DEFINED AND ILLUSTRATED UPON A NEW AND STRIKINGLY
EFFICIENT SYSTEM.

BEING

AN EXPOSITION OF THE ORGANS AND THE

OPERATIONS OF SPEECH;

WITH

SELECTIONS FROM POPULAR WRITERS,
PRINCIPALLY OF THE PRESENT DAY:

EACH PIECE HAVING IN VIEW

A DISTINCT RHETORICAL AIM.

BY HENRY INNES,

TEACHER OF ELOCUTION, LECTURER ON RHETORIC AND ENGLISH LITERATURE
IN THE LONDON LITERARY INSTITUTIONS.

"It is not of so much consequence what our compositions are, as how they are
pronounced, since it is the manner of delivery by which the audience is
moved."-Quintilian.

"Action is eloquence, and the eyes of the vulgar are mo e learned than their
ears."-Shakspeare.

LONDON:

JOHN LIMBIRD, 143, STRAND.

1834.

172.

ΤΟ

HIS GRACE,

JAMES HENRY ROBERT INNES KER,

DUKE OF ROXBURGHE,

MARQUIS OF BOWMONT AND CESSFORD,

EARL OF KELSO, VISCOUNT BROXMOUTH, LORD KER of CESSFORD AND CAVERTON,

&c., &c., &c.

MY LORD DUKE,

I do not know that I can sufficiently justify myself for intruding the following work upon your notice; but, desirous of testifying my duty to that house of which your Grace is the hopeful Representative, I claim your indulgence, whilst, with every sentiment of respect, I place it in your hands.

But, will your Grace bear with me when I state, I am flattered in the hope that this little work may be serviceable in directing your attention to the culture of that important art, which, in future life, you will necessarily be called upon to exert, I trust, amidst the foremost ranks of those, who, on the patrician platform, exercise their eloquence for the benefit of their country?

Trusting that, under Divine Providence, your Grace may live to justify the fond expectations of those who have so long and anxiously watched over your interesting minority, and may continue in the enjoyment of every blessing which your exaltea station commands,

I have the honour to subscribe myself,
Your Grace's most obedient, and very

humble Servant,

HENRY INNES.

PREFACE.

I WILL not trouble the reader with a lengthy preface as to my reasons in adding to the list of school-books of this kind, the SELECTION which follows. Compilers of this class of works, with some few exceptions, have conceived that a selection of Extracts possessing merely literary beauty or merit, were suitable vehicles for the purposes of the youthful speaker. Such collections may go to fashion the taste, and improve the mind, but are they calculated to impart a nervous energy to the organs of speech? Exercise a youth in passages from compilations of this character, he may read with propriety, and not offend good taste; he may show the flesh, and bone, and proportions of delivery; but the sinew, the spirit, the life of expression will be absent :

"We start-for soul is wanting there!"

In the following SELECTION I have scrupulously examined every passage, and ascertained its real elocutionary value before admitting it. Here are no pieces put in merely because they are pretty or pleasing. But the superiority of this work consists in its marginal indications; and I trust both the preceptor and the pupil will reap the advantage of the patient. labour and attention I have bestowed, in bringing