poets and orators of antiquity were his favorite study, together with the essays of Bacon and the plays of Shakespeare. Milton, however, was his chief admiration, on account of his boundless learning, richness of language, and scriptural grandeur of expression. In his methods of study and composition he anticipates the philosophical doctrines of Macaulay in reading history not as a record of battles and sieges, but to connect events by the causes that produced them. Intended by his lawyer-father for the bar he soon wearied of the technicalities of the law and turned to letters and philosophy. Diligent to the last degree he acquired that most useful of all powers, the ability to think at all times and in all places, and not merely when he could withdraw himself to the retirement of his study. Systematic, consecutive thought was combined with welldigested reading, and followed by daily discussions with others of whatever subject was of chief interest, giving to all his views a many-sidedness and practicality which otherwise might have given place to theories and dreams in a mind as full of exuberant fancy as his. His early works on the Vindication of Natural Society and on the Sublime and Beautiful are illustrations of his philosophical spirit rather than of its maturer form, but the language and style place those works high in the ranks of English literature. They gave the writer a celebrity and an acquaintance with distinguished contemporaries which was of the greatest advantage to him. In such congenial atmosphere his conversational powers found a field of distinction indicated by Dr. Johnson when he said, "Burke is the only man whose common conver

sation corresponds with the general fame he has in the world. His talk is perpetual, not from desire of distinction, but because his mind is full. No man could meet him under a gateway to avoid a shower without being convinced that he is the first man in England."

It was with such furnishings that he entered upon a political career in 1765 which was to cover three periods, that of America, India, and France respectively. The first, covering sixteen years, 1766–1782, was that in which his best oratorical work was done. At the start he encountered some obstacles by reason of his lack of rank and wealth and from the fact that he was a native of that island which to this day is a thorn in the side of England; but his talents and eloquence won universal admiration, and his devotion to the people's rights gained their hearty support. In America he was well accredited as the agent of the colony of New York for nearly four years, from 1771 to the breaking out of the war. It was in this capacity that he acquired his intimate knowledge of colonial affairs. The congratulations of Pitt on his first speech on American Taxation have already been mentioned. It was Lord John Townsend who exclaimed on the same occasion, "Heavens, what a man this is! Where could he acquire such transcendent powers!" Of his speech on the employment of Indians in the war Colonel Barré said that if it could be written out he would nail it on every church door in the kingdom, and Sir George Saville declared that he who did not hear that speech failed to witness the greatest triumph of eloquence within his memory, and Governor Johnston remarked that it was fortunate for Lords North and

Germaine that spectators had been excluded during the debate, for the excited people would have torn the noble lords in pieces on their way home.

Burke's independence was shown after his election to represent Bristol, then the second commercial city of the kingdom. The question of direction by his constituents coming up he plainly told them that his own judgment was not to be sacrificed to any set of men, and that he should vote according to his own opinion of what would best subserve their interests. The great issue which confronted that Parliament was the proposed conciliation of differences with America, a scheme calculated to weaken the resistance of the colonies by division of interests, which Burke endeavored to convert into an effective plan of real conciliation by having the colonies levy their own taxes independent of the Crown, on the principle that where there is taxation there should be representation. Upon this the great speech on Conciliation with America was delivered March 22, 1775. He spoke as if standing upon American soil. His topics were the importance of the colonial population, agriculture, commerce, and fisheries; the causes of the fierce spirit of liberty, the impossibility of repressing it by force, and the consequent necessity of some concession on the part. of England. He showed that the people of the colonies ought to be admitted into an interest in representation. The tone of the speech is temperate and conciliatory toward the ministry and designed to lead the government through Lord North's scheme into a final adjustment of difficulties on the true principles of English liberty. The most finished of his speeches it is read for

its richness of style and the permanent character of the political wisdom contained in it.

Of the three speeches, two on America and one to the electors of Bristol, it may be said that they compose a body of instruction in the study of public affairs which is unsurpassed. In vigorous grasp of particulars, in illustration drawn from human experience, in strong sympathy for justice and liberty they have never been excelled. Their author takes his place among the great makers of our literature in these high examples of deliberative eloquence, which are destined to outlast a multitude of efforts that have had a brief notoriety; while for the understanding of causes that produced our Revolution nothing has been written to illustrate the subject so fully and clearly. It has been truly said of his speeches that they might be the daily bread of modern statesmen and orators; and no doubt he has had an unparalleled influence upon the great forensic writers of this century, and has given a lasting stimulus to English prose literature. The secret of this may lie in his reprehension of any attempt to separate the English that is written from that which is spoken, so that his speeches have the appearance of an appeal from man to man. To a wide compass of thought, prodigality of illustration, a copiousness and fertility of allusion is joined a power of diversifying matter, placing it in new lights, and of expressing it with sublimity and an ease which give no sense of labor or display. Having the power of approximating to truth by a rapid and exact glance he also bestows upon each part of his subject its due degree of force and proper shade of color, one of the chief arts of

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speech. Accordingly he is a model to all who wish to say anything forcibly, naturally, and freely. Fresh, natural, and energetic in his diction he brings out the hidden power of common words and phrases without going far for strange, unusual, or outlandish words. Sonorous in his longer periods he can intersperse short, pointed, and vigorous sentences containing a wealth of philosophy; and by repetition without reiteration, but full of interpretation, he expands, contracts, condenses, and impresses his meaning too indelibly to be forgotten. In all his oratory there is something which escapes the last analysis of criticism, as life escapes the anatomist's search.

In the larger sphere of thought as distinguished from expression there were so many phases of invention as to warrant the assertion that he had great originality, if not actual genius. His intellectual independence, combined with the subtlety of a mind philosophical in its methods, dealing with large generalization and profound reasonings made him an orator to be read with interest rather than always to be listened to with attention; but for this reason his eloquence has lived long after the issues which called it forth were settled; and although he has had his critics who have censured this and that outgrowth of his luxuriant nature, still the majority of judges place him before any other orator of modern times as a parlia mentary speaker.