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CONTAINING

ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE PRINCIPLES

OF

READING AND PUBLIC SPEAKING.

ALSO

A SELECTION OF THE BEST PIECES FROM ANCIENT AND MODERN
AUTHORS, ACCOMPANIED BY EXPLANATORY NOTES.

THE WHOLE ADAPTED TO THE PURPOSES OF IMPROVEMENT IN

READING AND ORATORY.

BY SAMUEL NILES SWEET,

Counsellor at Law in the State and United States Courts.

REVISED STEREOTYPE EDITION.

'Delivery bears absolute sway in Oratory.-Cicero.

m

ALBANY:

PUBLISHED BY ERASTUS H. PEASE & CO.,

AND SOLD BY THE PRINCIPAL BOOKSELLERS THROUGHOUT THE

UNITED STATES.

1853.

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year one thousand eight hundred and forty-six, by SAMUEL N. SWEET, in the clerk's office of the district court of the northern district of New-York.

JOEL MUNSELL, Printer,
Albany. N. Y.

t

P R E F A CЕ.

No branch of education can be more successfully and advantageously applied to the great and practical purposes of life, than Elocution. It is in the most frequent use of any faculty with which our nature is endowed. Whenever we exercise the organs of speech, whether in conversation, reading, or public speaking, we employ some of our powers of elocution. Throughout all the diversities of rank and sex, including kings and beggars, every individual begins to practise it, the second, if not the first year of his existence. It is but another word for the faculty of speech-a faculty which elevates man above the brute creation, and which should not be permitted to

-“rust out unused,"

and unimproved. That the reading or speaking voice, as well as the singing voice, is susceptible of almost an unlimited degree of cultivation, is a truth, with a conviction of which, men have been deeply impressed, in all ages of the world. Especially is this true of the citizens of Greece and Rome. They paid great attention to the art of eloquence, as it was called in ancient times; now, elocution; which is, "the rose by another name;" and we learn from history, that their labors were rewarded with very beneficial results.

Passing over in silence, other great and immortal names, let us direct our attention for a moment, to Demosthenes, Cicero, and Pericles. Nature did not very liberally provide Demosthenes with power of speech. He, however, possessed genius in an eminent degree. And yet, without industry, his name would have been lost in oblivion. By undying perseverance in the pursuit of oratory, and by unremitting attention to the principles upon which good speaking is founded; he acquired an eloquence which astonished all Greece." "We may say of him without any poetical license, he spoke,

"Confusion heard his voice, and wild uproar stood ruled." Cicero, by close application, reading, and declaiming, rendered his voice so melodious, powerful, and thrilling, that it hushed the Roman senate into silence, and made "great Cesar" himself tremble on his seat. Pericles se successfully cultivated the whole art of elocution, that with him, manner was almost matter. An incident is related in history, which may serve te give us an idea of the power of his eloquence. Thucydides, although an enemy to Pericles, when asked which was the best wrestler answered: "Whenever I have given him a fall, he affirms the contrary, in such strong and forcible terms, that he persuades all the spectators that I did not throw him, though they themselves saw him on the ground." Those three renowned orators adopted in early life, the excellent motto, that "nothing is given to mortals, without indefatigable labor," Discarding the absurd notion, that orators are born such, they acted upon the true principle, that however much or little nature had done for them, they would rely exclu

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