Page:Sketches of the life and character of Patrick Henry.djvu/330

 306 SKETCHES OF THE

gayest expression of triumph in his countenance— " Heu! JVescia mens homhmm fat% sortisque fuhtrcer Mr. Henry raised himself up, heavily and with affected awkwardness — " Mr. Speaker," said he, '^ I am a plain man, and have been educated altogether in Virginia. My whole life has been spent among planters and other plain men of similar education, who have never had the advantage of that polish, which a court alone can give, and which the gentleman over the way, has so happily acquired; indeed sir, the gentleman^s employ- ments, and mine (in common with the great mass of his countrymen) have been as widely different as our for- tunes; for while that gentleman was availing himself of the opportunity which a splendid fortune afforded him, of acquiring a foreign education, mixing among the great, attending levees and courts, basking in the beams of royal favour at St. James\ and exchanging courtesies with crowned heads, I was engaged in the arduous toils of the revolution; and was probably as far from thinking of acquiring those polite accomplishments which the gentleman has so successfully ctdtivated, as that gentleman tJien was, fiom sharing in the toils and dangers in which his unpolished countrymen were en- gaged. I will not therefore, presume to vie with the gentleman, in those courtly accomplishments, of which he has just given the house so agreeable a specimen, yet such a bow as I can make, shall be ever at the ser- vice of the people" — herewith, although there was no man who could make a more graceful bow than Mr. Henry, he made one so ludicrously awkward and clown- ish, as took the house by surprise, and put them into a roar of laughter — " the gentleman, I hope, will com- miserate the disadvantages of education under which I have laboured, and will be pleased to remember, that I

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