THE DUMB ORATORS; OR THE BENEFIT OF SOCIETY.

With fair round belly, with good capon lined,
With eyes severe —
Full of wise saws and modern instances. 
                 Shakespeare, As You Like It.

Deep shame hath struck me dumb. 
                     King John.

He gives the bastinado with his tongue;
Our ears are cudgell’d. 
                             King John.

. . . . . . .   Let’s kill all the lawyers;
Now show yourselves men; ’tis for liberty: 
We will not leave one lord or gentleman.
2 Henry VI.

And thus the whirligig of time brings in his revenges. 
                                Twelfth Night.

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That all men would be cowards if they dare,
Some men we know have courage to declare;
And this the life of many a hero shows,
That, like the tide, man’s courage ebbs and flows: 
With friends and gay companions round them, then
Men boldly speak and have the hearts of men;
Who, with opponents seated miss the aid
Of kind applauding looks, and grow afraid;
Like timid travelers in the night, they fear
Th’ assault of foes, when not a friend is near. 
   In contest mighty, and of conquest proud,
Was Justice Bolt, impetuous, warm, and loud;
His fame, his prowess all the country knew,
And disputants, with one so fierce, were few: 
He was a younger son, for law design’d,
With dauntless look and persevering mind;
While yet a clerk, for disputation famed,
No efforts tired him, and no conflicts tamed. 
Scarcely he bade his master’s desk adieu,
When both his brothers from the world withdrew. 
An ample fortune he from them possessed,
And was with saving care and prudence bless’d. 
Now would he go and to the country give
Example how an English ’squire should live;
How bounteous, yet how frugal man may be,
By well-order’d hospitality;
He would the rights of all so well maintain. 
That none should idle be, and none complain. 
   All this and more he purposed—­and what man
Could do, he did to realise his plan;
But time convinced him that we cannot keep
A breed of reasoners like a flock of sheep;
For they, so far from following as we lead,
Make that a cause why they will not proceed. 
Man will not follow where a rule is shown,
But loves to take a method of his own: 
Explain the way with all your care and skill,
This will he quit, if but to prove he will. —
Yet had our Justice honour—­and the crowd,
Awed by his presence, their respect avow’d. 
   In later years he found his heart incline,
More than in youth, to gen’rous food and wine;
But no indulgence check’d the powerful love
He felt to teach, to argue, and reprove. 
   Meetings, or public calls, he never miss’d —
To dictate often, always to assist.