"TO THE SON OF MELPOMENE.

"Sir, I have only six francs, and am without every resource. I hear you are to honor the town with your

presence, and that, too, at the very moment I propose to put an end to my life. I shall, therefore, defer my project, in admiration of your talents, which I know only by your fame. I conjure you then, to hasten your visit, that I may admire you and expire. Refuse not the desires of your fellow creature, who, being able to live only four days, has divided the sum which remains as follows:

on the stage and indeed this experiment upon myself received the following curious letter, before his arrival, has often been of service to me." Lekain, another addressed French actor of great celebrity, is said, in his latter years, to have fallen passionately in love with a Madame Benoit, whom he always placed in the first side wing of the theatre, whenever he played, and addressed to her all the expressions of tenderness and love, which he had to employ to the actress playing with him, to give real force and tenderness to those expressions. Much of this power is, however, the effect of imitation. Garrick is said to have witnessed the agony of a father who had accidentally let fall from his arms, while dandling it in a piazza, a child whom he almost madly loved, and the tragedian always availed himself of this terrible picture in his personation of Lear. But these imitations are not peculiar to the player: the poet and the painter are alike guided by them. Michael Angelo is reported to have stabbed his brother that he might transfer to the canvass, with greater truth, the contortions of his features in the agony of death. Ariosto excited a violent burst of rage in his father, and in ecstasy allowed him to indulge it, that he might describe an angry father, with greater power, in a comedy he was then writing.

A tragedian does not require more talent, but he must possess more sensibility and enthusiasm than a comedian. The comedian represents incidents and personates characters that he daily meets with, and with which he is familiar; his imagination has less exercise; he is acting in the sphere in which, he, in fact, revolves: he has only to employ the faculty of imitation in representing the little passions, follies and weaknesses of those in his own condition in life, but his observation must be close and accurate. If he exaggerate or fall short of nature, it will be immediately noticed by those before whom he appears, who, from their own experience, are always capable of judging of the truth and correctness of the copy they are contemplating. "The tragic actor on the contrary must quit," says Talma very properly, “the circle in which he is accustomed to live, and launch into the high regions where the genius of the past has placed and clothed in ideal forms the beings conceived by his imagination or already furnished him by the pen of history. As to the physical qualities, it is evident that the pliability of the features, and the expression of the countenance ought to be stronger, the voice more full, sonorous, and more profoundly articulate in the tragic actor, who stands in need of certain combinations and more than ordinary powers, to perform from beginning to end, with the same energy, a part in which the author has frequently collected in a narrow compass, and in the space of two hours, all the movements, all the agitations, which an impassioned being can often only feel in the course of a long life." "When we," he then asks, "consider all the qualities necessary to form an excellent tragic actor-all the gifts which nature ought to have bestowed upon him, can we be surprised that such actors are so rare?" I will conclude these desultory remarks on actors, or dramatic artists, with an anecdote of the distinguished French tragedian from whom I have made the above extracts, which will illustrate the admiration sometimes entertained for great performers by enthusiastic lovers of the dramatic art. Having entered into an engagement to perform at Bordeaux, Talma

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Forrest has become a candidate for legislative honors, and if he succeed will be the first actor that ever will ever reach the same eminence, as a parliamentary became a legislator. It is not at all probable that he orator or statesman, that he has attained as a draof the stage, however, should this distinguished and admatic artist. It will be a singular fact in the history mirable tragedian be thrown into a sphere so entirely inconsistent with his professional pursuits. Washington, Nov. 8, 1839.

