e. February
22, 1856, he delivered, in Boston, his celebrated lecture on Washington.
This lecture was afterwards delivered in most of the principal cities and
towns in the United States. The proceeds were devoted to the purchase of
Mt. Vernon. In 1860, he was a candidate for the Vice Presidency of the
United States, He is celebrated as an elegant and forcible writer, and a
chaste orator.

This extract, a wonderful piece of word painting, is a portion of an
address on the "Uses of Astronomy," delivered at the inauguration of the
Dudley Observatory, at Albany, N, Y, Note the careful use of words, and
the strong figures in the third and fourth paragraphs.
###

I had occasion, a few weeks since, to take the early train from Providence
to Boston; and for this purpose rose at two o'clock in the morning.
Everything around was wrapped in darkness and hushed in silence, broken
only by what seemed at that hour the unearthly clank and rush of the
train. It was a mild, serene, midsummer's night,--the sky was without a
cloud, the winds were whist. The moon, then in the last quarter, had just
risen, and the stars shone with a spectral luster but little affected by
her presence.

Jupiter, two hours high, was the herald of the day; the Pleiades, just
above the horizon, shed their sweet influence in the east; Lyra sparkled
near the zenith; Andromeda veiled her newly-discovered glories from the
naked eye in the south; the steady Pointers, far beneath the pole, looked
meekly up from the depths of the north to their sovereign.

Such was the glorious spectacle as I entered the train. As we proceeded,
the timid approach of twilight became more perceptible; the intense blue
of the sky began to soften; the smaller stars, like little children, went
first to rest; the sister beams of the Pleiades soon melted together; but
the bright constellations of the west and north remained unchanged.
Steadily the wondrous transfiguration went on. Hands of angels, hidden
from mortal eyes, shifted the scenery of the heavens; the glories of night
dissolved into the glories of the dawn.

The blue sky now turned more softly gray; the great watch stars shut up
their holy eyes; the east began to kindle. Faint streaks of purple soon
blushed along the sky; the whole celestial concave was filled with the
inflowing tides of the morning light, which came pouring down from above
in one great ocean of radiance; till at length, as we reached the Blue
Hills, a flas