"overlooked themselves, appeared totally absorbed in their sub"ject, and spoke with real propriety and pathos from the imme"diate impulse of truth and virtue."

The complaints against the English preachers and public speakers for their inattention to delivery, however strong, are not more so than those, which even our lively neighbours have urged against their own speakers for similar inattention. Ludovicus Cresollius, a Jesuit of Britany, who wrote a treatise upon the perfect action and pronunciation of an orator, published at Paris in 1620, gives the following description of the delivery of a public speaker, whose style was polished and whose composition was learned.

“When he turned himself to the left, he spoke a few words accompanied by a moderate gesture of the hand, then bending "to the right, he acted the same part over again; then back again to the left, and presently to the right, almost at an equal "and measured interval of time, he worked himself up to his "usual gesture, and his one kind of movement; you could

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compare him only to the blindfolded Babylonian oxen going "forward and returning back by the same path." He was so disgusted, that he shut his eyes, but even so he could not get over the disagreeable impression of the speaker's manner. He concludes, "I therefore give judgment against and renounce all "such kind of orators."" In another place he has made an enu

15 Cum se in sinistram convertisset, pauca verba fundebat cum modico manuum gestu; tum reflectens se in dexteram, eodem plane modo agebat, iterum in sinistram, mox in dexteram pari prope et dimensa temporis intercapedine, statum illum ciebat gestum, et unius

C

meration of the most remarkable faults of bad speakers; it is so spirited and characteristic, particularly in his own language, that it merits to be set down at large. The translation is nearly as follows: "Some hold their heads immoveable, and turned to "one side, as if they were made of horn; others stare with "their eyes as horribly, as if they intended to frighten every "one; some are continually twisting their mouths and working "their chins, while they are speaking, as if, all the time, they "were cracking nuts; some like the apostate Julian, breathe insult, express in their countenance contempt and impudence. "Others, as if they personated the fictitious heroes in tragedy,

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gape enormously, and extend their jaws as widely as if they "were going to swallow up every body: above all, when they "bellow with fury, they scatter their foam about, and threaten "with contracted brow, and eyes like Saturn. These, as if they were playing some game, are continually making motions with "their fingers, and, by the extraordinary working of their hands, "endeavour to form in the air, I may almost say, all the figures "of the mathematicians. Those, on the contrary, have hands so ponderous and so fastened down by terror, that they could more easily move beams of timber; others labour so with their "elbows, that it is evident, either that they had been formerly "shoemakers themselves, or had lived in no other society but " that of cobblers. Some are so unsteady in the motions of their bodies, that they seem to be speaking out of a cock-boat; others "again are so unwieldy and uncouth in their motions, that you "would think them to be sacks of tow painted to look like men.

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generis motionem, boves illos Babylonicos diceres, per eandem viam obductis luminibus euntes et redeuntes. Igitur totum illud genus hominum abjudico atque repudio.

Cresollius. Vac. Autum.

"I have seen some who jumped on the platform and capered nearly in measure: men that exhibited the fullers' dance, and "as the old poet says, expressed their wit with their feet. But "who in a short compass is able to enumerate all the faults of gesture, and all the absurdities of bad delivery?" "

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16

Thus, if it afford any consolation, we find that other nations also have cause to complain of deficiency and neglect in this important branch of oratory. It has been said, and Mr. Addison seems to have acquiesced in the justice of the charge, that it does not suit the genius of our speakers to use gesture. 17 There may possibly be nations whose livelier feelings incline them more to gesticulation than is common among us, as there are also countries in which plants of excellent use to man grow spontaneously;

16 Quidam rigidum caput et obstipum non magis movent, quam si essent cornei: alii tam immaniter oculos aperiunt, ut terrere omnes velle videantur. Nonnulli quasi nucem perpetuo frangerent, os et mentum in dicendo contorquent. Quidam instar perfidiosi Juliani rivσi,

vultu contumeliam, impudentiamque significant. Alii ut in tragedia fictam heroum personam acturi, ut cum Luciano dicam, raμμéyedes xao, vaste hiant velut faucibus excepturi omnes; præsertim cum irati boant, spumas agunt, striata fronte et Saturniis oculis minantur. Hi velut in ludo, continuo micant digitis, et incredibili manuum agitatione prope dicam omnes mathematicorum figuras in aere conantur effingere: illi contra tam ponderosas habent manus et stupore defixas, ut celerius trabes moverent: alii cubitos ita ventilant, facile ut appareat, aut sutores fuisse aliquando, aut cum cerdonibus assiduissime fuisse versatos: quidam ita vaccillant toto corpore, quasi è lintre loquerentur, alii tam vasti sunt et in motu corporis tam agrestes, ut stuppeos saccos putares in hominis effigiem depictos. Vidi etiam qui exilirent in suggesto et prope ad numerum tripudiarent, qui fullonios saltus ede rent et ut vetus poeta loquitur, pedibus argutarentur. Sed quis breviter gestus omnia vitia, et ineptæ pronunciationis, oratione percenceat? Cresoll. Vac. Aut.

