History is not without her examples of hard-fought fields, where the banner of

liberty has floated triumphantly on the wildest storm of battle. She is without

her examples of a people by whom the dear-bought treasure has been wisely

employed and safely handed down. The eyes of the world are turned for that

example to us....

 

Let us, then, as we assemble on the birthday of the nation, as we gather upon

the green turf, once wet with precious blood--let us devote ourselves to the

sacred cause of constitutional liberty! Let us abjure the interests and passions

which divide the great family of American freemen! Let the rage of party spirit

sleep to-day! Let us resolve that our children shall have cause to bless the

memory of their fathers, as we have cause to bless the memory of ours!

 

--EDWARD EVERETT.

 

CHAPTER VIII

 

CONCENTRATION IN DELIVERY

 

Attention is the microscope of the mental eye. Its power may be high or low; its

field of view narrow or broad. When high power is used attention is confined

within very circumscribed limits, but its action is exceedingly intense and

absorbing. It sees but few things, but these few are observed "through and

through" ... Mental energy and activity, whether of perception or of thought,

thus concentrated, act like the sun's rays concentrated by the burning glass.