ftudy the forms of court, the courfe of procedure; and muft attend minutely to all the facts that may be the fubject of queftion or deliberation.

Befides the knowledge that properly belongs to that profeffion to which he addicts himself, a public fpeaker, if ever he expects to be eminent, must make himself acquainted, as far as his neceffary occupa tions allow, with the general circle of polite literature. The study of poetry may be useful to him on many occafions, for embellishing his ftyle, for fuggefting lively images, or agreeable allufions. The study of history may be still more useful to him; as the knowledge of facts, of eminent characters, and of the course of human affairs, finds place on many occafions. There are few great occafions of public fpeaking, in which one will not derive affiftance from cultivated tafte, and extenfive knowledge., They will often yield him materials for proper ornament; fometimes, for argument and real use. A deficiency of knowledge, even in fubjects that belong not directly to his own profeflion, will expose him to many difadvantages, and give better qualified rivals a great fuperiority over him. Blair.

$75. A Habit of Industry recommended to

the intended Speaker.

Allow me to recommend, in the third place, not only the attainment of useful knowledge, but a habit of application and industry. Without this, it is impoffible to excel in any thing. We must not imagine that it is by a fort of mushroom growth, that one can rife to be a diftinguished pleader, or preacher, or fpeaker in any affembly. It is not by ftarts of application, or by a few years preparation of tudy afterwards difcontinued, that eminence can be attained. No; it can be attained only by means of regular industry, grown up into a habit, and ready to be exerted on every occafion that calls for industry. This is the fixed law of our nature; and he must have a very high opinion of his own genius indeed, that can believe himself an exception to it. A very

wife law of our nature it is; for industry is, in truth, the great "Condimentum, the feafoning of every pleasure; without which life is doomed to languish. Nothing is fo great an enemy both to honourable attainments, and to the real, to the brifk, and fpirited enjoyment of life, as that relaxed ftate of mind which arifes from indelence and diffipation. One that is deftined to excel in any art, especially in the arts of speaking and writing, will be known by this more than by any other mark whatever, an enthufiafm for that art; an enthusiasm, which, firing his mind with the object he has in view, will difpofe him to relish every labour which the means require. It was this that characterised the great men of antiquity; it is this, which muft diftinguish the moderns who would tread their fteps. This honourable enthufiafm, it is highly neceffary for fuch as are ftudying oratory to cultivate. If youth wants it, manhood will flag miferably.

Ibid.

§ 76. Attention to the best Models recom

mended to the Student in Eloquence. Attention to the beft models will contribute greatly towards improvement. Every one who speaks or writes fhould, indeed, endeavour to have fomewhat that is his own, that is peculiar to himself, and that characterifes his compofition and style. Slavifh imitation depreffes genius, or rather betrays the want of it. But withal, there is no genius fo original, but may be profited and affifted by the aid of proper examples, in ftyle, compofition, and delivery. They always open some new ideas; they ferve to enlarge and correct our own. They quicken the current of thought, and excite emulation. Ibid.

$77. Caution necessary in choofing Models.

Much, indeed, will depend upon the right choice of models which we purpose to imitate; and fuppofing them rightly chofen, a farther care is requifite, of not being feduced by a blind univerfal admiration. For, "decipit exemplar, vitiis imi"tabile." Even in the most finished models we can felect, it must not be forgotten, that there are always fome things improper for imitation. We fhould study to acquire a juft conception of the peculiar characteristic beauties of any writer, or public fpeaker, and imitate these only. One

ought

§ 78. On the Style of BOLINGBROKE and SWIFT.

Some authors there are, whofe manner of writing approaches nearer to the ftyle of fpeaking than others; and who, therefore, can be imitated with more fafety. In this clafs, among the English authors, are Dean Swift, and Lord Bolingbroke. The Dean, throughout all his writings, in the midst of much correctness, maintains the eafy natural manner of an unaffected fpeaker; and this is one of his chief excellencies. Lord Bolingbroke's ftyle is more fplendid, and more declamatory than Dean Swift's; but ftill it is the style of one who speaks, or rather who harangues. Indeed, all his political writings (for it is to them only, and not to his philofophical ones, that this obfervation can be applied) carry much more the appearance of one declaiming with warmth in a great affembly, than of one writing in a closet, in order to be read by others. They have all the copioufnefs, the fervour, the inculcating method, that is allowable and graceful in an orator; perhaps too much of it for a writer: and it is to be regretted, as I have formerly obferved, that the matter contained in them fhould have been fo trivial or fo false; for, from the manner and ftyle, confiderable advantage might be reaped.

Ibid.

$79. Frequent Exercise in compofing and Speaking neceffary for Improvement in Eloquence.