G. W.

Such were the two men whose names have been

a genius splendid and brilliant above that of his fellow- They appeared to him an unreal mockery, a mere show men. I have often felt the warmth of its rays, and of friendship, the shadow of social intercourse; and been spell-bound under its influence. Whenever John the plain republican who had been reared amid the Randolph rose to address either the assembled multi-realities of the revolution, despised them heartily. And tude, or the legislative body, all eyes were eagerly yet I doubt whether there ever lived a man who posbent upon him, and all ears were open to catch every sessed or practised more of the genuine hospitalities of word and every syllable that fell from his lips. Few life, or whose heart was more entirely filled with the men ever lived who had so perfect a command of lan- christian charities, or the christian virtues. guage. Every word used by him, was precisely the very word, best suited, of all others, to express what he intended. His mind was the capacious reservoir of knowledge, and when it poured forth its treasures, an intellectual repast was furnished to his auditory, rich and luxurious. The stream of his eloquence flowed on so clearly and smoothly, that through its shining mirror you beheld in the depths below pearls and gems of inestimable value. In speaking, he could not be regarded "as copious and Ciceronian," but every word sparkled and every sentence burned. It is true, that in much he was eccentric; it could not well be otherwise, for his mind was never at rest. New speculations and new theories were continually crowding about him, and in chasing them over the fields of space, no wonder that he should sometimes have departed from his orbit. On one subject, in particular, he was remarkably uniform, and, from the early dawn of manhood to the close of his life, consistent. He properly regarded our central government as a federative system, the result of the voluntary adoption of the several states. He saw that liberty could only be secured by preserving a due balance between the general and state governments. He believed also that the tendency of the system was to consolidation, and every advance in that direction he opposed uncompromisingly. Neither honors conferred, nor honors expected, could win him from his allegiance to his principles. The last act of a public nature which he openly advocated, bears testimony to this, and exhibits his character in an attractive light.*

adopted by this college, and are united into one. There was wisdom displayed in the adoption. You, and all who have preceded, and all who may come after you as alumni of this institution, are thus constantly reminded of the fame and glory which attend, invariably, on intellect highly cultivated, and on the unceasing practice of virtue. A model of almost absolute perfection, if properly blended and successfully imitated, is presented. Wit, genius and fancy, are placed in close connection, with a judgment so inflexible and so erect as rarely ever to have been shaken. The first adorns and beautifies; the last shelters from the storm and protects from the blast. The first spreads over the earth a carpet enamelled with the brightest and sweetest flowers-peoples each star, and fills earth and heaven with harmonious and dulcet sounds. The last sees in each floweret, and every blade of grass, as well as in the glorious heavens, evidences of a power unseen, infinite in wisdom, and boundless in benevolence. The one creates, the other preserves. The one embellishes and adorns the judgment-seat with the gayest and brightest garlands; the other holds the scales with an untrembling hand, and weighs out the decrees of good and evil to mankind. The one, if I may so speak, is the capital to the pillar; the other, the pillar itself, which upholds the edifice.

God has most wisely endowed the human mind with various faculties. The imagination springs forth like the falcon in its upward flight, seeking to reach the sun, Of Nathaniel Macon, I cannot well speak too highly. while reason, by restraining cords, draws it back again There was a beautiful consistency in his course, from to earth ere its wings are scorched. To cultivate these the moment of his entering public life to the moment of two faculties so that the first shall not attain the mashis quitting it. Nothing sordid ever entered into his tery, is the true secret of successful education. The imagination. He was the devoted patriot, whose whole mind is thereby matured, and its energies are brought heart, and every corner of it, was filled with love of forth, as required, into beneficial action. The man of country. He was a moralist, who set forth his pre- mere imagination is almost useless in his day and genecepts, not in ponderous volumes, but in his daily ac- ration. He lives in a world of his own creation, and tions. Not remarkable for the brilliancy of his intel- peoples it after his own untamed conception. Man is lect, he was most distinguished by the solidity of his not the creature that God has made him, nor is the judgment. Called by the state of North Carolina to earth fitted for his residence. Man, nor the earth, achigh political station, he presented in his person and cording to his wild imaginings, are neither suited to conduct, a true type of the state and people he repre- their appointed destiny. He either elevates man to an sented; nothing gaudy, nothing glaring; no fret work equality with his Creator, or sinks him below the level or curiously wrought mosaic; but all about the build- of the wild beasts. The realities of life torture and dising betokened strength, and enduring strength. He tract him. There is nothing to him of harmony, nothunited in his person the meekness and humility of the ing of beauty, in the frame of the universe. "This christian, with the calm and unpretending dignity of goodly frame, the earth, seems to him a sterile promonthe philosopher. In the house of representatives, he tory; this most excellent canopy, the air, this brave was the firm and unflinching republican—and in the overhanging firmament, this majestical roof, fretted senate chamber, the venerable patriarch-the co-tem-with golden fire, appears no other thing to him than a porary, in fact, of Washington and Franklin, and most foul and pestilent congregation of vapors." He would, worthy to have lived in the same century with them. like another Phaeton, mount the chariot, snatch the He had no regard for those forms and ceremonies which reins from the hands of Apollo, and drive the horses of constitute the pageantry of what is called high life. the sun. Blind and infatuated man! and yet he is the The resolutions offered to the people of Charlotte disapprov-creature of education-and that, misdirected, has overing the doctrines of Gen. Jackson's celebrated Proclamation. whelmed him in misery. What, if the volume of

