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by wWch the understanding might sit in the niiteit ae hrdte judgment upon tlieiA } ^^ kV i ^ tfe ' id" of seeking afterwards to eiiiforce them by cold , premeditated illustrations or by episodes , which , hbweVer beautiful , only distract attention , he wa& accustomed to
repays liis subject , riot methodically , but id the mo ^ t unforeseen and fascinating review , ^ enlightening every part df it , sind binding even his adversaries in a kind of spell for the mom ^ < 3 f involuntary assent .
The readei * must certainly not expect to be so carried away by the sketches now before me . Short-hand ilbnfe , secured too at the moment , aMi&t the numerous imperfections
inseparable from following the career of s 6 raj > id and vehement an elocution , could have perpetuated their lustre alid effect : but , still the correct ,
and often the animated substance remains , which preserves from oblivion more that is worthy of preservation , than by such means would apply to almost any other speaker in the
world . — Eloquence , which consists more in the dextrous structure of periods , and in the powers and harmony of delivery , than in the extraordinary vigour of the understanding-,
may be compared to a human body , not so much surpassing the dimensions pf ordinary nature , as remarkable for the symmetry and beauty of to parts : —if the short-hand writer , Hke the statuary or paiuter , has made
no memorial of such aiuorator , little is kft to distinguish him , but , in the most imperfect reliques pf Fox ' s speeches , the bonfs of a giant ARE TO BK DISCOVERED .
This will be found more particularly to apply to his speeches upon sudden ^ d unforeseen occasions , when eerily nothing could be more interestlng nor extraordinary than to witness , ® f have often done , the mighty and ^ TOared efforts of his mind , when ^ nad to encounter w ith the argu-L-flT of some profound reasoncr , who 2 . v ^ pi y considered his subject , t 7 W ^ A ged it with all possible art ,
jv preterve its parts unbroken . —To » wL l > e <) in on such occasions , "Wut method , without any kind of lS / *^ without the smallest impulse « 2 w $ e * ire of distinction or tri-3 ? j ^ d atiim ^ ted ^ orily by the ItbjS / t *] % oiT duty , ( an audience who *** W » a M ^ wc * u 1 i hive expected
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but little success frotii the conflict : as little as a traveller in the East , whilst trembling at a buffalo in the wild vigour of his well-protected strength , would have lqoked to his immediate destruction , vvhen he saw
the Boa moving slowly and inertly towards him on the grass . But , Fox , unlike the serpent in every thing but his strength , always taking his station in some fixed , invulnerable principle , soon surrounded and entangled his adversary , disjointing every member of his discourse , and strangling him in the irresistibie folds of truth .
This intellectual superiority , by which my illustrious friend was so eminently distinguished , might nevertheless have existed in all its strength without raising him to the exalted station he held as a public speaker . The powers of the understanding are
not of themselves sufficient for this high purpose . Intellect alone , however exalted , without strong feelings , without even irritable sensibility , would be only like an immense magazine of gunpowder , if there were no such element as fire in the natural
world—it is the heart which is the spring and fountain of Eloquence—a cold-blooded learned man , might , for any thing' I know , compose in his closet an eloquent book - , but , in public discourse , arising out of sudden occasions , could by no possibility be eloquent .
To carry on ray ideas of oratory , by continuing to identify it with T ? ox .- ~ He possessed , above all men I ever , knew , tne most gentle and yet the most ardent spirit ; a rare and happy combination !—he had nourished in '
his mind all the manly and generous sentiments , which are the true supports of the social world ; he was tremblingly alive to every kind of private wrong or suffering , and , from the habitual and fervent contemplation of the just principles of government , lie had the most bitter and
unextinguishable contempt for the low arts of political intrigue , and an indignant abhorrence of every species of tyranny , oppression and injustice . It has been said , that he was
frequently careless of the language in v / luch he expressed himseff ; but I c . iiii neither agree to the justice , nor even comprehend the mcaning of tjiat ^ ifcidism : —He could not b ^ e incorrect Sc * jtli carel ^ neis ' j because , having
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MrS MMzW ^ Charitcm of MEr . Fox , as ah Orator and Statesynan . SSi
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1815, page 331, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1761/page/3/
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