Page:A Biographical Sketch (of B. S. Barton) - William P. C. Barton.djvu/5



were the words of Mark Antony, (according to the poet,) over the dead body of the valorous, the invincible warrior of Roman fame; and surely never fell from human lips a speech more copious or more eloquent!

How admirably does it not convey, in a few brief syllables, a code of charitable and benevolent duties! How shrewdly does it not intimate, that a great man's eulogy should neither breathe the empty sentiments of indiscriminate praise, nor the fulsome strains of adoration. Such commendation is as evanescent as it is injudicious and unmerited. Test the verity of its spirit by the light of reason, or the dispassionate dictates of judgment, and it is no more.

Does it not too tell us, that if Caesar had worth, his death could not extinguish it—nor his mortal absence from the sight of the world—obliterate its recollection of his greatness?