onds as rapidly; the fitting and
the proper wait on these in the judgment, and the emanation of the
whole is perfect. The imagination conceives, the memory retains, and
the judgment applies. The consummate perfection of all of these
elements in one mind, assures greatness. Charles James Fox, one of
England's ablest statesmen, said this combination, organized in the
brain of Napoleon, was more complete than had existed with any man
since the days of Julius Caesar, and would have made him transcendently
great in anything to which he might have addressed his powers. As a
poet, he would have equalled Homer; as a lawyer, the author of the
Pandects; as an architect, Michael Angelo; as an astronomer, Newton or
Galileo; as an actor, Garrick, or his beloved Talma--as he had equalled
Caesar and Hannibal, and greatly surpassed Marlborough, Frederick the
Great, and Charles XII.; as an orator, Demosthenes; and as a statesman,
the greatest the earth ever knew.

This combination in the mind of Prentiss, with the great development of
the organ of language, made him the unrivalled orator of his age. His
powers of memory were so great as to astonish even those eminently
gifted in the same manner. In reading, he involuntarily committed to
memory, whether of prose or poetry. He seemed to have memorized the
Bible, Shakspeare, Dryden, Ben Jonson, Byron, and many others of the
modern poets. The whole range of literature was at his command: to read
once, was always to remember. This capacity to acquire was so great
that he would in a month master as much as most men could in twelve.

It appeared immaterial to what he applied himself, the consequence was
the same. Scientific research, or light literature; the ordinary
occurrences of the day, recorded in the newspapers, or detailed by an
occasional visitor--all were remembered, and with truthful exactness.
Dates, days, names, and events fastened upon his memory tenaciously,
and remained there without an effort. Hence, the fund of information
possessed by him astonished the best informed, who were gray with years
and reading. The exuberance of his imagination continually supplied new
and beautiful imagery to his conversation; and in private intercourse,
such was the rich purity of his language, and his ideas so bold and
original, that all were willing listeners: no one desired to talk if
Prentiss was present and would talk.

The disasters which followed the commercial crisis of 1837 crushed
al