nature had been early opened to his sight; what, if the | there is much to excite our admiration. The heart, chain of being had been traced out for him from the like the ocean, at each pulsation pours out the blood merest atomite to the infinitely great and all-glorious through the arteries, giving life and activity to the Creator; what, if he had been taught the adaptation of whole mechanism. The thews, the sinews and the the parts to the whole; what, if man's position on the muscles, nay, every bone and thread and fibre, performs map of existences had been pointed out to his eager and its appropriate function, and concurs in producing and curious gaze; what, if mind itself, and each and every preserving that most inexplicable of all mysteries, aniof its elements, had been exposed to his view; what, if mal life. Look upon the form divine of the youth who he had been instructed in a knowledge of the human is in the act of transition from puberty to manhood; passions, and the volume of his moral duties had been his blood runs frolic through his veins; and the deer, opened before him; he would have arisen from the bounding over the dewy lawn, is not more agile or airy instruction another and a better being: he would then in its step. His eye and cheek bespeak the varied have seen order and harmony in all around him. Each emotions which arise from time to time within his breast. little flower which bloomed by the way-side, as well as His voice is attuned to harmony, and the graces of his the lofty tree whose top aspires to the clouds-the person, and manliness of his form vie with each other pearly dew-drop, as well as the broad ocean itself-the for excellence. He would constitute a model worthy lowly ant-hill-as well as the snow-clad mountain- the chisel of a Phideas or Praxitiles. It is full of life the smallest insect, as well as the eagle "when tower- and beauty and majesty-that youthful form. But ing in his pride of place"-the glow-worm, as well as the how much more to be wondered at and admired, the bright and golden sun-all, all would have united in human mind! How mysterious its operations? How unveiling to him the face of Omnipotence. He would astonishing its results? The body, however beautiful, have learned that "order was Heaven's first law," and is of the earth, earthy-its sphere of action is limited would have taken his appointed place in society with the and circumscribed-it has speed of feet, but no wings volume of his duties in his hand, and obedience written with which to fly-it may reach the summit of the lofon his heart. Love to man would have arisen as a tiest mountain, but it can rise no higher. But what necessary consequence of love to God. The copious can circumscribe or limit that etherial essence-the hustream of his moral duties would have flowed from a man mind? On the wings of the morning it flies to knowledge of his Creator; his bosom would have swol- meet the sun at its rising, follows it in its course through len with a desire to be useful in his day and generation; the heavens, and watches it to the moment in which, a pure ambition would have possessed him-an ambition with its last ray, it bids the world good night. And to be distinguished among the benefactors of mankind. when night throws its mantle over all things, it follows True glory would have waved him on to that high emi- each star along its path of light, numbers the myriad nence on which stands the temple of true fame, and he host, and chases the comet in its eccentric flight. would have aspired to inmortality on earth, and endless Turned to earth, it penetrates her darkest abodes, reward in heaven. What, if difficulties and dangers walks among her hidden fires, plunges into the depths had at any time beset his path; what, if persecution of ocean, and makes companions of the monsters of the and obloquy attended his footsteps; what, if man, for deep. Standing on the present, it looks back upon the whom he labored, maligned him, and society, for whom past, and contemplates the future. It holds converse he toiled, disowned him—he would still have persevered, with the men of other days. It sits by the side of the and persevered to the end: his name would, ultimately, Ptolemies on the throne of Egypt; beholds Achilles in have been inscribed on the pillars of the temple, and its his wrath, and Troy in flames; attends Æneas in his tablets would bear record to his noble virtues. Such flight to Italy-and with the twin brothers, lays the would be the results of a well directed system of edu- first stone in the walls of imperial Rome; it holds cation. The two men whose names you have adopted converse with Socrates and Plato, and is familiar with as the representatives of your two societies, verified in the academic groves and with the philosophers; it is their lives the character and results which I have de- in the assembly of the people with Demosthenes, or scribed as proceeding from well disciplined minds. in the senate chamber with Cicero; it listens to PinGeorge Washington and Benjamin Franklin, each indaric strains, or hears the tuneful Maro sing. It follows his own appropriate sphere, ran the race which was set the course of empires and of states-marks alike the before him, and terminated his career in glory. The causes of their greatness, and of their decay and downfirst, under Heaven, gave to his country freedom, and fall. Loaded with the riches of the past, it goes to assisted to open that heretofore sealed book, in which is work for the present and future; it conceives, it plans, written the rights of man; the other taught to philo- it executes; chains cannot restrain, or dungeons consophy new lessons, and unfolded more fully the great fine it. How mysterious and how grand its operations! book of nature. The one snatched the rod from the And yet, if we are lost in astonishment at the cahands of oppression and broke it; the other grasped the pacities of the mind of man, how absolutely inexpressithunderbolt and deprived the lightning of its wrath. ble become our thoughts, when we contemplate, as far Around the temples of the one was entwined a civic as finite capacities are permitted, the infinitude of wreath, richer and brighter, and purer than had before mind possessed by the great Creator. The human adorned the brow of the proudest conqueror; the other mind is but a spark struck out from the sun-a mere was the darling child of philosophy, to whom nature emanation from the centre of all light-and yet, I disclosed her most secret mysteries. repeat, how wonderful its conceptions, how sublime

