knew in my life. He charmed, he warmed, he forcibly ravifhed the audience; not by his matter certainly, but by his manner of delivering it. A most genteel figure, a graceful noble air, an harmonious voice, an elegancy of ftyle, and a strength of emphafis, confpired to make him the most affecting, perfuafive, and applauded fpeaker, I ever faw. I was captivated like others; but when I came home, and cooly confidered what he had faid, ftripped of all thofe ornaments in which he had dreffed it, I often found the matter flimfy, the arguments weak, and I was convinced of the power of thofe adventitious concurring circumftances, which ignorance of mankind only calls trifling ones. Cicero, in his book De Oratore, in order to raise the dig nity of that profeffion, of which he well knew himfeif to be at the head, afferts, that a complete orator muft be a complete every thing-lawyer, philofopher, divine, &c. That would be extremely well, if it was poífible ; but man's life is not long enough; and I hold him to be the completeft orator who fpeaks the bett upon that fubject which occurs; whofe happy choice of words, whofe lively imagination, whofe elocution and action, adorn and grace his matter; at the fame time that they excite the attention, and engage the paffions of his audience.

You will be of the House of Commons as foon a you are of age; and you must first make a figure there, if you would make a figure, or a fortune, in your country. This you can never do without that correctnefs and elegancy in your own language, which you now feem to neglect, and which you have entirely to learn. Fortunately for you, it is to be learned. Care and obfervation will do it; but do not flatter yourself that all the knowledge, fenfe, and reafoning in the world, will ever make you a popular and applauded fpeaker, without the ornaments and the graces ftyle, elocution, and action. Senfe and argument, though coarfely delivered, will have their weight in s private converfation, with two or three people of fenfe; but in a public affembly they will have none, if naked, and deftitute of the advantages

I have mentioned. Cardinal de Retz obferves, very justly, that every numerous affembly, is a mob influen ced by their paffions, humours, and affections, which nothing but eloquence ever did, or ever can engage. This is fo important a confideration for every body in this country, and more particularly for you, that I earnestly recommend it to your most serious care and attention. Mind your diction, in whatever language you either write or fpeak; contract a habit of correctnels and elegance; confider your ftyle, even in the freeft converfation, and most familiar letters. After, at leaft, if not before you have faid a thing, reflect if you could not have faid it better. Where you doubt of the propriety or elegancy of a word or phrafe, con-, fult fome good dead or living authority in that language. Ufe yourself to tranflate, from various languages, into English: correct thofe tranflations till they fatisfy your ear, as well as your undeftanding. And be convinced of this truth, That the beft fenfe and reafon in the world will be as unwelcome in a public affembly, without thefe ornaments, as they will in public companies, without the affiftance of manners and politenefs.-Adieu!

LETTER LXXXII.

The Subject of Style continued...Parliamentary Speaking..... Cicero's Definition of an Orator, confuted.

DEAR BOY,

London, December the 9th.

It is now above forty years fince I have never fpo

Tis

ken nor written one fingle word, without giving myfelf at least one moment's time to confider whether it was a good one or a bad one, and whether I could not find out a better in its place. An unharmonious and rugged period, at this time, fhocks my ears; and I, like all the reft of the world, will willingly exchange, and give up fome degree of rough fenfe, for a good degree of pleafing found. I will freely and truly own. to you, without either vanity or falfe modefty, that,

whatever reputation I have acquired, as a fpeaker; is more owing to my conftant attention to my diction, than to my matter, which was neceffarily juft the fame as other people's. When you come into parliament, your reputation as a fpeaker will depend much more upon your words, and your periods, than upon the fubject. The fame matter occurs equally to every body d common-fenfe, upon the fame queftion; the drefling it well is what excites the attention and admiration the audience.

