Page:Sketches of the life and character of Patrick Henry.djvu/435

 know me/' continued Mr. Henry, " know that I am a firm advocate for liberty and republicanism : I believe I have given some evidences of this. I wish it may not be so, but I am afraid the event will justify this predic- tion.^'

The following is the fullest description which the author has been able to procure of Mr. Henry's person. He was nearly six feet high; spare, and what may be called raw-boned, with a slight stoop of the shoulders — his complexion was dark, sun burnt, and sallow, without any appearance of blood in his cheeks — his counte- nance grave, thoughtful, penetrating, and strongly marked with the lineaments of deep reflection— the earnestness of his manner, united with an habitual con- toction or knitting of his brows, and those lines of thought with which his face was profusely furrowed, gave to his countenance at some times, the appearance of severity — ^} et such was the power which he had over its expression, that he could shake off from it in an instant, all the sternness of winter, and robe it in the brightest smiles of spring. His forehead was high and straight; yet forming a sufficient angle with the lower part of his face — his nose somewhat of the Roman stamp, though like that which we see in the bust of Cicero, it was rather long, than remarkable for its Ca^sarean form — of the colour of his eyes, the accounts are al- most as various as those which we have of the colour of the chamclion— they are said to have been blue, grey, w^hat Lavater calls green, hazel, brown, and black— the fact seems to have been that they were of a bluish grey, not large; and being deeply fixed in his head, overhung by dark, long, and full eye-brows, and farther shaded by lashes that were both long and black, their apparent colour was as variable as the lights in

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