stitution. I admit that when the life and spirit have departed, the framework will be valueless and will tumble to decay. But the spirit has not yet departed— the life is not yet gone. It is true it has received many assaults, but it is capable of receiving and sustaining many more. - (1850.)

Dickinson, John (American, 1732-1808.)

Peroration of the Declaration on Taking Up Arms in 1775-We have not raised armies with ambitious designs of separating from Great Britain and establishing independent States. We fight not for glory or for conquest. We exhibit to mankind the remarkable spectacle of a people attacked by unprovoked enemies, without any imputation or even suspicion of offense. They boast of their privileges and civilization, and yet proffer no milder conditions than servitude or death.

In our own native land, in defense of the freedom that is our birthright, and which we ever enjoyed till the late violation of it,- for the protection of our property, acquired solely by the honest industry of our forefathers and ourselves, against violence actually offered, we have taken up arms. We shall lay them down when hostilities shall cease on the part of the aggressors, and all danger of their being renewed shall be removed, and not before.

With an humble confidence in the mercies of the supreme and impartial Judge and Ruler of the universe, we most devoutly implore his divine goodness to protect us happily through this great conflict, to dispose our adversaries to reconciliation on reasonable terms, and thereby to relieve the empire from the calamities of civil

war.

Didon, Père Henri (France, 1840-1900.)

In

"Higher Criticism »-We must not confound criticism with history. Though inseparable from each other, they must remain distinct. its general sense criticism is the exercise of the judgment, a faculty essential in all reasonable beings. To criticize and to judge are synonymous terms. For judgment as criticism first tries to discern the true from the false. This is the first right and the most necessary duty of the mind. Whatever the domain it explores, religion, philosophy, science, literature, æsthetics, even in mathematics, reason must be attentive to discern the real from the apparent, the true, sometimes unapparent, from the false, which is frequently most plausible.

Criticism, therefore, cannot be a special science. It is rather a condition of all science. It enters into the logical rules which determine how men shall think fairly and judge justly. These simple considerations demonstrate the vanity of those who would arrogate a monopoly of criticism. The school of criticism is the school of all the world. Each has a right to claim and to exercise it. The most ordinary temptation of the cultivated mind is to desire to criticize too much, to overjudge, to criticize even that of which he knows nothing. The sage moderates this intem

perance. He learns to judge only what he knows, never forgetting that his knowledge is limited and his ignorance immeasurable.

Dilke, Sir Charles Wentworth (England, 1843-.) "Finding America » A man may see American countries from the pine wastes of Maine to the slopes of Sierra; may talk with American men and women, from the sober citizens of Boston to Digger Indians in California; may eat of American dishes, from jerked buffalo in Colorado to clambakes on the shores near Salem; and yet, from the time he first "smells the molasses » at Nantucket light-ship to the moment when the pilot quits him at the Golden Gate, may have no idea of an America. You may have seen the East, the South, the West, the Pacific States, and yet have failed to find America. It is not till you have left her shores that her image grows up

in the mind.

Dinarchus (Greece, 361-291 B. C.)

Demosthenes Denounced-Let us no longer suffer by the corrupt and pernicious conduct of Demosthenes. Let it not be imagined that we shall ever want good men and faithful counselors. With all the generous severity of our ancestors, let us punish the man whose bribery. whose treason, are unequivocally detected; who could not resist the temptation of gold; who in war has proved himself a coward, in his civil conduct a busybody; who, when his fellow citizens are called forth to meet their enemies in the field, flies from his post, and hides himself at home; when the danger is at home, and his aid is demanded here, pretends that he is an embassador, and runs from the city!

Let this man no longer amuse you with airy hopes and false representations, and promises which he forgets as soon as uttered! Let not his ready tears and lamentations move you! Reserve all your pity for your country: your country, which his practices have undone, — your country, which now implores you to save it from a traitor's hand. When he would waken all your sympathy for Demosthenes, then turn your eyes on Athens. Consider her former glory. Contrast it with her present degradation ! And ask yourselves whether Demosthenes has been reduced to greater wretchedness by Athens, or Athens by Demosthenes! - (From an oration delivered at Athens against Demosthenes, c. 324 B. C.)

Dix, John A. (American, 1798–1879.)

Religion and Civilization - The influence of Christianity upon the political condition of mankind, though silent and almost imperceptible, has doubtless been one of the most powerful instruments of its amelioration. The principles and the practical rules of conduct which it prescribes; the doctrine of the natural equality of men, of a common origin, a common responsibility, and a common fate; the lessons of humility, gentleness and forbearance, which it teaches, are as much at war with political as

Dix, John A.- Continuea

they are with all moral injustice, oppression, and wrong.

