Elegant Extracts: Or, Useful and Entertaining Passages in Prose, Selected for the Improvement of Young Persons : Being Similar in Design to Elegant Extracts in Poetry

power of moft perfons; if they will only unlearn falfe and corrupt habits; if they will allow themselves to follow nature, and will fpeak in public, as they do in private, when they speak in earneft, and from the heart. If one has naturally any grofs defects in his voice or gestures, he begins at the wrong end, if he attempts at reforming them only when he is to speak in public: he should begin with rectifying them in his private manner of fpeaking; and then carry to the public the right habit he has formed. For when a fpeaker is engaged in a public difcourfe, he fhould not be then employing his attention about his manner, or thinking of his tones and his geftures. If he be fo employed, study and affectation will appear. He ought to be then quite in earneft; wholly occupied with his fubject and his fentiments; leaving nature, and previously formed habits, to prompt and fuggeft his manner of delivery.

II.

Means of improving in Eloquence.

I have now treated fully of the different kinds of public fpeaking, of the compofition, and of the delivery of a difcourfe. Before I finish this fubject, it may be of use to fuggeft fome things concerning the propereft means of improvement in the art of public fpeaking, and the moft neceffary ftudies for that purpose.

To be an eloquent fpeaker, in the proper fenfe of the word, is far from being either a common or an eafy attainment. Indeed, to compofe a florid harangue on fome popular topic, and to deliver it fo as to amufe an audience, is a matter not very difficult. But though fome praise be due to this, yet the idea, which I have endeavoured to give of eloquence, is much higher. It is a great exertion of the human powers. It is the art of being perfuafive and commanding; the art, not of pleafing the fancy merely, but of speaking both to the understanding and to the heart; of interefting the hearers in such a degree, as to feize and carry them along with us; and to leave them with a deep and ftrong impreffion of what they have heard. How many talents, natural and acquired, muft concur for carrying this to perfection! A ftrong, lively, and warm imagination; quick fenfibility of heart, joined with folid judgment, good ferife, and prefence of mind; all improved by great and long attention to style and corpofition;

and fupported alfo by the exterior, yet important qualifications, of a graceful manner, a prefence not ungainly, and a full and tuneable voice. How little reason to wonder, that a perfect and accomplished orator fhould be one of the characters that is most rarely to be found!

Let us not defpair, however. Between mediocrity and perfection there is a very wide interval. There are many intermediate fpaces, which may be filled up with honour; and the more rare and difficult that complete perfection is, the greater is. the honour of approaching to it, though we do not fully attain it. The number of orators who stand in the highest class is, perhaps, smaller than the number of poets who are foremost in poetic fame; but the study of oratory has this advantage above` that of poetry, that, in poetry, one must be an eminently good performer, or he is not fupportable;

Mediocribus effe poëtis

Non homines, non Dî, non conceffêre columne *.

In Eloquence this does not hold. There one may poffefs a moderate ftation with dignity. Eloquence admits of a great many different forms; plain and fimple, as well as high and pathetic; and a genius that cannot reach the latter, may fhine with much reputation and usefulness in the former.

Whether nature or art contribute most to

form an orator, is a trifling enquiry. In all
attainments whatever, nature must be the
prime agent. She must bestow the origi-
nal talents. She muft fow the feeds; but
culture is requifite for bringing those feeds
to perfection. Nature muft always have
be left to be done by art.
done fomewhat; but a great deal will always
This is certain,
that study and difcipline are more neceffary
for the improvement of natural genius in
oratory, than they are in poetry. What I
mean is, that though poetry be capable of
receiving affiftance from critical art, yet a
poet, without any aid from art, by the force
of genius alone, can rife higher than a pub-
lic fpeaker can do, who has never given at-
tention to the rules of ftyle, compofition,
and delivery. Homer formed himself; De-
mofthenes and Cicero were formed by the
help of much labour, and of many affift
auces derived from the labour of others.

For God and man, and lettered poft denies,
That poets ever are of middling fize.
FRANCIS.

After

After thefe preliminary obfervations, let us proceed to the main defign of this lecure; to treat of the means to be used for improvement in eloquence..

agrorum nimia cura, et follicitior rei fa"miliaris. diligentia, et vénandi voluptas, "et dati fpectaculis dies, multum ftudiis "auferunt, quid putamus facturas cupidi"tatem, avaritiam, invidiam? Nihil enim eft tam occupatum, tam multiforme, tot "ac tam variis affe&tibus concifum, atque laceratum, quam mala ac improba mens, Quis inter hæc, literis, aut ulli bonæ "arti, locus? Non hercle magis quam frugibus, in terra fentibus ac rubis oc"cupata."

În the first place, what ftands highest in the order of means, is perfonal character" and difpofition. In order to be a truly eloquent or perfuafive fpeaker, nothing is more necessary than to be a virtuous man. This was a favourite pofition among the ancient rhetoricians: "Non poffe oratorem "effe nifi virum bonum." To find any fuch connection between virtue and one of the highest liberal arts, muft give pleafure; and it can, I think, be clearly fhewn, that this is not a mere topic of declamation, but that the connection here alledged, is undoubtedly founded in truth and reafon.

