Reid or Dr. Beattie, yet he acknowledges that he does little more than felect and arrange a number of paffages which he has collected from the Appeal.

For I must acknowledge, fays he, that if the Doctor has embarraffed me, and taken up my time in the difpofition of my materials, he has made me amends by faving me the trouble of making many obfervations. In fact, I thall have occafion to do little more than let our Author fpeak for himself, only putting his words a little nearer together than he would have done.'

But it is time to conclude this Article, which we shall do by obferving that our Author's zeal for the caufe of truth and religion, which we are perfuaded is warm and fincere, does him. great honour that many of his remarks are acute and pertinent; that he is well acquainted with the points in controverfy; but that his manner of treating his antagonists is (as we have feen) extremely arrogant, contemptuous, and illiberal.

ART. II. The Speaker, or Mifcellaneous Pieces, Jelected from the best English Writers, and difpofed under proper Heads, with a View to facilitate the Improvement of Youth in Reading and Speaking. To which is prefixed, an Effay on Elocution. By William Enfield, LL. D. Lecturer on the Belles Lettres, in the Academy at Warrington. 8vo. 6s. bound. Johnfon. 1775.

F we were as curious in cultivating the Arts as we are in tracing the Remains of antiquity, that of elocution would be in a higher and more improved state than it can at present boast. For, among the ancients, it was ftudied and pursued as an object of the greatest importance. It was even placed and confidered under the patronage of the Mules—

MUSA loqui

-Graiis dedit Ore rotundo

and its powers, if we may allow them upon the faith of history, were equal to the divinity of its inftitution.

It is recorded of Hegeftas, the Cyrenian philofopher, that when he declaimed on the miferies of human life, many of his hearers were difpofed to put an end to their existence. Such was the amazing energy and power of his elocution; a power which Ptolemy thought it prudent to fupprefs! Ideoque a Rege Ptolemæo ulterius bac de re differere prohibitus eft.

But how are we to attain this wonderful art, fince Cleanthes and Chryfippus, who laid down the principles of it, are no more? Can we awaken thofe preceptors from their slumber of two thousand years? or, had we preceptors equal to thofe, could they give us the natural advantages of the orators fo famed through antiquity? could they communicate to us the acumen oculorum acerrimum, the terribile vultus pondus of Demofthenes? By no means. Yet are these nothing more than the questions Laert. Ariftip.-Cic. Tufc. 1. -Val. Max, 1. viii. c. 9.

of

of idleness and inactivity; for there are certainly practical advantages to be derived from the ftudy and difcipline of Elocution, and thofe very great.

Good reading, Bifhop Sprat has juftly observed, is half a comment; we may add that, good fpeaking is half an argument. If the fpeaker would be heard with pleafure, nay if he would be heard at all, if he would even be understood, he must cultivate elocution. Without a pure and harmonious utterance, an easy and commanded cadence, a duly varied inflexion, a voice reftrained within its natural compafs, capable, at pleasure, of elevation or depreffion ;-without being practifed and instructed in thefe (and thefe can never be acquired, at least not in any perfect and unexceptionable manner, without practice and inftruction) a man may bawl, or whine, or chatter, but he will hardly fpeak.

Previous to the large collection of leffons for the exercise of this art, Dr. Enfield prefents us with an effay on elocution. This effay is a kind of comment on the following general rules, each rule being at the head of the observations that follow it. I. Let your Articulation be diftinct and deliberate.

II. Let your Pronunciation be bold and forcible.

III. Acquire a Compaís and Variety in the height of your

Voice.

IV. Pronounce your Words with Propriety and Elegance. V. Pronounce every Word confifting of more than one Syilable with its proper Accent.