"Shoot Him on the Spot" - If anyone attempt to haul down the American flag, shoot him on the spot. (A telegram sent January 29th, 1861.)

Dod, Albert B. (American, 1805-1845.)

Truth and Error- We never think of working a permanent good in any other way than by instilling the truth; nor do we ever dream that error would answer our purpose equally well, if we could only succeed in making it pass for truth. Any man would spurn the shameless effrontery of the scorner who should tell him that the good of society and of its individual members would be equally well promoted by teaching them to lie and steal and murder, provided we could only persuade them that these things were right. That men can be elevated in their moral character, or in any way benefitted by being taught to receive error as truth, is as monstrous an absurdity and as palpable a contradiction to all the lessons of experience as can be conceived. Man is so made as to be swayed to good only by the truth. His moral nature cannot respond to any other influence.

Dorset, the Earl of (England, 1591-1652.)

Against Prynne in the Star Chamber - Mr. Prynne, your iniquity is full, it runs over, and judgment is come; it is not Mr. Attorney that calls for judgment against you, but it is all mankind; they are the parties grieved, and they call for judgment.

Mr. Prynne, I do declare you to be a schism maker in the Church, a sedition sower in the commonwealth, a wolf in sheep's clothing; in a word, omnium malorum nequissimus. I shall fine you ten thousand pounds sterling, which [addressing the other lords] is more than he is worth, yet less than he deserveth; I will not set him at liberty no more than a plagued man or a mad dog, who though he cannot bite, he will foam; he is so far from being a sociable soul that he is not a rational soul; he is fit to live in dens with such beasts of prey as wolves and tigers like himself. Therefore, I do condemn him to perpetual imprisonment, as those monsters that are no longer fit to live among men nor to see light. Now for corporal punishment, my lords, whether I should burn him in the forehead, or slit him in the nose? He that was guilty of murder was marked in a place where he might be seen, as Cain was. I should be loath he should escape with his ears, for he may get a periwig, which he now so much inveighs against, and so hide them, or force his conscience to make use of his unlovely love-locks on both sides. Therefore, I would have him branded in the forehead, slit in the nose, and his ears cropped too.

Dougherty, Daniel (American, 1826-1889.)

"Hancock the Superb"-I propose to present to the thoughtful consideration of the con

vention the name of one who, though on the field of battle he was styled "The Superb," won still nobler renown as a military governor, whose first act when in command of Louisiana and Texas was to salute the Constitution by proclaiming that military rule shall ever be subservient to the civil power. The plighted word of the soldier was made good by the acts of the statesman. (Cincinnati Convention, 1880.) Douglass, Frederick (American, 1817-1895.) The Right to Speak Out-No right was deemed by the fathers of the government more sacred than the right of speech. It was in their eyes, as in the eyes of all thoughtful men, the great moral renovator of society and governDaniel Webster called it a homebred right, a fireside privilege. Liberty is meaningless where the right to utter one's thoughts and opinions has ceased to exist. That, of all rights, is the dread of tyrants. It is the right which they first of all strike down. They know its power. Thrones, dominions, principalities, and powers, founded in injustice and wrong, are sure to tremble, if men are allowed to reason of righteousness, temperance, and of a judgment to come in their presence. (1860.)

ment.

Douglas, Stephen A. (American, 1813-1861.) His Last Words in Politics-I am not prepared to take up arms, or to sanction a policy of our government to take up arms, to make any war on the rights of the Southern States, on their institutions, on their rights of person or property, but, on the contrary, would rush to their defense and protect them from assault; but, while that is the case, I will never cease to urge my countrymen to take arms to fight to the death in defense of our indefeasible rights. Hence, if a war does come, it is a war of selfdefense on our part. It is a war in defense of our own just rights; in defense of the government which we have inherited as a priceless legacy from our patriotic fathers; in defense of our great rights of freedom of trade, commerce, transit, and intercourse from the centre to the circumference of this great continent.

My friends, I can say no more. To discuss these topics is the most painful duty of my life. It is with a sad heart, with a grief that I have never before experienced, that I have to contemplate this fearful struggle; but I believe in my conscience that it is a duty we owe to ourselves, our children, and our God, to protect this government and that flag from every assailant, be he who he may. (1861. ) Dow, Lorenzo (American, 1777-1834.)

