ments, none of which are ever cold, flat, or abstracted.

The success of this oratorical figure is infallible in Eloquence, when it is properly employed. It is the natural language of a soul deeply affected. If you wish to see an example of it, a fa

mous one now occurs to me.

Every one knows that fine introduction of Cicero, who, unable to express the lively indignation of his patriotic zeal, rushes abruptly upon Catiline, and instantly overwhelms him by the vehemence of his interrogations. How long, O Catiline, wilt thou abuse our patience? How 'long shall we continue to be the objects of thy fury? Whither will thy headstrong audacity 'impel thee? Perceivest thou not the constant ' watch in the city, the apprehensions of the peo'ple, the enraged countenances of the Senators, who have discovered thy pernicious designs? Thinkest thou that I know not what passed the • last night in the house of Lecca? Hast thou not 'made a distribution of employments, and parcel'led out all Italy with thy accomplices?'*

Quousque tandem abutere, Catalina, patientiâ nostrâ ? quamdiù etiam, furor iste tuus nos eludet? quem ed finem sese effrenata jactabit audacia? nihil-ne te nocturnum præsidiùm palatü, nihil urbis vigiliæ, nihil timor populi, nihil concur sus honorum omnium, nihil hic muntissimus habendi

Here is eloquence! here is nature! It is by his making use of such language, that the Orator dives to the very bottom of the human heart.*

senatûs locus, nihil horum ora vultusque moverunt? Patere tua consilia non sentis? quid proximâ nocte egeris, ubi fueris, quos convocaveris, quem nostrûm ignorare arbitraris ?

&c.-In Catil. Orat. 1.

†The intelligent reader will perceive that the above translation is from the French of our author, though not exactly corresponding with the Latin of Cicero. The followlowing is subjoined as a more full and faithful translation of the Roman Orator:

'How long, O Cataline, wilt thou abuse our patience? How long also shall thy madness elude us? Whither will ⚫thy ungovernable audacity impel thee? Could neither the nightly garrison of the citadel, nor the watch of the city, • nor the general consternation, nor the congress of all good men, nor this strongly-fortified place where the senate is ◄ held, nor the enraged countenances of those Senators, deter thee from thy impious designs? Dost thou not perceive that thy counsels are all discovered? Thinkest thou 'that there are any of us ignorant of thy transactions the 'past night, the place of rendezvous, thy collected associates?' &c.

* INTERROGATIONS,' says Dr. Blair, are passionate figures. They are, indeed, on so many occasions, the na'tive language of passion, that their use is extremely frequent; and, in ordinary conversation, when men are heated, they prevail as much as in the most sublime Oratory. The unfigured, literal use of Interrogation is to ask a question; but when men are prompted by passion, whatever they ⚫ would affirm, or deny, with great vehemence, they natu• rally put in the form of a question; expressing thereby the strongest confidence of the truth of their own sentiment,

SECTION XVIII.

IF

OF THE ELOQUENCE OF M. BRIDAINE.

F there be extant among us any traces of this ancient and energetic Eloquence, which is nothing else than the original voice of nature, it is

6

' and appealing to their hearers for the impossibility of the contrary. Thus, in Scripture: GoD is not a man that he should lie, neither the son of man that he should repent. Hath he said? And shall he not do it? Or hath he spoken? And shall he not make it good? (Numbers xxiii. 19.) -So Demosthenes, addressing himself to the Athenians; 'Tell me, will you still go about and ask one another, what news? What can be more astonishing news than this, that the man of Macedon makes war upon the Athenians, and 'disposes of the affairs of Greece?-Is Philip dead? No, 'but he is sick. What signifies it to you whether he be 'dead or alive? For, if any thing happen to this Philip, you 'will immediately raise up another.”—“ All this, delivered without interrogation, had been faint and ineffectual; but the warmth and eagerness which this questioning method expresses, awaken the hearers, and strike them with much 'greater force.'-BLAIR'S Lectures, vol. i. p. 355, 356.

'Much to the same purpose we may add those sublime • interrogations in the book of Job, where the Almighty is ⚫ himself the Speaker; and that in the eleventh chapter of the same poem: 'Canst thou by searching find out God? • Canst thou find out the Almighty unto perfection? It is high as Heaven, what canst thou do? deeper than hell, 'what canst thou know?'-All the energy of this passage 'would be lost if once divested of the interrogations; should ́it be said, Thou canst not by searching find out God;

among the missionaries, and in the country, where we must seek for examples. There, some apostolic men, endowed with a vigorous and bold imagination, know no other success than conversions, no other applauses than tears.* Often devoid of taste, they descend, I confess, to bur

Thou canst not find out the Almighty unto perfection: it ' is high as Heaven, and thou canst do nothing; and it is deep as Hell, and thou canst know nothing.'

• Another very happy illustration of the force of this fi 'gure may be brought from the speech of St. PAUL; Acts 1 'xxvi. where, with astonishing effect, he transfers his discourse from Augustus to Agrippa. In verse 20 he speaks ' of him in the third person; The King,' says he knows ' of those things, before whom also I speak freely.' He 'then turns abruptly upon him: King Agrippa, believest thou the prophets? And immediately answers his own question. I know that thou believest.' The smoothest

Eloquence,' says Mr. Smith the most insinuating com'plaisance, could never have made such an impression upon Agrippa as this unexpected and pathetic address.'SMITH'S LONGINUS, p. 93.

See also upon this head GIBBON's Rhetoric, p. 176, 191.

* The best applatise,' says Dr. BLAIR' which a preach'er can receive, arises from the serious and deep impres sions, which his discourse leaves on those who hear it. The finest encomium, perhaps, ever bestowed on a preacher, was given by Louis XIV. to the eloquent Bishop of Clermont (Massillon).'-BLAIR's Lectures, vol. ii. p. 125, 126. See page 38 of this book, note.

Docente in ecclefiâ te, non clamor populi, sed gemitus suscitetur; lachrymæ auditorum laudes tuæ sunt.'-Jerom. ad. Nepot.

lesque details; but they forcibly strike the senses; their threatenings impress terror; the people listen to them with profit: many among them have sublime strokes; and an Orator doth not hear them without advantage, when he is skilful in observing the important effects of his art.

M. Bridaine, the man, who, in the present age, is the most justly celebrated in this way, was born with a popular Eloquence, abounding with metaphorical and striking expressions; and no one ever possessed, in a higher degree, the rare talent of arresting the attention of an assembled multitude.

He had so fine a voice, as to render credible all the wonders which history relates of the declamation of the ancients, for he was as easily heard by ten thousand people in the open fields, as if he had spoken under the most resounding arch. In all he said, there were observable unexpected strokes of Oratory, the boldest metaphors, thoughts sudden, new and striking, `all the marks of a rich imagination, some passages, sometimes even whole discourses, composed with care, and written with an equal combination of taste and animation.

I remember to have heard him deliver the introduction of the first discourse which he preached in the Church of St. Sulpice, in 1751. The