Page:Sketches of the life and character of Patrick Henry.djvu/338

 314 SKETCHES OF THE

thing like it, has been interlined in other words; and even the interlineations themselves, are oftener than otherwise, erased, altered, and farther interlined, for the purpose of seeking to amend the expression: so that, in casting one^s eyes over the manuscript report of Mr. Henry's speech, in order to single out the most brilliant passages, those which are the most blotted and blurred by erasures and interlineations, may be selected at once, without the hazard of mistake. Hence it is obvious, that the reporter had not, in his stenographic notes, the very expression of the speaker; but some hint merely, of the thought, which he was afterwards Unable to fill up to his own satisfaction. If farther evidence on this subject were required, it is found in this circumstance; that on reading Mr. Robertson's imitations of the splendid parts of Mr. Henry's speech, to several of those who heard it delivered, there has not been one who has not turned off from the recital, with the strongest expressions of disappointment, and in several instances corrected by memory the language of the reporter.

This explanation is equally due to the memory of Mr. Henry, to the reader, and the author; for the author is fully aware that if the truth of the general character which he has attempted to give of Mr. Henry's elo- quence, shall be tested by those imperfect specimens to which, for want of more accurate ones, he has been com- pelled to resort, discredit will be thrown upon the whole work, and it will be regarded, rather as romance than history. But the ingenuous and candid reader will look beyond those poor and wretched imitations, and my own equally poor and wretched descriptions, to that proof of Mr. Henry's eloquence which is furnished by its practi- cal effects. Can there be any doubt of the supreme

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