ome undeniable, makes, on the sudden, an
immense difference for the Speeches and you! Speeches are not a thing
of high moment to this Editor; it is the Thing spoken, and how far the
speaker means to do it, that this Editor inquires for. Too many Speeches
there are, which he hears admired all round, and has privately to
entertain a very horrid notion of! Speeches, the finest in quality
(were quality really 'fine' conceivable in such case), which WANT a
corresponding fineness of source and intention, corresponding nobleness
of purport, conviction, tendency; these, if we will reflect, are
frightful instead of beautiful. Yes;--and always the frightfuler, the
'finer' they are; and the faster and farther they go, sowing themselves
in the dim vacancy of men's minds. For Speeches, like all human things,
though the fact is now little remembered, do always rank themselves as
forever blessed, or as forever unblessed. Sheep or goats; on the right
hand of the Final Judge, or else on the left. There are Speeches which
can be called true; and, again, Speeches which are not true:--Heavens,
only think what these latter are! Sacked wind, which you are intended
to SOW,--that you may reap the whirlwind! After long reading, I find
Chatham's Speeches to be what he pretends they are: true, and worth
speaking then and there. Noble indeed, I can call them with you: the
highly noble Foreshadow, necessary preface and accompaniment of Actions
which are still nobler. A very singular phenomenon within those walls,
or without!

"Pitt, though nobly eloquent, is a Man of Action, not of Speech; an
authentically Royal kind of Man. And if there were a Plutarch in these
times, with a good deal of leisure on his hands, he might run a Parallel
between Friedrich and Chatham. Two radiant Kings: very shining Men of
Action both; both of them hard bested, as the case often is. For your
born King will generally have, if not "all Europe against him," at
least pretty much all the Universe. Chatham's course to Kingship was
not straight or smooth,--as Friedrich, too, had his well-nigh fatal
difficulties on the road. Again, says the Plutarch, they are very
brave men both; and of a clearness and veracity peculiar among their
contemporaries. In Chatham, too, there is something of the flash of
steel; a very sharp-cutting, penetrative, rapid individual, he too; and
shaped for action, first of all, though he has to talk so much in the
world. Fastidious, proud, no King could