87.-WASHINGTON. AARON BANCROFT, the father of George Bancroft, the historian, was born at Reading, Massachusetts, November 10, 1755. He was educated at Harvard. He published a great number of sermons and addresses. His Life of Washington, from which the following extract is taken, is one of the best known of his writings. His style is easy and simple. He died at Worcester, Massachusetts, August 19, 1840. 1. GENERAL WASHINGTON was exactly six feet in height; he appeared taller, as his shoulders rose a little higher than the true proportion. His eyes were of a gray and his hair of a brown color. His limbs were well formed, and indicated strength. His complexion was light, and his countenance serene and thoughtful. His manners were graceful, manly, and dignified. His general appearance never failed to engage the respect and esteem of all who approached him. 2. Possessing strong natural passions and having the nicest feelings of honor, he was in early life prone keenly to resent practices which carried the intention of abuse and insult; but the reflections of maturer age gave him the most perfect government of himself. He possessed the faculty, above all other men, to hide the weaknesses inseparable from human nature, and he bore with meekness and equanimity his distinguished honors. 3. Reserved but not haughty in his disposition, he was accessible to all in concerns of business, but he opened himself only to his confidential friends; and no art or address could draw from him an opinion which he thought prudent to conceal. He was not so much distinguished for brilliancy of genius as for solidity of judgment and consummate prudence of conduct. He was not so eminent for any one quality of greatness and worth as for the union of those great, amiable, and good qualities which are very rarely combined in the same character. 4. His maxims were formed upon the result of mature reflection or extensive experience: they were the invariable rules of his practice; and on all important instances he seemed to have an intuitive view of what the occasion rendered fit and proper. He pursued his purpose with a resolution which-one solitary moment excepted-never failed him. 5. Alive to social pleasures, he delighted to enter into familiar conversation with his acquaintance, and was sometimes sportive in his letters to his friends; but he never lost sight of the dignity of his character, nor deviated from the decorous and appropriate behavior becoming his station in society. 6. He commanded from all the most respectful attention, and no man in his company ever fell into light or lewd conversation. His style of living corresponded with his wealth; but his extensive establishment was managed with the strictest economy, and he ever reserved ample funds liberally to promote schemes of private benevolence and works of public utility. Punctual himself to every engagement, he exacted from others a strict fulfillment of contracts; but to the necessitous he was diffusive in his charities, and he greatly assisted the poorer classes of people in his vicinity by furnishing them with means successfully to prosecute plans of industry. 7. In domestic and private life he blended the authority of the master with the care and kindness of the guardian and friend. Solicitous for the welfare of his slaves, while at Mount Vernon he every morning rode round his estates to examine their condition: for the sick, physicians were provided, and to the weak and infirm every necessary comfort was administered. The servitude of the negroes lay with weight upon his mind: he often made it the subject of conversation and revolved several plans for their general emancipation, but could devise none which promised success, in consistency with humanity to them and safety to the state. 8. The address presented to him at Alexandria on the commencement of his Presidency fully shows how much he was endeared to his neighbors, and the affection and esteem in which his friends held his private character. His industry was unremitting, and his method so exact that all the complicated business of his military command and civil administration was managed without confusion and without hurry. 9. Not feeling the lust of power, and ambitious only for honorable fame, he devoted himself to his country upon the most disinterested principles; and his actions were not the semblance, but the reality, of virtue: the purity of his motives was accredited, and absolute confidence placed in his patriotism. While filling a public station the performance of his duty took the place of pleasure, emolument, and every private consideration. During the more critical periods of the war a smile was scarcely seen upon his countenance; he gave himself no moments of relaxation, but his whole mind was engrossed to execute successfully his trust. 10. As a military commander, he struggled with innumerable embarrassments arising from the short enlistment of his men, and from the want of provisions, clothing, arms, and ammunition; and an opinion of his achievements should be formed in view of these inadequate means. The first years of his civil administration were attended with the extraordinary fact that, while a great proportion of his countrymen did not approve his measures, they universally venerated his character and relied implicitly on his integrity. Although his opponents eventually deemed it expedient to vilify his character that they might diminish his political influence, yet the moment he retired from public life they returned to their expressions of veneration and esteem, and after his death used every endeavor to secure to their party the influence of his name. 11. He was as eminent for piety as for patriotism. His public and private conduct evince that he impressively felt a sense of the superintendence of God and of the depend-. ence of man. In his addresses while at the head of the army and of the national government, he gratefully noticed the signal blessings of Providence and fervently commended his country to divine benediction. In private, he was known to have been habitually devout. 12. During the war he not unfrequently rode ten or twelve miles from camp to attend public worship, and he never omitted his attendance when opportunity presented. In the establishment of his presidential household he reserved to himself the Sabbath, free from the interruptions of private visits or public business, and throughout the eight years of his civil administration he gave to the institutions of Christianity the influence of his example. 13. He was as fortunate as he was great and good. Under his auspices, a civil war was conducted with mildness and a revolution with order. Raised himself above the influence of popular passions, he happily directed these passions to the most useful purposes. Uniting the talents of the soldier with the qualifications of the statesman, and pursuing, unmoved by difficulties, the noblest end by the purest means, he had the supreme satisfaction of beholding the complete success of his great military and civil services in the independence and happiness of his country. DEFINITIONS.-2. Prōne, inclined. E qua nim'i ty, evenness of mind. 3. Ae çèss'i ble, easy of approach. 4. Măx ́imş, established principles. In tū ́i tive, seeing clearly. 5. De cō'roŭs, becoming; proper. 6. U til'i ty, usefulness. Dif fu'sive, wide-reaching. 7. Re võlved, reflected upon. E măn çi slavery. Єon sist ́en çy, harmony. erěd' i ted, received with confidence. Rē lax a'tion, diversion or amusement. pied. 10. In ǎd ́e quate, insufficient. E vent'ŭ al ly, finally. Víl ́ify, to slander. pa'tion, act of setting free from 9. Lůst, longing desire. AeE mol'ü ment, profits of office. En grossed', absorbed; occu 88. THE RAZOR-SELLER. DR. JOHN WOLCOT ("Peter Pindar") was born at Dodbrooke, a village in Devonshire, England, in 1738. He was a satirical writer of no mean ability. In 1785 he wrote no less than twenty-three odes. Some of his songs and serious writings are tender and pleasing, but he seemed unable to write long without lapsing into the ludicrous. He died on the 14th of January, 1819. 1. A FELLOw in a market-town Most musical cried razors up and down, As every man would buy, with cash and sense. 2. A country bumpkin the great offer heard,Poor Hodge, who suffered by a broad black beard That seemed a shoe-brush stuck beneath his nose: With cheerfulness the eighteen pence he paid, And proudly to himself, in whispers, said, "This rascal stole the razors, I suppose. 3. "No matter if the fellow be a knave, Provided that the razors shave; It certainly will be a monstrous prize." |