Page:Sketches of the life and character of Patrick Henry.djvu/79

 ble power with which he caused eveiy passion to rise at his bidding ; and all the rugged might and majesty of his eloquence. From this moment, he had no friends on the aristocratic side of the house. They looked upon him with envy and with terror. They were forc- ed at length to praise his genius; but that praise was wrung from them, with painful reluctance. They would have denied it, if they could. They would have overshadowed it; and did at first try to overshadow it, by magnifying his defects; but it would have been as easy for them to have eclipsed the splendour of the sun, by pointing to his spots.

If, however, he had lost one side of the house by his undaunted manner of blowing up this aristocratic pro- ject, he had made the other side his fast friends. They had hstened with admiration, unmixed with envy. Their souls had been struck with amazement and rapture, and thrilled with unspeakable sensations which they had never felt before. The man too, who had pro- duced these effects, was one of themselves. This was balm to them; for there is a wide difference between that distant admiration, which we pay as a tax, due to long-standing merit, in superior rank, and that throb- bing applause which rushes spontaneously and warm from the heart, towards a new man and an equal. There is always sometliing of latent repining, approach- ing to resentment, mingled with that respect which is exacted from us by rank; and we feel a secret gratifi- cation in seeing it humbled. In the same proportion, we love the man who has given us this gratification, and avenged as it were, our own past indignities. Such was precisely the state of feeling which Mr. Henry pro- duced, on the present occasion. The lower ranks of the house beheld and heard him with gratitude and

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