elocutionists for this purpose, I rumbled my eloquence standing on
the seashore, up to my middle in the breakers. I ran, roaring up
steep hills--I stretched myself at length by the side of meandering
brooks, or in slumberous forests of pine, and sought, by the merest
whispers, to express myself with distinctness and melody. But there
was something yet more requisite than these, and this was language.
My labors to obtain all the arts of utterance did not seem less
successful. I could dilate with singular fluency, with classical
propriety, and great natural vigor of expression. I studied directness
of expression by a frequent intercourse with men of business, and
examined, with the nicest urgency, the particular characteristics
of those of my own profession who were most remarkable for their
plain, forcible speaking. I say nothing of my studies of such great
masters in discourse and philosophy, as Milton, Sliakspere, Homer,
Lord Bacon, and the great English divines. As a model of pure English
the Bible was a daily study of two hours; and from this noble well
of vernacular eloquence, I gathered--so I fancied--no small portion
of its quaint expressive vigor, its stern emphasis, its golden and
choice phrases of illustration. Never did a young lawyer go into
the forum more thoroughly clad in proof, or with a better armory
as well for defence as attack."

"You did not fail, sir?" exclaimed the youth with a painful expression
of eager anxiety upon his countenance.

"I did fail--fail altogether! In the first effort to speak, I
fainted, and was carried lifeless from the court-room."

The old man covered his face with his hands, for a few moments,
to conceal the expression of pain and mortification which memory