 Section 17 of Library of the World's Best Literature, Ancient and Modern, Volume 9. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Chris Pyle. Library of the World's Best Literature, Ancient and Modern, Volume 9, Section 17. Selected Addresses and Orations by Rufus Chot. Rufus Chot, 1799 to 1859. By Albert Stickney. Rufus Chot, one of the greatest, if not the greatest, of advocates who have appeared at the English or American bar, was one of the most remarkable products of what is ordinarily considered hard, prosaic, matter-of-fact New England. He was a man quite apart from the ordinary race of lawyers or New Englanders. He was as different from the typical New Englander as was Hawthorne or Emerson. He had the imagination of a poet, and to his imagination, singular as it may seem, was largely due to his success in handling questions of fact before juries. He was born of good old English stock in the southeastern part of the town of Ipswich, in the county of Essex and state of Massachusetts, on the first day of October 1799. His ancestors had lived in Essex County from a very early date in its history and had filled important public positions. He was born and bred inside of the sea, and his love for it stayed with him through life. One of his most eloquent addresses was on the romance of the sea, and in his last illness at Halifax, his keenest pleasure was to watch the ship sailing in front of his windows, dropping into sleep on one occasion a few days before his death, he said to his attendant, If a schooner or sloop goes by, don't disturb me, but if there is a square-rigged vessel, wake me. Mr. Chote had the ordinary education then given in New England to young men who had a love of learning. He began with the district school. From there he went to the academy at Hampton, New Hampshire, and later he entered Dartmouth College, where he graduated the first scholar in his class in 1819. It is hard to find an accurate standard of comparison between the scholarship of that period and that of the present. No doubt in our New England colleges of today there is a larger number of young men who have a considerable store of knowledge on many subjects of classical learning. But it is very doubtful if the graduates of Harvard and Yale of today are able to read the standard classic authors at the day of their graduation with the ease and accuracy of Mr. Chote at the end of his active professional career in the year 1859. His continued devotion to the classics is shown by the following extract from his journal in the year 1844 while he was a member of Congress. One, some professional work must be done every day. Recent experiences suggest that I ought to be more familiar with evidence and Cowan's Phillips. Therefore daily for half an hour I will thumb conscientiously. When I come home again and the intervals of actual employment, my recent methods of reading accompanying the reports with the composition of arguments upon the points of judge may be properly resumed. Two, in my Greek, Latin and French readings, Odyssey, Thucydides, Tacitus, Juvenile, and some French auditor critic, I need make no change. So too, Milton, Johnson, Burke, Simper and Manu, utmost est. To my Greek I ought to add a page a day of Crosby's Grammar and the practice of parsing every word in my few lines of Homer. On Sunday the Greek Testament and Septuagint and French. This and the Oration of the Crown, which I will completely master, translate, annotate, and commit, will be enough in this kind. If not, I will add a translation of a sentence or two from Tacitus. A similar extract from his journal under the date of December 15, 1844 reads, I begin a great work. Thucydides in Bloomfield's New Edition with the intention of understanding a difficult and learning something from an instructive writer, something for the more and more complicated interior interstate American politics. With Thucydides, I shall read Wachsmouth with historical references and verifications. Shuman on the assemblies of the Athenians, especially I am to meditate, and master Daniel's horse. Ode 1, 11th to 14th line, translation and notes, a pocket edition to be always in pocket. Throughout his life, Mr. Chote kept up his classical studies. Few of the graduates of our leading colleges today carry from commencement a training which makes the study of the Greek and Latin authors either easy or pleasant. Mr. Chote, like nearly every lawyer who has ever distinguished himself at the English bar, was a monument to the value of the study of the classics as a mere means of training for the active, practical work of a lawyer. Mr. Chote studied law at Cambridge in the Harvard Law School. The early year he spent at Washington in the office of Mr. Wirt, then Attorney General of the United States. This was in 1821. Thereafter he was admitted to the bar in September 1823. He opened his office in Salem but soon removed to Danvers where he practiced for four or five years. During his earliest years of his professional life he had the fortune which many other brilliant men in his profession have experienced, that of waiting and hoping. During his first two or three years it is said that he was no despondent as to his chances of professional success that he seriously contemplated abandoning the law. In time he got his opportunity to show the stuff of which he was made. His first professional efforts were in petty cases before justices of the peace. Very soon however his great ability with his untiring industry and his intense devotion to any cause in his hands brought the reputation which he deserved and reputation brought clients. In 1828 he removed to Salem. The next bar was one of great ability. Mr. Chote at once became a leader. Among his contemporaries at that bar was Caleb Cushing. Mr. Chote at first had many criminal cases. In the year 1830 he was, with Mr. Webster, one of the counsel for the prosecution in the celebrated white murder case. In 1830 he was elected to Congress as a member of the House of Representatives at the age of 31 years. At once he laid out a course of study to fit him for the duties of his public life. An extract from it reads as follows. November 4th, 1830. Vaquienda, odd, munus, nuper, impositum. One. Personal qualities. Memory. Daily food. And cowper. Dume emboulot. Voice, manner. Excercate at Ionaise. De orne. Two. Current politics and papers. One. Come not to us. Daily. George, etc. Two. Annual register. Past intelligences, etc. Four. Civil history of the United States in Pitkin and original sources. Five. Examination of pending questions. Tariff. Public lands. Indians. Nullifications. Six. American and British eloquence. Writing. Crackers. Then follow in his manuscript upwards of 20 pages of close writing consisting of memorandum statements drawn from a multitude of sources on the subjects laid down by him at the beginning as the ones to be investigated. In Congress he found himself in competition with many men of marked ability among the members of Congress then from Massachusetts were Mr. Webster in the Senate and in the House John Quincy Adams Edward Everett Nathan Appleton Ben Briggs and John Davis. In the Senate from other states were Pellig Sprague from Maine one of the ablest jurists this country has produced. Samuel Prentice Mr. Marcy Mr. Dallas Mr. Clayton Mr. Clay and Mr. Benton. In the House were James M. Wayne Mr. McDuffie Mr. Polk Mr. Corwin and Mr. Verplank. Among men of this caliber Mr. Chote at once with ease took rank as one of the first. He made two speeches during the session but these gave him a position which he ever afterwards held among those eloquent and convincing speakers in public life. In April 1833 Mr. Chote was re-elected to Congress. At this session he made a speech on the removal of the public deposits by President Jackson from the Bank of the United States. The following incident chose his power as an orator. Benjamin Hardin was then a member from Kentucky of the House of Representatives and was himself intending to speak on the same side of the question with Mr. Chote. In such cases Mr. Hardin's rule was to listen to no other speaker before speaking himself. Consequently when Mr. Chote began speaking Mr. Hardin started to leave the House. He waited however for a moment to listen to a few sentences for Mr. Chote and with this result as told in his own words the member from Massachusetts rose to speak and in accordance with my custom I took my hat to leave lingering a moment just to notice the tone of his voice and his speech. But that moment was fatal to my resolution. I became charmed by the music of his voice and was captivated by the power of his eloquence and found myself wholly unable to move until the last word of his beautiful speech had been uttered. At the close of this session Mr. Chote resigned his seat in Congress and went to Boston there to follow the practice of his profession. At the Boston bar he met a remarkable brilliant group of men. There were Jamiah Mason who they ever met in any legal contest. Franklin Dexter Chief Justice Shaw then at the bar judges Wilde, Whore and Thomas afterwards in the Massachusetts Supreme Court Mr. Fletcher Judge Benjamin R. Curtis Sydney Bartlett Richard H. Dana William D. Sawyer Henry W. Payne Edward D. Sawyer with others whose names are now almost forgotten. These men formed a bar like of which has seldom, if ever, been assembled in any one jurisdiction. Here too Mr. Chote at once came to the front with every talent which can make a man a great advocate. With a marvelous memory a keen logical intellect, a sound legal judgment. He had now acquired a large professional experience and a very complete professional training. As has been seen he had a thorough classical training that is of the kind best fitted to his needs. His professional studies before beginning his professional practice had been the best then attainable. Very possibly for him they were quite as good as can be had at any of the law schools of today. His range of reading and information was extremely wide. He had had several years of experience in Washington and Congress and ever since leaving the law school his mere professional studies had been most severe. It is hard to see how any man could be better equipped for professional practice than Mr. Chote was at this time. His success at the Boston Bar was phenomenal. He was in a contest with giants. Mr. Webster alone could be deemed to dispute with Mr. Chote the place of supremacy. The general verdict has been that for pure intellectual power Mr. Webster was the superior. But it may well be doubted whether as an all-round advocate Mr. Chote did not carry off the palm. The common idea of Mr. Chote has been his marvelous eloquence and strength and success in his forensic contests. This is an error eloquent he undoubtedly was few men have ever been more so but unless in frontier communities eloquence alone has never commanded great success at the bar if indeed it has ever existed without strong logical power and sound judgment the power of convincing intelligent men always depends largely and mainly on soundness of judgment in the selection of positions is this so in the profession of law there have been no doubt many instances where men of eloquence have captivated juries by appeals to passion or prejudice but in the vast majority of cases success as an advocate cannot be had without sound judgment in the selection of positions coupled with the power of clear logical statement Mr. Chote was no exception to this rule Mr. Henry W. Payne one of the leaders of the Boston Bar in Mr. Chote's time was a logical of men once said that he did not care to hear Mr. Chote address a jury but to hear him argue a bill of exceptions before the full bench of the Supreme Court was one of the greatest intellectual treats with the ordinary 12 men in a jury box Mr. Chote was a wizard his knowledge of human nature his wide and deep sympathies his imagination his power of statement with his rich musical voice and his wonderful fascination of manner made him a charmer of men so far as the writer is able to form an opinion there has never been at the English or American Bar a man who has been his equal in his sway over juries comparisons are often condemned but they are at times useful comparing Mr. Chote with Mr. Webster it must be conceded that Mr. Webster might at times carry a jury against Mr. Chote by his force of intellect and