Page:Sketches of the life and character of Patrick Henry.djvu/403

 incidents in which he had borne a part; and by draw- ing to the hfe, and placing before his audience^ in colours as fresh and strong as those of nature, the many illustrious men in every quarter of the continent with whom he had acted a part on the public stage. Here too, he would occasionally discourse with all the wisdom and all the eloquence of a Grecian sage, of the various duties and offices of life; and pour forth those lessons of practical utility, with which long experience and observation had stored his mind. Many were the visitors from a distance, old and young, who came on a kind of pious pilgrimage, to the retreat of the veteran patriot, and found him thus delightfully and usefully employed — the old to gaze upon him with long remem- bered affection, and ancient gratitude — the young, the ardent, and the emulous, to behold and admire, with swimming eyes, the champion of other days, and to look with a sigh of generous regret, upon that height of glory which they could never hope to reach. Blessed be the shade of that venerable tree — ever hallowed the spot which his genius has consecrated! Mr. Henry re- ceived these visits, with all his characteristic plainness and modesty; and never failed to reward the fatigue of the journey, by the warmest welcome, and by the un- ceremonious and fascinating familiarity, with which he would at once enter into conversation with his new guests, and cause them to forget that they were strangers, or abroad. Nor must the reader suppose that in these conversations he assumed any airs of supe- riority; much less that his conversation was, as in some of our conspicuous men, a continued, imperious, and didactic lecture. On the contrary, he carried into pri- vate life, all those principles of equality which had governed him in public. That ascendancy indeed,

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