that. "talent might be compared to a bee, gathering honey from every flower, but creating none; while genius is like a spider, it spins from its own bowels." We may add that genius is insatiable, and becomes vigorous in proportion as it is appropriately fed. Like the Phoenix, which rises renovated from its own ashes, or the vitals of Prometheus which grew as fast as the vultures devoured them, the finer powers of the soul become purified by the flames they traverse, and are strengthened by the struggles they endure. Lord Brougham is an orator of talent, but Fisher Ames was the orator of genius

CHAPTER XIII.

WILLIAM PINKNEY,

THE ACCOMPLISHED COUNSELLOR.

SERJEANT TALFOURD, one of the most elegant schvals and able lawyers now practising in Westminster Hall, has said that there is no pursuit in life which appears more captivating at a distance than the profession of the bar. "It is the great avenue to political influence and reputation; its honors are among the most splendid which can be attained in a free State; and its emoluments and privileges are exhibited as prizes, to be contested freely by all its members. Its annals celebrate many individuals who have risen from the lowest ranks of the people, by fortunate coincidence, or by patient labor, to wealth and station, and have become the founders of fortunate families. If the young aspirant perceives, even in his hasty and sanguine glance, that something depends on fortuitous circumstances, the conviction only renders the pursuit more inviting, by adding the fascinations of a game of chance to those of a trial of skill. If he is forced to confess that a sacrifice of principle is occasionally required of the candidate for its more lucrative situations, he glories in the pride of

untempted virtue, and pictures himself generously resisting the bribe which would give him riches ana authority in exchange for conscious rectitude and the approbation of the good and the wise. While he sees nothing in the distance, but glorious success, or more glorious self-denial, he feels braced for the severest exertion; nerved for the fiercest struggle; and regards every throb of an impatient ambition as a presage of victory."

Among the early, persevering and triumphant devotees at the shrine of Themis, in America, William Pinkney, of Maryland, stands pre-eminent. He was born at Annapolis, on the 17th of March, 1764. His father was an Englishman and a tory; but the son early avowed his ardent attachment to republican liberties, and to the last struggled for the independence which in boyhood he espoused.

He commenced his law studies in the office of Justice Chase, in 1783, and was called to the bar in 1786. His first efforts commanded public admiration, and to the minds of the sagacious foretokened eminent success. At that time the law of real property, and the science of special pleading, were the two great departments of legal study, and in these he was considered accurate and profound. "His style of speaking," says Wheaton, "was marked by an easy flow of natural eloquence and a happy choice of language. His voice was very dious, and seemed a most winning accompaniment to his pure and effective diction. His elocution was calm and placid-the very contrast to that strenuous, vehement, and emphatic manner, which he subsequently adopted."

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In 1786, M: Pinkney removed to Harford County, where he practiced his profession, and in 1788, was elected a delegate to the State Convention which ratified the Constitution of the United States. In the same year, he was elected to represent the county of Harford in the House of Delegates, which position he continued to occupy until 1792, when he removed to Annapolis. In 1789, he married Miss Ann Maria Rodgers, sister to Commodore Rodgers, the celebrated ornament of our navy.

While in the State legislature, Pinkney distinguished himself in several important debates. In 1789 he made an admirable speech on the voluntary emancipation of slaves, nearly the whole of which has been preserved. The following are brief extracts which illustrate his character and exemplify his style:

"The door to freedom is fenced about with such bar. barous caution, that a stranger would be naturally led to believe that our statesmen considered the existence of its opposite among us as the sine qua non of our prosperity; or, at least, that they regarded it as an act of the most atrocious criminality to raise an humble bondsman from the dust, and place him on the stage of life on a level with their citizens.

"Eternal infamy awaits the abandoned miscreants, whose selfish souls could ever prompt them to rob unhappy Afric of her sons, and freight them hither by thousands to poison the fair Eden of liberty with the rank weed of individual bondage!

"Sir, it is really matter of astonishment to me that the people of Maryland do not blush at the very name of

freedom. That they who have, by the deliberate acts of their legislature, treated her most obvious dictates with contempt; who have exhibited for a long series of years, a spectacle of slavery which they are still solicitous to perpetuate; who, not content with exposing to the world for near a century, a speaking picture of abominable oppression, are still ingenious to prevent the hand of generosity from robbing it of half its horrors; that they should step forward as the zealous partizans of freedom, cannot but astonish a person who is not casuist enough to reconcile antipathies

"For shame, sir! let us throw off the mask, 'tis a cobveb one at best, and the world will see through it. It will not do thus to talk like philosophers, and act like unrelenting tyrants; to be perpetually sermonizing with liberty for our text, and actual oppression for our commentary."

In 1792, Mr. Pinkney was elected a member of the Executive Council of Maryland, in which office he remained until November, 1795, when he resigned his seat as President of the Board, to assume still higher functions to which he had been appointed. During all this time he was exceedingly assiduous in study, and rose rapidly to the head of the bar, and to a distinguished rank in the public councils of his native State. Mr. Walsh, speaking of this period of Pinkney's life, says, "His acuteness, dexterity, and zeal in the transaction of business; his readiness, spirit, and vigor in debate; the beauty and richness of his fluent elocution, adorned with the finest imagery drawn from classical lore and a vivid fancy; the manliness of his figure and the energy