the tremendous power of his personal presence Mr. O'Connor once said that he did not consider Mr. Webster an eloquent man Mr. Webster he said was an intellectual giant but he never impressed me as being an eloquent man the general judgment is that Mr. Webster had eloquence of a very high order but Mr. Chote was a magician with any opponent of his time except Mr. Webster he was irresistible before juries Mr. Justice Katrin of the United States Court is reported to have said to Mr. Chote I have heard the most imminent advocates but he surpasses them all his success came from a rare combination of eloquence sound logical judgment and great powers of personal fascination in another respect the common opinion of Mr. Chote must be corrected his great powers of persuasion and conviction undoubtedly gave him some victories which were not deserved by the mere merits of his cases from this fact there went abroad the impression that he was a man without principle and that his ethical standards were not high in his selection and conduct of cases contrary to the judgment of the competent the impression was due largely to his success in the celebrated defense of Tyrell Tyrell was indicted for the murder of a woman named Bickford with whom Tyrell had long associated who was found dead in a house of ill repute at about the hour when the woman lost her life either by her own hand or by that of Tyrell the house caught fire the cause of the fire was not proved Tyrell had been in her company the previous evening and articles of clothing belonging to him were found in the morning in her room many circumstances seemed to indicate that the woman had been killed by Tyrell he was also indicted for arson and setting fire to the house in addition to other facts proved by the defense it was shown by reputable witnesses that Tyrell had from his youth been subject to some nemulism and one of the positions taken by Mr. Chote for the defense was that the killing if done by Tyrell at all was done by him while unconscious in a condition of some nemulism Tyrell was tried under both indictments and was acquitted on both the indictment for murder was tried before Justice's Wild, Dewey, and Hubbard the indictment for arson was tried before Chief Justice Shaw and Justice's Wild and Dewey the foreman in the jury stated that the defense of some nemulism received no weight in the deliberations of the jury the judgment of the profession has been the only ones which could properly have been rendered on the evidence in the arson case the charge to the jury was by Chief Justice Shaw and was strongly in favor of the defense no doubt the defense was extremely able and ingenious but the criticisms against Mr. Chote for his conduct of those cases in the opinion of those members of the profession best qualified to judge have been held to be without good foundation lawyers that is reputable ones no evidence nor are they the witnesses who testify to facts the severe tests of cross-examination usually elicit the truth no one ever charged Mr. Chote with manufacturing evidence and no lawyer of good judgment so far as the writer is aware has ever charged him with practices which were not in keeping with the very highest professional standards in the space here allotted any attempt to give an adequate idea Mr. Chote's professional and public work in addition to the conduct of an unusually large professional practice he did a large amount of literary work mainly in the delivery of lectures which at that time in New England were almost a part of the public system of education throughout his life he took an active part in politics he attended the Wig convention at Baltimore in 1852 where General Scott received his nomination for the presidency and where Mr. Chote made one of the most eloquent speeches of his life in his effort to secure the nomination for Mr. Webster Mr. Chote finally killed himself by overwork though a man of great physical strength and remarkable vitality no constitution could stand the strains of his intense labors in the different lines of law, literature and politics his magnificent physique finally broke down he died on July 13th, 1859 being not quite 60 years his death was an important public event in the public press at many public meetings not the country and by public men of highest distinction his death was treated as a public misfortune in his day he rendered distinguished public services he had the capacities and the interests which fitted him to be a great statesman had it not been for our system of short terms and rotation and office Mr. Chote would probably have remained in public life from the time of his entry into Congress would have been a most valuable public servant and would have left a great reputation as a statesman as it was he left so far as now appears only the ephemeral reputation of a great advocate this scanty sketch can best be closed by a quotation from the address of Richard H. Dana at the meeting of the Boston Bar held just after Mr. Chote's death that extract will show the judgment of Mr. Chote which was held by the giants among whom he lived and of whom he was the leader the wine of life is drawn the gold and bowl is broken the magic of miracles has passed the day of inspiration is over the great conqueror, unseen and irresistible has broken into our temple and has carried off the vessels of gold the vessels of silver the precious stones, the jewels and the ivory and like the priests of the temple of Jerusalem after the invasion from Babylon we must contend ourselves as we can with vessels of wood and of stone and of iron with such broken phrases as these Mr. Chairman perhaps not altogether just to the living we endeavor to express the emotions natural to this hour of our bereavement talent, industry, eloquence and learning there are still and always will be at the Bar of Boston but if I say that the age of miracles has passed that the day of inspiration is over if I cannot realize that in this place where we now are the cloth of gold was spread in a banquet set fit for the gods I know sir you will excuse it anyone who has lived with him survives him, will excuse it anyone who liked the youth in words worth owed by the vision splendid is on his way attended at length perceives it die away and fade into the light of common day it will also tend to secure justice to Mr. Chote's memory if there be here recorded the statement by Judge Benjamin R. Curtis of the judgment of the med of Mr. Chote's own profession as to the moral standards by which Mr. Chote was governed in his practice Judge Curtis set his address at the same meeting of the Boston Bar I desire therefore on this occasion and in this presence to declare our appreciation of the injustice which would be done to this great and eloquent advocate by attributing to him any want of loyalty to truth or any deference to wrong because he employed all his great powers and attainments and used to the utmost his consummate skill and eloquence in exhibiting and enforcing the comparative merits of one side of the cases in which he acted and doing so he but did his duty if other people did theirs the administration of justice was secured Albert Stickney all the citations are from the addresses and orations of Rufus Chote copyrighted 1878 by Little Brown and Company selected addresses and orations the Puritan and Secular and Religious Life from address delivered at the Ipswich Centennial 1834 turn first now for a moment to the old English Puritans the fathers of our fathers of whom came, of whom were planters of Ipswich of Massachusetts, of New England of whom came, of whom were our own ward Parker and Sultanstall and Wise Norton and Rogers and Appleton and Covet and Winthrop and see whether they were likely to be the founders of a race of freemen or slaves remember then the true noblest, the least questioned least questionable praise of these men is this, that for a hundred years they were the sole depositories of the sacred fire of liberty in England after it gone out in every other bosom that they saved at its last gasp the English Constitution which the tutors and the first two stewards were rapidly changing and it just such a gloomy despotism as they saw in France and Spain and wrought into it every particle of freedom which it now possesses that when they first took their seats in the House of Commons in the early part of the reign of Elizabeth, they found at the cringing and ready tool of the throne and that they reanimated it remodeled it, reasserted its privileges, restored it to its constitutional rank, drew back to it the old power of making laws redressing wrongs and imposing taxes and thus again rebuilt and opened what an Englishman called the chosen of liberty, an English House of Commons that they abridged the tremendous power of the crown and defined it and when at last Charles Stewart resorted to arms to restore the despotism they had partially overthrown that they met him on a hundred fields of battle and buried after a sharp and long struggle, crown and mitre and the headless trunk of the king himself beneath the foundations of a civil and religious commonwealth this praise all the historians of England Wig and Tory, Protestant and Catholic Hume, Hallam, Lingard and all award to the Puritans by what causes the spirit of liberty had been breathed into the masculine enthusiastic austere resolute character of this extraordinary body of men in such intensity as to mark them all from all the rest of the people of England I cannot hear and now particularly consider it is a thrilling and awful history the Puritans in England from their first emerging above the general level of Protestants in the time of Henry VIII and Edward VI until they were driven by hundreds and thousands to these shores but I must pass it over it was just when the nobler and grander traits the enthusiasm and piety and hardy hood and energy a Puritanism had attained the highest point of exaltation to which in England it ever mounted up and the love of liberty had grown to be the great master passion that fired and guided all the rest it was just then that our portion of the world's disciples filled with the undiluted spirit glowing with the intensest fervors of Protestantism and Republicanism together came hither and in that elevated and holy and resolved frame began to build the civil and religious structures which you see around you trace now their story a little farther onward through the colonial period to the war of independence to admire with me the providential agreement of circumstances by which that spirit of liberty which brought was strengthened and reinforced until length instructed by wisdom tempered by virtue and influenced by injuries by anger and grief and conscious worth and sense of violated right it burst forth here and rocked the wonders of the revolution I have thought that if one had a power to place a youthful and forming people like the northern colonists in whom the love of freedom was already vehement and helpful in a situation the most proprietous for the growth and protection of that sacred sentiment he could hardly select a fairer field for so interesting an experiment then the actual condition of our fathers for the hundred and fifty years after their arrival to the war of the revolution they had freedom enough to teach them its value and to refresh and elevate their spirits we read not despondent from the contentions and trials of England they were just so far short of perfect freedom that instead of reposing for a moment in the mere fruition of what they had they were kept emulous and eager for more looking all the while up and aspiring to rise to a loftier height to breathe the pure air and bask in a brighter beam compared with the condition of England down to 1688 compared with that of the larger part of the continent of Europe down to our revolution theirs was a privileged and liberal condition necessities of freedom if I may say so its plainer food and homelier garments and humbler habitations were theirs its luxuries and refinements, its festivals its lettered and social glory its loftier port and prouder look and richer graces were the growth of a later day these came in with independence here was liberty itself to make them love it for itself and to fill them with those lofty and kindred sentiments which are at once its fruit and its nutriment and safeguard in the soul of man but their liberty was