VI. In every Sentence diftinguish the more fignificant Words by a natural, forcible, and varied Emphafis.

VII. Acquire a juft variety of Pause and Cadence.

VIII. Accompany the Emotions and Paffions which your Words exprefs, by correfpondent Tones, Looks and Gestures.

The Author's obfervations on the laft rule, with his concluding precepts, are as follows:

"There is the language of emotions and paffions, as well as of ideas. To exprefs the former is the peculiar province of words; to exprefs the latter, nature teaches us to make use of tones, looks, and gestures. When anger, fear, joy, grief, love, or any other active paffion arifes in our minds, we naturally difcover it by the particular manner in which we utter our words; by the features of the countenance, and by other well known figns. And even when we speak without any of the more violent emotions, fome kind of feeling ufually accompanies our words, and this, whatever it be, hath its proper external expreffion. Expreffion hath indeed been fo little ftudied in public fpeaking, that we feem almoft to have forgotten the language of Nature, and are ready to confider every attempt to recover it, as the laboured and affected effort of Art. But Nature is always

the

the fame; and every judicious imitation of it, will always be pleafing. Nor can any one deferve the appellation of a good fpeaker, much lefs of a complete orator, till to diftinct articulation, a good command of voice, and just emphafis, he is able to add the various expreffions of emotion and paffion.

To enumerate thefe expreffions, and defcribe them in all their variations, is impracticable. Attempts have been made with fome fuccefs to analize the language of ideas; but the language of fentiment and emotion has never yet been analized; and perhaps it is not within the reach of human ability, to write a Philofophical Grammar of the Paffions. Or, if it were poffible in any degree to execute this defign, I cannot think, that from fuch a grammar it would be poffible for any one to instruct himself in the use of the language. All endeavours therefore to make men Orators by defcribing to them in words the man. ner in which their voice, countenance, and hands are to be employed, in expreffing the paffions, muft, in my apprehenfion, be weak and ineffectual. And, perhaps, the only inftruction which can be given with advantage on this head, is this general one: Observe in what manner the feveral emotions or paffions are expreffed in real life, or by those who have with great labour and taste acquired a power of imitating nature; and accustom yourself either to follow the great original itself, or the best copies you meet with, always however, with this fpecial obfervance, that you o'ERSTEP NOT THE MODESTY OF NATURE."

In the application of these rules to practice, in order to acquire a just and graceful elocution, it will be neceffary to go through a regular courfe of exercises; beginning with fuch as are most easy, and proceeding by flow fteps to fuch as are more difficult. In the choice of thefe, the practitioner fhould pay a particular attention to his prevailing defects, whether they regard articulation, command of voice, emphafis, or cadence: and he should content himself with reading and speaking with an immediate view to the correcting of his fundamental faults, before he aims at any thing higher. This may be irksome and difagreeable; it may require much patience and refolution; but it is the only way to fucceed. For, if a man cannot read fimple fentences, or plain narrative or didactic pieces, with distinct articulation, juft emphafis, and proper tones, how can he expect to do justice to the fublime defcriptions of poetry, or the animated language of the paffions?

In performing these exercises, the learner fhould daily read -aloud by himself, and, as often as he has opportunity, under the correction of an Inftructor or Friend. He fhould also frequently recite compofitions memoriter. This method has feveral advantages; it obliges the fpeaker to dwell upon the ideas which he

is

i

is to exprefs, and hereby enables him to difcern their particular meaning and force, and gives him a previous knowledge of the feveral inflexions, emphafes, and tones which the words require. And by taking off his eye from the book, it in part relieves him from the influence of the fchool-boy habit of reading in a different key and tone from that of converfation; and gives him greater liberty to attempt the expreffion of the countenance and gefture.

It were much to be wifhed, that all public fpeakers would deliver their thoughts and fentiments, either from memory or immediate conception: for, befides that there is an artificial uniformity which almost always diftinguishes reading from speaking, the fixed posture, and the bending of the head which reading requires, are inconfiftent with the freedom, eafe, and variety of juft elocution. But, if this is too much to be expected, efpecially from Preachers, who have fo much to compose, and are fo often called upon to speak in public; it is however extremely defirable, that they fhould make themfelves fo well acquainted with their difcourfe as to be able with a fingle glance of the eye, to take in several claufes, or the whole, of a sentence.

