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ing is that without book; and he who wants either courage or perseverance to acquire the power of doing this, (whether extempore or memoriter is comparatively of little consequence,) must lay no claim to the merit of making his profession as useful and efficient as it may be made.*

In order to succeed well in delivery, a speaker ought to guard against a certain flutter of spirits, which is peculiarly incident to those who begin to speak in public. He must endeavour to be collected and master of himself; he must be wholly engaged in his subject, and be possessed with a conviction, that what he has to say merits

* He who wishes to see good models of pulpit oratory, must not look for them at home, for our English style is radically bad; it is unworthy of us as a polished and an enlightened people; he must turn his steps to France and Switzerland, and he will there behold specimens of sacred oratory, as perfect in their kind as was the speaking of Erskine at the bar, or the acting of Kemble on the stage. I mean not to affirm, that these preachers, taken as a body, are without their defects; far from it. I freely acknowledge, that in some of them there is a want of that calmness and repose, and of that impressive solemnity, which are so essential to the pulpit. But some I could name, who unite in themselves all that is noble and commanding, with all that is graceful, animated, and affecting. I have myself sat under these men with a degree of edification, for which I shall ever feel grateful; and I can give no better advice to those who are studying for the church, than that they should see with their own eyes, and hear with their own ears, these most instructive models of what a preacher ought to be.

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the attention of his audience. He must have a certain degree of confidence; but it must be a modest confidence: otherwise his hearers will be offended by his presumption, instead of being convinced by his arguments, or persuaded by his exhortations.

Before closing this chapter, it may be well to advert to a practice, which is now happily less common than it used to be, namely, that of requiring boys at school to act plays. Mr. Walker, in his Academic Speaker, p. xii, gives it as his opinion, that the acting of a play is not so conducive to improvement in elocution, as the speaking of single speeches. "In the first place," he observes," the acting of plays is, of all kinds of delivery, the most difficult, and therefore cannot be the most suitable exercise for boys at school. In the next place, a dramatic performance requires so much attention to the deportment of the body, so varied an expression of the passions, and so strict an adherence to character, that elocution is in danger of being neglected: besides, exact propriety of action, and a nice discrimination of the passions, however essential on the stage, are but of secondary importance in a school. It is a plain, open, distinct, and forcible pronunciation which school boys should aim at; and not that quick transition from one passion to another, that archness of look, and that jeu de théâtre, as it is called, so essential to a tolerable dramatic exhibition, and which actors

themselves can scarcely arrive at. In short, it is speaking, rather than acting, which schoolboys should be taught; while the performance of plays is calculated to teach them acting rather than speaking."

CHAPTER XV.

CONCLUSION.

THUS has it been attempted to bring together the most necessary rules for acquiring a just and natural elocution. To some persons these rules may appear insufficient, to others they may appear too numerous and too minute. To the former it may be replied, that it is impossible to lay down directions which shall apply to every case that may occur; and that in this, as in every other art, after general principles have been explained, and their most important applications pointed out, much must still be left to the taste and judgment of the reader. To the latter class of objectors the author must repeat his conviction, (a conviction founded on experience,) that the study of rules and of principles is the only method, by which a good style of reading can be acquired; and he further requests, that they who are discouraged by the multiplicity of the directions contained in this work, will at first confine themselves to the simplest and the most important, and afterwards proceed to those of less obvious consequence, or of more difficult application.

The learner should make himself familiar with the subject of pause and inflection, before he proceeds to any of the higher parts. He should begin with marking two or three pages of some book every day, with all the rhetorical pauses, and with the principal inflections, either making a distinct reference to, or at least bearing in mind, the rule according to which each mark is affixed. The piece thus marked he should repeatedly read aloud, till he can deliver it with all the pauses and inflections which he has assigned to it. When, by exercises of this kind, he has attained a facility in discovering the pauses and inflections which good reading requires, he must enter on the subject of organic emphasis and quantity, and endeavour to give a rhythmical flow to his sentences. He must then study the emphasis of sense, that of force, and the weak emphasis, together with the modulation and management of the voice; and, lastly, he must add to the more essential qualities of delivery the graces of intonation and gesture. By thus proceeding from the simple to the difficult, from the essential to the ornamental, the learner will not fail to acquire the art of reading and speaking well. Difficulties, which at first appeared insurmountable, will gradually vanish, and the power and skill which are acquired, will operate as a stimulus to the acquisition of more.

In order to read well, it is necessary that the eye should be carried forward at least a line

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