In this country, as in America, thousands, under the charm of his eloquence, have hastened to take the pledge. The place of his residence has been besieged by admirers, and the relatives of the dissipated and reformed, soliciting his advice and tendering him their thanks. One of the most touching incidents in his life he related the other evening. That morning a small parcel was left at his lodgings, containing a white cambric handkerchief, from a poor woman, with the message that when he used it in wiping the perspiration from his brow, it might remind him that he had wiped many tears from not a few faces in Edinburgh. May he long be spared to fulfil an office so godlike!

PART THIRD.

HIS ORATORY, WITH ILLUSTRATIONS.

THE fame of John Gough had preceded him. We had read in the American papers of his marvellous powers as an orator, and the wonderful effect that everywhere accompanied his advocacy of the temperance cause. We had conversed with numerous trans-atlantic friends respecting him, and their uniform declaration was, that all that was said of him was true. We had received private communications informing us that although the temperance question was to the writers by no means a new one, John Gough had presented it before them with a vividness which brought it home to their minds and hearts with a new force. We had even read the high eulogium of the gifted authoress of 'Uncle Tom: '-'I doubt whether Mr Gough's equal was ever heard either in England or America. I never heard his equal. He will move this country.' And the no less flattering testimony of her venerable father, the Rev. Dr Beecher :-' Of his powers of argument and eloquence I cannot speak, for he must be heard to be appreciated; for though, as a christian and a man, he is diffident and "meek and lowly in heart," yet in his assaults on the citadel of Satan he mocks at fear, and is "terrible

as an army with banners."› We had read the discriminating, brief, and yet most comprehensive description of his oratory, given by his own minister, the Rev. E. N. Kirk of Boston :

'It is now more than ten years since Mr Gough entered on his noble mission, and the only perceptible change has been that of an increasing religious tone in his orations. His eloquence is wholly instinctive, as you might infer from the fact that he has enjoyed no advantages of education. His elocution is unstudied, but very effective. The root of his eloquence is sensibility. His orations have no method, but possess those chief advantages of method, unity of design and effect, with variety of means. He frequently comes to the platform without meditation, or even a selection of topics. But, by the exercise of a vigorous imagination, he brings to his view some scene of experienced misery in his bygone days; some struggle with the demon that once possessed him; some victory; some defeat; some periods of dark despair; or some dawnings of hope—and his soul is on fire. Or perhaps the remembrance of some scene of domestic misery which he may have been called to witness, as the result of inebriation in a father, awaking every slumbering feeling and power of his soul. And for an hour, or an hour and a-half, he pours forth one uninterrupted torrent of anecdote, wit, sarcasm, argument, narrative, appeal, comic description, and tragic delineation of passion, without one improper expression or exaggerated statement. His audience is now convulsed with laughter-now bathed in tears.

'It may, then, be asked,—But is not his vein soon exhausted? Perhaps the best reply to this inquiry will be by the statement of one fact. It is well known that Boston is called the Athens of America. More cultivated minds and more general cultivation are found in the inhabitants of that city, than

in the same number of people elsewhere. And yet Mr Gough has delivered, before the people of Boston, nearly two hundred discourses on the one theme of temperance; and to the last the house was full, although a fee was demanded for entrance. I fully believe that even Mr Everett himself could not draw so large an audience to hear the two hundredth lecture on any one topic, especially on one not the broadest in its range.

'It may be proper to suggest the only modification which I can think of to the most earnest commendation of Mr Gough as a lecturer; he is not a scholar nor a man of science. Hence he cannot bring to his aid the vast resources of science, history, and general literature; nor can he furnish entertainment to those who appreciate only learning, or who are seeking only knowledge: but he is a man with a heart intensely human, a soul taught in the school of the sternest experience; a body all subservient to the guiding will, and capable of the most expressive pantomime; a voice, rich, flexible, and persuasive; a keen perception of the ludicrous; a perfect control of language within a certain range; and, altogether, an oratory that meets the great demands of that noble art, being instinctive, convincing, entertaining, and powerfully persuasive.'

And yet, with all these commendations, we were disposed to hold our opinion in abeyance, thinking that it was possible that the tastes of brother Jonathan and our own might not perfectly coincide. Now, then, we have seen and heard him for ourselves, and our honest avowal is, 'Howbeit, I believed not their words until I came, and mine eyes had seen it, and behold, the one-half of the greatness of thy wisdom was not

told me; for thou exceedest the fame that I heard.' And yet, while we say this of him, we do not pretend that he is possessed of every quality which belongs to the orator or public teacher. There are men upon the temperance platform even, who in some respects surpass him; but we are persuaded that no other man upon the temperance platform will, to the same extent, command the respect of all classes, and carry conviction home to so many minds.

The adage, Poeta nascitur, orator fit, is not in accordance with truth. The orator is born such, as truly as is the poet. Indeed, the qualities essential to the one are essential to the other. Eloquence requires genius as much as poetry. He is not an orator who gets the largest number of hearers—for mere buffoonery or sparkling wit may have that; but he is an orator who most effectively gains his cause. It may be, no doubt, true that oratory in one view may be regarded as an art, and as such may be capable of cultivation. The poorest speaker may learn to speak better by practice, and a careful correction of natural defects, and diligent acquisition of the qualities of those who have excelled in the pulpit or on the platform. We might never have heard even of Demosthenes or Cicero, if they had not devoted themselves to their art with praiseworthy assiduity. Yet Mr Gough stepped at once upon the stage of public life, and the first time he delivered a formal address established for himself a reputation which ten years' speaking has only confirmed. Like a soul suddenly waking up in a new world, and finding itself in the possession of faculties exactly adapted to all the offices of the life into which it has been ushered, Mr Gough