The Glory of English Prose - Letters to My Grandson by Stephen Coleridge
page 71 of 149 (47%)
page 71 of 149 (47%)
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in the cause of truth and freedom, which rendered him superior to
the accidents that control the fate of ordinary men. "But this is not all--I feel that to him, under God, I am, at this moment, indebted for the enjoyment of the rights which I possess as a subject of these free countries; to him I owe the blessings of civil and religious liberty, and I venerate his memory with a fervour of devotion suited to his illustrious qualities and to his godlike acts." This is not so magnificent a panegyric as that of Grattan in his written tribute to Chatham, but, enhanced by the gesture and voice of the great orator, it was reputed to have left a deep impression upon all who heard it. But few speeches, however eloquent, survive, while the printed work of the writer may long endure; but to the orator is given what the writer never experiences--the fierce enjoyment, amounting almost to rapture, of holding an audience entranced under the spell of the spoken cadences; and English, Antony, has a splendour all its own when uttered by a master of its august music. Your loving old G.P. 18 |
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