On the 14th of February 1776 he was again elected to the Continental Congress and when the Chart of Liberty was presented he carefully examined its bold physiognomy--pronounced its points, features, landmarks, delineations and entire combinations worthy of freemen gave it his vote, his signature and his benediction. At the close of the session he retired from public life and declined a re-election. As he anticipated, the British drove away his family, destroyed his property and after he returned hunted him from place to place and several times had him so nearly cornered that his escape seemed impossible. His exposure in eluding the pursuit of the relentless foe brought on illness that terminated his life in 1780. He was a worthy member of the Baptist church--a devoted Christian--an HONEST MAN. PATRICK HENRY. Genius is one of the indefinable attributes of man. We may think, see, talk and write upon this noble quality, rehearse its triumphant achievements, its magic wonders, its untiring efforts--but what _is_ genius? that's the question--one that none but pedants will attempt to answer. The thing, the moving cause, the _modus operandi_ can no more be comprehended and reduced to materiality than the spirit that animates our bodies. The man who can do this can analyze the tornado, put the thunder cloud in his breeches pocket and quaff lightning for a beverage. Metaphysicians, physiologists and craniologists may put on their robes of mystery, arm each eye with a microscope, each finger with the acutest phrenological sensibility, whet up all their mental powers to the finest keenness, strain their imagination to its utmost tension, tax speculation one hundred per cent, and then call to their aid the brightest specimens of this occult power--the combined force could not weave a web and label it GENIUS that would not be an insult to common sense. Genius is the essential oil of mental power. No frost can freeze it, no fog can mildew it, no heat can paralyze it, no potentate can crush it. In all countries and climes it springs up spontaneously but flourishes most luxuriantly and attains a more perfect symmetry and greater strength when nurtured by intelligence and freedom. So versatile is this concentrated essence of mental power that we can form no rule to pre-determine its personal locality, its time of development, its measure of strength or the extent of its orbit. Like a blazing meteor--it bursts suddenly upon us as in the darkness of night, illuminating the world and like the lightning thunder bolt--shivers every obstacle that stands in its way.