ORATORICAL POWERS

Many of the most effective orators, of all ages, have not been most successful in long and formal efforts. Nor have they always been close and ready debaters. "Sudden bursts which seemed to be the effect of inspiration--short sentences which came like lightning, dazzling, burning, striking down everything before them--sentences which, spoken at critical moments, decided the fate of great questions--sentences which at once became proverbs --sentences which everybody still knows by heart"--in these chiefly lay the oratorical power of Mirabeau and Chatham, Patrick Henry and James Otis.--E. L. Magoon.