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cannot be lasting. The pathetic, therefore, should not be prolonged and extended too much. A due regard should always be preserved to what the audience will bear; for he that attempts to carry them farther in passion than they will follow him annihilates his purpose; by endeavouring to warm them in the extreme, he takes the surest method of completely freez ing them.

For the expression of these passions by pronunciation or delivery, the student must be referred to a work entitled Elements of Elocution, where it is hoped he will find a clearer description of the operation of the passions, on the attitude, countenance, gesture, and tone of voice, whether in reading or speaking, than is to be met with in any other work on the subject. Besides, what has never before been attempted, he will there find a mechanical process of exciting the passions in the speaker, so necessary to his communicating them to his hearer, according to the rule of Horace:

Si vis me flere,
Dolendum est primum ipse tibi.

Concerning the peroration, or conclusion of a discourse, a few words will be sufficient. Sometimes the whole pathetic part comes in most properly at the conclusion. Sometimes, when the discourse has been altogether argumentative, it is proper to conclude with summing up the arguments, placing them in one point of view, and leaving the impression of them full and strong on the minds of the hearers. For the principal rule of a conclusion, and what nature obviously suggests, is to place that last on

which we choose that the strength of our cause should rest.

In every kind of public speaking it is impor tant to hit the precise time of concluding, so as to bring the discourse just to a point; nei ther ending abruptly and unexpectedly, nor disappointing the expectation of the hearers, when they look for the discourse being finished. The close should always be concluded with dignity and spirit, that the minds of the hearers may be left warm, and that they may depart with a favourable impression of the subject and of the speaker.

Having thus adjusted and prepared the seve ral parts of a subject, the next object is the style in which we are to convey it to others. This has been so elaborately and accurately treated by Dr. Blair, that I shall take the same liberty which others have done, of extracting some of his thoughts on this subject, and refer the student in rhetoric to the Doctor's excellent lectures, for a more complete view of whatever is necessary to be known,

Style-Perspicuity and Precision.

STYLE is the peculiar manner in which a man expresses his conceptions by means of language. It is a picture of the ideas which rise In his mind, and of the order in which they are produced.

The qualities of a good style may be ranked under two heads-perspicuity and ornament. It will readily be admitted, that perspicuity ought to be essentially connected with every kind of writing. Without this the brightest or

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naments of style only glimmer through the dark; and perplex, instead of pleasing the reader. If we are forced to follow a writer with much care, to pause, and to read over his sentences a second time, in order to understand them fully, he will never please us long. Mankind are too indolent to be fond of so much labour. Though they may pretend to admire the author's depth, after having discovered his meaning, they will seldom be inclined to look a second time into his book.

The study of perspicuity claims attention, first, to single words and phrases, and then to the construction of sentences. When considered with respect to words and phrases, it requires these three qualities-purity, propriety, and precision.

Purity and propriety of language are often used indiscriminately for each other; and, indeed, they are very nearly allied. A distinction, however, should be made between them. Purity consists in the use of such words and such constructions as belong to the idiom of the language which we speak, in opposition to those words and phrases which are imported from other languages, or which are obsolete, or new coined, or employed without proper authority. Propriety is the choice of such words as the best and most established usage has appropriated to those ideas which we intend to express by them: it implies their correct and judicious application, in oppo sition to vulgar or low expressions, and to words and phrases which would be less significant of the ideas that we intend to convey. Style may be pure, that is, it may be entirely English, without Scotticisms or Gallicisms, or ungram

matical expressions of any kind, and may, notwithstanding, be deficient in propriety. The words may be ill selected; not adapted to the subject, nor fully expressive of the author's meaning. He has taken them, indeed, from the general mass of English language; but his choice has been made without happiness or skill. Style, however, cannot be. proper without being pure: it is the union of purity and propriety which renders it graceful and perspicuous.

The exact meaning of precision may be understood from the etymology of the word. It is derived from "præcidere," to cut off: it signifies retrenching all superfluities, and pruning the expression in such a manner as to exhibit neither more nor less than an exact copy of his idea who uses it.

The words which are employed to express ideas may be faulty in three respects. They may either not express that idea which the author means, but some other which only resembles or is related to it; or they may express that idea, but not fully and completely; or they may express it, together with something more than he designs. Precision is opposed to these three faults, but particularly to the last; into this feeble writers are very apt to fall. They employ a multitude of words to make themselves understood, as they think, more distinctly; and they only confound the reader. The image, as they place it before you, is always seen double, and no double image is distinct. When an author tells us of his hero's courage in the day of battle, the expression is precise, and we understand it fully. But if, from a desire of multiplying words, he will praise his courage and forti

tude, at the moment he joins these words toge ther our idea begins to waver. He intends to express one quality more strongly, but he is, in fact, expressing two. Courage resists danger; fortitude supports pain. The occasion of exerting each of these qualities is different; and being induced to think of both together, when only one of them should engage our attention, our view is rendered unsteady, and our conception of the object indistinct.

The great source of a loose style, in opposition to precision, is the inaccurate and unhappy use of those words called synonymous. Scarcely, in any language, are there two words which express precisely the same idea; and a person perfeetly acquainted with the propriety of the language will always be able to observe something by which they are distinguished. In our language, very many instances might be given of a difference in meaning, among words which are thought to be synonymous; and as the subject is of importance, we shall point out a few of

them.

Surprised, astonished, amazed, confounded. We are surprised with what is new or unexpected; we are astonished at what is vast or great; we are amazed with what we cannot comprehend; we are confounded by what is shocking or terrible.

Pride, canity. Pride makes us esteem ourselves; vanity makes us desire the esteem of others.

Haughtiness, disdain. Haughtiness is founded on the high opinion we have of ourselves; disdain on the low opinion we entertain of others.

To weary, to fatigue. The continuance of the

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