still incomplete it was constantly in danger from England and these two circumstances had a powerful effect in increasing that love and confirming those sentiments it was a condition precisely adapted to keep liberty as a subject of thought and feeling and desire every moment in mind every moment they were comparing what they had possessed with what they wanted and had a right to they calculated by the rule of three if a fractional part of freedom came to so much what would express the power and value of the whole number they were restive and impatient and ill at ease a galling wakefulness possessed their faculties like a spell had they been holy slaves they had lanes still and slept had they been holy free that eager hope, that fond desire that longing after a great distant yet practicable good would have given way to the placidity and luxury and carelessness of complete enjoyment and that energy and wholesome agitation of mind would have gone down like an ebb tied as it was the whole vast body of waters all over its surface down to its sunless utmost depths were heaved and shaken and purified by a spirit that moved above it and threw it and gave it no rest though the moon waned and the winds were in their caves they were like the disciples of old and bitter philosophy of paganism who had been initiated into one stage of the greater mysteries and who had come to the door closed and written over strange characters which led up to another they had tasted of truth and they burned for a fuller draft a partial revelation of that which shall be hereafter had dawned and their hearts throbbed eager yet not without apprehension to look upon the glories of the perfect day some of the mystery of God of nature of man of the universe had been unfolded might they by prayer by abstinence by virtue by retirement by contemplation entitle themselves to read another page in that clasped and awful volume the new englanders character from address delivered at the Ipswich Centennial 1834 I hold it to have been a great thing in the first place that we had among us at that awful moment when the public mind was meditating the question of submission to the t-tax or resistance by arms and at the more awful moment of the first appeal to arms that we had some among us who personally knew what war was Washington, Putnam, Stark, Gates Prescott, Montgomery were soldiers already so were hundreds of others of Humber rank and not yet forgotten by the people whom they helped to save who mustered to the camp of our first revolutionary armies these all attested a soldier's life they had seen fire they had felt the thrilling sensations the quick and flow of blood to and from the heart the mingled apprehension and hope the hot haste the burning thirst the feverish rapture a battle which he was not felt as unconscious of one half the capacities and energies of his nature which he who has felt, I am told, never forgets they had slept in the woods on the withered leaves or the snow and awoke to breakfast upon birch bark and the tender chops of willow trees they had kept guard on the outpost of many a stormy night knowing perfectly that the thicket half a pistol shot off was full of French and Indian riflemen I say it was something that we had such men among us they helped discipline our raw first levees they knew what an army is and what it needs and how to provide for it they could take that young volunteer of sixteen by the hand sent by an Ipswich mother who after looking upon her son equipped for battle from which he might not return Spartan-like bid him go and behave like a man and many many set shoulder to musket for Lexington and Bunker Hill and assure him from their own personal knowledge that after the first fire he never would know fear again even that of the last onset but the long and peculiar wars of New England had gone more than to furnish a few such officers and soldiers as these they had formed that public sentiment upon the subject of war which reunited all the armies fought all the battles and won all the glory of the revolution the truth is that war in some form or another had been from the first one of the usages one of the habits of colonial life it had been felt from the first to be just as necessary as planting or reaping to be as likely to break out every day and every night as a thundershow or in summer and to break out as suddenly there have been nations who boasted that their rivers or mountains never saw the smoke of an enemy's camp here the war-wool awoke the sleep of the cradle it startled the dying man on his pillow it summoned young and old from the meeting-house from the burial and from the bridal ceremony to the strife of death the consequence was that the steady composed and reflecting courage which belongs to all the English race grew into a leading characteristic of New England and a public sentiment was formed pervading young and old in both sexes which declared it lawful, necessary and honorable to risk life and to shed blood for a great cause for our family, for our fires, for our God, for our country, for our religion in such a cause it declared that the voice of God himself commanded to the field the courage of New England was the courage of conscience it did not rise to that insane and awful passion the love of war for itself it would not have hurried her sons to the Nile or the foot of the pyramids or across the great raging sea of snows which rolled from Smolensko to Moscow to set the stars of glory upon the glowing brow of ambition but it was a courage which at Lexington, at Bunker Hill at Bennington and at Saratoga had power to brace the spirit for the patriot's fight and gloriously roll back the tide of menaced war from their homes, the soil of their birth, the graves of their fathers and the everlasting kills of their freedom, of the American Bar from the address before the Cambridge Law School, 1845 something such has in all the past periods of our history been one of the functions of the American Bar to vindicate the true interpretation of the charters of the colonies, to advise what forms of polity, what systems of jurisprudence, what degree and what mode of liberty these characters permitted to detect and expose that long succession of infringement which grew at last to the Stamp Act and the T-Tex and compelled us to turn from broken characters to national independence to conduct the transcendent controversy which preceded the revolution that grand appeal to the reason of civilization, this was the work of our first generation of lawyers to construct the American constitutions the higher praise of the second generation I claim it in part for the sobriety and learning of the American Bar for the professional instinct towards the past for the professional appreciation of order, forms, obedience, restraints for the more than professional, the profound and wide intimacy with the history of all liberty, classical, medieval and above all of English liberty I claim it in part for the American Bar that's springing into existence by revolution, revolution which more than anything and all things lacerates and discomposes the popular mind justifying that revolution only on a strong principle of natural right with not one single element or agent of monarchy or aristocracy on our soil or in our blood, I claim it for the Bar that the constitutions of America so nobly closed the series of our victories these constitutions owe to the Bar more than their terse and exact expression and systematic arrangements they owe to it in part two their elements of permanence their felicitous reconciliation of universal and intense liberty with forms to enshrine and regulations to restrain it their Anglo-Saxon sobriety and gravity conveyed in the genuine idiom suggestive of the grandest civil achievements of that unequaled race to interpret these constitutions to administer and maintain them that is the office of our age of the profession herein have we somewhat wherein to glory hereby we come to the class and share in the dignity of founders of states of restorers of states of preservers of states I said and I repeat that while lawyers and because we are lawyers we are statesmen we are by profession statesmen and who may measure the value of this department of public duty doubtless in statesmanship there are many mansions and large variety of conspicuous service doubtless to have wisely decided the question of war peace to have adjusted by a skillful negotiation 8000 miles of unsettled boundary line to have laid the cornerstone of some vast policy whereby the currency is corrected the finance is enriched the measure of industrial fame filled are large achievements and yet I do not know that I can point to one achievement of this department of American statesmanship which can take rank for its consequences of good above that single decision of the supreme court which a judge that an active legislature contrary to the constitution is void and that the judicial department is clothed with the power to ascertain the repugnancy and to pronounce the legal conclusion that the framers of the constitution intended this should be so is certain and to have asserted it against the congress and the executive to have vindicated it by that easy yet adamantine demonstration than which the reasonings of the mathematics show nothing sure who have inscribed the vast truth of conservatism on the public mind so that no demagogue not in the last stage of intoxication denies it this is an achievement of statesmanship of which a thousand years may not exhaust or reveal all the good Daniel Webster from Eulogy delivered at Dartmouth College sometimes it has seemed to me that to enable wonder appreciate with accuracy as a psychological speculation the intrinsic and absolute volume and texture of that brain the real rated measure of those abilities it was better not to see or hear him unless you could see or hear him frequently and in various modes of exhibition for undoubtedly there was something in his countenance and bearing so expressive of command something even in his conversational language when saying Parva Sumise et monica temperate so exquisitely plausible embodying the likeness at least of a rich truth the forms at least of a large generalization in an epithet an antithesis a pointed phrase a broad and peremptory thesis and something in his grander forth-putting which roused by a great subject or occasion exciting his reason and touching his moral sentiments in his heart so difficult to be resisted approaching so near going so far beyond the higher style of man that although it left you a very good witness of his power of influencing others you were not in the best condition immediately to pronounce on the quality for the source of the influence you saw the flash and heard the peel and felt the admiration and fear well from what region it was launched and by what divinity from what Olympian seat certainly yet tell to do that you must, if you saw him at all see him many times compare him with himself and with others follow his dazzling career from his father's house observe from what competitors he won those laurels study his discourses study them by the side of those of other great men of this country and time and of other countries and times conspicuous in the same fields of mental achievement look through the crystal water the style down to the golden sands of the thought analyze and contrast intellectual power somewhat consider what kind and what quantity of it has been held by students of mine needful in order to great eminence in the higher mathematics or metaphysics or reason of the law what capacity to analyze through and through the primordial elements of the truths of that science yet what wisdom and sobriety in order to control the wantonness of a mere scholastic logic by systemizing ideas and combining them and repressing one by another thus producing not a collection of intense and conflicting paradoxes but a code scientifically coherent and practically useful consider what description and what quantity of mind have been held needful by students of mind in order to conspicuous eminence long maintained in statesmanship that great practical science great philosophical art whose ends are the existence happiness and honor of a nation whose truths are to be drawn from the widest survey of man of social man of the particular race in particular community for which a public is to