66 "tollere ?" * I shall give an instance from a printed pleading of a famous Scotch lawyer, Sir George M'Kenzie. It is in a charge to the jury, in the case of a woman accused of murdering her own child. "Gentlemen, if one man had any "how slain another, if an adversary had killed "his opposer, or a woman occasioned the death "of her enemy, even these criminals would have "been capitally punished by the Cornelian law; "but, if this guiltless infant, who could make no enemy, had been murdered by its own nurse, "what punishments would not then the mother "have demanded? With what cries and excla"mations would she have stunned your ears? "What shall we say then, when a woman, guilty "of homicide, a mother of the murder of her in"nocent child, hath comprised all those misdeeds "in one single crime? a crime in its own nature "detestable; in a woman, prodigious; in a mo"ther, incredible! and perpetrated against one "whose age called for compassion, whose near "relation claimed affection, and whose innocence "deserved the highest favour?" I must take notice, however, that such regular climaxes as these, though they have considerable beauty, have, at the same time, no small appearance of art and * "It is a crime to put a Roman citizen in bonds; it is the "height of guilt to scourge him; little less than parricide to 66 put him to death what name then shall I give to crucifying "him?" : study; and, therefore, though they may be admitted into formal harangues, yet they speak not the language of great earnestness and passion, which seldom proceeds by steps so regular. Nor, indeed, for the purposes of effectual persuasion, are they likely to be so successful, as an arrangement of circumstances in a less artificial order. For, when much art appears, we are always put on our guard against the deceits of eloquence; but when a speaker has reasoned strongly, and by force of argument has made good his main point, he may then, taking advantage of the favourable bent of our minds, make use of such artificial figures to confirm our belief, and to warm our minds. END OF THE FIRST VOLUME. Printed by Walker & Greig, Edinburgh, 1 |