I have only to add, that after the utmost pains have been taken to acquire a juft elocution, and this with the greatest fuccefs; there is fome difficulty in carrying the art of fpeaking out of the school, or chamber, to the bar, the fenate, or the pulpit. A young man, who has been accustomed to perform frequent exercises in this art in private, cannot eafily perfuade himself, when he appears before the public, to confider the business he has to perform in any other light, than as a trial of skill, and a difplay of oratory. Hence it is, that the character of an Orator has of late often been treated with ridicule, fometimes with contempt. We are pleafed with the eafy and graceful movements which the true gentleman has acquired by having learned to dance; but we are offended by the coxcomb, who is always exhibiting his formal dancing-bow, and minuet-step. So, we admire the manly eloquence and noble ardour of a British Legiflator, rifing up in defence of the rights of his country; the quick recollection, the forcible reafoning, and the ready utterance of the accomplished Barrifter; and the fublime devotion, genuine dignity, and unaffected earnestnefs of the facred Orator: but when a man, in either of thefe capacities, fo far forgets the ends and degrades the confequence of his profeffion, as to fet himself forth to public view under the character of a Spouter, and to parade it in the ears of the vulgar with all the pomp of artificial eloquence, though the unfkilful may gaze and applaud, the judicious cannot but be grieved and difgufted. Avail yourself, then, of your skill in the Art of Speaking, but always employ your powers of elocution with caution and modefty; remem

bering,

bering, that though it be defirable to be admired as an eminent Orator, it is of much more importance to be refpected, as a wife Statesman, an able Lawyer, or a ufeful Preacher.'

There is an error in the fecond fentence, probably of the prefs, where former is put for latter, and vice verfa.

The leffons for exercife are taken from our beft writers; and, as they are well chofen, the book, exclufive of its primary intention, is a valuable Mifcellany. L.

ART. III. An Inquiry into the real and imaginary Obstructions to the Acquifition of the Arts in England. By James Barry, Royal Academician, and Member of the Clementine Academy of Bologna. 8vo. 4s. Becket. 1775.

Tneceflarily be fought by investigating the caufe. Every HE right remedy of every evil, moral or natural, must

complaint in fociety is thus to be redreffed. Every obstruction to the profperity of the natural or political body is to be removed only by tracing it to its fource; and fo, of course, it fares with the progrefs of the arts.

But who is he to whom this first and most important task of inveftigation fhall be affigned? If here we err, we are fundamentally unfortunate; for it is not merely the lofs of light and labour we have to bewail: while we are led by a fallacious difquifition to a mistaken cause, and are exerting idle efforts for the removal of that, the evil we complain of is fuffered to increase. Whoever, therefore, takes upon himself an inquiry of this nature, ought to be master of the whole economy of his fubject; and, in this view, we have reafon to be fatisfied with this attempt of Mr. Barry.

The Artist opens his fubject with a view of the opinions. that have been entertained with refpect to the capacity of the English for the polite arts: and here he certainly starts from the right goal; for if that capacity fhould be found defective, to inquire into other obftructions were fuperfluous.

Abbé du Bos, Prefident Montefquieu, and Abbé Wincleman, have followed one another in affigning limits to the genius of the English; they pretend to point out a certain character of heaviness and want of fancy, which they deduce from phyfical caufes. They have either wilfully taken advantage of, or they have been ignorantly deceived by, certain impediments which happened accidentally to prevent or retard us in keeping pace with other nations, in an acquifition of fome of the fine arts: because we have not hitherto done it, they chufe to find out that the thing is impoffible to us; and that we are eternally incapacitated by the clouds that hang over our heads, the nervous fyftem of our bodies, our foil, our food. They fay that we can have no imagination, tafte, or fenfibility: that we are cold and unfeeling to the powers of mufic: that we can fucceed in nothing that requires genius; that if ever we are worth

admiring