Befides attention to the best models, frequent exercife, both in compofing and fpeaking, will be admitted to be a neceffary mean of improvement. That fort of compofition is, doubtless, most useful, which relates to the profeffion, or kind of public speaking, to which perfons addict themselves. This they fhould keep ever in their eye, and be gradually inuring themselves to it. But let me also advise them, not to allow themselves in negligent compofition of any kind. He who has it for his aim to write, or to fpeak correctly, fhould, in the most trivial kind of compofition, in writing a letter, nay, even in

It now only remains to enquire, of what ufe may the ftudy of critical and rhetorical writers be, for improving one in the practice of eloquence? Thefe are certainly not to be neglected; and yet, I dare not fay that much is to be expected from them. For profeffed writers on public fpeaking, we must look chiefly among the ancients. In modern times, for reafons which were before given, popular eloquence, as an art, has never been very much the object of ftudy; it has not the fame powerful effect among us that it had in more democratical ftates; and therefore has not been cultiAmong the vated with the fame care. moderns, though there has been a great deal of good criticism on the different kinds of writing, yet much has not been attempted on the fubject of eloquence, or public difcourfe; and what has been given us of that kind has been drawn moftly from the ancients. Such a writer as Joannes Gerardus Voffius, who has gathered into one heap of pondrous lumber, all the trifling, as well as the useful things, that are to be found in the Greek and Roman writers, is enough to disgust one with the study of eloquence. Among the French, there has been more attempted, on this fubject, than among the English. The Bishop of Cambray's writings on eloquence, I before mentioned with honour. Rollin, Batteux, Crevier, Gibert, and feveral other French critics, have alfo written on oratory; but though fome of them may be useful, none of them are fo confiderable as to deserve particular recommendation.

Ibid.

learned from it; and it is no small, benefi

original Writers.

It is to the original ancient writers that we must chiefly have recourfe; and it is a reproach to any one, whofe profeffion calls him to fpeak in public, to be unacquainted with them. In all the ancient rhetorical writers, there is, indeed, this defect, that they are too fyftematical, as I formerly fhewed; they aim at doing too much; at reducing rhetoric to a complete and perfect art, which may even fupply invention with materials on every subject; infomuch that one would imagine they expected to form an orator by rule, in as mechanical a manner as one would form a carpenter. Whereas, all that can in truth be done, is to give openings for affifting and enlightening tafte, and for pointing out to genius the courfe it ought to hold.

Ariftotle laid the foundation for all that was afterwards written on the fubject. That amazing and comprehenfive genius, which does honour to human nature, and which gave light into fo many different sciences, has inveftigated the principles of rhetoric with great penetration. Ariftotle appears to have been the first who took rhetoric out of the hands of the fophifts, and introduced reasoning and good fense into the art. Some of the profoundeft things which have been written on the paffions and manners of men, are to be found in his Treatife on Rhetoric; though in this, as in all his writings, his great brevity often renders him obfcure. Succeeding Greek rhetoricians, moft of whom are now loft, improved on the foundation which Ariftotle had laid. Two of them ftill remain, Demetrius Phalerius, and Dionyfius of Halicarnaffus; both write on the construction of fentences, and deferve to be perused; efpecially Dionyfius, who is a very accurate and judicious critic.

I need fcarcely recommend the rhetorical writings of Cicero. Whatever, on the fubject of eloquence, comes from fo great an orator, must be worthy of attention. His moft confiderable work on this fubject is that De Oratore, in three books. None of Cicero's writings are more highly finished than this treatife. The dialogue is polite; the characters are well supported, and the conduct of the whole is beautiful and agreeable. It is, indeed, full of digreffions, and his rules and obfervations may be thought fometimes too vague and general. Ufeful things, however, may be

idea of eloquence. The "Orator ad M. "Brutum," is also a confiderable treatise; and, in general, throughout all Cicero's rhetorical works there run those high and fublime ideas of eloquence, which are fitted both for forming a just taste, and for creating that enthusiasm for the art, which is of the greatest consequence for excelling in it.

But, of all the antient writers on the fubject of oratory, the most inftructive, and moft useful, is Quinctilian. I know few books which abound more with good sense, and discover a greater degree of juft and accurate tafte, than Quinctilian's Inftitu tions. Almost all the principles of good criticifm are to be found in them. He has digefted into excellent order all the ancient ideas concerning rhetoric, and is, at the fame time, himself an eloquent writer. Though fome parts of his work contain too much of the technical and artificial fyftem then in vogue, and for that reafon may be thought dry and tedious, yet I would not advise the omitting to read any part of his Inftitutions. To pleaders. at the bar, even these technical parts may prove of fome ufe. Seldom has any perfon, of more found and diftinct judgment than Quinctilian, applied himself to the ftudy of the art of oratory. Blair.

§ 82. On the Neceffity of a Claffical Edu

cation.

In fome

The fairest diamonds are rough till they are polifhed, and the pureft gold must be run and washed, and fifted in the ore. We are untaught by nature; and the finest qualities will grow wild and degenerate, if the mind is not formed by difcipline, and cultivated with an early care. perfons, who have run up to men without a liberal education, we may obferve many great qualities darkened and eclipfed; their minds are crufted over like diamonds in the rock, they flash out fometimes into an irregular greatness of thought, and betray in their actions an unguided force, and unmanaged virtue; fomething very great and very noble may be difcerned, but it looks cumbersome and awkward, and is alone of all things the worfe for being natural. Nature is undoubtedly the best miftrefs and apteft fcholar; but nature herself must be civilized, or fhe will look favage, as fhe appears in the Indian princes, who are vefted with a native majefty, a fur

prifing