For, trained abroad his arms to wield, To thrust, to strike, to feint, to guard; The gushing flood the tartans dyed.3 Against the winter shower is proof, The foe, invulnerable still, Foiled his wild rage by steady skill; "Now yield thee, or by Him who made Let recreant yield who fears to die." - Like adder 5 darting from his coil, Like wolf that dashes through the toil, 1 was sword and shield: that is, served both as sword and shield. The "blade" was probably a rapier. 2 blade drank blood. Change to plain language. 3 The gushing... dyed. Change to the prose order. 4 like wintry rain. What is the figure of speech? 5 Like adder. What figure? Like mountain-cat who guards her young, 1 clotted locks. Explain. 2 ill. Part of speech? 3 deadly game. Unequal combat. 4 erring blade. Explain. 5 unclasp. What is the prefix? 6 close, grapple. VIII. DANIEL WEBSTER. LIFE AND WORKS. WEBSTER holds a high place in the literature of our country; for while a great lawyer, a great statesman, and a great orator, he was also a great writer. It is as a writer only that we have here to regard him, and as such he stands among the very foremost of his class. "In the sphere of literature," says Evarts, "Webster has a clear title to be held as one of the greatest authors and writers of our mother tongue that America has produced. I propose to the most competent critics of the nation, that they can find nowhere six octavo volumes of printed literary production of an American that contains as much noble and as much beautiful imagery, as much warmth of rhetoric, and of magnetic impression upon the reader, as are to be found in the collected writings and speeches of Daniel Webster." As a Daniel (born in the town of Salisbury, N. H., Jan. 18, 1782) was one of the ten children of Ebenezer Webster, a frontiersman of the New Hampshire wilderness, at a time when there was nothing between his own log-cabin and the settlements of Canada. young man, Ebenezer Webster was one of the boldest Indian-fighters in the French and Indian war; and during the Revolution he commanded a company of militia, and was trusted and esteemed by Washington. Without a day's schooling, the elder Webster was obliged to pick up learning as best he might; but his innate common-sense and his strong character made him a leader among his neighbors, and in the latter part of his life he was made a judge of the local court. At a very early age Daniel began to go to school; sometimes in his native town, sometimes in another, as the district school moved from place to place. He thus describes his boyhood: "I read what I could get to read, went to school when I could, and when not at school was a farmer's youngest boy, not good for much for want of health and strength, but expected to do something." That "something" consisted generally in tending his father's saw-mill, but the reading went on even there. He would set a log, and while it was going through would devour a book. There was a small circulating library in the village; and young Webster read every thing it contained, committing most of the contents of the volumes to memory, for books were so scarce that he believed this to be their chief purpose. The elder Webster, though in straitened circum-. stances, had it greatly at heart that his son should enjoy the advantages of that education he had himself missed. Accordingly, after rather hasty preparation, Daniel contrived in 1797 to enter Dartmouth College, where he pursued his studies till he took his degree in 1801. Though not a fine scholar in the technical sense of the term, he was recognized both by the professors and by his fellow-students as the foremost man in the college. All were conscious of something in him indefinable, but conveying a sense of greatness. The four years following Webster's leaving college were passed in the study of law, varied by some ex perience as a country schoolmaster. Soon after his admission to the bar he took up his residence at Portsmouth, where he pursued his profession, and began to take part in politics. The distinction won by Webster in the discussion of questions connected with the war of 1812 led to his election to the national House of Representatives as a member for New Hampshire. He took his seat in 1813, was re-elected in 1815, and at the end of his second. term retired for a while from public life. Though but thirty-two years of age when he entered Congress, he was after a few months of service acknowledged to be one of the foremost men in the House, and the strongest leader of the Federal party. In 1816 Webster removed from Portsmouth to Boston, where he at once took rank with the best lawyers, and speedily built up a large and lucrative practice. In 1822 he was chosen to the House of Representatives as member from Boston, and was a member of that body till 1827, when he was elected to the United States Senate, where his greatest triumphs were to be achieved. He continued to represent Massachusetts in the Senate for twelve years, when he was appointed Secretary of State by President Harrison. On the accession of President Tyler, Webster, unlike the rest of the Harrison cabinet, remained in office; and in 1842 he concluded the famous treaty with Lord Ashburton, defining the north-eastern boundary between the United States and Canada. In 1845 Massachusetts again sent him to the Senate; and he was a member of that body during the eventful period of the Mexican War, and during the |