vindicate them, let not prejudice or ignorance asperse them Let them and me repose in obscurity and peace, and my tomb remain uninscribed, until other times, and other men, can do justice to my character. When my country shall take her place among the nations of the earth, then, and not till then, let my epitaph be written LESSON CXXXVIII. 138 IN FAVOR OF THE GREEK REVOLUTION. CLAY. 1. AND has it come to this? Are we so humble, so low, so debased, that we dare not express our sympathy for suffering Greece; that we dare not articulate our detestation of the brutal excesses of which she has been the bleeding victim, lest we might offend some one or more of their imperial and royal majesties? If gentlemen are afraid to act rashly on such a subject, suppose, Mr. Chairman, that we unite in a hanble petition, addressed to their majesties, beseeching them, that of their gracious condescension they would allow us to express our feelings and our sympathies. How shall it run? “We, the representatives of the FREE people of the United States of America, humbly approach the thrones of your imperial and royal majesties, and supplicate that, of your imperial and royal clemency "—I cannot go through the disgusting recital, my lips have not yet learned to pronounce the sycophantic language of a degraded slave! 2. Are we so mean, so base, so despicable, that we may not attempt to express our horror, utter our indignation, at the most brutal and atrocious war that ever stained earth or shocked high heaven? at the ferocious deeds of a savage and infuriated soldiery, stimulated and urged on by the clergy of a fanatical and inimical religion, and rioting in all the excesses of blood and butchery, at the mere details of which the heart sickens and recoils ! 3. If the great body of Christendom can look on calmly a Chris-ten-dom (kris-sn-dum:) countries where the Christian religie prevails and coolly, whilst all this is perpetrated on a Christian people in its own immediate vicinity, in its very presence, let us, at least, evince that one of its remote extremities is susceptible of sensibility to Christian wrongs, and capable of sympathy for Christian sufferings; that in this remote quarter of the world there are hearts not yet closed against compassion for human woes, that can pour out their indignant feelings at the oppression of a people endeared to us by every ancient recol lection and every modern tie. 4. Sir, the committee has been attempted to be alarmed by the dangers to our commerce in the Mediterranean; and a wretched invoice of figs and opium has been spread before us to repress our sensibilities and to eradicate our humanity. Ah! sir, "what shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?" or what shall it avail a nation to save the whole of a miserable trade, and lose its liberties? LESSON CXXXIX. S SPEECH OF CHATHAM (THEN MR. PITT) ON BEING TAUNTED WITH HIS YOUTH. In reply to Mr. Walpole, the minister, (1740,) who had ridiculed the youth of Pitt and the florid style of his oratory. 1. SIR: The atrocious crime of being a young man, which the honorable gentleman has, with such spirit and decency, charged upon me, I shall neither attempt to palliate nor deny; but content myself with wishing that I may be one of those whose follies may cease with their youth, and not of that number who are ignorant in spite of experience. Whether youth can be imputed to any man as a reproach, I will not, sir, assume the province of determining; but surely age may become justly contemptible, if the opportunities which it brings have passed away without improvement, and vice appear to prevail when the passions have subsided. ■ Chatham, (Earl of;) formerly prime minister of Great Britain. 2. The wretch who, after having seen the consequences of a thousand errors, continues still to blunder, and whose age has only added obstinacy to stupidity, is surely the object either of abhorrence or contempt, and deserves not that his gray hairs should secure him from insult. Much inore, sir, is he to be abhorred who, as he has advanced in age, has receded from virtue, and become more wicked with less temptation; who prostitutes himself for money which he cannot enjoy, and spends the remains of his life in the ruin of his country. 3. But youth, sir, is not my only crime; I have been accused of acting a theatrical part. A theatrical part may either imply some peculiarities of gesture, or a dissimulation of my real sentiments, and an adoption of the opinions and language of another man. 4. In the first sense, sir, the charge is too trifling to be confuted, and deserves only to be mentioned that it may be despised. I am at liberty, like every other man, to use my own language; and though, perhaps, I may have some ambition to please this gentleman, I shall not lay myself under any restraint, nor very solicitously copy his diction or his mien, however matured by age or modeled by experience. 5. But if any man shall, by charging me with theatrical behavior, imply that I utter any sentiments but my own, I shall treat him as a calumniator and a villain; nor shall any protection shelter him from the treatment he deserves. 1 shall, on such an occasion, without scruple, trample upon all those forms with which wealth and dignity intrench themselves; nor shall anything but age restrain my resentment; age, which always brings one privilege, that of being insolent and supercilious without punishment. 6. But with regard, sir, to those whom I have offended, I am of opinion, that, if I had acted a borrowed part, I should nave avoided their censure; the heat that offended them is the ardor of conviction, and that zeal for the service of my country which neither hope nor fear shall influence me to suppress. I will not sit unconcerned while my liberty is invaded, nor look in silence upon public robbery. I will exert my endeav ors, at whatever hazard, to repel the aggressor, and drag the thief to justice, whoever may protect him in his villany, and whoever may partake of his plunder. What are our joys but dreams? And what our hopes But goodly shadows in the summer cloud? And mows its thousands, with their joys and cares. Of gray 3. Where are the heroes of the ages past? Where the brave chieftains? where the mighty ones All to the grave gone down! On their fall'n fame, ■ Alluding to the first astronomical observations, made by the Chaldean shepherds. 4. 5. 6. Sits grim forgetfulness. The warrior's arm Lies nerveless on the pillow of its shame; Hushed is his stormy voice, and quenched the blaze Of his red eye-ball Yesterday, his name Was mighty on the earth; to-day — 't is what? O how weak Is mortal man! how trifling! how confined As of the train of ages; when, alas! Too trivial for account. O, 't is strange, 'T is passing strange, to mark his fallacies; Preaches the solemn lesson. He should know |