ABSTRACT
Edmund Burke's eloquence was that of the poet; of the man of high and unbounded fancy: his wisdom was profound and contemplative. Lord Chatham's eloquence was calculated to make men act. Burke's was calculated to make them think. Burke was the man of genius, of fine sense, and subtle reasoning; Chatham was a man of clear understanding, of strong sense, and violent passions. Burke's mind was satisfied with speculation: Chatham's was essentially active: it could not rest without an object. The power which governed Burke's mind was his Imagination; that which gave its impetus to Chatham's was Will. The one was almost the creature of pure intellect, the other of physical temperament. Burke's execution, like that of all good prose, savours of the texture of what he describes, and his pen slides or drags over the ground of his subject, like the painter's pencil.