The Contrasts of Life-The whitest foam dances upon the darkest billow, and the stars shine the brightest when surrounded by the blackest of thunder clouds, even as a diamond pin glistens with the greatest effulgence when fastened upon the ebony bosom of an Ethiopian wench. So hope mirrors its most brilliant rays in the dark wave of despair, and happiness is never so complete as when visited occasionally by the ministers of misery. These ups and

downs in the pathway of man's existence are all for the best, and yet he allows them to vex and torment his peace till he bursts the boiler of his rage, and scalds his own toes. Plum pudding is most excellent stuff to wind off a dinner with; but all plum pudding would be worse than none at all. So you see, my friends, the troubles and trials of life are absolutely necessary to enable us to judge rightly of genuine happiness, whenever it happens to enliven the saturnine region of the heart with its presence.

If we never were to have our jackets and shirts wet with the cold rain of misfortune, we could never know how good it feels to stand out and dry in the warm rays of comfort.

Drummond, Henry (Scotland, 1851-1897.)

"The Greatest Thing in the World »-We have been accustomed to be told that the greatest thing in the religious world is Faith. That great word has been the keynote for centuries of the popular religion, and we have easily learned to look upon it as the greatest thing in the world. Well, we are wrong. If we have been told that, we may miss the mark. I have taken you, in the chapter which I have just read, to Christianity at its source, and there we have seen "The greatest of these is love." It is not an oversight. Paul was speaking of faith just a moment before. He says: "If I have all faith, so that I can remove mountains, and have not love, I am nothing." So far from forgetting, he deliberately contrasts them, "Now abideth Faith, Hope, Love," and without a moment's hesitation the decision falls: "The greatest of these is Love." Dwight, Timothy (American, 1752-1817.)

"Men Are Merely Taller Children » — Men are merely taller children. Honor, wealth, and splendor are the toys for which grown children pine; but which, however accumulated, leave them still disappointed and unhappy. God never designed that intelligent beings should be satisfied with these enjoyments. By his wisdom and goodness they were formed to derive their happiness from virtue.

Edmunds, George F. (American, 1828-.)

The Constitution Is the Ruler-Whatever the Constitution commands, you are to do. Whatever the Constitution commands the Executive, he is to do. Whatever the Constitution authorizes to be decided, the judiciary, or some other tribunal fixed by law or by the Constitution itself, is to decide. Those are the only three ways in which government can express itself. - (1877.)

Emerson, Ralph Waldo (American, 1803-1882.)

"Nature Exists for the Excellent" - Nature seems to exist for the excellent. The world is upheld by the veracity of good men; they make the earth wholesome. They who lived with them found life glad and nutritious. Life is sweet and tolerable only in our belief in such society; and actually or ideally we manage to live with superiors. We call our children and our lands by their names. Their names are wrought into the verbs of language,

their works and effigies are in our houses, and every circumstance of the day recalls an anecdote of them.

Individual Growth-Men, such as they are, very naturally seek money or power; and power because it is as good as money, - the "spoils," so called, "of office.» And why not? for they aspire to the highest, and this, in their sleepwalking, they dream is highest. Wake them, and they shall quit the false good and leap to the true, and leave governments to clerks and desks. This revolution is to be wrought by the gradual domestication of the idea of culture. The main enterprise of the world for splendor, for extent, is the upbuilding of a man. Here are the materials strewn along the ground. The private life of one man shall be a more illustrious monarchy, -more formidable to its enemy, more sweet and serene in its influence to its friend, than any kingdom in history. For a man, rightly viewed, comprehendeth the particular natures of all men. Each philosopher,

each bard, each actor, has only done for me, as by a delegate, what one day I can do for myself. The books which once we valued more than the apple of the eye, we have quite exhausted. What is that but saying that we have come up with the point of view which the universal mind took through the eyes of one scribe; we have been that man and have passed on. First, one; then, another; we drain all cisterns, and, waxing greater by all these supplies, we crave a better and more abundant food. The man has never lived that can feed us ever. The human mind cannot be enshrined in a person who shall set a barrier on any one side to this unbounded, unboundable empire. It is one central fire, which, flaming now out of the lips of Etna, lightens the capes of Sicily; and now out of the throat of Vesuvius, illuminates the towers and vineyards of Naples. It is one light which beams out of a thousand stars. It is one soul which animates all men. -(From the "American Scholar. Cambridge, 1837.)

Emmet, Robert (Ireland, 1778-1803.)

On Being Found Guilty of High Treason What have I to say, why sentence of death should not be pronounced on me, according to law? I have nothing to say which can alter your predetermination, or that it would become me to say with any view to the mitigation of that sentence which you are here to pronounce, and which I must abide. But I have that to say which interests me more than life, and which you have labored - as was necessarily your office in the present circumstances of this oppressed country- -to destroy. I have much to say, why my reputation should be rescued from the load of false accusation and calumny which has been heaped upon it. I do not imagine that, seated where you are, your minds can be so free from impurity as to receive the least impression from what I am going to utter. I have no hope that I can anchor my character in the breast of a court constituted and trammeled

Emmet, Robert- Continued

as this is. I only wish, and it is the utmost I expect, that your lordships may suffer it to float down your memories, untainted by the foul breath of prejudice, until it finds some more hospitable harbor to shelter it from the rude storm by which it is at present buffeted.