For, confider firft, Whether any thing contributes more to perfuafion, than the opinion which we entertain ofthe probity,difinterestedness, candour, and other good moral qualities of the person who endeavours to perfuade? Thefe give weight and force to every thing which he utters; nay, they add a beauty to it; they difpofe us to liften with attention and pleasure; and create a secret partiality in favour of that fide which he espouses. Whereas, if we entertain a fufpicion of craft and difingenuity, of a corrupt, or a bafe mind, in the fpeaker, his eloquence lofes all its real effect. It may entertain and amufe; but it is viewed as artifice, as trick, as the play only of fpeech; and, viewed in this light, whom can it perfuade? We even read a book with more pleasure, when we think favourably of its author; but when we have the living fpeaker before our eyes, addreffing us perfonally on some subject of importance, the opinion we entertain of his character must have a much more powerful effect.

But, left it should be said, that this relates only to the character of virtue, which one may maintain, without being at bottom a truly worthy man, I muft obferve farther, that, befides the weight which it adds to character, real virtue operates alfo in other ways, to the advantage of eloquence.

First, Nothing is fo favourable as virtue to the profecution of honourable studies. It prompts a generous emulation to excel; it inures to induftry; it leaves the mind vacant and free, mafter of itself, difencumbered of those bad paffions, and difengaged from thofe mean purfuits, which have ever been found the greatest enemies to true proficiency. Quinctilian has touched this Gonfideration very properly: « Quod

But, befides this confideration, there is. another of ftill higher importance, though I am not fure of its being attended to as much as it deferves; namely, that from the fountain of real and genuine virtue, are drawn those fentiments which will ever be moft powerful in affecting the hearts of others. Bad as the world is, nothing has fo great and univerfal a command over the minds of men as virtue. No kind of language is fo generally understood, and so powerfully felt, as the native language of worthy and virtuous feelings. He only, therefore, who poffeffes thefe full and ftrong, can fpeak properly, and in its own language, to the heart. On all great fubjects and occafions, there is a dignity, there is an energy in noble fentiments, which is overcoming and irrefiftible. They give an ardour and a flame to one's difcourfe, which feldom fails to kindle a like flame in thofe who hear; and which, more than any other caufe, beftows on eloquence that power, for which it is famed, of seizing and tranfporting an audience. Here att and imitation will not avail. An affumed character conveys nothing of this powerful warmth. It is only a native and unaffected glow of feeling, which can tranfmit the emotion to others. Hence the most renowned orators, such as Cicero and Demofthenes, were no lefs diftinguished for fome of the high virtues, as public spirit and zeal for their country, than for eloquence.

attention to domeftic economy, a paflion for "If the management of an eftate, if anxious "hunting, or whole days given up to public "places and amufements, confume fo much time "that is due to ftudy, how much greater wafte "must be occafioned by licentious defires, avarice, "or envy! Nothing is fo much hurried and agi "tated, fo contradictory to itself, or fo violently "torn and hattered by conflicting paffions, as a "bad heart. Amidft the diftractions which it "produces, what room is left for the cultivation "of letters, or the purfuit of any honourable art? "No more, affuredly, than there is for the growth. "of corn in a field that is over-run with thorns

fi" and brambles."

Beyond

Beyond doubt, to thefe virtues their eloquence owed much of its effect; and thofe orations of theirs, in which there breathes most of the virtuous and magnanimous fpirit, are those which have most attracted the admiration of ages.

Nothing, therefore, is more neceffary for thofe who would excel in any of the higher kinds of oratory, than to cultivate habits of the feveral virtues, and to refine and improve all their moral feelings. Whenever thefe become dead, or callous, they may be affured, that on every great occafion, they will speak with lefs power, and lefs fuccefs. The fentiments and difpofitions particularly requifite for them to cultivate, are the following; the love of justice and order, and indignation at infolence and oppreffion; the love of honefty and truth, and deteftation of fraud, meannefs, and corruption; magnanimity of spirit; the love of liberty, of their country and the public; zeal for all great and noble defigns, and reverence for all worthy and heroic characters. A cold and sceptical turn of mind is extremely adverse to eloquence; and no lefs fo, is that cavilling difpofition which takes pleasure in depreciating what is great, and ridiculing what is generally admired.

Such a difpofition befpeaks one not very likely to excel in any thing; but leaft of all in oratory, A true orator fhould be a perfon cf generous fentiments, of warm feelings, and of a mind turned towards the admiration of all thofe great and high objects which mankind are naturally formed to admire. Joined with the manly virtues, he fhould, at the fame time, poffefs strong and tender fenfibility to all the injuries, diftreffes, and forrows, of his fellow-creatures; a heart that can eafily relent; that can readily enter into the circumstances of others, and can make their cafe his own. A proper mixture of courage, and of modefty, muft also be studied by every public fpeaker. Modesty is effential; it is always, and juftly, fuppofed to be a concomitant of merit; and every appearance of it is winning and prepoffeffing. But modefty ought not to run into exceffive timidity. Every public speaker should be able to rest somewhat on himself; and to assume that air, not of felf-complacency, but of firmness, which befpeaks a consciousness of his being thoroughly perfuaded of the truth or juftice, of what he delivers; a circumftance of no fmall confequence for making impreffion on those who hear.

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