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whipt for overdoing Termagent, it out-Herods Herod; pray you avoid it.

Be not too tame neither; but let your own discre tion be your tutor. Suit the action to the word, the word to the action; with this special observance, that you o'erstep not the modesty of nature: for any thing so overdone is from the purpose of nature; whose end, both at the first and now, was and is, to hold as 'twere the mirror up to nature; to show Virtue her own feature: Scorn her own image, and the very age and body of the Time his form and pressure. Now this overdone, or come tardy off, though it make the unskilful laugh, cannot but make the judicious grieve; the censure of one of which, must in your allowance overweigh a whole theatre of others. Oh there be players that I have seen play, and heard others praise and that highly too, (not to speak it profanely, that neither having the action of christian, nor the gait of christian, pagan nor man, have so strutted and bellowed, that I have thought some of Nature's journeymen had made men, and not made them well; they imitated humanity so abominably.

And let those that play your clowns, speak no more than is set down for them: for there be of them that will themselves laugh, to set on some quantity of barren spectators to laugh too: though in the mean time, some necessary part of the play be then to be considered. That's villainous, and shows a most pitiful ambition in the fool that uses it.

Section III.

ELOQUENCE AND ORATORY.

Eloquence may be defined to be the art of expressing our thoughts and feelings with precision, force, and elegance; and of heightening the impressions of reason, by the colouring of imagination.

It is applicable, therefore, to the whole faculty of verbal discourse, whether oral or written. It addresses itself by the pen to the eye, as well as by the living organs to the ear. Thus we speak (with admitted accuracy) of an eloquent book, as freely as of an eloquent oration; of the eloquent Buffon (alluding to his celebrated work on natural history ;) and of the eloquent writings, as of the eloquent speeches of Edmund Burke. The apostrophe to the queen of France is as genuine a piece of eloquence, as if it had been spoken in the House of Commons.

Oratory, on the contrary, is precise and limited in its application: and, in this respect, indeed, even popular usage is pretty generally correct. It may be de. fined to be oral eloquence; or the art of communicating, by the immediate action of the vocal and expressive organs, to popular or select assemblies, the dictates of our reason, or our will, and the workings of our passions, our feelings and our imaginations.

Oratory, therefore, includes the idea of eloquence: for no man can be an orator who has not an affluence of thought and language. But eloquence does not necessarily include the idea of oratory: since a man may be rich in all the stores of language and thought, without possessing the advantages of a graceful and impressive delivery.

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Section IV.

OF ELOCUTION.

Elocution is the art, or the act of so delivering our own thoughts and sentiments, or the thoughts and sentiments of others, as not only to convey to those around us (with precision, force, and harmony,) the full purport and meaning of the words and sentences in which these thoughts are clothed; but also to excite and impress upon their minds, the feelings, the imaginations and the passions by which those thoughts are dictated, or with which they should naturally be accompanied.

Elocution, therefore, in its more ample and liberal signification, is not confined to the mere exercise of the organs of speech. It embraces the whole theory and practice of the exterior demonstration of the inward workings of the mind.

To concentrate what has been said by an allegorical recapitulation-Eloquence may be considered as the soul, or animating principle of discourse; and is dependent on intellectual energy and intellectual attainments. Elocution is the embodying form, or representative power: dependent on exterior accomplishments, and on the cultivation of the organs. Oratory is the complicated and vital existence resulting from the perfect harmony and combination of Eloquence and Elocution.

The vital existence, however, in its full perfection, is one of the choicest rarities of nature. The high and splendid accomplishments of oratory (even in the most favoured age, and the most favoured countries) have been attained by few: and many are the ages, and many are the countries, in which these accomplishments have never once appeared. Generations have succeeded to generations, and centuries have rolled after centuries, during which the intellectual desert has not exhibited even one solitary specimen of the

stately growth and flourishing expansion of oratorical genius.

The rarity of this occurrence is, undoubtedly, in part, to be accounted for, from the difficulty of the attainment. The palm of oratorical perfection is only to be grasped-it is, in reality, only to be desired-by aspiring souls, and intellects of unusual energy. It requires a persevering toil which few would be contented to encounter ;-a decisive intrepidity of character, and an untameableness of mental ambition, which very, very few can be expected to possess. It requires, also, conspicuous opportunities for cultivation and display,-to which few can have the fortune to be born; and which fewer still will have the hardihood to endeavour to create.

Section V.

FAULTS OF CONVERSATIONS.

Every one endeavours to make himself as agreeable to society as he can; but it often happens, that those who most aim at shining in conversation overshoot their mark. We should try to keep up conversation like a ball bandied to and fro from one to the other, rather than seize it all to ourselves, and drive it before us like a foot ball.

We should likewise be cautious to adapt the matter of our discourse to our company; and not talk Greek before Ladies, or of the last new fashion to a meeting of country Justices.

But nothing throws a more ridiculous air over our whole conversation than peculiarities, easily acquired but not conquered or discarded without extreme difficulty. Those who accompany every word with a peculiar grimace or gesture; who assent with a shrug, contradict with a twisting of the neck, are angry with a wry mouth, and pleased in a caper, or minuet step,

may be considered as speaking harlequins. With these we condemn the affected tribe of mimics, who are continually taking off the peculiar tone of voice or gesture of their acquaintance; though they are generally such wretched imitators, that like bad painters, they are frequently forced to write the name under the picture before we can discover any likeness.

It is unnecessary to point out all the pests of conversation, or to dwell on the sensibles, who pronounce dogmatically on the most trivial points, and speak in sentences; the wonderers, who are always wondering what o'clock it is, or wondering whether it will rain or no, or wondering when the moon changes; the phraseologists, who explain a thing by all that and 'tother; lastly, the silent persons, who seem afraid of opening their mouths, lest they should catch cold, and literally observe the precepts of the gospel, letting their conversation be only yea, yea; and nay,

nay.

The rational intercourse kept up by conversation, is one of our principal distinctions from brutes. We should therefore endeavour to turn this particular talent to our advantage, and consider the organs of speech as the instruments of understanding; we should be very careful not to use them as the weapons of vice, or tools of folly, and do our utmost to unlearn any trivial or ridiculous habits, which tend to lessen the value of such an interesting prerogative.

Section VI.

ON SATIRICAL WIT.

-Trust me, this unwary pleasantry of thine will sooner or later bring thee into scrapes and difficulties which no after wit can extricate thee out of. In these sallies, too oft I see, it happens, that the person laughed at, considers himself in the light of a person injur

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