oratory by reading the speeches in Milton's 'Paradise Lost.' These
speeches--especially those of Satan, the most human of the
characters in this noble epic,--when analyzed and traced to their
source, are neither Hebrew nor Greek, but English to the core. They
are imbued with the English spirit, with the spirit of Cromwell,
with the spirit that beat down oppression at Marston Moor, and
ushered in a freer England at Naseby. In the earlier Milton of a
thousand years before, whether the work of Caedmon or of some other
English muse, the same spirit is reflected in Anglo-Saxon
words. Milton's Satan is more polished, better educated, thanks to
Oxford and Cambridge, but the spirit is essentially one with that of
the ruder poet; and this spirit, I maintain, is English.

The dry annals of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle are occasionally lighted
up with a gleam of true eloquence, as in the description of the
battle of Brunanburh, which breaks forth into a pean of
victory. Under the year 991, there is mention of a battle at Maldon,
between the English and the Danes, in which great heroism must have
been displayed, for it inspired at the time one of the most
patriotic outbursts of song to be found in the whole range of
English literature. During an enforced truce, because of a swollen
stream that separated the two armies, a messenger is sent from the
Danes to Byrhtnoth, leader of the English forces, with a proposition
to purchase peace with English gold. Byrhtnoth, angry and resolute,
gave him this answer:--

"Hearest thou, pirate, what this folk sayeth? They will give you
spears for tribute, weapons that will avail you nought in
battle. Messenger of the vikings, get thee back. Take to thy people
a sterner message, that here stands a fearless earl, who with his