others tending the garden--all the process of toil and travail, of
patient labor and endless effort, were rapidly marshaled forth. Over
against this, he unveiled the clergy in broadcloth and silken gowns,
riding in carriages, seated on cushions and living a life of luxury. He
turned and faced the opposition, and shook his bony finger at them in
scorn and contempt. The faces of the judges grew livid; many of the
Parsons, unable to endure his withering rebuke, sneaked away: the people
forgot to applaud; only silence and the stinging, ringing voice of the
speaker filled the air.

He accused the Parsons of being the defiers of the law; the people had
passed the statute; the preachers had come, asking that it be annulled.
And then was voiced, I believe, for the first time in America, the truth
that government exists only by the consent of the governed--that law is
the crystallized opinion of the people--that the voice of the people is
the voice of God--that the act of the Parsons, in seeking to over-ride
the will of the people, was treason, and should be punished. He defied
the Common Law of England and appealed to the Law of God--the question
of right--the question of justice--to whom does the fruit of labor
belong!

Before the fiery, overpowering torrent of eloquence of the man, the
reason of the judges fled. There was but one will in that assembly, and
that will was the will of Patrick Henry.

* * * * *

In that first great speech of his life--probably the greatest speech
then ever given in Virginia--Patrick Henry committed himself irrevocably
on the subject of human rights. The theme of taxation came to him in a
way it never had before. Men are taxed that other men may live in
idleness. Those who pay the tax must decide whether the tax is just or
not--anything else is robbery. We shall see how this thought took hold
on Patrick's very life. It was the weak many against the entrenched few.
He had said more than he had intended to say--he had expressed things
which he never before knew that he knew. As he made truth plain to his
auditors, he had clarified his own mind.

The heavens had opened before him--he was as one transformed. That
outward change in his appearance marked only an inward illumination
which had come to his spirit.

In great oratory the appearance of the man is always changed. Men grow
by throes and throbs, by leaps and bounds. The idea of "Cosmic
Consciousness"--bein