sublime, which, exercised in petty affairs, would only have been vulgar.

We turn another leaf, and find a memorial of Hamilton. It is but a
letter of introduction, addressed to Governor Jay in favor of Mr.
Davies, of Kentucky; but it gives an impression of high breeding and
courtesy, as little to be mistaken as if we could see the writer's
manner and hear his cultivated accents, while personally making one
gentleman known to another. There is likewise a rare vigor of
expression and pregnancy of meaning, such as only a man of habitual
energy of thought could have conveyed into so commonplace a thing as an
introductory letter. This autograph is a graceful one, with an easy and
picturesque flourish beneath the signature, symbolical of a courteous
bow at the conclusion of the social ceremony so admirably performed.
Hamilton might well be the leader and idol of the Federalists; for he
was pre-eminent in all the high qualities that characterized the great
men of that party, and which should make even a Democrat feel proud that
his country had produced such a noble old band of aristocrats; and be
shared all the distrust of the people, which so inevitably and so
righteously brought about their ruin. With his autograph we associate
that of another Federalist, his friend in life; a man far narrower than
Hamilton, but endowed with a native vigor, that caused_ many partisans
to grapple to him for support; upright, sternly inflexible, and of a
simplicity of manner that might have befitted the sturdiest republican
among us. In our boyhood we used to see a thin, severe figure of an
ancient mail, timeworn, but apparently indestructible, moving with a
step of vigorous decay along the street, and knew him as "Old Tim
Pickering."

Side by side, too, with the autograph of Hamilton, we would place one
from the hand that shed his blood. It is a few lines of Aaron Burr,