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Scholar, the Jurist, the
Artist, the Philanthropist,” before the
Phi Beta Kappa Society of Harvard University; in which he eloquently portrays the characters, and commemorates the names, of his illustrious friends,
John Pickering, Joseph Story,
Washington Allston, and
William Ellery Channing, each of whom had but recently finished his career.
This oration abounds with singular affluence of illustration, and with glowing thoughts clothed in choice and elegant language.
From it the authors of our best school reading-books have drawn several passages as models for the student.
At the dinner following the delivery of this admirable discourse,
John Quincy Adams justly gave this sentiment: “The memory of the scholar, the jurist, the artist, the philanthropist; and not the memory, but the long life, of the kindred spirit who has this day embalmed them all.”
In characterizing the eloquence of Channing, the orator unconsciously described himself: “His eloquence had not the character and fashion of forensic efforts or parliamentary debates.
It ascended above these, into an atmosphere as yet unattempted by the applauded orators of the world.
Whenever he spoke or wrote, it was with the loftiest aims,--not for display, not to advance himself, not for any selfish purpose, not in human strife, not in any question of pecuniary advantage; but in the service ”