be made or kept or a policy to be provided policy in action demanding at once or affording place for the highest speculative genius and the most skillful conduct of men and of affairs and finally consider what degree and kind power has been found to be required in order to influence the reason of an audience and a nation by speech not magnetizing the mere nervous or emotional nature by an effort of that nature but operating on reason by reason a great reputation in forensic and deliberative eloquence maintained in advancing for a lifetime it is thus that we come to be sure that his intellectual power was as real and as uniform as its very happiest particular display had been imposing and remarkable end of section 17 recording by Chris Pyle section 18 of the library of the world's best literature ancient and modern volume 9 this is the LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by Larry Wilson library of the world's best literature ancient and modern volume 9 section 18 St. John Chrysostom by John Malone St. John Chrysostom AD 347 to 407 a strong soldier of the cross and from good fighting stock was that John of Antioch who among the people that were first of the earth to bear the name of Christian was called Chrysostom of gold his father Secundus who died about the time of Chrysostom's birth was a military commander in Syria under Constantine and Constantius II John was born at Antioch AD 347 with eastern empire and the city of Constantine were new his young mother Arathusa a Christian then but 20 years of age devoted herself to widowhood and the education of her son the city of his birth the youth's early years were passed under her careful guidance and at the age of 20 he entered on the study of oratory and philosophy under the celebrated Labanius in 369 he became a baptized Christian and reader in the house of Melitius the bishop the unhappy reigns of Valens and Valentinian when neopaganism in the west and in the gothic settlement in the east began to work the empire's small saw John devoted to an aesthetic life after the example of the monks and hermits who sheltered in the mountains about the gay and queenly city of his birth his mother's grief and loneliness brought him back from his cave to an energetic career as an outspoken preacher of God's word and the eternal prophet of good stout-hearted workaday well-doing he made himself dear to the people of Antioch for he had eloquence such as had been unknown to Greeks since Demosthenes and he shrank not from labor in South Denial so they called him golden mouth as the Indians called their tried men straight tongues on the death of Nectarius the successor of Gregory of Nazion Xenus theophilus of Alexandria and Arcadius the emperor made him metropolitan of Constantinople AD 397 all before this time he was laying about him near smiting Greek at vice and luxury of which there was abundance both in palace and in Hubble and his elevation to an imperial neighborhood did not stay him he cleared Byzantium of pagan shows gathered the relics of the martyrs and sent missionaries to preach to the Goths in their own speech not many years of this kind of leadership were allowed him Arcadius well disposed but indolent was under the rule of a willful woman and when Chrysostom turned his swayful voice against her pet vanities the vex eudoxia intrigued his disposition in 403 John went to exile in Bethenia with the words the Lord hath given the Lord hath taken away upon his lips a great earthquake so frightened the imperial city and family that with one outcry they called them back when the fear of the infirm earth had worn away eudoxia remembered her enmity and took it back to nurse so one day when John had said in his sword-like invective that Herodias was raging again she showed less mercy than the Baptist had obtained for under the plea that his restoration had been unwarranted the metropolitan was sent to a forced wandering in the wilds of outer provinces from which they returned to him only the venerated relics of a martyr driven from spot to spot sometimes in chains always under the prod of guarding spears one day of September 407 he dragged himself to the tomb of the martyr Basiliscus at Comana in Pontus and laid his soul in the hands of God 30 years afterward the eudoxias the younger brought the body back to Constantinople in person the work of Chrysostom was small and spare his life of rigorous fasting and toil made him still more slight and hollow-cheaped but it is told that there was always a blaze of fire in the deep-set eyes the work of Chrysostom was chiefly ecclesiastical oratory in which no one of his own or later time surpassed him first of the great Christian preachers after the church came from the caves he was not less able as a teacher his letters full of sweetness and firm honesty his poetry delicate and musical and his philosophic essays rich with the clear-cut jewels of dialectics are worthy of his station in the first order of the doctors of the church the real wealth is from within from the treatise to prove that no one can harm the man who does not injure himself what I undertake is to prove only make no commotion that no one of those who are wronged is wronged by another but experiences this injury at his own hands but in order to make my argument plainer let us first of all inquire what injustice is and of what kind of things the material of it is want to be composed also what human virtue is and what it is which ruins it and further what it is which seems to ruin it but really does not for instance for I must complete my argument by means of examples each thing is subject to one evil which ruins it iron to rust wool to moth flocks of sheep to wolves the virtue of wine is injured when it ferments and turns sour of honey when it loses its natural sweetness and is reduced to a bitter juice ears of corn are ruined by mildew and drought the fruit leaves and branches of vines by the mischievous host of locusts other trees by the caterpillar and irrational creatures by diseases of various kinds and not to lengthen the list by going through all possible examples our own flesh is subject to fevers and palsies and a crowd of other maladies as then each one of these things is liable to that which ruins its virtue let us now consider what it is which injures the human race and what it is which ruins the virtue of a human being most men think that there are diverse things which have this effect for I must mention the erroneous opinions on the subject and after confuting them proceed to exhibit that which really does ruin our virtue and to demonstrate clearly that no one could inflict this injury or bring this ruin upon us unless we betrayed ourselves the multitude then having erroneous opinions imagine that there are many different things which ruin our virtue some say it is poverty others bodily disease others loss of property others columbia others death and they are perpetually bewailing and lamenting these things and whilst they are commiserating the sufferers and shedding tears they excitedly exclaim to one another what a calamity has befallen such and such a man he has been deprived of all his fortune at a blow of another again one will say such and such a man has been attacked by severe sickness and is disbared of by the physicians in attendance some be well and lament the inmates of the prison some those who have been expelled from their country and transported to the land of exile others those who have been deprived others those who have been seized and made captives by enemies others those who have been drowned or burnt or buried by the fall of a house but no one mourns those who are living in wickedness on the contrary which is worse than all they often congratulate them a practice which is the cause of all manner of evils come then only as I exhorted you at the outset do not make a commotion I may prove that none of the things which have been mentioned injure the man who lives soberly nor can ruin his virtue for tell me if a man has lost all either at the hands of colluminators or of robbers or has been stripped of his goods by navy servants what harm has the loss done to the virtue of the man but if it seems well let me rather indicate in the first place what is the virtue of a man beginning by dealing with the subject in the case of existences of another kind so as to make it more intelligible and plain to the majority of readers what then is the virtue of a horse is it to have a bridle studded with gold and girth to match and a band of symptom threads to fasten the housing and clothes wrought in diverse colors and gold tissue and headgear studded with jewels and locks of hair plated with gold cord or is it to be swift and strong in its legs and even in its paces and to have hoofs suitable to a well bred horse and courage fitted for long journeys and warfare and to be able to behave with calmness in the battlefield and if a route takes place to save its rider is it not manifest that these are the things which constitute the virtue of the horse not the others again what should you say was the virtue of asses and mules is it not the power of carrying burdens with contentment and accomplishing journeys with ease and having hoofs like rock shall we say that their outside trappings contribute anything to their own proper virtue by no means and what kind of vine shall we admire one which abounds and leaves and branches or one which is laden with fruit of what kind of virtue do we predicate on a vanilla is it to have large bows and great luxuriance of leaves or to exhibit an abundance of its proper fruit dispersed over all parts of the tree well let us act in the same way in the case of human beings also let us determine what is the virtue of man and let us regard that alone as an injury which is destructive to it what then is the virtue of man not riches that thou should fear poverty nor health of body that thou should dread sickness nor the opinion of the public that thou should view an evil reputation with alarm nor life simply for its own sake that death should be terrible to thee nor liberty that thou should avoid servitude but carefulness in holding true doctrine in rectitude of life of these things not even the devil himself will be able to rob a man if he who possesses them guards them with the needful carefulness and that most malicious and ferocious demon is aware of this thus in no case will anyone be able to injure a man who does not choose to injure himself but if a man is not willing to be temperate and to aid himself from his own resources no one will ever be able to profit him therefore also that wonderful story of the holy scriptures as in some lofty large and broad picture as portrayed the lives of the men of old time extending the narrative from Adam to the coming of Christ and it exhibits to you both those who are vanquished and those who are crowned with victory in the contest in order that it may instruct you by means of all examples that no one will be able to injure one who is not injured by himself even if all the world were in kindle a fierce war against him for it is not stress of circumstances nor variation of seasons nor insults of men in power nor intrigues besetting thee like snowstorms nor a crowd of calamities nor a promiscuous collection of all the ills to which mankind is subject which can disturb even slightly the man who is brave and temperate and watchable just as on the contrary the indolent and supine man who is his own betrayer cannot be made better even with the aid of innumerable ministrations on encouragement during adversity from the letters to Olympias to my lady the most reverend and divinely favored deaconess Olympias I John Bishop sin greeting in the Lord come now let me relieve the wound of thy despondency and to disperse the thoughts out of care around thee for what is it which upsets thy mind and why art thou sorrowful and dejected it is because of the fierce black storm which has overtaken the church enveloping all things in darkness as of a night without a moon and is growing too ahead every day traveling to bring forth disastrous shipwrecks and increasing the ruin of the world I know all this as well as you shall gain say it and if you like I will form an image of the things now taking place so as to present the tragedy yet more distinctly to thee we behold the sea upheave from the very lowest depths some sailors floating dead