There was a wisdom and power exerted in the for-its operations! mation of man, inexpressibly great, and most truly

Such, gentlemen, are the high gifts of body and of

wonderful. In the anatomy of the physical system mind, which we have received at the hands of our

Maker. But these gifts are useless if they be not cul- | the mastery over all the rest; how ambition swallows tivated and improved. From the first, a decree de-up patriotism, or avarice deadens with its touch all the signed for man's happiness has gone forth as the ac- more noble and generous feelings; or how the most companiment of these high capacities. They must be noble and generous feelings may themselves degenerate brought into action by our own exertions-the gem lies into vices. Generosity, prudence being dethroned, beburied in the caves of ocean, and it would lie there comes wasteful extravagance; and prudence itself, libeforever, if efforts were not made to rescue it from its rality being silenced, terminates in poor and narrow less pearly bed. You have been laboriously engaged du- parsimony. Fear, the instinctive principle by which ring the collegiate course, now about to terminate, in danger is avoided and human life preserved, attempts this work of improvement. Under the direction of to usurp the mastery over courage, and in the struggle wise instructors and watchful guardians, you have un- the first degenerates into cowardice, and the last into remittingly pursued your studies, and many of you on rashness, and so with all the rest. The lessons of his this day will receive the honors to which your exer- youth will not now be lost upon him. From his knowtions will have entitled you. The road over which ledge of the structure of the human mind, he well unyou have travelled was crowded with difficulties. A derstands, that man would have been imperfectly made morass, apparently deep and impenetrable, often inter- up without all the passions-that the absence of any cepted your progress. With weary footsteps you lin- one of them would have left the work unfinished: gered upon its brink, in doubt whether to attempt to That, consequently, to permit any one of them to slumpass it. The gloom was deep and the pathway nar- ber-and much more, to yield the mastery over all to row, but truth stood on the firm land and beckoned you one--is to produce that very defective arrangement, to follow. Again your spirits rallied-your purposes which man, as a free agent, may produce, but which and resolutions again became fixed-the morass was God never designed. To preserve well their balance, penetrated, its difficulties were overcome, and you is to approximate to perfection. Where this is done, stood once more on the firm land, prepared to encounter each passion discharges its appropriate function, and future difficulties, and in like manner to overcome them. conduces to a state of blissful harmony. Reason sits on Such is the process by which the human faculties de- her throne in all her supremacy, holding in subjection velope themselves. They slumber in our infancy, the complex mechanism of man, with all its emotions, they wake up by slow degrees as we advance in years. passions and desires. No idols are erected by the senHow pleasing to witness their development. The ses, or false gods set up to be worshipped. Absolute infant slumbers in its cradle almost without conscious- perfection, it is lamentably true, is rarely, if ever ness of being--its eyes open to the light, and mind reached. As the hurricane or earthquake disturbs the forth with begins its