Were I only to suffer death, after being adjudged guilty by your tribunal, I should bow in silence, and meet the fate that awaits me without a murmur. But the sentence of the law which delivers my body to the executioner will, through the ministry of that law, labor, in its own vindication, to consign my character to obloquy; for there must be guilt somewhere, whether in the sentence of the court, or in the catastrophe, posterity must determine. A man in my situation, my lords, has not only to encounter the difficulties of fortune, and the force of power over minds which it has corrupted or subjugated, but the difficulties of established prejudice; -the man dies, but his memory lives; that mine may not perish, that it may live in the respect of my countrymen, I seize upon this opportunity to vindicate myself from some of the charges alleged against me. When my spirit shall be wafted to a more friendly port,-when my shade shall have joined the bands of those martyred heroes who have shed their blood, on the scaffold and in the field, in defense of their country and of virtue, - this is my hope: I wish that my memory and name may animate those who survive me, while I look down with complacency on the destruction of that perfidious government which upholds its dominion by blasphemy of the Most High,-which displays its powers over man as over the beasts of the forests,-which sets man upon his brother, and lifts his hand, in the name of God, against the throat of his fellow, who believes or doubts a little more, or a little less, than the government standard,-a government which is steeled to barbarity by the cries of the orphans and the tears of the widows which it has made.*

I appeal to the immaculate God,-to the throne of Heaven, before which I must shortly appear, to the blood of the murdered patriots who have gone before; that my conduct has been, through all this peril, and through all my purposes, governed only by the convictions which I have uttered, and by no other view than that of the emancipation of my country from the superinhuman oppression under which she has so long and too patiently travailed; and that I confidently and assuredly hope that, wild and chimerical as it may appear, there is still union and strength in Ireland to accomplish this noblest enterprise. Of this I speak with the confidence of intimate knowledge, and with the consolation that appertains to that confidence. Think not, my lords, I say this for the petty gratification of giving you a transitory uneasi

* Here Lord Norbury said: The weak and wicked enthusiasts who feel as you feel are unequal to the accomplishment of their wild designs."

ness; a man who never yet raised his voice to assert a lie will not hazard his character with posterity by asserting a falsehood on a subject so important to his country, and on an occasion like this. Yes, my lords; a man who does not wish to have his epitaph written until his country is liberated will not leave a weapon in the power of envy, nor a pretense to impeach the probity which he means to preserve even in the grave to which tyranny consigns him.†

Again I say, that what I have spoken was not intended for your lordships, whose situation I commiserate rather than envy; my expressions were for my countrymen; if there is a true Irishman present, let my last words cheer him in the hour of his affliction

I have always understood it to be the duty of a judge, when a prisoner has been convicted, to pronounce the sentence of the law; I have also understood that judges sometimes think it their duty to hear with patience, and to speak with humanity; to exhort the victim of the laws, and to offer, with tender benignity, opinions of the motives by which he was actuated in the crime of which he had been adjudged guilty. That a judge has thought it his duty so to have done, I have no doubt; but where is the boasted freedom of your institutions,where is the vaunted impartiality, clemency, and mildness of your courts of justice, if an unfortunate prisoner, whom your policy, and not justice, is about to deliver into the hands of the executioner, is not suffered to explain his motives sincerely and truly, and to vindicate the principles by which he was actuated?

My lords, it may be a part of the system of angry justice to bow a man's mind, by humiliation, to the purposed ignominy of the scaffold; but worse to me than the scaffold's shame, or the scaffold's terrors, would be the shame of such foul and unfounded imputations as have been laid against me in this court. You, my lord, are a judge. I am the supposed culprit. I am a man,- you are a man also. By a revolution of power we might change places, though we never could change characters. If I stand at the bar of this court, and dare not vindicate my character, what a farce is your justice! If I stand at this bar, and dare not vindicate my character, how dare you calumniate it? Does the sentence of death, which your unhallowed policy inflicts on my body, also condemn my tongue to silence, and my reputation to reproach? Your executioner may abridge the period of my existence; but, while I exist, I shall not forbear to vindicate my character and motives from your aspersions. As a man to whom fame is dearer than life, I will make the last use of that life in doing justice to that reputation which is to live after me,

He was here interrupted by Lord Norbury, who said: "You proceed to unwarrantable lengths in order to exasperate and delude the unwary, and circulate opinions of the most dangerous tendency, for the purposes of mischief."

