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do beseech you, the severe simplicity, the subdued tone of the diction, in the most touching parts of the "old man Eloquent's"-loftiest passages. In In the oath, when he comes to the burial place where they repose by whom he is swearing, if ever a grand epithet were allowable, it is here-yet the only one he applies is ἀγαθοὺς μὲ τοὺς ἐν Μαραθῶνι προκινδυνεύσαντας τῶν προγόνων—καὶ τοὺς ἐν Πλαταιαῖς παραταξαμένους—καὶ τοὺς ἐν Σαλαμίνι ναυμαχήσαντας —καὶ τοὺς ἐπ ̓ ̓Αρτεμισίῳ, καὶ πολλοὺς ἑτέρους τοὺς ἐν τοῖς δημοσίοις μνήμασι κειμένους ̓ΑΓΑΘΟΥΣ άνδρας. When he would compare the effects of the Theban treaty in dispelling the dangers that compassed the state round about, to the swift passing away of a stormy cloud, he satisfies himself with two words, og vipos-the theme of just admiration to succeeding ages; and when he would paint the sudden approach of overwhelming peril to beset the state, he does it by a stroke, the picturesque effect of which has not perhaps been enough notedlikening it to a whirlwind or a winter torrent, ὥσπερ σκηπτὸς ἢ χειμάρρους. à It is worthy of remark, that in by far the first of all Mr Burke's orations, the passage which is, I believe, universally allowed to be the most striking, owes its effect to a figure twice introduced in close resemblance to these two great expressions, although certainly not in imitation of either; for the original is to be found in Livy's description of Fabius's appearance to Hannibal. Hyder's vengeance is likened to "a black cloud, that hung for a while on the declivities of the mountains," and the people who suffered under its devastations, are described as "enveloped in a whirlwind of cavalry." Whoever reads the whole passage, will, I think, admit that the effect is almost entirely produced by those two strokes; that the amplifications which accompany them, as the "black

ening of the horizon"-the "menacing meteor"-the " storm of unusual fire," rather disarm than augment the terrors of the original black cloud; and that the "goading spears of the drivers," and "the trampling of pursuing horses," somewhat abate the fury of the whirlwind of cavalry.Δουλεύουσί γε μαστιγούμενοι καὶ στρεβλού Evo, says the Grecian master, to describe the wretched lot of those who had yielded to the wiles of the conqueror, in the vain hope of securing their liberties in safety. Compare this with the choicest of Mr Burke's invectives of derision and pity upon the same subject-the sufferings of those who had made peace with Regicide France-and acknowledge the mighty effect of relying upon a single stroke to produce a great effect -if you have the master hand to give it. "The king of Prussia has hypothecated in trust to the Regicides his rich and fertile territories on the Rhine, as a pledge of his zeal and affection to the cause of liberty and equality. He has been robbed with unbounded liberty and with the most levelling equality. The woods are wasted; the country is ravaged; property is confiscated; and the people are put to bear a double yoke, in the exactions of a tyrannical government, and in the contributions of a hostile conscription." "The grand Duke of Tuscany, for his early sincerity, for his love of peace, and for his entire confidence in the amity of the assassins of his family, has been complimented with the name of the sovereign in Europe. This pacific Solomon, or his philosophic, cudgelled ministry, cudgelled by English and by French, whose wisdom and philosophy between them have placed Leghorn in the hands of the enemy of the Austrian family, and driven the only profitable commerce of Tuscany from its only port."-Turn now for