work. Faculty after faculty ex-quiet of the natural world, so some unruly passion hibits itself. For a time the child delights itself with from time to time bursts forth in its fury, dethroning the fairy forms around it. It is, in truth, a fairy world reason, and shaking most terribly the animal system. in which it has awoke. The bright and fleeting In view of this, the ancient of other days hung his head things of earth attract it; its foot-print is seen amid the in despair, and the lover of his species had almost early dew, chasing the butterfly, or it watches the ceased to hope. Let the truth be confessed: resting flower as it opens and stretches out its hands to gather upon our own unaided resources, we are like mariners it. The spirit of inquiry at length takes possession on the stormy deep, at the mercy of the fitful winds and of this beautiful boy; he begins to compare and ar- unsteady waves, without chart or compass. We are range; he is no longer satisfied with merely beholding driven we know not whither; no peaceful haven in the beauties of creation. He regards them but as view, and no friendly star shining amid the darkness, effects springing from causes to him unknown. He by which to steer our course. There is but one hand goes in pursuit of causes; a change has come over strong enough to save us. Our Creator must be our his feelings and his actions; the bauble no longer de- preserver from the dangers which threaten. To him lights; a thirst after knowledge possesses him, and he alone we can raise our eyes in hope and confidence. turns over the pages of the philosopher and flies to the Reposing on him, our frailty is converted into strength, shades of the academic grove; he seeks to converse and the storm rages harmlessly around us. In his inwith the learned and the wise, and to hear from their finite goodness he has deputed among us a divine lips lessons of instruction. He now enters the temple teacher, and under the influence of his teaching the in which nature performs her mysterious rites; he sees world has already been reclaimed from barbarism to her at her laboratory, and learns the processes which she civilization; from ignorance to knowledge. Before his there adopts. He is a votary of science, and at her coming, man mistook rashness for true courage, and a altars he worships. All his faculties are now awa- rude stoicism for virtue. The warrior, clad in his ar kened, and his mind is stored with the rich treasures mor, and trampling with his heel on the fallen, was of knowledge. A new theatre now awaits him-the esteemed the chief among men; and the war-cry, groves of the academy are to be quitted, and he enters which was sounded over every land, affrighted peace upon the world's busy stage. His theories are now to from the earth. Man was not only the enemy of his be reduced to practice, and he has to read out of a new fellow-man, but the great enemy of himself. The pasvolume, in which are written the results of the passions were in fearful conflict. A new star rose in the sions. He has heretofore studied their anatomy only; they are now to be exhibited in connection with the daily business of life. He is now to see how the peace and harmony of society is broken by their direful conflict; how completely one of the passions often attains

heavens, and there came healing on its beams. The spirit of anger, the darker spirit of revenge, hatred, with its kindred and gloomy host, was rebuked, and love and charity spread their mantle over the earth. Would we then know to what refuge we may flee from the