quent antithefes are introduced; and argumentative pieces, or fuch as abound with interrogatives.

RULE VIII.

Accompany the Emotions and Paffions which your words exprefs, by correfpondent tones, looks, and geftures.

HERE is the language of emotions and

THERE

paffions, as well as of ideas. To exprefs the latter is the peculiar province of words; to exprefs the former, nature teaches us to make use of tones, looks, and geftures. When anger, fear, joy, grief, love, or any other active paffion arifes. in our minds, we naturally discover it by the particular manner in which we utter our words; by the features of the countenance, and by other well-known figns. And even when we speak. without any of the more violent emotions, fome kind of feeling ufually accompanies our words, and this, whatever it be, hath its proper external expreffion. Expreffion hath indeed been fo little ftudied in public fpeaking, that we seem almost to have forgotten the language of nature, and.. are ready to confider every attempt to recover it as the laboured and affected effort of art. But Nature is always the fame; and every judicious imitation of it will always be pleafing. Nor

can

can any one deserve the appellation of a good fpeaker, much lefs of a complete orator, till to diftin&t articulation, a good command of voice, and juft emphasis, he his able to add the various expreffions of emotion and paffion.

To enumerate thefe expreffions, and defcribe them in all their variations, is impracticable. Attempts have been made with fome fuccefs to analyse the language of ideas; but the language of fentiment and emotion has never yet been analyfed; and perhaps it is not within the reach of human ability, to write a Philofophical Grammar of the Paffions. Or, if it were poffible in any degree to excute this defign, I cannot think, that from fuch a grammar it would be poffible for

any one to inftruct himself in the use of the language. All endeavours therefore to make men Orators by describing to them in words the manner in which their voice, countenance, and hands are to be employed, in expreffing the paffions, muft in my apprehenfion, be weak and ineffectual: And, perhaps, the only inftruction which can be given with advantage on this head, is this general one: Observe in what manner the feveral emotions or paffions are expreffed in real life, or by thofe who have with great labour and taste acquired a power of imi

tating nature; and accuftom yourself either to follow the great original itself, or the best copies you meet with; always, however," with this fpecial obfervance, that you o'ERSTEP NOT THE MODESTY OF NATURE."

In the application of thefe rules to practice, in order to acquire ajuft and graceful elocution, it will be neceffary to go through a regular course of exercises beginning with fuch as are most eafy, and proceeding by flow fteps to fuch as are more difficult. In the choice of these, the practitioner should pay a particular attention to his prevailing defects, whether they regard articulation, command of voice, emphafis, or cadence: and he should content himself with reading, and fpeaking with an immediate view to the correcting of his fundamental faults, before he aims at any thing higher. This may be irksome and dif agreeable; it may require much patience and resolution; but it is the only way to fucceed. For if a man cannot read fimple fentences, or plain narrative or didactic pieces, with diftin&t articulation, juft emphafis, and proper tones, how can he expect to do juftice to the fublime defcriptions of poetry, or the animated language of the paffions?

IN performing these exercises the learner fhould daily read aloud by himself; and, as oftenhe as has opportunity,under the correcton o

an Inftructor or Friend. He fhould also frequentThis mely recite compofitions from memory. thod has several advantages: it obliges the speaker to dwell upon the ideas which he is to exprefs, and hereby enables him to discern their particular meaning and force, and gives him a previous knowledge of the feveral inflexions, emphafes, and tones which the words require. And by taking off his eye from the book, it in part, relieves him from the influence of the school-boy habit of reading in a different key and tone from that of converfation; and gives him greater liberty to attempt the expreffion of the countenance and gesture.

Ir were much to be wifhed, that all public speakers would deliver their thoughts and fentiments either from memory or immediate conception; for, befides that there is an artificial uniformity, which almost always diftinguishes. reading from speaking, the fixed pofture, and the bending of the head which reading requires are inconfiftent with the freedom, ease, and variety of juft elocution. But if this is too much to be expected, efpecially from Preachers, who have fo much to compose, and are so often called upon to speak in public; it is however extremely defirable that they fhould make themselves fo

well

well acquainted with their difcourse, as to be able, with a fingle glance of the eye, to take in feveral clauses, or the whole of a sentence*.

I HAVE only to add, that after the utmost pains have been taken to acquire a juft elocution, and this with the greatest success, there is fome difficulty in carrying the art of fpeaking out of the school, or chamber, to the bar, the fenate, or the pulpit. A young man who has been accustomed to perform frequent exercifes in this art in private, cannot eafily perfuade himself, when he appears before the public, to confider the business he has to perform, in any other light, than as a trial of skill, and a display of oratory. Hence it is, that the character of an Orator has of late often been treated with ridicule, fometimes with contempt. We are pleased with the easy and graceful movements which the true gentleman has acquired by having learnt to dance; but we are offended by the coxcomb, who is always exhibiting his formal dancing-bow, and minuetstep. So, we admire the manly eloquence and noble ardour of a British Legiflator, rifing up in defence of the rights of his country; the

* See Dean Swift's advice on this head in his Letter to a young Clergyman.