His understanding and imagination, when both are
roused into action, always cordially join hands. His statement of facts
is so combined with the argument founded on them, that they are
interchangeable; his statement having the force of argument, and his
argument having the "substantiality" which properly belongs to
statement; and to these he commonly adds an imaginative illustration,
which gives increased reality to both statement and argument. In rapidly
turning over the leaves of the six volumes of his Works, one can easily
find numerous instances of this instinctive operation of his mind. In
his first Bunker Hill oration, he announces that "the _principle_ of
free governments adheres to the American soil. It is bedded in it,
immovable as its mountains." Again he says: "A call for the
representative system, wherever it is not enjoyed, and where there is
already intelligence enough to estimate its value, is perseveringly
made. Where men may speak out, they demand it where the bayonet is at
their throats, they pray for it." And yet again: "If the true spark of
religious and civil liberty be kindled, it will burn. Human agency
cannot extinguish it. Like the earth's central fire, it may be smothered
for a time; the ocean may overwhelm it; mountains may press it down; but
its inherent and unconquerable force will heave both the ocean and the
land, and at some time or other, in some place or other, the volcano
will break out, and flame up to heaven.
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