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Narration of facts fhould always be as concife, as the nature of them will admit. They are always very neceffary to be remembered; confequently unneceffary minuteness in relating them overloads the memory. Whereas, if a pleader omit all fuperfluous circumftances in his recital, he adds strength to the material facts; gives a clearer view of what he relates, and makes the impreffion of it more lafting. In argumentation however a more diffuse manner feems requifite at the bar, than on fome other occafions. For in popular affemblies, where the fubject of debate is often a plain question,. arguments gain ftrength by concifenefs. But the intricacy of law points frequently requires the arguments to be expanded, and placed in different lights, in order to be fully apprehended.

Candor in ftating the arguments of his adversary cannot be too much recommended to every pleader. If he disguise them, or place them in a false light, the artifice will foon be discovered; and the judge and the hearers will conclude, that he either wants difcernment to perceive, or fairness to admit the ftrength of his opponent's reasoning, But, if he state with accuracy and candor the arguments used against him, before he endeavour to combat them, a ftrong prejudice. is created in his favor. He will appear to have entire. confidence in his caufe, fince he does not attempt to fupport it by artifice or concealment. The judge will

therefore be inclined to receive more readily the impref fions, made upon him by a speaker, who appears both. fair and penetrating.

Wit may fometimes be ferviceable at the bar, particu larly in a lively reply, by which ridicule is thrown on what an adversary has advanced. But a young pleader should never rest his strength on this dazzling talent. His office is not to excite laughter, but to produce conviction; nor perhaps did any one ever rife to eminence in his profeffion by being a witty lawyer..

Since an advocate perfonates his client, he must plead his caufe with a proper degree of warmth. He must be cautious however of prostituting his earneftnefs and fenfibility by an equal degree of ardor on every fubject. There is a dignity of character, which it is highly important for every one of this profeffion to fupport. An opinion of probity and honor in a pleader is his most powerful inftrument of perfuafion. He fhould always. therefore decline embarking in caufes, which are odious and manifeftly unjust; and, when he fupports a doubtful caufe, he fhould lay the chief. ftrefs upon thofe arguments, which appear to him to be most forcible; referv-ing his zeal and indignation for cafes, where injustice and iniquity are flagrant.

ELOQUENCE OF THE PULPIT.

HAVING treated of the eloquence of popular af

femblies, and of that of the bar, we shall now confider the ftrain and spirit of that eloquence, which is fuited to the pulpit. This field of public fpeaking has feveral advantages peculiar to itself. The dignity and importance of its fubjects must be allowed to be fuperior to any other. They admit the highest embellishment in defcription, and the greatest warmth and vehemence of expreffion. In treating his fubject the preacher has alfo peculiar advantages. He speaks not to one or a few judges, but to a large affembly. He is not afraid of interruption. He chooses his fubject at leifure; and has all the affiftance of the moft accurate premeditation. The disadvantages however, which attend the eloquence of the pulpit, are not inconfiderable. The preacher, it is true, has no contention with an adversary; but debate awakens genius, and excites attention. His fubjects, though noble, are trite and common. They are become fo familiar to the public ear, that it requires no ordinary genius in the preacher to fix attention. Nothing is more difficult, than to bestow on what is common the grace of novelty. Befide the fubject of the preacher ufually confines him to abstract qualities, to virtues and vices; whereas that of other popular speakers leads 1hem to treat of perfons; which is generally more interesting to the hearers, and occupies more powerfully

the imagination. We are taught by the preacher to detest only the crime; by the pleader to deteft the criminal. Hence it happens that, though the number of moderately good preachers is great, fo few have arrived at eminence. Perfection is very distant from modern preaching. The object however is truly noble, and worthy of being pursued with zeal.

To excel in preaching, it is neceffary to have a fixed and habitual view of its object. This is to perfuade men to become good. Every fermon ought therefore to be a perfuafive oration. It is not to discuss fome abftrufe point, that the preacher afcends the pulpit. It is not to teach his hearers fomething new, but to make them better; to give them at once clear views and perfuafive impreffions of religious truth.

The principal characteristics of pulpit eloquence, as diftinguished from the other kinds of public speaking, appear to be these two, gravity and warmth. It is nei ther easy, nor common to unite these characters of cloquence. The grave, when it is predominant, becomes a dull, uniform folemnity. The warm, when it wants gravity, borders on the light and theatrical. A proper union of the two forms that character of preaching, which the French call Ouction; that affecting, penetrating, and interefting manner, which flows from a ftrong fenfe in the preacher of the importance of the truths, he delivers, and an earnest desire, that they may make full impreffion on the hearts of his hearers.

A fermon, as a particular species of compofition, requires the ftrictest attention to unity. By this we mean "that there fhould be fome main point, to which the whole tenor of the fermon fhall refer. It must not be a pile of different fubjects heaped upon each other; but one object muft predominate through the whole. Hence however it must not be understood, that there should be no divifions or separate heads in a difcourfe; nor that one fingle thought only fhould be exhibited in different points of view. Unity is not to be understood in fo limited a fenfe; it admits fome variety; it requires only that union and connection be fo far preferved, as to make the whole concur in fome one impreffion on the mind. Thus, for instance, a preacher may employ feveral different arguments, to enforce the love of God; he may also inquire into the causes of the decay of this virtue; ftill one great object is presented to the mind. But, if because his text fays, "He, that loveth God, must love * his brother alfo,” he should therefore mix in the same difcourfe arguments for the love of God and for the love of our neighbour; he would grofsly offend againft unity, and leave a very confused impreffion on the minds of his hearers.

Sermons are always more striking, and generally more ufeful, the more precife and particular the fubject of them is. Unity can never be fo perfect in a general, as in a particular fubject. General fubjects indeed,

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