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Art. XXIX.

A Funeral Oration, delivered at the
Brick Presbyterian Church in the
City of New-York, on the 22d day
of February, 1800, being the day
recommended by Congress to the
Citizens of the United States, pub-
licly to testify their grief for the
Death of General Washington: by
appointment of a number of the
Clergy of New-York, and published
at their request. By John M.
Mason, M. A. Pastor of the As-
sociate-Reformed Church in the
City of New-York. 8vo. pp. 23.
New-York. George F. Hopkins.
1800.

THIS performance begins with
a very spirited exordium. It
is brief, and a transition is easily
and gracefully made to an enume-
ration of the great events of Wash-
ington's life. This method is
strictly natural, and has therefore
been adopted by every eulogist
whom we have seen. A critical
observer will be instructed and
amused by marking the various
combinations of words and associa-
tions of images produced, by the
same events, in different minds;
and, as human excellence is merely
comparative, there hence arises a
criterion by which the merit of the
several orators may be weighed.

Mr. Mason begins his historical
career at the opening of the revolu-
tion. Most of his compeers have
taken up the subject of their praise
at his infancy, and largely expatiated
on the part which the deceased sus-
tained as a soldier and negociator
in the Indian wars. We greatly
approve of Mr. Mason's method.
It is an argument of true discern-
ment to select the bold and charac-
teristic features of the man, and to
overlook the ordinary and minute
lineaments which he possesses in
common with a thousand others.
Washington, in the field of Brad-
dock, in a subordinate capacity,

exerted courage and address; but
what is this to his conduct as the
soul and leader of a revolution, and
as a civil magistrate! The former
part, hundreds have sustained as
well as he; but, to his conduct in
the latter, a parallel will not easily
be found. While millions are in-
debted for liberty and safety to his
military and civil virtues as leader
and governor, that attention which
employs itself upon the exploits of
his youth, so comparatively unim-
portant, though worthy of history,
seems unsuitable to eloquence.

The events of the war are not
distinctly related, but, more agree-
ably to the genius of eloquence, are
displayed in summary and striking
allusions. We have been tempted
to smile when, on similar occasions,
we have heard a very accurate
abridgement of Washington's life;
been informed of the day and year
of each transaction, and of the
failure or success of measures which
may reasonably be imagined to be
already known to us. The business
of an orator is somewhat different
from that of annalist or chronicler.
His duty is to place known facts in a
new light, and supply us with re-
flections not previously possessed,
or possessed with less energy of
passion or vividness of conception.

The conduct of Washington, at
the close of the war, is thus pour-
trayed:

“The hope of her reduction at
length abandoned; her war of liber-
ty brought, in the establishment of
independence, to that honourable
conclusion for which it had been
undertaken; the hour arrived when
he was to resign the trust which he
had accepted with diffidence. To
a mind less pure and elevated, the
situation of America would have
furnished the pretext, as well as
the means, of military usurpation.
Talents equal to daring enterprize;
the derangement of public affairs;
unbounded popularity; and the de-


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votion of a suffering army, would
have been, to every other, a strong,
and to almost any other, an irresist-
ible temptation. In Washington
they did not produce even the pain
of self-denial. They added the last
proof of his disinterestedness; and
imposed on his country the last
obligation to gratitude. Impene-
trable by corrupting influence;
deaf to honest but erring solicita-
tion; irreconcilable with every
disloyal sentiment, he urged the
necessity, and set the example, of
laying down, in peace, arms assumed
for the common defence.

“But we must not lose, in our
sensibility, the remembrance of his
penetration, his prudence, his re-
gard of public honour, and of pub-
lic faith. Abhorring outrage; jea-
lous for the reputation, and dread-
ing the excesses, of even a gal-
lant army, flushed with conquest,
prompted by incendiaries, and shel-
tered by a semblance of right, his
last act of authority is to dismiss
them to their homes without enter-
ing the capital. Accompanied with
a handful of troops, he repairs to
the Council of the States, and,
through them, surrenders to his
country the sword which he had
drawn in her defence. Singular
phenomenon! Washington be-
comes a private citizen! ‘He ex-
changes supreme command for the
tranquillity of domestic life! Go,
incomparable man! to adorn no
less the civic virtues, than the splen-
did atchievements of the field: go,
rich in the consciousness of thy
high deserts: go, with the admira-
tion of the world, with the plaudit
of millions, and the orisons of mil-
lions more for thy temporal and
thine eternal bliss!”

The following view is given of
the motives of Washington's de-
clining a re-election to the office of
supreme magistrate:

“Let not his motives be mis-
taken or forgotten. It was for him

to set as great examples in the relin-
quishment, as in the acceptance of
power. No mortified ambition;
no haughty disgusts; no expecta-
tion of higher office, prompted his
retreat. He knew that foreign na-
tions considered his life as the bond,
and his influence as the vital spirit
of our union. He knew that his
own lustre threw a shade over
others, not more injurious to them
than to his country. He wished to
dispel the enchantment of his own
name: he wished to relieve the ap-
prehensions of America, by making
her sensible of her riches in other
patriots; to be a spectator of her
prosperity under their management;
and to convince herself, and to con-
vince the world, that she depended
less on him, than either her ene-
mies or her friends believed—And
therefore he withdrew.”

On the style of this performance,
it is not easy to pass judgment in
which many will concur. It is
vehement and figurative. Bold
flights of passion, and of metaphor,
are frequently attempted. To soar
on such aspiring wings, with grace-
fulness and dignity, is surely diffi-
cult. Not sometimes to pass the
bounds of propriety, of language,
and of thought, is scarcely possible.

There is a strain, earnest and pa-
thetic, fervent and bold, creative
of solemnity and sorrow, rich in
ornament and splendor, but never
grotesque and extravagant, fantas-
tic and incongruous, which all de-
sire and all labour, but few are
able to reach. We fear that Mr.
Mason is sometimes to be found
among the unsuccessful number.

If the test of rhetorick be the ef-
fect which it produces on the hear-
ers, these errors cannot be imput-
ed to this performance. There
are few, with respect to which
the approbation of the audience,
and of the public in general, has
been more ardent and unanimous;
and this is a criterion of merit

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on which Mr. M. may safely rely,
in despite of the censures of critics
like us, even should we be inclin-
ed to censure.