to Prof. J. L. Armstrong, who will acknowledge them in the Raleigh Christian Advocate and in The Archive.
Several of the larger classes in the preparatory department will be divided on the basis of scholarship.
BURKE AND WEBSTER.
Eloquence does not always display itself in the same form. In reading critically the speeches of Burke and Webster, we find quite a contrast in their styles, yet each ranks amongst the foremost orators of his nation. Each moved thousands by the power of his words, and each possessed a style peculiarly his own.
The first thing noticeable in Burke’s style is its remarkable clearness. He presents his thoughts in such a plain, simple manner that they are easily comprehended, although he handles the deepest subjects with which statesmanship deals. He leaves nothing obscure. We are never at a loss to know what words his relative pronouns relate to, or his conjunctions connect. Few authors could have expressed with such precision and perspicuity as Burke the thought contained in the following sentence: “This commercial motive never was believed by any man, either in America, which this letter is meant to soothe, or in England, which it meant to deceive.”
In regard to clearness, Webster’s style resembles that of Burke. The great American statesman seemed to possess the happy faculty of adapting himself to his audience. If he addressed the Senate of the United States, he was dignified and stately; if he spoke to an assembly of peasants, he made himself perfectly intelligible.
Burke frequently uses pointed satire and bitter sarcasm in his speeches. He says: “By such management, by the irresistible operations of feeble councils, so paltry a sum as three-pence in the eyes of a financier, so insignificant an article as tea in the eyes of a philosopher, have shaken the pillars of a commercial empire that circled the whole globe.” Again: “I conceal the ridiculous figure of parliament hurling its thunders at the gigantic rebellion in America.” In this kind of writing Burke is undoubtedly Webster’s superior.