HITHERTO all is beautiful, animated, pathetic; and the model would have been perfect, if Cicero had stopped at this point. But his redundant and florid genius carried him farther. He must needs interest not his hearers only, but the beasts, the mountains, and the stones, against Verres: " Si "hæc non ad cives Romanos, non ad amicos nos"træ civitatis, non ad eos qui populi Romani no

men audissent; denique si non ad homines, "verum ad bestias; atque ut longius progrediar, "si in aliqua desertissima solitudine, ad saxa et "ad scopulos hæc conqueri et deplorare vellem, "tamen omnia muta atque inanima, tantâ et "tam indignâ rerum atrocitate commoverentur*." This, with all the deference due to so eloquent an orator, we must pronounce to be declamatory, not ✓ pathetic. This is straining the language of passion too far. Every hearer sees this immediately to be a studied figure of rhetoric; it may amuse him, but instead of inflaming him more, it, in truth cools his passion. So dangerous it is to give scope to a flowery imagination, when one intends to make a strong and passionate impression.

* "Were I employed in lamenting those instances of an atro"cious oppression and cruelty, not among an assembly of Roman "citizens, not among the allies of our state, not among those who "had ever heard the name of the Roman people, not even among "human creatures, but in the midst of the brute creation; and to "go farther, were I pouring forth my lamentations to the stones, "and to the rocks, in some remote and desert wilderness, even "those mute and inanimate beings would, at the recital of such "shocking indignities, be thrown into commotion."

No other part of discourse remains now to be treated of, except the peroration, or conclusion. Concerning this, it is needless to say much, because it must vary so considerably, according to the strain of the preceding discourse. Sometimes, the whole pathetic part comes in most properly at the peroration. Sometimes, when the discourse has been entirely argumentative, it is fit to conclude with summing up the arguments, placing them in one view, and leaving the impression of them full and strong on the mind of the audience. For the great rule of a conclusion, and what nature obviously suggests, is, to place that last on which we choose that the strength of our cause should rest.

IN sermons, inferences from what has been said, make a common conclusion. With regard to these, care should be taken, not only that they rise naturally, but (what is less commonly attended to) that they should so much agree with the strain of sentiment throughout the discourse, as not to break the unity of the sermon. For inferences, how justly soever they may be deduced from the doctrine of the text, yet have a bad effect, if, at the conclusion of a discourse, they introduce some subject altogether new, and turn off our attention from the main object to which the preacher had directed our thoughts. They appear, in this case, like excrescences jutting out from the body, which form an unnatural addition to it; and tend to en

feeble the impression which the composition, as a whole, is calculated to make.

THE most eloquent of the French, perhaps, indeed, of all modern orators, Bossuet, Bishop of Meaux, terminates in a very moving manner, his funeral oration on the great Prince of Condè, with this return upon himself, and his old age: Accept, "O Prince! these last efforts of a voice which you "once well knew. With you all my funeral discourses are now to end. Instead of deploring "the death of others, henceforth, it shall be my "study to learn from you, how my own may be "blessed. Happy, if warned by those grey hairs, "of the account which I must soon give of my

ministry, I reserve, solely for that flock whom I

ought to feed with the word of life, the feeble "remains of a voice which now trembles, and of

an ardour which is now on the point of being "extinct."

* "c Agréez ces derniers efforts d'une voix que vous fut connue. "Vous mettrez fin à tous ces discours. Au lieu de déplorer la "mort des autres, Grand Prince! dorenavant je veux apprendre "de vous, à rendre la mienne sainte. Heureux, si averti par ces "cheveux blancs, du compte que je dois rendre de mon adminis"tration, je reserve au troupeau que je dois nourrir de la parole "de vie, les restes d'une voix que tombe, et d'une ardeur qui "s'éteint."-These are the last sentences of that oratiou: but the whole of the peroration from that passage," Venez, peuples, venez maintenant," &c. though it is too long for insertion, is a great master-piece of pathetic eloquence.

IN all discourses, it is a matter of importance to hit the precise time of concluding, so as to bring our discourse just to a point; neither ending abruptly and unexpectedly; nor disappointing the expectation of the hearers, when they look for the close; and continuing to hover round and round the conclusion, till they become heartily tired of us. We should endeavour to go off with a good grace; not to end with a languishing and drawling ✓ sentence; but to close with dignity and spirit, that

we may leave the minds of the hearers warm; and dismiss them with a favourable impression of the subject and of the speaker.

LECTURE XXXIII.

PRONUNCIATION, OR DELIVERY.

HAVING treated of several general heads relating to eloquence, or public speaking, I now proceed to another very important part of the subject yet remaining, that is, the pronunciation, or delivery of a discourse. How much stress was laid upon this by the most eloquent of all orators, Demosthenes, appears from a noted saying of his, related both by Cicero and Quinctilian; when being asked, What was the first point in Oratory? he answered Delivery; and being asked, What was the second; and afterwards, What was the third? he still answered Delivery. There is no wonder that he should have rated this so high, and that for improving himself in it, he should have employed those assiduous and painful labours, which all the ancients takes so much notice of; for beyond doubt, nothing is of more importance. To superficial thinkers, the management of the voice and gesture, in public speaking, may appear to relate to decoration only, and to be one of the inferior arts of catching an audience. But this is