upon the waves others engulfed by them the planks of the ships breaking up the sails toward the tatters the mass sprung the oars dashed out of the sailors hands the pilots seated on the deck clasping their knees with their hands instead of grasping the rudder bewailing the hopelessness of their situation with sharp cries and bitter lamentations neither sky nor sea clearly visible but all one deep and impenetrable darkness so that no one can see his neighbor whilst mighty is the roaring of the billows and monsters of the sea attack the crews on every side but how much further to pursue the unattainable for whatever image of our present evils I may seek speech shrinks baffled from the attempt nevertheless even when I look at these calamities I do not abandon the hope of better things considering as I do who the pilot is in all of this not one who gets the better of the storm by his art that calms the raging waters by his rod and if he does not effect this in an outset and speedily such as his custom he does not at the beginning put down these terrible evils but when they have increased and come to extremities and most persons are reduced to despair then he works wondrously and beyond all expectation thus manifesting his own power and training the patients of those who undergo these calamities do not therefore be cast down for there is a single Olympus which is really terrible only one real trial and that is sin and I have never ceased continually harping upon this theme but as for all other things plots, enmities, frauds calamities, insults, accusations confiscation exile, the keen sword of the enemy the peril of the deep warfare of the whole world or anything else you like to name they are but idle tales for whatever the nature of these things may be they are transitory and perishable and operate in a mortal body without doing any injury to the vigilant soul therefore the blessed Paul desiring to prove the insignificance both of the pleasures and sorrows relating to this life declared the whole truth in one sentence when he said for the things which are seen are temporal why then does thou fear temporal things which pass away like the stream of a river for such is the nature of present things whether they be pleasant or painful and another prophet compared all human prosperity not to grass but to another material even more flimsy describing the whole of it as the flower of grass for he did not single out any one part of it as wealth alone or luxury alone or power or honor but having comprised all the things which are esteemed splendid amongst men under the one designation of glory he said all the glory of man is as the flower of grass nevertheless you will say adversity is a terrible thing and grievous to be born yet look at it again compared with another image and then also learn to despise it for the railing and insults and reproaches and jibes inflicted by enemies and their plots are compared to a worn out garment and moth-eaten wool when God says fear ye not the reproach of men neither be ye afraid of their revilings for they shall wax old as doth a garment and like a moth-eaten wool so shall they be consumed therefore let none of these things which are happening trouble be evoked the aid of this or that person and to run after shadows for such are human alliances do thou persistently call upon Jesus whom thou serviced merely to bow his head and in a moment of time all these evils will be dissolved but if thou hast already called upon him and yet they have not been dissolved such is the manner of God's dealing for I will resume my former argument he does not put down evils but when they have gone to a head when scarcely any form of the enemy's malice remains ungratified then he suddenly converts all things to a state of tranquility and conducts them to an unexpected settlement for he is not only able to turn as many things as we expect and hope to good but many more, ye infinitely more wherefore also Paul said now to him who is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think could he not, for example have prevented the three children at the outset from falling into trial but he did not choose to do this thereby conferring great pain upon them therefore he suffered them to be delivered into the hands of the barbarians and the furnace to be heated to an immeasurable height and the wrath of the king to blaze even more fiercely than the furnace and hands and feet to be bound with great severity and they themselves to be cast into the fire and then when all they who beheld despaired of their rescue suddenly and beyond all hope the wonder-working power of God the supreme artificer was displayed and shown forth with exceeding splendor for the fire was bound and the bodement were released and the furnace became a temple of prayer of mountains and dew of higher dignity than a royal court and the very hairs of their head prevailed over that all devouring element which gets the better even of iron and stone and masters every kind of substance and a solemn song of universal praise was instituted there by those holy men inviting every kind of created thing to join in the wondrous melody and they uttered hymns of thanksgiving for that they had been bound and also burnt as far at least as the malice of their enemies had power that they had been exiles from their country captives deprived of their liberty wandering outcasts from city and home sojourners in a strange and barbarous land for all this was the outpouring of a grateful heart and when the malicious devices of their enemies were perfected for what further could they attempt after their death and the labors the heroes were completed and the garland of victory was woven and their rewards were prepared and nothing more was wanting for the renown then at last their calamities were brought to an end and the one who caused the furnace to be kindled and delivered them over to that great punishment became himself the panagyrist of those holy heroes of the herald of God's marvelous deed and everywhere throughout the world issued letters full of reverent praise that had taken place and becoming the faithful herald of the miracles wrought by the wonder-working God for in as much as he had been an enemy and adversary what he wrote was above suspicion even in the opinion of enemies thus thou see the abundance of resource belonging to God his extraordinary power his loving kindness and care be not therefore dismayed or troubled but continue to give thanks to God for all things praising and invoking him beseeching and supplicating even if countless tumults and troubles come upon thee even if tempests are stirred up before thine eyes let none of these things disturb thee for our master is not baffled by the difficulty even if all things are reduced to the extremity of ruin for it is possible for him to raise those who have fallen those who are in error to set straight those who have been ensnared to release those who have been laid in with countless sins and make them righteous to quicken those who are dead to restore luster to decayed things and freshness to those who have waxen old for if he makes things which are not to come into being and bestows existence on things which are nowhere by any means manifest how much more will he rectify things which already exist concerning the statutes from Homily 8 Knowing these things let us take heed to our life and let us not be earnest as to the goods that perish neither as to the glory that goeth out nor as to the body which growth old nor as to that beauty which is fading nor as to that pleasure which is feeding but let us expend all our care about the soul and let us provide for the welfare of this in every way for to cure the body when diseased is not an easy matter to everyone but to cure a sick soul is easy to all and the sickness of the body requires medicine as well as money for its healing but the healing of the soul is a thing easy to procure and devoid of expense and the nature of the flesh is with much labor delivered from those wounds which are troublesome for very often the knife must be applied and medicines that are bitter but with respect to the soul there is nothing of this kind it suffices only to exercise the will and the desire and all things are accomplished and this have been the work of God's providence in as much as from bodily sickness no great injury could arise for though we were not diseased yet death would in any case come and destroy and dissolve the body but everything depends upon the health of our souls this being by far the more precious and necessary he hath made the medicine of it easy and void of expense or pain what excuse therefore or what pardon shall we obtain if when the body is sick and money must be expended on its behalf the physicians called in a much anguish endured we make this so much a matter of our care though what might result from that sickness could be no great injury to us and yet treat the soul with neglect and this when we are neither called upon to pay down money nor to give others any trouble nor to sustain any sufferings but without any of all these things by only choosing and willing have it in our power to accomplish the entire amendment of it and knowing assuredly that if we fail to do this we shall sustain the extreme sentence and punishments and penalties that are inexorable for tell me if anyone promised to teach thee the healing art in a short space of time without money or labor wouldst thou not think him a benefactor wouldst thou not submit both to do and to suffer all things whatsoever he who promised these things commanded behold now it is permitted thee without labor to find a medicine for wounds not of the body but of the soul without any help without any suffering let us not be indifferent to the matter for pray what is the pain of laying aside anger against one who hath agreed thee it is a pain indeed to remember injuries and not to be reconciled what labor is it to pray and to ask for a thousand good things from God who is ready to give what labor is it not to speak evil of anyone what difficulty is there in being delivered from envy and ill will what trouble is it to love one's neighbor what suffering is it not to utter shameful words nor to revile nor to insult another what fatigue is it not to swear or again I return to this same admonition the labor of swearing is indeed exceedingly great often times whilst under the influence of anger or rap we have sworn perhaps to be reconciled to those who have injured us I am now for the sixth day admonishing you in respect of this precept henceforth I am desirous to take leave of you meaning to abstain from the subject that ye may be on your guard there will no longer be any excuse or allowance for you for of right indeed if nothing had been said on this matter it ought to have been amended of yourselves for it is not a thing of an intricate nature or that requires great preparation but since you have enjoyed the advantage of so much admonition and counsel what excuse will you have to offer when you stand accused before that dread tribunal and are required to give account of this transgression it is impossible to invent any excuse but of necessity you must either go hence amended or if you have not amended be punished and abide the extremist penalty thinking therefore upon all these things and departing hencewith much anxiety about them exhort ye one another that the things spoken of during so many days may be kept with all watchfulness in your minds so that whilst we are silent ye instructing edifying exhorting one another may exhibit great improvement and having fulfilled all the other things may enjoy eternal crowns which God grant we may all obtain through the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ into section 18 section 18 of the library of the world's best literature ancient and modern volume 9 this is the LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by Larry Wilson library of the world's best literature ancient and modern volume 9 section 18 St. John Chrysostom by John Malone St. John Chrysostom AD 347-407 a strong soldier of the cross and from good fighting stock was that John of Antioch who among the people that were first of the earth to bear the name of Christian was called Chrysostom mouth of gold his father Secundus who died about the time of Chrysostom's birth was a military commander in Syria under Constantine