interest of party. A
man's right to sit in a legislative body should be determined, not by
that body, which has neither the impartiality, the knowledge of evidence
nor the time to determine it rightly, but by the courts of law. That is
how it is done in England, where Parliament voluntarily surrendered the
right to say by whom the constituencies shall be represented, and there
is no disposition to resume it. As the vices hunt in packs, so, too,
virtues are gregarious; if our Congress had the righteousness to decide
contested elections justly it would have also the self-denial not to
wish to decide them at all.

IX

The purpose of the legislative custom of "eulogizing" dead members of
Congress is not apparent unless it is to add a terror to death and make
honorable and self-respecting members rather bear the ills they have
than escape through the gates of death to others that they know a good
deal about. If a member of that kind, who has had the bad luck to "go
before," could be consulted he would indubitably say that he was sorry
to be dead; and that is not a natural frame of mind in one who is exempt
from the necessity of himself "delivering a eulogy."

It may be urged that the Congressional "eulogy" expresses in a general
way the eulogist's notion of what he would like to have somebody say
of himself when he is by death elected to the Lower House. If so, then
Heaven help him to a better taste. Meanwhile it is a patriotic duty to
prevent him from indulging at the public expense the taste that he has.
There have been a few men in Congress who could speak of the character
and services of a departed member with truth and even eloquence. One
such was Senator Vest. Of many others, the most charitable thing that
one can conscientiously say is that one would a little rather hear a
"eulogy" by them than on them. Considering that there are many kinds
of brains and only one kind of no brains, their diversity of gifts is
remarkable, but one characteristic they have in common: they are all
poets. Their efforts in the way of eulogium illustrate and illuminate
Pascal's obscure saying that poetry is a particular sadness. If not sad
themselves, they are at least the cause of sadness in others, for no
sooner do they take to their legs to remind us that life is fleeting,
and to make us glad that it is, than they burst into bloom as poets all!
Some one has said that in the contemplation of death there is something
that belittle