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great labour and tafte acquired a power of imitating 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 these rules to practice, in order to acquire a juft 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 steps to fuch as are more difficult. In the choice of thefe, the practitioner should pay a particular attention to his prevailing defects, whether they regard articulation, command of voice, emphasis, 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 difagreeable; it may require much patience and refolution; but it is the only way to fucceed. For, if a man connot read fimple fentences, or plain narrative or didactic pieces, with diftinct articulation, juft emphafis, and proper tones, how can he expect to do juftice to the fublime defcripti

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ons of poetry, or the animated language of the paffions?

IN performing thefe exercifes, the learner should daily read aloud by himself, and, as often as he has opportunity, under the correction of an Inftructor or Friend. He should also frequently recite compofitions memoriter. This method has feveral advantages: it obliges the speaker to dwell upon the ideas which he is to express, and hereby enables him to discern their particular meaning and force, and gives him a previous knowledge of the several inflections, emphases, 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 gefture.

Ir were much to be wished, that all public fpeakers 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 fpeaking, the fixed pofture, and the bending

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bending of the head which reading requires, are inconfiftent with the freedom, ease, and variety of just elocution. But, if this is too much to be expected, especially from Preachers, who have fo much to compofe, and are so often called upon to speak in public; it is however extremely defirable that they fhould make themselves fo well acquainted with their discourse, 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 fuccefs; 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 exercises in this art in private, cannot easily 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

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

graceful

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 minuet-step. So, we admire the manly eloquence and noble ardour of a British Legiflator, rifing up in defence of the rights of his country; the quick recollection, the forcible reasoning, and the ready utterance of the accomplished Barrifter; and the fublime devotion, genuine dignity, and unaffected earneftness of the facred Orator: but when a man, in either of thefe capacities, fo far forgets the ends, and degrades the confequence of his profeffion, as to set himself forth to public view under the character of a Spouter, and to parade it in the ears of the vulgar with all the pomp of artificial eloquence, though the unfkilful may gaze and applaud, the judicious cannot but be grieved and disgusted. Avail yourself, then, of your skill in the Art of Speaking, but always employ your powers of elocution with caution and modefty; remembering, that though it be defirable to be admired as an eminent Orator, it is of much more importance to be refpected, as a wife Statefman, an able Lawyer, or a ufeful Preacher.

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