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refreshment to the Athenian artist Καλήν γ' οἱ πολλοὶ νῦν ἀπειλήφασιν Ωρειοτῶν χάριν ὅτι τοῖς Φιλίππου φίλοις ἐπέτρεψαν αὑτοὺς, τὸν δ ̓ Εὐφραῖον ἐώθουν καλὴν γ ̓ ὁ δῆμος ὁ τῶν Ἐρετριέων, ὅτι τοὺς ὑμετέ‐ gous μὲν πρέσβεις ἀπήλασε, Κλειτάςχῳδ ̓ ἐνέδωκεν αὑτόν· δουλεύουσί γε μαστιγούμενοι καὶ στρεβλούμενοι. Phil. 3.—Upon some very rare occasions indeed, the orator, not content with a single blow, pours himself all forth in a full torrent of invective, and then we recognise the man who was said of old to eat shields and steel-donidas na idngov Qayav. But still the effect is produced without repetition or diffuseness. I am not aware of any such expanded passage as the invective in the girarov against those who had betrayed the various states of Greece to Philip. It is indeed a noble passage; one of the most brilliant, perhaps the most highly coloured, of any in Demosthenes; but it is as condensed and rapid as it is rich and varied."Ανθρωποι μιαροὶ καὶ κόλακες καὶ ἀλάστορες, ἠκρωτηρισμένοι τὰς ἑαυτῶν ἕκαστοι πατρίδας, τὴν ἐλευθερίαν προπεπωκότες πρότερον μέν Φιλίππω, νῦν δὲ Αλεξάνδρῳ τῇ γαστρὶ μετροῦντες καὶ τοῖς αἰσχίστοις τὴν εὐδαιμονίαν—τὴν δ ̓ ἐλευθερίαν καὶ τὸ μηδένα ἔχειν δεσπότην αὑτῶν, (ἃ τοῖς προτέροις Ἕλλησιν ὅροι τῶν ἀγαθῶν ἦσαν καὶ κανόνες) ἀνατετροφότες.—This requires no contrast to make its merits shine forth; but compare it with any of Cicero's invectives-that, for instance, in the third Catilinarian, against the conspirators, where he attacks them regularly under six different heads, and in above twenty times as many words; and ends with the known and very moderate jest of their commander keeping "Scortorum cohortem

Prætoriam."

The great poet of modern Italy, Dante, approached nearest to the ancients in the quality of which I have been speaking. In his finest passages you rarely find an epithet

hardly ever more than one; and never two efforts to embody one idea. "A guisa di Leon quando si posa," is the single trait by which he compares the dignifed air of a stern personage to the expression of the lion slowly laying him down. It is remarkable that Tasso copies the verse entire, but he destroys its whole effect by filling up the majestic idea, adding this line," Girando gli occhi e non movendo il passo." A better illustration could not easily be found of the difference between the ancient and the modern style. Another is furnished by a later imitator of the same great master. I know no passage of the Divina Commedia, more excursive than the description of evening in the Purgatorio; yet the poet is content with somewhat enlarging on a single thought-the tender recollections which that hour of meditation gives the traveller, at the fall of the first night he is to pass away from home, when he hears the distant knell of the expiring day. Gray adopts the idea of the knell in nearly the words of the original, and adds eight other circumstances to it, presenting a kind of ground plan, or at least a catalogue, an accurate enu. meration (like a natural historian's) of every one particular belonging to night-fall, so as wholly to exhaust the subject, and leave nothing to the imagination of the reader. Dante's six verses, too, have but one epithet, dolci, applied to amici. Gray has thirteen or fourteen; some of them mere repetitions of the same idea which the verb or the substantive conveys as drowsy tinkling lulls, the moping owl complains, the ploughman plods his weary way. Surely, when we contrast the simple and commanding majesty of the ancient writers, with the superabundance and diffusion of the exhaustive method, we may be tempted to feel that there

Jurks some alloy of bitterness in the excess of sweets. This was so fully recognised by the wise ancients, that it became a proverb among them, as we learn from an epigram still preserved,

Εἰς τὴν μετριότητα.

Πᾶν τὸ περιττὸν ἄκαιρον, ἐπεὶ λόγος ἐστὶ παλαιός,
Ως καὶ τοῦ μέλιτος, τὸ «λέον ἐστὶ χολή.

