lonies. His speech won the
praise of the Great Commoner; his succeeding speeches earned him
enthusiastic commendation from friends and admirers outside and inside
the House of Commons. The successful man of letters had proved himself
rapidly to be a successful orator and a politician who would have to be
reckoned with.

[Sidenote: 1766--The influence of Burke's career]

It has been contended, and not unreasonably, that as an orator Burke is
not merely in the first rank, but that he is himself the first, that he
stands alone, without a rival, without a peer, and that none of the
orators of antiquity can be said even to contest his unquestionable
supremacy. But it is in no sense necessary to Burke's fame that the
fame of others should be in any way impugned or depreciated. It is
sufficient praise to say that Burke is one of the greatest orators the
world has ever held. To argue that he is superior to Demosthenes on
the {101} one hand, or to Cicero on the other, is to maintain an
argument very much on a par with that which it amused Burke himself to
maintain when he contended for the superiority of the "Aeneid" over the
"Iliad." It is quite enough to be able to say well-nigh without fear
of contradiction that Burke is probably the greatest orator who ever
spoke in the English language.

Burke's political career began brilliantly in the championship of
freedom, in the defence of the oppressed, in the defiance of injustice.
He was made welcome to the great political arena in which he was to
fight so long and so hard. His ability was recognized at once; he may
be said to have leaped into a fame that the passage of time has not
merely confirmed but increased. No author more profoundly influenced
the thought of his time; no author of that time is likely to exercise a
more enduring influence upon succeeding generations. Of all the men of
that busy and brilliant age, Burke has advanced the most steadily in
the general knowledge and favor. While other men, his rivals in
eloquence, his peers in the opinions of his contemporaries, come year
by year to be less used as influences and appealed to as authorities,
the wisdom of Burke is more frequently drawn upon and more widely
appreciated than ever. The world sees now, even more clearly than the
world saw then, that whether Burke was right or wrong in his
conclusions as to any question, it had to be admitted that the point of
view from which he started to get at that conc