and Constantius II John was born at Antioch AD 347 when the eastern empire and the city of Constantine were new his young mother Arathusa a Christian then but 20 years of age devoted herself to widowhood and the education of her son in the city of his birth the youth's early years were passed under her careful guidance and at the age of 20 he entered on the study of oratory and philosophy under the celebrated Libanias in 369 he became a baptized Christian and reader in the house of Melitius the bishop the unhappy reigns of Valens and Valentinian with neo-paganism in the west and in the Gothic settlement in the east began to work the empire's fall saw John devoted to an aesthetic life after the example of the monks and hermits who sheltered in the mountains about the gay and queenly city of his birth his mother's grief and loneliness brought him back from his cave to an energetic career as an outspoken preacher of God's word and the eternal prophet of good stout-hearted workaday well-doing he made himself dear to the people of Antioch for he had eloquence such as had been unknown to Greeks since Demosthenes and he shrank not from labor in self-denial so they called him golden mouth as the Indians call their tried men straight tongues on the death of Nectarius the successor of Gregory of Nazion Xenus theophilus of Alexandria and Arcadius the emperor made him metropolitan of Constantinople AD 397 all before this time he was laying about him with good ear-smiting Greek advice and luxury of which there was abundance both in palace and in Hubble and his elevation to an imperial neighborhood did not stay him he cleared Byzantium of pagan shows gathered the relics of the martyrs and sent missionaries to preach to the gods in their own speech not many years of this kind of leadership were allowed him Arcadius well-disposed but indolent was under the rule of a willful woman and when Chrysostom turned his swayful voice against her pet vanities the vex eudoxia intrigued his disposition in 403 John went to exile in Bithynia with the words the Lord hath given, the Lord hath taken away upon his lips a great earthquake so frightened the imperial city and family that with one outcry they called Chrysostom back when the fear of the infirm earth had worn away eudoxia remembered her enmity and took it back to nurse so one day when John had said in his sword-like invective that Herodias was raging again she showed less mercy than the Baptist had obtained for under the plea that his restoration had been unwarranted the metropolitan was sent to a forced wandering in the wilds of outer provinces from which there returned to him only the venerated relics of a martyr driven from spot to spot sometimes in chains always under the prod of guarding spears one day of September 4.07 he dragged himself to the tomb of the martyr Basiliscus at Comana in Pontus and laid his soul in the hands of God 30 years afterward the eudosius the younger brought the body back to Constantinople in person Chrysostom was small in spare his life of rigorous fasting and toil made him still more slight and hollow-cheap but it is told that there was always a blaze of fire in the deep-set eyes the work of Chrysostom was chiefly ecclesiastical oratory in which no one of his own or later times surpassed him first of the great Christian preachers after the church came from the caves he was not less able as a teacher his letters full of sweetness and firm honesty his poetry, delicate and musical and his philosophic essays rich with the clear-cut jewels of dialectics are worthy of his station in the first order of the doctors of the church the real wealth is from within from the treatise to prove that no one can harm the man who does not injure himself what I undertake is to prove only make no commotion that no one of those who are wronged is wronged by another but experiences this injury at his own hands but in order to make my argument plainer let us first of all inquire what injustice is and of what kind of things the material of it is want to be composed also what human virtue is and what it is which ruins it and further what it is which seems to ruin it but really does not for instance for I must complete my argument by means of examples each thing is subject to one evil which ruins it iron to rust wool to moth flocks of sheep to wolves the virtue of wine is injured when it ferments and turns sour of honey when it loses its natural sweetness and is reduced to a bitter juice years of corn are ruined by mildew and drought the fruit leaves and branches of vines by the mischievous host of locusts other trees by the caterpillar and irrational creatures by diseases of various kinds and not to lengthen the list by going through all possible examples our own flesh is subject to fevers and palsies and a crowd of other maladies as then each one of these things is liable to that which ruins its virtue let us now consider what it is which injures the human race and what it is which ruins the virtue of a human being most men think that there are diverse things which have this effect for I must mention the erroneous opinions on the subject and after confuting them proceed to exhibit that which really does ruin our virtue and to demonstrate clearly that no one could inflict this injury or bring this ruin upon us unless we betrayed ourselves the multitude then having erroneous opinions imagine that there are many different things which ruin our virtue some say it is poverty others bodily disease others loss of property others collumbia others death and they are perpetually bewailing and lamenting these things and whilst they are commiserating others and shedding tears they excitedly exclaim to one another what a calamity has befallen such and such a man he has been deprived of all his fortune at a blow of another again one will say such and such a man has been attacked by severe sickness and is disbared of by the physicians in attendance some be well and lament the inmates of the prison some those who have been expelled from their country to the land of exile others those who have been deprived of their freedom others those who have been seized and made captives by enemies others those who have been drowned or burnt or buried by the fall of a house but no one warns those who are living in wickedness on the contrary which is worse than all they often congratulate them a practice which is the cause of all manner of evils from then only as I exhorted you at the outset do not make a commotion let me prove that none of the things which have been mentioned injure the man who lives soberly nor can ruin his virtue for tell me if a man has lost all either at the hands of colluminators or of robbers or has been stripped of his goods by navy servants what harm has the loss done to the virtue of the man but if it seems well let me rather indicate in the first place what is the virtue of a man beginning by dealing with the subject in the case of existences of another kind so as to make it more intelligible and plain to the majority of readers what then is the virtue of a horse is it to have a bridal studded with gold and girth to match and a band of symptom threads to fasten the housing diverse colors and gold tissue and headgear studded with jewels and locks of hair plated with gold cord or is it to be swift and strong in its legs and even in its paces and to have hoofs suitable to a well-bred horse and courage fitted for long journeys and warfare and to be able to behave with calmness in the battlefield and if a route takes place to save its rider is it not manifest that these are the things which constitute the virtue of the horse not the others again what should you say was the virtue of asses and mules is it not the power of carrying burdens with contentment and accomplishing journeys with ease and having hoofs like rock shall we say that their outside trappings contribute anything to their own proper virtue by no means and what kind of vine shall we admire one which abounds in leaves and branches or one which is laden with fruit of what kind of virtue do we predicate on a vanilla is it to have large bows and great luxuriance of leaves or to exhibit an abundance of its proper fruit dispersed over all parts of the tree well let us act in the same way in the case of human beings also let us determine what is the virtue of man and let us regard that alone as an injury which is destructive to it what then is the virtue of man not riches that thou should fear poverty nor health of body that thou should dread sickness nor the opinion of the public that thou should view an evil reputation with alarm nor life simply for its own sake that death should be terrible to thee nor liberty that thou should avoid servitude but carefulness in holding true doctrine in rectitude of life of these things not even the devil himself will be able to rob a man if he who possesses them guards them with the needful carefulness and that most malicious and ferocious demon is aware of this thus in no case will anyone be able to injure a man who does not choose to injure himself but if a man is not willing to be temperate and to aid himself from resources no one will ever be able to profit him therefore also that wonderful story of the holy scriptures as in some lofty large and broad picture as portrayed the lives of the men of old time extending the narrative from Adam to the coming of Christ and it exhibits to you both those who are vanquished and those who are crowned with victory in the contest in order that it may instruct you by means of all examples that no one will be able to injure one who is not injured by himself even if all the world were to kindle a fierce war against him for it is not stress of circumstances nor variation of seasons nor insults of men in power nor intrigues besetting thee like snowstorms nor a crowd of calamities nor a promiscuous collection of all the ills to which mankind is subject which can disturb even slightly the man who is brave and temperate and watchable just as on the contrary the indolent and supine man who is his own betrayer cannot be made better even with the aid of innumerable ministrations on encouragement during adversity from the letters to Olympias to my lady the most reverend and divinely favored Deaconess Olympias I John Bishop sin greeting in the Lord come now let me relieve the wound of thy despondency and to disperse the thoughts which gather this cloud of care around thee for what is it which upsets thy mind and why art thou sorrowful and dejected it is because of the fierce black storm which has overtaken the church enveloping all things in darkness as of a night without a moon and is growing too ahead every day traveling to bring forth disastrous shipwrecks leaving the ruin of the world I know all this as well as you none shall gain say it and if you like I will form an image of the things now taking place so as to present the tragedy yet more distinctly to thee we behold the sea upheave from the very lowest depths some sailors floating dead upon the waves others engulfed by them the planks of the ships breaking up the sails tore to tatters the mass sprung the oars dashed out of the sailors hands the pilot seated on the deck clasping their knees with their hands instead of grasping the rudder bewailing the hopelessness of their situation with sharp cries and bitter lamentations neither sky nor sea clearly visible but all one deep and impenetrable darkness so that no one can see his neighbor whilst mighty is the roaring of the billows and monsters of the sea attack the crews on every side but how much further shall I pursue the unattainable for whatever image of our present evils I may seek speech shrinks baffled from the attempt nevertheless even when I look at these calamities I do not abandon the hope of better things considering as I do who the pilot is in all this not one who gets the better of the storm by his art calms the raging waters by his rod and if he does not effect this at the outset and speedily such as his custom he does not at the beginning put down these terrible evils but when they have increased and come to extremities and most persons are reduced to despair then he works wondrously and beyond all expectation thus manifesting his own power and training the patients of those who undergo these calamities do not therefore be cast down for there is only one thing Olympias which is really