very secret spot, being at a distance from any house, and where there grew a great number of fine large cabbages. Thus for a long time as he pursued his studies, he went to repeat his lesson to these cabbages, addressing them by the title of gentlemen, and dealing out his sentences, as if he had composed them to an audience of scholars at a lecture. After having prepared himself thus for a fortnight or three weeks, he began to think it was high time to take the chair. Imagining that he should be able to harangue scholars as well as he had before done his cabbages, he comes forward; begins his oration; but before he had said a dozen words, he remained dumb, and became so confused, that he knew not where he was; so that all he could bring out was- Domine, ego bene video quod non estis caules;' that is to say, for there are some who will have every thing in plain English,' 'Gentlemen, I now clearly see you are not cabbages.' In the garden he could conceive the cabbages to be scholars; but in the chair, he could not conceive the scholars to be cabbages."

GRACES OF SPEECH.

"Action is eloquence, and the eyes of the ignorant More learned then their ears."

SHAKESPEARE.

Demosthenes having once harangued the people

home with his head Meeting with Satyrus,

very unsuccessfully, hastened covered, and in much chagrin. the tragedian, he complained bitterly to him, that though he laboured more than all other orators, and had greatly impaired his health by it, yet he could not please the people: but that drunkards, mariners, and other illiterate persons, were wholly in possession

of the popular ear." "You say true," answered Satyrus ; but I shall soon remove the cause, if you will repeat me some verses of Euripides or Sophocles without book." Demosthenes did so; and Satyrus repeated the verses after him, but with such variety of expression and aptness of gesture, that Demosthenes scarcely knew them to be the same. The lesson was not lost; Demosthenes saw what a vast accession of power was added to an oration, by action and elocution, and thenceforth considered all declamation vain where these qualities were neglected.

ATHENIAN ORATORS.

The Athenians were the most refined of all the Greeks; they possessed a more cultivated delicacy in the polite arts and an exquisite taste for eloquence. The excellent orators who rose amongst them, had familiarized them with the most perfect beauties of composition. So accustomed were their minds to suffer nothing but what was pure, elegant, and finished, that those who had to speak in public, looked upon the lowest of the people as so many critics of what they were going to say. But if the genius of this people had become so delicate by the attic eloquence of their orators, the native haughtiness of the Greeks was much increased by the servile adulation paid to them in the forum; so that it required a wonderful dexterity to stretch the empire of persuasion over men who would always be treated like masters.

The establishment of the singular law of Ostracism, which was occasioned by the tyranny of Pisistratus, caused all those whose great merit and, high reputation

gave umbrage to the citizens, to be banished for ten years. Thus runs the sentence of this famous law: "Let no one of us excel the others; and if there should be found one of this description, let him go and excel elsewhere." This law in its commencement was executed with so much rigour, that Aristides, who was surnamed the Just, and who had performed many actions for the glory of his country, was condemned to banishment; and although this severity had greatly abated of its rigour under Alcibiades, and was abolished in the course of time; there remained in the manners and minds of the Athenians, a great jealousy of those who had distinguished themselves by some extraordinary merit; and a vigorous severity toward their orators, which constrained them to be very circumspect. The rules they had imposed on them, went so far as to prohibit their displaying ornaments too elaborate, which might disguise their real sentiments; images and motions, capable of affecting and softening their auditors; for they regarded the first as false lights that might mislead their reason; and the latter, as attempts to encroach on their liberty by swaying their passions. It is to this we may attribute that coldness and austerity which pervade the discourse of these orators, and which rather proceeded from the restraint laid on them, than from the qualities of their genius. To succeed with the Athenians, it became necessary to appear to respect them, to flatter and to censure them at the same time; a policy which Demosthenes, who well knew this people, applied with great success.

PHILLIP AND THE ATHENIAN ORATORS. "that he was

Phillip of Macedon was wont to say, much beholden to the Athenian orators; since by the slanderous and opprobrious manner in which they spoke of him [e.g. that he was a barbarian, an usurper, a cheat; perfidious, perjured, depraved; a companion of rascals, mountebanks, &c.], they were the means of making him a better man, both in word and deed. For," added he, "I every day do my best endeavour, as well in my sayings and doings, to prove them liars."

It would have been well, had Phillip always acted up to this encomium on himself. After the battle of Cheronca, he indulged his joy for the victory by getting drunk, dancing all night, and going from rank to rank, calling his prisoners names. Demades, one of them, with the same decent freedom, told Phillip that he acted the part of Thersites, rather then that of Agamemnon. Phillip, was delighted with the smartness of the repartee, and for the sake of this bon mot, dismissed the prisoners without ransom.

FREEDOM OF SPEECH.

After Timoleon, the Corinthian, had freed the Sicilians and Syracusans from the tyrants that oppressed them, one Demenetus, a busy demagogue, had the boldness in public assembly of the people, to charge Timoleon with several acts of misconduct whilst general of the army. Timoleon contented himself with making this admirable answer: "That he thanked

the god for granting him that thing which he had so often requested of them in his prayers; which was, that he might once see the Syracusans have full power and liberty to say what they pleased." The people were enchanted; and the slanderer retired in confusion.

A BASE BRIEF HONOURABLY REFUSED.

The Emperor Severus, when dying, recommended his two sons to the protection of Papinianus, a lawyer equally eminent for his integrity and eloquence. The impious Caracalla having embrued his hands in the blood of his brother Geta, solicited Papininaus to extenuate the matter to the senate and people. No, sir," replied the unworthy man. "It is more easy to commit a fratricide, then to justify it." Caracalla, incensed at this manly denial, caused the head of his incorruptible guardian to be cut off.

FACETIOUS PREACHERS.

There are some persons who may think, that
"Dulness is sacred in a sound divine,"

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and that the most rigid austerity of manner should always be preserved in the pulpit. There has, however, been a species of preachers, who, while they enlightened and instructed their auditors by their moral observations, and by teaching the great truths of Christianity, have done it by comparisons the most simple, and have even sometimes descended to amuse with their jokes.

In our own day, and in this metropolis, there is one minister, whose piety and zeal in the cause of religion