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every line, and, that verfes confifting of ten or morę fyllables fhould, in fome part, be broken by a rest or cafura.

In the application of the Rules of Elocution 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 more cafy, and proceeding by flow fteps 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, emphafis, or cadence: and he fhould content himfelf 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 irkfome and difagreeable; it may require much patience and refolution; but it is the only way to fucceed. For if a man cannot read fimple fentences, or cafy narrative or didactic pieces, with diftinct articulation, just emphasis, 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 thefe exercifes, the learner fhould daily read aloud by himself, and as often as he has opportunity, under the correction of an inftructor or friend. He fhould alfo frequently recite compofitions from memory. This method has feveral advantages. It obliges the speaker to dwell upon the ideas which he is to exprefs, and hereby enables him to difcern their particular meaning and force, and gives him a previous knowledge of the several inflexions, emphafes, and tones which the words

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words require 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 it affords greater fcope for expreffion in tones, looks and gesture.

IT were much to be wifhed, 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 distinguishes reading from fpeaking; the fixed pofture, and the bending of the head which reading requires, are inconfiftent with the freedom, eafe, and variety of juft elocution. But, if this is too much to be expected, especially 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 acquainted with their discourse, as to be able with a fingle glance of the eye, to take in feveral claufes, or the whole, of a fentence *.

I HAVE only to add, that after the utmost pains have been taken to acquire a just elocution, and this with the greatest succefs, there is fome difficulty in carrying the art of fpeaking out of the fchool, 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 eafily perfuade himself, when he appears before the public, to confider the business he

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

has

has to perform in any other light, than as a trial of skill, and a display of oratory. Hence the character of an Orator is often treated with ridicule, fometimes with contempt. We are pleafed with the eafy and graceful movements, which the true gentleman has acquired by having learned to dance; but we are offended by the coxcomb, who is always exhibiting his formal dancingbow, and minuet-step. So, we admire the manly eloquence and noble ardour of the Senator employed in the cause of juftice and freedom; the quick recollection, the ingenious reasoning, and the ready declamation of the accomplished Barrister; and the dignified fimplicity, and unaffected energy of the Sacred Instructor: but when in any one of these capacities, a man fo far forgets the ends and degrades the confequence of his profeffion, as to fet himself forth 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 difgufted. 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 desirable to be admired as an eminent Orator, it is of much more importance to be refpected, as an able Lawyer, an ufeful Preacher, or a wife and upright statesman.

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E S S SAY II.

ON READING WORKS OF TASTE.

MULTA magis quam MULTORUM lectione formanda mens, et ducendus eft Color.

QUINTIL

R

EADING can be confidered as a mere amufement, only by the moft vulgar, or the most frivolous part of mankind. Every one, whom natural good-fense and a liberal education have qualified to form a judgment upon the fubject, will acknowledge, that it is capable of being applied to an endless variety of useful purposes. This is, indeed, fufficiently evident, without any ftudied proof, from the nature of the thing. For, what is reading, but a method of conferring with men who in every age have been moft diftinguished by their genius and learning, of becoming acquainted with the refult of their mature reflections, and of contemplating at leifure the finifhed productions of their inventive powers? From fuch an intercourfe, conducted with a moderate share of caution and judgment, it must be impoffible not to derive innumerable advantages.

THE principal ufes of reading may, perhaps not improperly, be referred to two objects, the improvement of the understanding, and the exercife of imagination:

whence

whence books may be diftinguished by two leading characters, Inftructive and Interefting; and will be divided into two claffes, Works of Knowledge, and Works of Tafte.

BETWEEN the two kinds of reading, which books, thus classed, afford, there is one characteristic difference. In works which are merely intended to communicate knowledge, writing is made use of only as a vehicle of inftruction; and therefore nothing further is neceffary, or perhaps defirable, than that they should exprefs the facts, or truths, which they are intended to teach, with perfect perfpicuity of conception, arrangement and diction. But in works of tafte, the writing itself becomes a principal object of attention, as a reprefentation of nature, more or less accurate according to the powers, which the writer poffeffes, of expreffing in language the conceptions of his own imagination. This reprefentation cannot, indeed, be called an imitation of nature, in the fame ftrict and literal fenfe in which the term is applied to a picture; because words are not natural copies, but arbitrary figns of things: but it produces an effect upon the imagination and feelings of the reader, fimilar to that which is produced by the art of painting. It was doubtlefs for this reafon, that Ariftotle defined poetry an imitative art.

THESE circumftances render THE READING OF WORKS OF TASTE a subject of difquifition, or of precept, not less extenfive than that of writings intended for the communication of knowledge; and, on account of its influence upon the ftate of the mind, it may perhaps be

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