terrible only one real trial and that is sin and I have never ceased continually harping upon this theme but as for all other things plots, enmities, frauds calamities, insults, accusations confiscation exile, the keen sword of the enemy the peril of the deep warfare of the whole world or anything else you like to name they are but idle tales for whatever the nature of these things may be they are transitory and perishable and operate in a mortal body without doing any injury to the vigilant soul therefore the blessed paul desiring to prove the insignificance both of the pleasures and sorrows relating to this life declared the whole truth in one sentence when he said for the things which are seen are temporal why then does thou fear temporal things which pass away like the stream of a river for such is the nature of present things whether they be pleasant or painful and another prophet compared all human prosperity not to grass but to another material even more flimsy describing the whole of it as the flower of grass for he did not single out any one part of it as wealth alone or luxury alone or power or honor but having comprised all the things which are esteemed splendid amongst men under the one designation of glory he said all the glory of man is as the flower of grass nevertheless you will say adversity is a terrible thing and grievous to be born let it again compared with another image and then also learn to despise it for the railing and insults and reproaches and jibes inflicted by enemies and their plots are compared to a worn-out garment and moth-eaten wool when God says fear ye not the reproach of men neither be ye afraid of their revilings for they shall wax old as doth a garment and like a moth-eaten wool so shall they be consumed therefore let none of these things which are happening trouble be but ceasing to invoke the aid of this or that person and to run after shadows for such are human alliances do thou persistently call upon Jesus whom thou serviced merely to thou his head and in a moment of time all these evils will be dissolved but if thou hast already called upon him and yet they have not been dissolved such is the manner of God's dealing for I will resume my former argument he does not put down evils at the outset but when they have gone to a head when scarcely any form of the enemies malice remains uncratified then he suddenly converts all things to a state of tranquility and conducts them to an unexpected settlement for he is not only able to turn as many things as we expect and hope to good but many more, ye infinitely more wherefore also Paul said now to him who is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think could he not, for example have prevented the three children at the outset from falling into trial but he did not choose to do this thereby conferring great pain upon them therefore he suffered them to be delivered into the hands of the barbarians and the furnace to be heated to an appreciable height and the wrath of the king to blaze even more fiercely than the furnace and hands and feet to be bound with great severity and they themselves to be cast into the fire and then when all they who beheld despaired of their rescue suddenly and beyond all hope the wonder working power of God the supreme artificer was displayed and shown forth with exceeding splendor and the Bodhman were released and the furnace became a temple of prayer a place of fountains and dew of higher dignity than a royal court and the very hairs of their head prevailed over that all devouring element which gets the better even of iron and stone and masters every kind of substance and a solemn song of universal praise was instituted there by those holy men inviting every kind of creative thing to join in the wondrous melody and they uttered hymns of thanksgiving to God for that they had been bound and also burnt as far at least as the malice of their enemies had power that they had been exiles from their country captives deprived of their liberty wandering outcasts from city and home sojourners in a strange and barbarous land for all this was the outpouring of a grateful heart and when the malicious devices of their enemies were effected for what further could they attempt after their death and the labors of the heroes were completed and the garland of victory was woven and their rewards were prepared and nothing more was wanting for the renown then at last their calamities were brought to an end and the one who caused the furnace to be kindled and delivered them over to that great punishment became himself the panagyrist of those holy heroes of the herald of God's marvelous and everywhere throughout the world issued letters full of reverent praise recording what had taken place and becoming the faithful herald of the miracles wrought by the wonder-working God for in as much as he had been an enemy and adversary what he wrote was above suspicion even in the opinion of enemies thus thou see the abundance of resource belonging to God his extraordinary power his loving kindness and care he not therefore dismayed or troubled but continued to give thanks to God for all things praising and invoking him beseeching and supplicating even if countless tumults and troubles come upon thee even if tempests are stirred up before thine eyes that none of these things disturb thee for our master is not baffled by the difficulty even if all things are reduced to the extremity of ruin for it is possible for him to raise those who have fallen to convert those who are in error to set straight those who have been ensnared to release those who have been laden with countless sins and make them righteous to quicken those who are dead to restore luster to decayed things and freshness to those who have wax and old or if he makes things which are not to come into being and bestows existence on things which are nowhere by any means manifest how much more will he rectify things which already exist concerning the statutes from homily 8 knowing these things let us take heed to our life and let us not be earnest as to the goods that perish neither as to the glory that goeth out nor as to the body which growth old nor as to that beauty which is fading nor as to that pleasure which is feeding but let us expend all our care about the soul and let us provide for the welfare of this in every way for to cure the body when diseased is not an easy matter to everyone but to cure a sick soul is easy to all and the sickness of the body requires medicine as well as money for its healing but the healing of the soul is a thing easy to procure and devoid of expense and the nature of the flesh is with much labor delivered from those wounds which are troublesome for very often the knife must be applied and medicines that are bitter but with respect to the soul there is nothing of this kind it suffices only to exercise the will and the desire and all things are accomplished and this have been the work of God's providence in as much as from bodily sickness no great injury could arise for though we were not diseased yet death would in any case come and destroy and dissolve the body but everything depends upon the health of our souls this being by far the more precious and necessary he hath made the medicine of it easy and void of expense or pain what excuse therefore or what pardon shall we obtain if when the body is sick and money must be expended on its behalf the physicians called in a much anguish endured we make this so much a matter of our care though what might result from that sickness could be no great injury to us and yet treat the soul with neglect and this when we are neither called upon to pay down money nor to give others any trouble nor to sustain any sufferings but without any of all these things by only choosing and willing have it in our power to accomplish the entire amendment of it surely that if we fail to do this we shall sustain the extreme sentence and punishments and penalties which are inexorable for tell me if anyone promised to teach thee the healing art in a short space of time without money or labor wouldst thou not think him a benefactor wouldst thou not submit both to do and to suffer all things whatsoever he who promised these things commanded behold now it is permitted thee without labor to find a medicine for wounds not of the body but of the soul and to restore it to a state of health without any suffering let us not be indifferent to the matter for pray what is the pain of laying aside anger against one who have agreed thee it is a pain indeed to remember injuries and not to be reconciled what labor is it to pray and to ask for a thousand good things from God who is ready to give what labor is it not to speak evil of anyone what difficulty is there in being delivered from envy and ill will what trouble is it to love one's neighbor what suffering is it not to utter shameful words nor to revile nor to insult another what fatigue is it not to swear or again I return to this same admonition the labor swearing is indeed exceedingly great often times while under the influence of anger or rap we have sworn perhaps that we would never be reconciled to those who have injured us I am now for the sixth day admonishing you in respect of this precept henceforth I am desirous to take leave of you meaning to abstain from the subject that ye may be on your guard there will no longer be any excuse or allowance for you but right indeed if nothing had been said on this matter it ought to have been amended of yourselves for it is not a thing of an intricate nature or that requires great preparation but since ye have enjoyed the advantage of so much admonition and counsel what excuse will ye have to offer when ye stand accused before that dread tribunal and are required to give account of this transgression it is impossible to invent any excuse but of necessity you must either go hence amended or if you have not amended be punished and abide the extremist penalty thinking therefore upon all these things and departing hence with much anxiety about them exhort ye one another that the things spoken of during so many days may be kept with all watchfulness in your minds so that whilst we are silent edifying exhorting one another may exhibit great improvement and having fulfilled all the other precepts may enjoy eternal crowns which God grant we may all obtain through the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ into section 18 section 20 of library of the world's best literature ancient and modern volume 9 this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by Colleen McMahon library of the world's best literature ancient and modern volume 9 section 20 of the offices of literature and poetry from the oration for the poet Arceus and honors proposed for the dead statesman Sulpichius from the 9th Philippic by Cicero of the offices of literature and poetry from the oration for the poet Arceus you ask us O Gratius why we are so exceedingly attached to this man because he supplies us with food whereby our mind is refreshed after this noise in the forum and with rest for our ears after they have been wearied with bad language do you think it possible that we could find a supply for our daily speeches when discussing such a variety of matters unless we were to cultivate our minds by the study of literature or that our minds could bear being kept so constantly on the stretch if we did not relax them by that same study but I confess that I am devoted to those studies let others be ashamed of them if they have buried themselves in books without being able to produce anything out of them for the common advantage or anything which may bear the eyes of men but why need I be ashamed who for many years have lived in such a manner as never to allow my own love of tranquility to deny me to the necessity or advantage of another or my fondness for pleasure to distract or even sleep to delay my attention to such claims who then can reproach me or who has any right to be angry with me if I allow myself as much time for the cultivation of these studies as some take for the performance of their own business or for celebrating days of festival and games or for other pleasures or even for the rest and refreshment of mind and body or as others devote to early banquets to playing at dice or at ball and this ought to be permitted to me because by these studies my power of speaking and those