Page:How to Get Strong (1899).pdf/402

 And did they not often call him the Jove-like Webster? What other man in Senate or House of Representatives; in the House of Lords or Commons; in the Reichstag; the Chamber of Deputies, or the Cortes, has such a magnificent chest and mighty presence to-day as had this same "Parliamentary Hercules"? Well does one writer put it, "!"

Gilbert Clark says: "He occupies a unique position, won by his powerful and peculiar genius. That which pre-eminently distinguished him was his tendency and power to idealize his clients and their cause. If in the sheer force of his understanding Webster was greater; he had no share in those graceful qualities of mind and art which Choate so conspicuously displayed; while, as an acute and subtle dialectician, Webster nor any other ever approached him.

"Choate's first appearance at the Bar was the signal for much laughter and ridicule. His advent was regarded by the lawyers and suitors of his day very much as the appearance of Pegasus would be received by the steady-going, earth-born equine, if he should descend and assume the rôle of a cart-horse. His ways were not their ways. His eccentricities and his struggles to carry his burden aloft into his native element excited much merriment. But soon it was found that Pegasus drew his load better than any of them, despite his antics and his curvetings. Men soon came to acknowledge that here was a new and legitimate style of advocacy; and although it proved inimitable, yet it soon secured ungrudging admiration; and to the new-comer was accorded the leadership which his unique genius demanded. From then until his death he was as much sovereign in the Boston court-house as Webster was in Faneuil Hall.

"His voice, which naturally was rich, grand, and melodious, he frequently urged to its highest key; he shrieked; he raved; he tore a passion to tatters; he swung his fists; he ran his trembling fingers through his long, curling locks, dripping with perspiration; he shook his head like a lion's mane; he raised his body on his toes, and