redress of the injured, and to those unwritten, a breach of which is allowed disgrace. Our laws have further provided for the mind most frequent intermissions of care, by the appointment of public recreations and sacrifices throughout the year, elegantly performed with a peculiar pomp, the daily delight of which is a charm that puts melancholy to flight. The grand-meddle in State affairs-not indolent, but eur of this our Athens causes the produce of the whole earth to be imported here, by which we reap a familiar enjoyment, not more of the delicacies of our own growth than those of other nations. In the affairs of war we excel those of our enemies who adhere to methods opposite to our own; for we lay open Athens to general resort, nor ever drive any stranger from us, whom either improvement or curiosity hath brought amongst us, lest any enemy should hurt us by seeing what is never concealed: we place not so great a confidence in the preparatives and artifices of war as in the native warmth of our souls, impelling us to action. In point of education, the youth of some people are inured, by a course of la barius exercise, to support toil and hard good-for-nothing. And yet we pass the soundest judgment, and are quick at catching the right apprehensions of things; not thinking that words are prejudicial to actions, but rather the not being duly prepared by previous debate before we are obliged to proceed to execution. Herein consists our distinguishing excellence, that in the hour of action we show the greatest courage, and yet debate beforehand the expediency of our measures. The courage of others is the result of ignorance; deliberation makes them cowards. And those undoubtedly must be owned to have the greatest souls who, most acutely sensible of the miseries of war and the sweets of peace, are not hence in the least deterred from facing danger. |