In forming the taste by much contemplation of those antique models, and acquiring the habits of easy and chaste composition, it must not be imagined that all the labour of the orator is ended, or that he may then, dauntless and fluent, enter upon his office in the public assembly. Much preparation is still required before each exertion, if rhetorical excellence is aimed at. I should lay it down as a rule, admitting of no exception, that a man will speak well in proportion as he has written much; and that, with equal talents, he will be the finest extempore speaker, when no time for preparing is allowed, who has prepared himself the most sedulously when he had an opportunity of delivering a premeditated speech. All the exceptions which I have ever heard cited to this principle, are apparent ones only; proving nothing more than that some few men, of rare genius, have become great speakers without preparation; in nowise showing, that, with preparation, they would not have reached a much higher pitch of excellence. The admitted superiority of the ancients in all oratorical accomplishments, is the best proof of my position; for their careful preparation is undeniablenay, in Demosthenes, (of whom Quinctilian says, that his style indicates more premeditation-plus cura-than Cicero's,) we can trace, by the recurrence of the same passage, with progressive improvements in different speeches, how nicely he polished the

more exquisite parts of his compositions. I could point out favourite passages, occurring as often as three several times, with variations and manifest amendment.

I am now requiring, not merely great preparation while the speaker accomplished his education. is learning his art, but after he has The

most splendid effort of the most mature orator will be always finer for being previously elaborated with much care.

There is, no doubt, a charm in extemporaneous elocution, derived from the appearance of artless unpremeditated effusion, called forth by the occasion, and so adapting itself to its exigencies, which may compensate the manifold defects incident to this kind of composition: that which is inspired by the unforeseen circumstances of the moment, will be of necessity suited to those circumstances in the choice of the topics, and pitched in the tone of the execution to the feelings upon which it is to operate. These are great virtues: it is another to avoid the besetting vice of modern oratory

the overdoing everythng-theexhaustive method-which an offhand speaker has no time to falil into; and he accordingly will take only the grand and effective view: nevertheless, in oratorical merit, such effusions. must needs be very inferior; much of the pleasure they produce depends upon the hearer's surprise that, in such circumstances, anything can be delivered at all, rather than upon his deliberate judgment, that he has heard anything very excellent in itself. We may rest assured that the highest reaches of the art, and without any necessary sacrifice of natural effect, can only be attained by him who well considers, and maturely prepares, and oftentimes sedulously corrects and refines his oration. Such preparation is quite consistent with

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the introduction of passages prompted by the occasion; nor will the transition from the one to the other be perceptible in the execution of a practised master. I have known attentive and skilful hearers completely deceived in this matter, and taking for extemporaneous, passages which previously existed in manuscript, and were pronounced without the variation of a particle or a pause. Thus, too, we are told by Cicero in one of his epistles, that having to make, in Pompey's presence, a speech after Crassus had very unexpectedly taken a particular line of argument, he exerted himself, and it appears successfully, in a marvellous manner, mightily assisted, in what he said extempore, by his habit of rhetorical preparation, and introducing skilfully, as the inspiration of the moment, all his favourite commonplaces, with some of which, as we gather from a good-humoured joke at his own expense, Crassus had interfered: "Ego autem ipse, Di Boni ! quomodo ένεπερπερευσάμην novo auditori Pompeio! Si unquam mihi περίοδοι, si καμπαὶ, εἰ ἐνθυμήματα, si naraonival, suppeditaverunt, illo tempore. Quid multa? clamores. Etenim hæc erat vobis, de gravitate ordinis, de equestri concordia, de consensione Italiæ, de immortuis reliquiis conjurationis, de vilitate, de otio-nôsti jam in hâc materiâ sonitus nostros; tanti fuerunt ut ego eo brevior sim, quod eos usque isthinc exauditos putem." (Ad Att. I. 14.)

If, from contemplating the means of acquiring eloquence, we turn to the noble purposes to which it may be made subservient, we at once perceive its prodigious importance to the best interests of mankind. The greatest masters of the art have concurred, and upon the greatest occasion of its display, in pronouncing that its estimation depends on the

virtuous and rational use made of it. Let their sentiments be engraved on your memory in their own pure and appropriate diction. Kaλo (says Æschines) τὴν μὲν διάνοιαν προαιρεῖσθαι τὰ βέλτιστα, τὴν δὲ παιδείαν τὴν τοῦ ῥήτορος nai τὸν λόγον πείθειν τοὺς ἀκούοντας—εἰ δὲ μή, τὴν εὐγνωμοσύνην αἰεὶ προτακτέον τοῦ λόγου

(Κατὰ Κτησιφῶντος). "Εστι (says his illustrious antagonist) x ó hógos τοῦ ῥήτορος τίμιος, οὐδ ̓ ὁ τόνος τῆς φωνῆς, ἀλλὰ τὸ ταὐτὰ προαιρεῖσθαι τοῖς πολλοῖς (Yg Kτno.)