It is in parliament that I have fet my heart upon your making a figure it is there that I want to have you justly proud of yourself, and to make me juftl proud of you. This means that you must be a good ipeaker there: I ufe the word muft, because I know you may if you will. The vulgar, who are always mitta ken, look upon a fpeaker and a comet with the fam aftonishment and admiration, taking them both f præternatural phænomena. This error difcourage many young men from attempting that character; and good fpeakers are willing to have their talent confidere as fomething very extraordinary, if not a peculiar gi of God to his elect. But let you and I analyfe and fimplify this good speaker; let us ftrip him of tho adventitious plumes, with which his own pride, and the ignorance of others have decked him; and we fa ૧ find the true definition of him to be no more tha this-A man of good common fenfe, who reafon justly, and expreffes himself elegantly on that fubjec upon which he speaks. There is, furely, so witchcra in this. A man of fenfe, without a fuperior and aftonishing degree of parts, will not talk nonfenfe up on any fubject; nor will he, if he has the leaft tafte or application, talk inelegantly. What then does this mighty art and mystery of speaking in parliamen amount to? Why, no more than this, that the ma who fpeaks in the houfe of commons, fpeaks in that houfe, and to four hundred people, that opinion upo a given fubject, which he would make no difficulty fpeaking in any houfe in England, round the fire, or table, to any fourteen people whatsoever-better judge

perhaps, and feverer critics of what he says, than any fourteen gentlemen of the houfe of commons.

I have fpoken frequently in parliament, and not always without fome applaufe; and therefore, I can affure you, from my experience, that there is very little in it. The elegancy of the ftyle, and the turn of the periods, make the chief impreffion upon the hearers. Give them but one or two round and harmonious periods in a fpeech, which they will retain and repeat, and they will go home as well fatisfied as people do from an opera, humming all the way one or two favourite tunes that have ftruck their ears and were eafi y caught. Moft people have ears, but few have judgnent; tickle thofe ears, and, depend upon it, you will atch their judgments, fuch as they are.

Cicero, confcious that he was at the top of his proon (for in his time eloquence was a profeffion) in der to fet himfelf off, defines, in his treatife De Órare, an orator to be fuch a man as never was, or never ill be; and by this fallacious argument, fays, that he uft know every art and science whatsoever, or how all he fpeak upon them? But with fubmiflion to fo at an authority, my definition of an orator is exemely different from, and I believe much truer than

I call that man an orator, who reafons juftly, expreffes himself elegantly upon whatever fubject treats. Problems in geometry, equations in algebra, oceffes in chemistry, and experiments in anatomy, e never, that I have heard of, the objects of eloence; and therefore, I humbly conceive, that a man ay be a very fine fpeaker, and yet know nothing of ometry, algebra, chemistry, or anatomy. The fubs of all parliamentary debates, are fubjects of comon fenfe fingly.

Thus I write, whatever occurs to me, that I think y contribute either to form or inform you. May labour not be in vain! and it will not, if you will have half the concern for yourself, that I have for -Adieu!

LETTER LXXXIII.

The Subject of Eloquence continued...Lord Bolingbroke...is

DEAR BOY,

Hißory.

London, December the 12th.

LORD Clarendon, in his History, fays of Mr. Joh: Hampden, that he had a head to contrive, a tongue to perfuade, and a hand to execute any mischief. I fhall not now enter into the juftness of this character of Mr. Hampden, to whose brave ftand against the illegal de mand of fhip-money we owe our prefent liberties: but I mention it to you as the character, which, with the alteration of one fingle word, good, instead of mischief, I would have you afpire to, and ufe your utmost es deavors to deferve. The head to contrive, God mu to a certain degree, have given you; but it is in you own power greatly to improve it, by ftudy, obferva tion, and reflection. As for the tongue to perfuade, wholly depends upon yourfelf; and without it the be head will contrive to very little purpofe. The hand execute, depends likewife, in my opinion, in a grea measure upon yourself. Serious reflection will alway give courage in a good caufe; and the courage aring from reflection is of a much fuperior nature to the imal and conftitutional courage of a foot-foldier. T former is fteady and unfhaken, where the nodus is di nus vindice; the latter is oftener improperly than pro erly exerted, but always brutally.

The fecond member of my text (to speak ecclefiaft cally) fhall be the fubject of my following difcourfe the tongue to perfuade.-As judicious preachers recom mend those virtues, which they think their feveral 2 diences want the moft; fuch as truth and continence at court; difinterestedness, in the city; and fobriety in the country.

You must certainly, in the courfe of your little e perience, have felt the different effects of elegant an inelegant fpeaking. Do you not fuffer, when peop accolt you in a ftammering or hesitating manner; in untuneful voice, with falfe accents and cadences; pu