Vidi multos, quorum supercilia ad singulos vocis conatus allevarentur, aliorum constricta, aliorum etiam dissidentia, cum altero in verticem tenderent, altero pene oculus ipse premeretur. Quint. l. 1. c. 11.

17 I believe every one will agree with me in this, that we ought to lay aside all kinds of gesture (which seems to be very suitable to the genius of our nation), or at least to make use of such only as are graceful and expressive. Spect. No. 407.

these, by care and culture, are found to thrive also in colder countries, and by a little study we shall equal the most favoured nations. With respect to the delivery of an orator, in all its refinement and necessary circumstances, the fact appears to be, that it belongs to no particular people to the exclusion of others; and that it is not the gift of nature more than other high acquirements; but that it is the reward of arduous labour, under the guidance of consummate art. We admit the French to have more facility in learning this art than ourselves, the French allow the same superiority to the Italians, the Italians to the Greeks; but in truth the gift is not gratuitous to any people. Gracchus laboured incessantly, Cicero laboured incessantly, Hortensius laboured, Demosthenes, Æschines, Isocrates laboured; which of all the celebrated orators has not laboured? or which of them can be said to owe his fame merely to the gift of nature, as the indigenous produce of the soil from which he sprung? If a standard of comparison could be found, hardly would the British actors, whose excellence is chiefly confined to this one branch of eloquence, delivery, lose in comparison with either moderns or ancients of other nations; and what the talents, the industry, and the professional acquirements of our actors have accomplished, can we doubt would be accomplished with equal success by our orators, if they brought into action equal industry and equal professional learning? It is not because the British orators are incapable of the most consummate perfection in the art of delivery, that this perfection is hardly to be seen among them; but because perfection in this, as in all other arts, is a work of labour and of time. Whether the acquisition be worthy of that labour and time, is a question to be decided, either on the authority of the great models and

masters of eloquence, or on the same ground as the value of eloquence itself, of which it makes an important and indispensable part. Either men should be limited in their communications (were this possible) to the relation of simple facts and to reasonings grounded on demonstration only,**-or if they are allowed to use persuasion for good purposes, or to guard themselves and their friends from evil machinations, they should avail themselves of all the arts, of which experience has proved the use; were it otherwise, they would be exposed to meet their enemy with unequal weapons. These weapons, whether offensive or defensive, are supplied by the art of rhetoric. This art has five" principal divisions, of which the first three are constantly used by all our public speakers; namely, invention, disposition, and the choice of language correct or ornamental, properly called Elocution; memory, the fourth, is frequently used. Why should the art be mutilated and deprived of the fifth, pronunciation, or delivery? It was a question which

18 Artis rhetoricæ partes quinque sunt, inventio, dispositio, elocutio, memoria, pronunciatio. Inventio est excogitatio rerum verarum aut verisimilium, quæ causam probabilem reddant. Dispositio est rerum inventarum in ordinem distributio. Elocutio est idoneorum verborum ad inventionem eloquutio. Memoria est firma animi rerum ac verborum ad inventionem perceptio. Pronunciatio est ex rerum et verborum dignitate vocis et corporis moderatio. Primum est enim invenire quod dicas. Deinde quod inveneris disponere: tum quod disposueris verbis explicare. Quarto quod inveneris et disposueris et oratione vestieris memoria comprehendere. Ultimum ac summum quod memoria comprehenderis pronuntiare. Alcuini de Arte Rhet. Dial. p. 360.

This division is, according to the authority of Cicero: Cumque esset omnis oratoris vis, ac facultas in quinque partes distributa, ut deberet reperire primum, quid diceret; deinde inventa non solum ordine, sed etiam momento quodam, atque judicio dispensare atque disponere; tum ea denique vestire, atque ornare oratione; post memoria sepire; ed extremum agere cum dignitate et venustate. De Orat. l. 1. c. 31.

Neither the high court of Parliament in Great Britain, nor the courts of justice in the empire, are constituted on the model of the celebrated court of Areopagus.