LORD CHESTERFIELD

(PHILIP DORMER STANHOPE, EARL OF CHESTERFIELD)

(1694-1773)

HERE is no convincing evidence that Lord Chesterfield was by nature more fitted for success in oratory than in medicine or the fine arts, but he determined to be an orator and educated himself up to a high degree of efficiency. Some of his speeches in the House of Lords are models of clear, connected, and forcible expression. The one thing they generally lack is reality of feeling; but sometimes, as in opposing Walpole's excise policy, Chesterfield becomes deeply interested, if not actually moved, and shows it in the increased naturalness and strength of his speeches. He was born in London, September 22d, 1694, and died March 24th, 1773. He is chiefly celebrated for his "Letters to His Son,» whom he strove to educate in the courtliness and refinements of aristocratic good breeding. Lord Chesterfield himself was the most courtly man in England, but his son though most persistently advised, found the attempt to imitate him irksome, and abandoned it. The "Letters" remain, however, and they are likely always to be read because of the learning and acute knowledge of human nature they display. They are often coldblooded, but they do not cease to be interesting even when they are least commendable.

A

POETS AND ORATORS

MAN who is not born with a poetical genius can never be a poet, or, at best, an extremely bad one; but every man who can speak at all can speak elegantly and correctly, if he pleases, by attending to the best authors and orators; and, indeed, I would advise those who do not speak elegantly not to speak at all, for I am sure they will get more by their silence than by their speech. As for politeness, whoever keeps good company and is not polite must have formed a resolution, and take some pains not to be so; otherwise he would naturally and insensibly acquire the air, the address, and the turn of those he converses with.

Y

METHOD OF STUDY - THE WORLD AND BOOKS

OUR first morning hours I would have you devote to your graver studies with Mr. Harte; the middle part of the day I would have employed in seeing things; and the evenings, in seeing people. You are not, I hope, of a lazy, inactive turn, in either body or mind; and, in that case, the day is full long enough for everything, especially at Rome, where it is not the fashion as it is here, and at Paris, to embezzle at least half of it at table. But if, by accident, two or three hours are sometimes wanting for some useful purpose, borrow them from your sleep. Six, or at most seven hours sleep is, for a constancy, as much as you or anybody can want; more is only laziness and dozing; and is, I am persuaded, both unwholesome and stupefying. If, by chance, your business or your pleasures should keep you up till four or five o'clock in the morning, I would advise you, however, to rise exactly at your usual time, that you may not lose the precious morning hours; and that the want of sleep may force you to go to bed earlier the next night. This is what I was advised to do when very young, by a very wise man; and what, I assure you, I always did in the most dissipated part of my life. I have very often gone to bed at six in the morning, and rose, notwithstanding, at eight; by which means I got many hours in the morning that my companions lost; and the want of sleep obliged me to keep good hours the next, or at least the third night. To this method I owe the greatest part of my reading; for, from twenty to forty, I should certainly have read very little, if I had not been up while my acquaintances were in bed. Know the true value of time; snatch, seize, and enjoy every moment of it. No idleness, no laziness, no procrastination; never put off till to-morrow what you can do to-day. That was the rule of the famous and unfortunate pensionary De Witt, who, by strictly following it, found time, not only to do the whole business of the republic, but to pass his evenings at assemblies and suppers, as if he had had nothing else to do or think of.

A

MISPRONUNCIATION AND MISUSE OF WORDS

PERSON of the House of Commons, speaking two years ago upon naval affairs, asserted that we had then "the finest navy upon the face of the yearth.» This happy mixture of blunder and vulgarism, you may easily imagine, was matter of immediate ridicule; but I can assure you that it continues so still, and will be remembered as long as he lives and speaks. Another, speaking in defense of a gentleman, upon whom a censure was moved, happily said that he thought that gentleman was more liable to be thanked and rewarded, than censured. You know, I presume, that "liable » can never be used in a good sense.

You

BOOKS FOR ORATORY

ou have read Quintilian, the best book in the world to form an orator; pray read Cicero's "De Oratore," the best book in the world to finish one. Translate and retranslate, from and to Latin, Greek, and English; make yourself a pure and elegant English style; it requires nothing but application. I do not find that God has made you a poet, and I am very glad that he has not; therefore, for God's

sake, make yourself an orator, which you may do. Though I still call you a boy, I consider you no longer as such; and when I reflect upon the prodigious quantity of manure that has been laid upon you, I expect you should produce more at eighteen than uncultivated soils do at eight and twenty.

T

CHARM OF MANNER

HE late Lord Townshend always spoke materially, with argument and knowledge, but never pleased. Why? His diction was not only inelegant, but frequently ungrammatical, always vulgar; his cadences false, his voice unharmonious, and his action ungraceful. Nobody heard him with patience; and the young fellows used to joke upon him, and repeat his inaccuracies. The late Duke of Argyle, though the weakest reasoner, was the most pleasing speaker I ever knew in my life. He charmed, he warmed, he forcibly ravished the audience; not by his matter certainly, but by his manner of delivering it. A most genteel figure, a graceful noble air, an harmonious voice, an elegancy of style, and a strength of emphasis, conspired to make him the most affecting, persuasive, and applauded speaker, I ever saw. I was captivated like others; but when I came home, and coolly considered what he had said, stripped off all those ornaments in which he had dressed it, I often found the matter flimsy, the arguments weak, and I was convinced of the power of those adventitious concurring circumstances, which ignorance of mankind only, calls trifling ones.

