neous accompaniments of speech. When these are appropriate, easy and graceful, they form the crowning finish to elocution.

But the attempt to render them so by means of training, with the hope to change awkward habits to those of manly dignity, is often met by the objection, that for any one to be appropriate, easy and graceful, in expression, attitude and gesture, he must be entirely free; and to be so, he must be left entirely to nature of course unfettered by rules of discipline, the direct tendency of which is to produce affectation and constraint; and even to defeat the very object aimed to be secured by it. So, if any happen, unfortunately, not to be easy and graceful in manner, they must continue so: there is no help for them: training will only make the matter worse since the most offensive peculiarities that nature gives, are much more easy to be endured than affectation and formality. Such is the amount of the argument, if argument it can be called; which, in truth, is opposed as much to every other part of elocution, and even to grammar and rhetoric, as to this.

The fact is, those public speakers, who, in action and utterance, appear to us the most natural, and, at the same time, faultless, have been rendered so by careful training. Perfection in this, as in every other accomplishment, is the price of labor.

"Orator fit" (one makes himself an orator) is as true now as it was in the time of Cicero. He is said to have been indefatigable in his early training; and when he had become distinguished as the prince of Roman orators, he confessed he often spent whole nights upon the

speeches he had carefully composed, before he ventured to speak them in public.

Those orations of Demosthenes in which he failed so completely before the people, were, it is thought, as eloquent in style as any he afterwards delivered with the most decided applause. He himself seems to have been entirely unconscious where the difficulty lay, till it was very kindly, and very courteously shown to him by his friend Sátyrus. On one occasion, says Plutarch, when his speeches had been ill received, and he was going home with his head covered, and in the greatest distress, Satyrus followed on, and went in with him. And when he complained that others—of but little industry and learning—were heard and kept the rostrum, while he, the most laborious of all the orators, could gain no favor with the people, and was entirely disregarded: the answer was, "You say the truth; but I will soon provide a remedy, if you will repeat some speeches from Euripides or Sophocles." When Demosthenes had done, Satyrus pronounced the same; and he did it with such propriety of action, and so much in character, that it appeared to the orator quite a different passage. He now understood so well, how much grace and dignity action adds to the best oration, that he thought it a small matter to premeditate and compose, though with the utmost care, if the pronunciation and gesture were not attended to. Upon this, he looked solely to his delivery. He bent his attention to overcome all the obstacles in his way even those interposed by nature: for he is said to have had weak lungs, the habit of stammering, and a stoop in his shoulders. It is truly astonishing to think of the expe

dients he devised; in what varied modes of discipline he persevered, till all the embarrassing obstacles disappeared; and he became, from these zealous and unwearied efforts, perfect in his voice and action, and the first orator in the world.

These examples and remarks are given here as a guard against the too general notion that all instruction on this subject is but of little use; and as encouragement to self-discipline and self-reliance. No matter under what favoring circumstances the student may be placed; he may attend the best schools, the best lectures, and have the aid of the best teachers; yet his real improvement is never effected, and never can be, unless he do the work himself: and he never can become a finished speaker, unless he feel an interest that shall induce him to exercise himself in a faithful course of practice in private, and to cultivate his taste and judgment by careful study and critical observation.

Where children can have the right instruction, the earlier they begin to declaim, the better. Had Demosthenes been early tutored in his elocution, no doubt he would have succeeded in his public effort the first time. And what an amount of mortification and trouble would have been avoided! But who is expected to show the courage, self-denial and perseverance he practised, to repair early neglects, correct bad habits, and triumph over the defects of nature ? No one indeed can appreciate, sufficiently, the value of good habits-especially those pertaining to the arts of address-formed in early youth nor estimate the disadvantages of bad ones; nor the immense difficulty of subduing them, when strength

ened and confirmed by years. In either case, they become a sort of second nature; they form the character; and entail upon life lasting good or evil.

These are but a few of the reasons why elocution, in all its parts, should be included in a regular course of study, and be made a prominent subject of early and continued attention.

LESSON XXI.

ACTION—II.

THESE lessons commenced by saying that, "To read well, is to read as if the words were supplied by the act of present thought, rather than by the page before us; or just as we should speak, if the language and sentiments were our own." So, to speak well, I would say, is to speak as if the words came at the call of present thought and feeling, and Nature supplied the tones, looks and gestures.

The first excellence in speaking from memory or otherwise, is an unstudied, extemporaneous manner it is important therefore to know what kind of instruction and discipline the pupil needs, that such may become his fixed and settled habit. Every teacher's experience must show, there is nothing he needs so much at first, as some friendly hints or directions how to select his pieces, and how to prepare them for declamation: since

a mistake or failure in either, is very likely to cause a failure in the delivery; and with it, mortification and discouragement.

Any such difficulty at the outset, to a sensitive mind, often becomes a complete bar to all future attempts and so a vast many get the impression-and it is very easy to get it-that they have not the requisite talents that nature never designed them for speakers, who otherwise might have become the Websters, the Clays, or the Calhouns of their country. Such was our noble Webster himself, in his early life; and such, no doubt, he would have continued, had not his mighty intellect subdued at length all in his way.

A wise instructor does not put his pupils in their first attempts at composition, to a moral essay, an oration, a poem; but to subjects the most familiar and easy upon which they can talk with fluency: so let it be with speaking. Instead of poems, and impassioned extracts from orations and the drama; let the beginner make his selections entirely from prose; such as are easy and familiar; pure in sentiment and style, and so interesting, that he can fully enter into their spirit. And if he is old enough, let him write off his piece in a plain, fair hand, and read it over till the language becomes, in a manner, his own: and let him listen to the tones of his voice, and decide, as well as his understanding and taste can aid him, whether they are natural, and convey the exact meaning, and they do it in the best manner. Then, having committed it to memory, let him repeat it aloud till he can enunciate with clearness all the words with right tone, pause and emphasis;