Gooch and Dr. Whitchot are as cold and languid performances as were ever, perhaps, produced upon fuch an animating fubject. One cannot indeed but regret, that he, who abounds with fuch noble and generous fentiments, fhould want the art of fetting them off with all the advantage they deferve; that the fublime in morals fhould not be attended with a fuitable elevation of language. The truth however is, his words are frequently ill chofen, and almost always ill placed; his periods are both tedious and unharmonious; as his metaphors are generally mean, and often ridiculous. It were easy to produce numberless inftances in fupport of this affertion. Thus in his fermon preached before Queen Anne, when fhe was Princess of Denmark, he talks of Squeezing a parable, thrusting religion by, driving a strict bargain with God, fharking shifts, &c. and fpeaking of the day of judgment, he defcribes the world as cracking about our ears. I cannot, however, but acknowledge, in juftice to the oratorical character of this moft valuable prelate, that there is a noble fimplicity in fome few of his fermons;

as

as his excellent difcourfe on fincerity deferves to be mentioned with particular applause.

BUT to fhew his deficiency in the article I am confidering at prefent, the following ftricture will be fufficient, among many others that might be cited to the fame purpose. "One might be apt," says he, "to "think at first view, that this parable was "overdone, and wanted something of a due

decorum; it being hardly credible, that

a man, after he had been fo mercifully "and generously dealt withal, as upon his "humble request to have fo huge a debt fo freely forgiven, should, whilft the memory of fo much mercy was fresh upon "him, even in the very next moment, "handle his fellow-fervant, who had made "the fame humble request to him which "he had done to his lord, with fo much roughness and cruelty, for fo inconfider"able a fum."

THIS whole period (not to mention other objections which might justly be raised against it) is unmufical throughout; but the concluding members, which ought to have been particularly flowing, are most miferably loose and disjointed. If the de

licacy

licacy of Tully's ear was fo exquifitely refined, as not always to be satisfied even when he red Demofthenes; how would it have been offended at the harshness and diffonance of fo unharmonious a sentence?

NOTHING, perhaps, throws our eloquence at a greater diftance from that of the antients, than this Gothic arrangement; as those wonderful effects, which sometimes attended their elocution, were in all probability chiefly owing to their skill in mufical concords. It was by the charm of numbers, united with the ftrength of reason, that Tully confounded the audacious Catiline, and filenced the eloquent Hortenfius. It was this that deprived Curio of all power of recollection, when he rofe up to oppose that great master of enchanting rhetoric: it was this, in a word, made even Cæfar himself tremble *; nay, what is yet more extraordi nary, made Cæfar alter his determined pur pose, and acquit the man he had refolved to condemn.

You will not fufpect that I attribute too much to the power of numerous compofition, when you recollect the inftance which

* See Tully's Letters, vol. ii. p. 365, not. 9.

Tully

Tully produces of its wonderful effect. He informs us, you may remember, in one of his rhetorical treatifes, that he was himself a witness of its influence as Carbo was once haranguing to the people. When that orator pronounced the following fentence, patris dictum fapiens, temeritas filii comprōbāvit, it was astonishing, fays he, to obferve the general applaufe which followed that harmonious clofe. A modern ear, perhaps, would not be much affected upon this occafion; and, indeed, it is more than probable, that we are ignorant of the art of pronouncing that period with its genuine emphafis and cadence. We are certain, however, that the mufic of it confifted in the dichoree with which it is terminated: for Cicero himself affures us, that if the final measure had been changed, and the words placed in a different order, their whole effect would have been absolutely deftroyed.

THIS art was first introduced among the Greeks by Thrafimachus, tho' fome of the admirers of Ifocrates attributed the invention to that orator. It does not appear to have been obferved by the Romans till near

the times of Tully, and even then it was by no means univerfally received. The antient and lefs numerous manner of compofition, had still many admirers, who were fuch enthufiafts to antiquity as to adopt her very defects. A difpofition of the fame kind may, perhaps, prevent its being received with us; and while the archbishop fhall maintain his authority as an orator, it is not to be expected that any great advancement will be made in this fpecies of eloquence. That strength of understanding likewife, and folidity of reason, which is fo eminently our national characteristic, may add fomewhat to the difficulty of reconciling us to a ftudy of this kind; as at first glance it may feem to lead an orator from his grand and principal aim, and tempt him to make a facrifice of fenfe to found. It must be acknowledged, indeed, that in the times which fucceeded the diffolution of the Roman republic, this art was fo perverted from its true end as to become the fingle ftudy of their enervated orators. Pliny the younger often complains of this contemptible affectation; and the polite author of that elegant dialogue which, with very little probability, is attributed either to

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