Page:Sketches of the life and character of Patrick Henry.djvu/451

 of those of England: nor the exuberant imagery which distinguishes those of Ireland. On the contrary, he was loose, irregular, desultoiy — sometimes rough and abrupt — careless in connecting the parts of his dis- course, but grasping whatever he touched, with gigantic strength. In short, he was the Orator of Nature: and such a one as nature might not blush to avow.

If the reader shall still demand how he acquired those wonderful powers of speaking, which have been as- signed to him, we can only answer, with Gray, that they were the gift of heaven — the birthright of genius.

" Thine too, these keys, immortal boy!

This can unlock the gates of joy ;

Of horror, that, and thrilhng fears.

Or ope the sacred source of sympathetic tears.'*

It has been said of Mr. Henry,* with inimitable fehcity, that " he was Shakspeare and Garrick combined P Let the reader then, imagine the wonderful talents of those two men united in the same individual, and trans- ferred from scenes of fiction, to the business of real life, and he will have formed a just conception of the powers of Patrick Henry. In a word, he was one of those perfect prodigies of nature, of whom very few have been produced since the foundations of the earth were laid; and of him, may it be said, as truly as of any one that ever existed,

" He was a man, take him for all in aUj We ne^er shall look upon his like, again.'*


 * By Mr. John Randolph, of Roanoke,

��THE END.

�� �