Lord Norbury here interrupted the speaker with,- What you have hitherto said confirms and justifies the verdict of the jury."

My lord, shall a dying man be denied the legal privilege of exculpating himself, in the eyes of the community, of an undeserved reproach thrown upon him during his trial, by charging him with ambition, and attempting to cast away, for a paltry consideration, the liberties of his country? Why, then, insult me? or, rather, why insult justice, in demanding of me why sentence of death should not be pronounced? I know, my lord, that form prescribes that you should ask the question; the form also presumes the right of answering! This, no doubt, may be dispensed with; and so might the whole ceremony of the trial, since sentence was already pronounced at the Castle before your jury was impaneled. Your lordships are but the priests of the oracle, and I submit to the sacrifice; but I insist on the whole of the forms.t

I am charged with being an emissary of France. An emissary of France! — and for what end? It is alleged that I wished to sell the independence of my country! And for what end? Was this the object of my ambition? and is this the mode by which a tribunal of justice reconciles contradictions? No! I am no emissary. My ambition was to hold a place among the deliverers of my country,-not in power, nor in profit, but in the glory of the achievement. Sell my country's independence to France! And for what? For a change of masters? No; but for ambition! O, my country! was it personal ambition that could influence me? Had it been the soul of my actions, could I not, by my education and fortune, by the rank and consideration of my family, have placed myself among the proudest of your oppressors? My country was my idol.

To it I sacrificed every selfish, every endearing sentiment; and for it I now offer up my life! O God! No! my lord; I acted as an Irishman, determined on delivering my country from the yoke of a foreign and unrelenting tyranny, and from the more galling yoke of a domestic faction, its joint partner and perpetrator in the patricide, whose reward is the ignominy of existing with an exterior of splendor and a consciousness of depravity. It was the wish of my heart to extricate my country from this doublyriveted despotism. I wished to place her independence beyond the reach of any power on earth. I wished to exalt her to that proud station in the world which Providence had fitted her to fill.

* Here Lord Norbury exclaimed: "Listen, sir, to the sentence of the law."

† Here Mr. Emmet paused, and the court desired him to proceed.

Connection with France was, indeed, intended; but only as far as mutual interest would sanction or require. Were the French to assume any authority inconsistent with the purest independence, it would be the signal for their destruction. We sought aid of them; and we sought it, as we had assurance we should obtain it, as auxiliaries in war, and allies in peace. Were the French to come as invaders or enemies, uninvited by the wishes of the people, I should oppose them to the utmost of my strength. Yes, my countrymen, I would meet them on the beach, with a sword in one hand and a torch in the other. I would meet them with all the destructive fury of war; and I would animate you to immolate them in their boats, before they had contaminated the soil. If they succeeded in landing, and if we were forced to retire before superior discipline, I would dispute every inch of ground, raze every house, burn every blade of grass before them, and the last intrenchment of liberty should be my grave. What I could not do myself, if I should fall, I would leave in charge to my countrymen to accomplish; because I should feel conscious that life, more than death, is unprofitable, when a foreign nation holds my country in subjection.

But it was not as an enemy that the succors of France were to land. I looked, indeed, for the assistance of France; but I wished to prove to France, and to the world, that Irishmen deserved to be assisted, that they were indignant at slavery, and ready to assert the independence and liberty of their country! I wished to procure for my country the guarantee which Washington procured for America,- to procure an aid which, by its example, would be as important as by its valor,- allies disciplined, gallant, pregnant with science and experience; who would preserve the good and polish the rough points of our character; who would come to us as strangers, and leave us as friends, after sharing our perils and elevating our destiny. These were my objects; not to receive new task-masters, but to expel old tyrants. These were my views, and these only become IrishIt was for these ends I sought aid from France, because France, even as an enemy, could not be more implacable than the enemy already in the bosom of my country. ‡

men.

I have been charged with that importance, in the efforts to emancipate my country, as to be considered the keystone of the combination of Irishmen, or, as your lordship expressed it, "the life and blood of the conspiracy." You do me honor overmuch. You have given to the subaltern all the credit of a superior. There are men engaged in this conspiracy who are not only superior to me, but even to your own conceptions of yourself, my lord; - men, before the splendor of whose genius and virtues I should bow with respectful deference, and who would think themselves dishonored to be called your friends,-who would not disgrace themselves by shaking your blood-stained hand! §

Here he was interrupted by the court.
Here he was interrupted by Lord Norbury.