towards oratorical success; but Curran's appearance was so mean
that he was once taken for a shoeblack. His stammering, blunders,
and collapses in early life earned for him the nickname of
"Orator Mum." Yet to what a lofty eminence did not his sleepless
endeavours lift him!

If Sheil's portraits speak truly he must have closely resembled a
starved sweep on a wet day, while Disraeli declares his voice was
as unmusical as the sound of a broken tin whistle. Of him Lecky
writes:--"Richard Lalor Shiel forms one of the many examples
history presents of splendid oratorical powers clogged by
insuperable natural defects. His person was diminutive and wholly
devoid of dignity. His voice shrill, harsh, and often rising to a
positive shriek. His action, when most natural, violent, without
gracefulness, and eccentric even to absurdity."[3]

[3] Lecky--"Leaders of Public Opinion in Ireland," p. 194.

In spite of these defects, and at a period when the nation's ear
was pampered to fastidiousness by the eloquence of Grattan, Flood
and O'Connell, he began his upward struggle towards eminence. He
not only succeeded in winning a foremost place, but in wreathing
himself with deathless fame when laurels shaded the brows of
giants alone.

In face of these encouraging examples who could lose heart when
the trumpet of ambition blows--"struggle, struggle, struggle."

"Scorn delights and live laborious days."