faculties are improved which as far as they do exist in me have never been denied to my friends and if that ability appears to anyone to be but moderate at all events I know whence I derive those principles which are of the greatest value for if I had not persuaded myself from my youth upwards both by the precepts of many masters and by much reading that there is nothing in life greatly to be desired except praise and honor and that while pursuing those things all tortures of the body all dangers of death and banishment are considered but of small importance I should never have exposed myself in defense of your safety to such numerous and arduous contests and to these daily attacks of profligate men but all books are full of such precepts and all the sayings of philosophers and all antiquity are full of precedence teaching the same lesson but all these things would lie buried in darkness if the light of literature and learning were not applied to them how many images of the bravest men carefully elaborated have both the greek and latin writers bequeathed to us not merely for us to look at and gaze upon but also for our imitation and I always keeping them before my eyes as examples for my own public conduct have endeavored to model my mind and views by continually thinking of those excellent men someone will ask what were those identical great men who virtues have been recorded in books accomplished in all that learning which you are extolling so highly it is difficult to assert this of all of them but still I know what answer I can make to that question I admit that many men have existed of admirable disposition and virtue who without learning by the almost divine instinct of their own mere nature have been of their own accord as it were moderate and wise men I even add this very often nature without learning has had more to do with leading men to credit and to virtue than learning when not assisted by a good natural disposition and I also contend that when to an excellent and admirable natural disposition there is added a certain system and training of education then from that combination arises an extraordinary perfection of character such as is seen in that godlike man whom our fathers saw in their time and in Caius Lelius and Lucius Furius most virtuous and moderate men and in that most excellent man the most learned man of his time Marcus Cato the Elder and all these men if they had been to derive no assistance from literature in the cultivation and practice of virtue would never have applied themselves to the study of it though even if there were no such great advantage to be reaped from it and if it were only the nature that is sought from these studies still I imagine you would consider it a most reasonable and liberal employment of the mind for other occupations are not suited to every time nor to every age or place but these studies are the food of youth the delight of old age the ornament of prosperity the refuge and comfort of adversity a delighted home and no hindrance abroad they are companions by night and in travel and in the country and if we ourselves were not able to arrive at these advantages nor even taste them with our senses still we ought to admire them even when we saw them in others and indeed we have constantly heard from men of the greatest eminence and learning that the study of other sciences was made up of learning and rules and regular method but that a poet was such by the unassisted work of nature and was moved by the vigor of his own mind and was inspired as it were by some divine wrath wherefore rightly does our own great Aeneas call poets holy because they seem to be recommended to us by some a special gift as it were and liberality of the gods let then judges this name of poet this name which no barbarians even have ever disregarded be holy in your eyes men of cultivated minds as you all are rocks and deserts reply to the poet's voice these are often moved and arrested by song and shall we who have been trained in the pursuit of the most virtuous acts refuse to be swayed by the voice of poets the Californians say that Homer was their citizen the Cayans claim him as theirs the Salamanians assert their right to him but the men of Smyrna loudly assert him to be a citizen of Smyrna and they've even raised a temple to him in their city many other places also fight with one another for the honor of being his birthplace they then claim a stranger even after his death because he was a poet shall we reject this man while he is alive a man who by his own inclination and by our laws does actually belong to us especially when Arceus has employed all his genius with the utmost zeal in celebrating the glory and renown of the Roman people for when a young man he touched the Kimbrie and gained the favor even of Cayas Marius himself a man who was tolerably proof against this sort of study for there was no one so disinclined to the muses as not willingly to endure that the praise of his labors should be made immortal by means of verse they say that the great Themistocles the greatest man that Athens produced said when someone asked him what sound or whose voice he took the greatest delight in hearing the voice of that by whom his own exploits were best celebrated therefore the great Marius was also exceedingly attached to Lucius Plosius because he thought that the achievement which he had performed could be celebrated by his genius and the whole Mithridatic war great and difficult as it was and carried on with so much diversity of fortune by land and sea has been related at length by him and the books in which that is sung of not only make illustrious Lucius Lucullus that most gallant and celebrated man but they do honor also to the Roman people for while Lucullus was general the Roman people opened Pontus though it was defended both by the resources of the king and by the character of the country itself under the same general the army of the Roman people with no very great numbers routed the countless hosts of the Armenians it is the glory of the Roman people that by the wisdom of that same general the city of the sizes scenes most friendly to us was delivered and preserved from all the attacks of the kind and from the very jaws as it were of the whole war ours is the glory which will be forever celebrated which is derived from the fleet of the enemy which was sunk after its admirals had been slain and from the marvelous naval battle of Tenedos those trophies belong to us those monuments are ours those triumphs are ours therefore I say that the men by whose genius these exploits are celebrated make illustrious at the same time the glory of the Roman people our countrymen Aeneas was dear to the elder Africanus and even on the tomb of the Scipios his effigy is believed to be visible carved in the marble but undoubtedly it is not only the men who are themselves praised who are done honor to by these praises but the name of the Roman people also is adorned by them Cato the ancestor of this Cato is extolled to the skies great honor is paid to the exploits of the Roman people lastly all those great men the maximi the Marcelli and the fovee are done honor to not without all of us having also a share in the Panagyric certainly if the mind had no anticipations of posterity and if it were to confine all its thoughts within the same limits as those by which the space of our lives is bounded it would neither break itself with such severe labors nor would it be tormented with such cares and sleepless anxiety nor would it so often have to fight for its very life at present there is a certain virtue in every good man which night and day stirs up the mind with the stimulus of glory and reminds it that all mention of our name will not cease at the same time but our fame will endure to all posterity do we all who are occupied in the affairs of the state and who are surrounded by such perils and dangers in life appear to be so narrow minded as though to the last moment of our lives we have never passed one tranquil or easy moment to think that everything will perish at the same time as ourselves ought we not when many most illustrious men have with great care collected and left behind them statues and images representations not of their minds but of their bodies much more to desire to leave behind us a copy of our councils and of our virtues wrought and elaborated by the greatest genius I thought at the very moment of performing them that I was scattering and disseminating all the deeds which I was performing all over the world for the eternal recollection of nations and whether that delight is to be denied to my soul after death or whether as the wisest men have thought it will affect some portion of my spirit at all events I am at present delighted with some such idea and hope honors proposed for the dead statesman Sulpikius from the 9th Philippic our ancestors indeed decreed statues to many men public sepulchres to few but statues perished by weather by violence by lapse of time the sanctity of the sepulchres and the soil itself which can neither be moved nor destroyed by any violence and while other things are extinguished so sepulchres become holier by age let then this man be distinguished by that honor also a man to whom no honor can be given which is not deserved let us be grateful in paying respect and death to him to whom we can now show no other gratitude and by that same step let the audacity of Marcus Antonius waging a nefarious war be branded with infamy for when these honors have been paid to Servius Sulpikius the evidence of his embassy having been insulted and rejected by Antonius will remain forever lasting on which account I give my vote for a decree in this form as Servius Sulpikius Rufus the son of Quintus of the Lomonian tribe at a most critical period of the Republic and being ill the very serious and dangerous disease preferred the authority of the senate and the safety of the Republic to his own life and struggled against the violence and severity of his illness in order to arrive at the camp of Antonius to which the senate had sent him and as he when he had almost arrived to the camp being overwhelmed by the violence of the disease has lost his life in discharging a most important office of the Republic and as his death has been in strict correspondence to a life past with the greatest integrity and honor during which he Servius Sulpikius has often been of great service to the Republic both as a private individual and in the discharge of various magistracies and as he being such a man has encountered death on behalf of the Republic while employed on an embassy the senate decrees that a brazen pedestrian statue of Servius Sulpikius be erected in the rostra in compliance with the resolution of this order and that his children and posterity shall have a place round the statue of five feet in every direction from which to behold the games and gladiatorial combats because he died in the cause of the Republic and that this reason be inscribed on the pedestal of this statue and that Caius Pensa and Aulus Hercius the consuls won or both of them if it seemed good to them shall hand the coisters of the city to let out a contract for making that pedestal in that statue and erecting them in the rostra and that whatever price they contract for they shall take care the amount is given and paid to the contractor and as in old times the senate has exerted its authority with respect to the obsequies of and honors paid to brave men it now decrees that he shall be carried to the tomb on the day of his funeral with the greatest and as Servius Sulpicius Rufus the son of Quintus of the Lomonian tribe has deserved so well the Republic as to be entitled to be complimented with all those distinctions the senate is of the opinion and thinks it for the advantage of the Republic that the cure et al should suspend the edict which usually prevails with respect to funerals in the case of the funeral of Servius Sulpicius Rufus the son of Quintus of the Lomonian tribe and that Caius Panza the consul shall assign him a place for a tomb in the Esquiline plain or in whatever place shall seem good to him extending 30 feet in every direction where Servius Sulpicius may be buried and that that shall be his tomb and that of his children and posterity as having been a tomb most deservedly given to them by the public authority. End of section 20 by Colleen McMahon.