TRUE ELOCUTION

HAT, then, does all this mighty art and mystery of speaking in Parliament amount to? Why, no more than this, that the man who speaks in the House of Commons, speaks in that house, and to four hundred people, that opinion, upon a given subject, which he would make no difficulty of speaking in any house in England, round the fire, or at table, to any fourteen people whatsoever; better judges, perhaps, and severer critics of what he says, than any fourteen gentlemen of the House of Commons.

I have spoken frequently in Parliament, and not always without some applause; and therefore I can assure you, from my experience, that there is very little in it. The elegancy of the style, and the turn of the periods make the chief impression upon the hearers. Give them but one or two round and harmonious periods in a speech, which they will retain and repeat, and they will go home as well satisfied as people do from an opera, humming all the way one or two favorite tunes that have struck their ears and were easily caught. Most people have ears, but few have judgment; tickle those ears, and, depend upon it, you will catch their judgments, such as they are.

L

HAMPDEN AS A MODEL

ORD CLARENDON in his "History" says of Mr. John Hampden, "that he had a head to contrive, a tongue to persuade, and a hand to execute any mischief." I shall not now enter into the justness of this character of Mr. Hampden, to whose brave stand against the illegal demand of ship-money we owe our present liberties; but I mention it to you as the character which, with the alteration of one single

word, Good, instead of Mischief, I would have you aspire to, and use your utmost endeavors to deserve. The head to contrive, God must to a certain degree have given you; but it is in your own power greatly to improve it, by study, observation, and reflection. As for the tongue to persuade, it wholly depends upon yourself; and without it the best head will contrive to very little purpose. The hand to execute depends, likewise, in my opinion, in a great measure upon yourself. Serious reflection will always give courage in a good cause; and the courage arising from reflection is of a much superior nature to the animal and constitutional courage of a foot soldier. The former is steady and unshaken, where the nodus is dignus vindice; the latter is oftener improperly than properly exerted, but always brutally.

I

BOLINGBROKE'S STYLE

F YOU have the least defect in your elocution, take the utmost care and pains to correct it. Do not neglect your style, whatever language you speak in, or whom ever you speak to, were it your footman. Seek always for the best words and the happiest expressions you can find. Do not content yourself with being barely understood; but adorn your thoughts, and dress them as you would your person; which, however well proportioned it might be, it would be very improper and indecent to exhibit naked, or even worse dressed than people of your sort are.

I have sent you, in a packet which your Leipsic acquaintance, Duval, sends to his correspondent at Rome, Lord Bolingbroke's book, which he published about a year ago. I desire that you will read it over and over again, with particular attention to the style, and to all those beauties of oratory with which it is adorned. Till I read that book, I confess I did not know all the extent and powers of the English language. Lord Bolingbroke has both a tongue and a pen to persuade. All the above extracts are from Chesterfield's "Letters to His Son."

LORD KAMES

(HENRY HOME)

(1696-1782)

AMES' "Elements of Criticism," published in 1762, attempted an exhaustive analysis of the principles of expression. It contains

much that will always be valuable to the student and to the general reader, though the writer's fondness for detail often makes it tedious and reduces it as a whole to a work of reference. Lord Kames was born at Kames in Berwickshire, Scotland, in 1696. He died at Edinburgh, in 1782, after a career of distinguished usefulness as a jurist and author.

BEAUTY OF LANGUAGE WITH RESPECT TO SIGNIFICATION

T IS well said by a noted writer (Scott's "Christian Life »), «That by means of

I speech we can divert our sorrows, mingle our mirth, impart our secrets, com

municate our counsels, and make mutual compacts and agreements to supply and assist each other.» Considering speech as contributing to so many good purposes, words that convey clear and distinct ideas must be one of its capital beauties.

In every period, two things are to be regarded: first, the words of which it is composed; next, the arrangement of these words: the former resembling the stones that compose a building, and the latter resembling the order in which they are placed. Hence the beauties of language, with respect to signification, may not improperly be distinguished into two kinds: first, the beauties that arise from a right choice of words or materials for constructing the period; and next, the beauties that arise from a due arrangement of these words or materials. I begin with rules that direct us to a right choice of words, and then proceed to rules that concern their arrangement.

And with respect to the former, communication of thought being the chief end of language, it is a rule that perspicuity ought not to be sacrificed to any other beauty whatever; if it should be doubted whether perspicuity be a positive beauty, it cannot be doubted that the want of it is the greatest defect. Nothing therefore in language ought more to be studied than to prevent all obscurity in the expression; for to have no meaning is but one degree worse than to have a meaning that is not understood. Want of perspicuity from a wrong arrangement belongs to the next branch. I shall here give a few examples where the obscurity arises from a wrong choice of words; and as this defect is too common in the ordinary herd of writers to make examples from them necessary, I confine myself to the most celebrated authors.

Livy speaking of a rout after a battle,