Daniel Webster

Select Speeches of Daniel Webster,

Burke and Webster are models in the forensic literature of our own language as truly as are Demosthenes and Cicero in the language of the ancient classics. Each has distinct and inimitable characteristics which give force and beauty to his work. The study of each should be ordered in such a way as to put one in touch with those qualities of mind and heart, of intellectual and moral manhood, by which each became a leader in political philosophy and a model in literary style. One who studies such authors in order to formulate a historical or a personal estimate merely, or to compare each as to certain externals of rhetorical form, has lost the true perspective of literary judgment. Reading in the school and in the home is far too often pursued with a purpose to controvert and prove rather than to weigh and consider. Reading which does not result in enlarging, stimulating, and refining one's nature is but a busy idleness. The schools must see to it that the desultory and dissipating methods of reading, so prevalent in the home, are not encouraged. Pupils must be stimulated first of all to enjoy what is beautiful in nature and in art: for here is "A world of ready wealth, Their minds and hearts to bless-- Spontaneous wisdom breathed by health, Truth breathed by cheerfulness."