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of right ought to be-men of power over others. In fine, style, at this point, is an inspiration. It is the outbreathing to others of the divine inbreathing into us. It is the expression of impressionthe natural outflow of that within us which is supernatural-the embodiment in written form of what Mr. Emerson has suggestively called-" the Over-Soul."

THE IMPASSIONED STYLE.

Examples.

If it be desired to know the immediate cause of all this free writing and free speaking, there cannot be assigned a truer than your own mild and free and humane government; it is the liberty, Lords and Commons, which your own valorous and happy counsels have purchased us; liberty which is the nurse of all great wits; this is that which has enlightened and rarefied our spirits like the influence of heaven; this is that which hath enfranchised, enlarged and lifted up our apprehensions degrees above themselves. Ye cannot make us now less capable, less knowing, less eagerly pursuing of the truth, unless ye first make yourselves, less the lovers, less the founders of our true liberty. Give me the liberty to know, to utter and to argue freely, according to conscience, above all liberties.-Milton's "Areopagitica."

Gentlemen, I have had my day. I can never sufficiently express my gratitude to you for having set me in a place, wherever I could lend the slightest help to great and laudable designs. If I have had my share, in any measure giving quiet to private property and private conscience; if by my vote I have aided in securing to families the best possession,

peace; if I have joined in reconciling kings to their subjects and subjects to their prince. . . . I have not lived in vain. I do not here stand before you accused of venality or of neglect of duty. It is not said that, in the long period of my service, I have, in a single instance, sacrificed the slightest of your interests to my ambition or to my fortune. No, the charges against me are all of one kind, that I have pushed the principles of general justice and benevolence too far; further than a cautious policy would warrant.—Burke's Speech to the Electors of Bristol.

That the British infantry soldier is more robust than the soldier of any other nation can scarcely be admitted by those who, in 1815, observed his powerful frame, distinguished amidst the united armies of Europe. . . . It has been asserted that his undeniable firmness in battle is the result of a phlegmatic constitution uninspired by moral feeling. Never was a more stupid calumny uttered. Napoleon's troops fought in bright fields, where every helmet caught some beams of glory, but the British soldier conquered under the cold shade of aristocracy. No honors awaited his daring, no despatch gave his name to the applause of his countrymen; his life of danger and hardship was uncheered by hope, his death unnoticed. Did his heart sink, therefore? The result of a hundred battles and the united testimony of impartial writers of different nations have given the first place amongst the European infantry to the British.-Sir William Napier's "War in the Peninsula."

Advance then, ye future generations. We would hail you as you rise in your long succession, to fill the places which we now fill. We bid you welcome to this pleasant land of the fathers. We bid you welcome to the healthful skies and the verdant fields of New England. We greet your accession to the great inheritance which we have enjoyed. We wel

come you to the blessings of good government and religious liberty. We welcome you to the treasures of science and the delights of learning. We welcome you to the immeasurable blessings of rational existence, the immortal hope of Christianity and the light of everlasting truth.-Daniel Webster's Plymouth Oration.

CHAPTER IV.

THE POPULAR STYLE.

THIS fourth division of style is popular, as distinct from the style intellectual or literary or impassioned. It is not meant by this that it is altogether unintellectual or unliterary or unemotional, but that it is not distinctly marked by any one of these characteristics. Some degree of mental excellence, as of literary and persuasive excellence, it must possess, in order to be assigned a place among the prominent classes of English style. It has, however, qualities other than these, and more conspicuous, by reason of which it is termed popular. Not to be confounded with that order of expression which we call scholarly, or with that which is notably finished and fervent, it still has enough of these features somewhat to commend it to scholars and authors, and yet is a style primarily designed for the people as such, in their corporate capacity as the body politic and social-the great Middle Class of the English and American public. It may rightfully be called

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