"But these view s of his condition did not sink hi heart, which was sustained by pious confidence and hope. He appeared now what he always was, and rose in vir tues in proportion to his trial, expressing the tenderer' concern for those he should leave, and embracing in his solitude his country and mankind. He expired on the morning of the fourth of July, 1808. When the intelli• Bence reached Boston, a meeting of the citizens war held, with a view to testify their respect for his charac ter and services. in compliance with their request, his remains were brought to the capitol for interment, at. which an eulogy was pronounced by his early friend Mr Dexter, and every mark of respectful notice was paid.
"Funeral honours to public characters, being cus tomary offices of decorum and propriety, are necessaril? equivocal testimonies of esteem. But Mr Ames was a private man, who was honoured because he was lament ed. Ile was followed to the grave by a longer proces sion than has, perhaps, appeared on any similar occasion It was a great assemblage, drawn by gratitude and ad miration, around the bier of one exalted in their esteem by his pre-eminent. gifts, and endeared to their hearts by the surpassing loveliness of his disposition." That Mr Ames held a place in the foremost. ranks of intellect, and is, in that respect, entitled to a conspicu ous station in the temple of fame, those who knew him hest are most ready to allow. Even his enemies,—if, indeed, he left any behind him,—will not deny, that he was endowed, in an eminent degree, with all the powers and qualities of a man of genius. Whatever his imagi nation conceived and his judgment approved, his fancy decorated in the most vivid colours, and his ardour car ried home with irresistible effect.
Although eminent as a jurist, and still more so as a writer, he was most distinguished as a statesman, and an orator. The style of his eloquence was peculiar to himself. 'We know of no model, either ancient or mo dern, to which it can, in strict propriety, be compared. Too rich to borrow, and too proud to imitate, he looked into himself, and drew on his own resources for whatever the subject and occasion demanded. He sought. indeed, for information from every quarter ; through the abun dant channels of reading and conversation, no less than those of observation and reflection. But when know ledge once entered his mind, it experienced so many new combinations, and underwent such a thorough digestion, as to be completely assimilated to his own genius. Al though it entered as knowledge derived from another, it soon took the character of the intellect it nourished, and went forth again, when required, to app•ar in a renovated and more radiant form. Nor was it in respect to its form
alone that it sustained It mutation. It was augmented in its bulk, and multiplied in its ramifications, like a cion planted in a fertile and well watered soil. In relation to the modes ol debate it pursued, and the abundance of in struments it was in the habit ol using, a more pregnant, plastic, and versatile mind perhaps never existed. Na ture and art were alike tributary to its amazing re sources. With an case and velocity which we never, we think, witnessed in any other being, it would bOtIlid throngs the range of space from pule to pole, and from earth to heaven, returning fraught with the choicest lights and happiest allusions, witn all that was rare, and new, and beautiful, as means in illustration of sonic to pic of debate. Capable of sporting with the lightest ob jects and of wielding the mightiest, it passed, \I' ith equal familiarity, from the elew-chop to the ocean, and from the whispering of the breeze, to the roar of the ele ments. As circumstances demanded, its subject ap peared either in a dress "simpr munditiis," elegantly simple, or clothed in a style of oriental magnificence.
In the different views entertained on the subject by different inch\ iduals, the oratory of Mr Ames has been compared succussis ely to that of most of the distin guished speakers that have flourished,—to the oratory, in particular, of But Ice and Chatham, Cicero and Demos thenes. Ile has been even said, to have formed himself on the model of each of these illustrious standards in elo quence. The criticism is, in both its branches, erroneous. The oratory of Mr Ames, although equally lofty, was less gorgeous than that of Burke, less full and swelling than that of Cicero, and, though soilless hat similar in its senten tiousness, energy, and point, less vehement and abrupt than that of Chatham or Demosthenes. In unstudied ornament, striking antithesis, fertility of allusion, and novelty of combination, it w as certainly far superior to either. Nor is it just to the reputation of Mr Ames, to represent him as an imitator of either British, Roman, or Grecian eloquence. That he was familiar with the best models of the art, both ancient and modern, will not be denied. He studied them, however, not with a view to servile imitation, but merely for the purposes of instruction and iinprovement ;—with the intention, per haps, of correcting faults, but certainly not of acquiring excellencies. Something negative might have been de rived from them ; but every thing positive originated in himself. After collecting the best lights that exten sive reading and inquiry could bestow, he retired with in himself, and followed the bent of his own genius.