THE MONTHLY VISITOR. CONT MARCH, 1797. THE HON. THOMAS ERSKINE. NONTEMPORARY Biography, till within the lapfe of a very few years, has not been held in fufficient estimation. Since, however, the practice of exhibiting the characters of existing individuals has prevailed, its value has been generally acknowledged.Adulation may varnish over the vices, and calumny may diftort the virtues of celebrated perfons; but adu lation will ficken in its birth, and calumny will scarcely be felt beyond the moment in which its venom refpired; while the merits of impartial, though temporary biography, will benefit fucceffive ages. Often is the hiftorian, from the rude sketches of the day, enabled to form that eftimate of celebrated characters, which the partiality of friendship would have fondly concealed. Not that he gives an ear to every idle tale to be found in fuch reports. But there are fome predominant follies, or fome uncouth fingularities, in almoft every human being who has figured on the theatre of the world, which partiality is unwilling to pourtray; though an undifguifed developement of thefe very follies and fingularitics forms the excellency of biographical harration. We are alfo, by this medium, prefented with the different views in which different times have contemplated the fame abilities; and this, to the philofophical mind, is no uninterefting fpectacle. The cele bration of living perfonages has another effect of con VOL. I. R fiderable fiderable import. Men of genius, when assured that their actions and purfuits are fubject to the immediate cognizance of a juft and moral fcrutiny, muft be concerned that the reputation of their talents fhould not be established at the expence of their rectitude. They will know, that their splendour as geniuses, may be lost in their depravity as men. With the leading circumftances of Mr. Erskine's life, the public are already fo well acquainted, that it is not requifite to enumerate them again. To all young men of ability and diligence, he is an eminent example of what thofe qualities may effect.-In sketching the outlines of the character of Mr. Erfkine, it will not be improper to remark on the nature and influence of oratory. Whenever the properties of fpeech became fubject to human controul, there can be little doubt that they were employed to the purposes of perfuafion. The fongs of the primitive bards are ftamped with the features of eloquence. By recounting the valour of departed heroes, they exhorted to an emulation of their deeds. Thus, in the form of poetry, they contain the firft principles of oratory, or perfuafion. As language became more copious and artificial, oratory and poetry were feparated. The experience and hiftory of men, the difcoveries of art and fcience, prefented a wider field for human inveftigation, and terms incompatible with poefy eloquence afferted the grand interefts of mankind, by appealing to their understandings; and poefy, through the mufic of paffion, imperceptibly convinced the heart. It fhould appear, from this hafty review, that the true orator must be a poet. But art, which divided the bufinefs of the orator from that of the poet, feems, in these latter ages, to have made orators independent of poetry. Art can do much, and it is this which has given rife to the question refpecting original genius. W'e We are likewife convinced, that the influence of oratory, in a state of civilization, is extenfive and momentous. This perfuafion it is which germinates in the breaft of the fcientific youth the defire of eloquential excellence. A perfuafion ftrengthened by the perception-that the paths of eloquence are the paths of fame and emolument. When an exalted original appears, numerous are the fatellites who fport within the warmth of his beams. Erfkine is a great orator, but all men cannot be Erfkine's. He is a graceful orator, but all men are not formed to gracefulness. Why then will men, gifted with powers which nature formed original, absorb themselves in the fpirit of imitation ? Erskine had original powers, and he has acted originally. Forenfic eloquence has been much perfected within the memory of the prefent generation. There has been, there are, in our civil courts, men of diftinguished fpeech. But till the subject of this sketch had arisen in the hemifphere of jurifprudence, it glowed not with the emanations of an Erikine. If a heart fraught with the finest fenfibility, a fpirit formed for virtuous indignation, a mind alive to the best diftinctions of moral rectitude, and determined in its oppofition to depravity;-if a voice modulated to every expreffion of the human foul, a countenance interefting and impreffive, and an attitude pleafing and commanding-if fuch be the conftituents of eloquence, then is Erskine among the first of orators T THE REFLECTOR. [No. II.] "A great genius can effect any thing." CHATTERTON. O thofe who are not accuftomed to the contemplation of human depravity, few things can be more afflicting than a view of vitiated genius. Men R 2 ungifted |