The Unitarian Review (Volume 21) (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1884. Excerpt: ... man, make one of the most instructive chapters of hearty, highsouled consecration that this age has known. Mistaken, sometimes, uncharitable, fanatical, if you will, but there were in him the grim earnestness of the Puritan, the moral passion of the Hebrew prophet, and that larger passion for liberty and humanity which is the wedlock of Christian philanthropy with the modern spirit of freedom; and all dignified and made persuasive by a magnificent presence, and the beauty of unrivalled speech. A people's security and strength are in its manhood; and its most precious and inalienable wealth is its heritage of largegifted, large-hearted, and devoted men. The orator's gift is among the loftiest and most ennobling endowments in any community; and, when consecrated to humane and sacred uses, it fulfils a function second to none. It captivates, inspires, catches the hearts of men up into generous and universal sentiments, and fires them with the ardor of holy impulses and the energy of heroic actions. Like music, like poetry, eloquence is the natural and most eager ally of noble sentiments and humane and holy causes. But, like them, it is capable of perversion, of dilution, of utter prostitution to base and ignoble service. It can wreathe for conventional prejudice the flowers fit to adorn the altar of truth; it cau give up to party what was meant for mankind; it can palter in a double sense with the most sacred issues of justice and humanity; it cau sell itself, nay, give itself almost unconsciously away, to baseness, falsehood, tyranny. The history of eloquence is the story of an angel often inconstant through ambition or self-worship, fallen, abused, degraded. Too many illustrations of this crowd on our memory from the records of earlier and more recent time...