and age. At once he became at home-at once he established his claims-at once his name was a name of power in every corner of our land. The aged and the young, the mechanic and the gentleman, the educated and the ignorant, the rich and the poor, the maids and wives and sisters, as well as the rougher sex, clustered around his path, and hailed him with delight. In all our great hives of industry and seats of intelligence-in London and Edinburgh, in Liverpool and Leeds, in Manchester and Birmingham-his voice has been raised; nor has his mission been in vain; the drunkard has been reclaimed, the young and hopeful have been won over to the cause of temperance, and an impulse has been given to the movement which will never die; the faint-hearted have been encouraged, the weary have been revived; already the day of triumph seems at hand, already we raise the songs and banners and trophies of our glorious victory! The Publisher of the present volume has collected together some few of Mr. GOUGH's Orations; they have been revised by Mr. GOUGH, and been made, as far as possible, his very words. Others, from time to time, will appear. It is hoped they may convey some faint idea of an eloquence which every day wins fresh laurels, and may aid the cause which Mr. GoUGH has so much at heart. The reader is only requested to remember, that the printed word conveys but a poor idea of the spoken one-that you cannot transfer to paper the speaker's eye, or gesture, or tone; that what is true of all orators, and truer of them the better orators they are, is especially true of Mr. GOUGH-that to be appreciated he must be heard and not read; looked at, as he stands inspired upon the platform, not as the reporter gives a feeble image of him on the printed page. ORATION ON HABIT. Delivered in Exeter Hall, November 22nd, 1853. WHEN I received the programme of the exercises of this Association for the year, I assure you I felt a trembling at the heart unusual for me, at seeing my name associated with some of the greatest and most gifted men of this country, and when I felt that I had given my consent to speak before one of the most important Associations in England, I may say in the world, the Young Men's Christian Association, London. I would indeed have shrunk back from occupying such a position, were it not that I felt the feeblest instrumentality might be made mighty through the blessing of God, to do good. I am to speak to-night upon Habit; but I have never been in the habit of arranging my thoughts previous to meeting an assembly. I did think upon this occasion it was necessary to do so, and, for the past three or four weeks, I have made the attempt, but from speaking five or six times in the week, travelling, writing letters, meeting committees, and other engagements, I positively have had no time, and truly, if it had been otherwise, I know not that I should have succeeded. I come, therefore, before you simply with the results of my own experience and observation. I shall not attempt to give you a literary entertainment or an intellectual feast such as you are used to enjoy. I only come to tell you that which I know, and to testify to that which I have seen in reference to the subject under consideration. Time, my friends, is too short, and that great day, for which all other days are made, is too near us for me to spend time in speaking of the term Habit, which opens in itself a continent of thought. Habit! why we can hardly speak of anything in connection with human life without speaking of habit! We will, if you please, treat of habit under two classifications,-good habits and bad habits. I have found by my own experience and by that of others, this difference between B |