It is but reciting the ordinary praises of the art of persuasion, to remind you how sacred truths may be most ardently promulgated at the altar, the cause of oppressed innocence be most powerfully defended, the march of wicked rulers be most triumphantly resisted, defiance the most terrible be hurled at the oppressor's head. In great convulsions of public affairs, or in bringing about salutary changes, every one confesses how important an ally eloquence must be. But in peaceful times, when the progress of events is slow and even as the silent and unheeded pace of time, and the jars of a mighty tumult in foreign and domestic concerns can no longer be heard, then, too, she flourishes, protectress of liberty-patroness of improvement-guardian of all the blessings that can be showered upon the mass of human kind; nor is her form ever seen but on ground consecrated to free institutions. "Pacis comes, otiique socia, et jam bene constitutæ reipublicæ alumna eloquentia." To me, calmly revolving these things, such pursuits seem far more noble objects of ambition than any upon which the vulgar herd of busy men lavish prodigal their restless exertions. To diffuse useful information-to further intellectual refinement, sure forerunner of moral improvement-to hasten the coming of that bright day when

the dawn of general knowledge shall chase away the lazy, lingering mists, even from the base of the great social pyramid,this, indeed, is a high calling, in which the most splendid talents and consummate virtue may well press onward, eager to bear a part. I know that I speak in a place consecrated by the pious wisdom of ancient times to the instruction of but a select portion of the community. Yet from this classic ground have gone forth those whose genius, not their ancestry, ennobled them; whose incredible merits have opened to all ranks the temple of science; whose illustrious example has made the humblest emulous to climb steeps no longer inaccessible, and enter the unfolded gates, burning in the sun. I speak in that city where Black having once taught, and Watt learned, the grand experiment was afterwards made in our day, and with entire success, to demonstrate that the highest intellectual cultivation is perfectly compatible with the daily cares and toils of working men; to show, by thousands of living examples, that a keen relish for the most sublime truths of science belongs alike to every class of mankind.

To promote this, of all objects the most important, men of talents and of influence I rejoice to behold pressing forward in every part of the empire; but I wait with impatient anxiety to see the same course pursued by men of high station in society, and by men of rank in the world of letters. It should seem as if these felt some little lurking jealousy, and those were somewhat scared by feelings of alarm-the one and the other surely alike groundless. No man of science needs fear to see the day when scientific excellence shall be too vulgar a commodity to bear a high price. The more widely knowledge is spread, the more will they

be prized whose happy lot it is to extend its bounds by discovering new truths, or multiply its uses by inventing new modes of applying it in practice. Their numbers will, indeed, be increased, and among them more Watts and more Franklins will be enrolled among the lights of the world, in proportion as more thousands of the working classes, to which Franklin and Watt belonged, have their thoughts turned towards philosophy; but the order of discoverers and inventors will still be a select few; and the only material variation in their proportion to the bulk of mankind will be, that the mass of the ignorant multitude being progressively diminished, the body of those will be incalculably increased who are worthy to admire genius, and able to bestow upon its possessors an immortal fame.

To those, too, who feel alarmed as statesmen, and friends of existing establishments, I would address a few words of comfort. Real knowledge never promoted either turbulence or unbelief; but its progress is the forerunner of liberality and enlightened toleration. Whoso dreads these, let him tremble; for he may be well assured that their day is at length come, and must put to sudden flight the evil spirits of tyranny and persecution, which haunted the long night now gone down the sky. As men will no longer suffer themselves to be led blindfold in ignorance, so will they no more yield to the vile principle of judging and treating their fellow creatures, not according to the intrinsic merit of their actions, but according to the accidental and inveluntary coincidence of their opinions. The Great Truth has finally gone forth to all the ends of the earth,

THAT MAN SHALL NO MORE RENDER ACCOUNT TO MAN FOR HIS BELIEF, OVER WHICH HE HAS HIMSELF NO

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