nature produces affectation, and, of course, destroys true feeling. No general practical rules for gesture, says Sheridan, can be laid down. "The chief end," he adds, "of all public speakers, is to persuade; and, in order to persuade, it is, above all things, necessary that the speaker should at least appear himself to believe what he utters; but this can never be the case where there are any evident marks of affectation or art. On the contrary, when a man delivers himself in his usual manner, and with the same tones and gestures that he is accustomed to use when he speaks from his heart,-however awkward that manner may be, however ill regulated the tones, he will still have the advantage of being thought sincere." "Nature can do much without art; art but little without nature. Nature assaults the heart; art plays upon the fancy. Force of speaking will produce emotion and conviction; grace only excites pleasure and admiration. As the one is primary, and the other but a secondary end of speech, it is evident that, where one or the other is wholly to take place, the former should have the preference." Where the two are combined, the accomplished orator is formed. RHETORICAL PAUSES. 25 RHETORICAL PAUSES. The place of the pause is immediately before each of the words inted in italics in the following examples. RULE I.- Pause after the nominative when it consists of more than one word. EXAMPLES. The fashion of this world passeth away. The pleasures and honors of the world to come are, in the strictest sense of the word, everlasting. RULE II. When any member comes between the nominative case and the verb, it must be separated from both of them by a short pause. EXAMPLES. Trials in this state of being are the lot of man. Money, like manure, does no good till it is spread. RULE III. When any member comes between the verb and the objective or accusative case, it must be separated from both of them by a short pause. EXAMPLES. I cannot recall without remorse the incident to which you allude. We witnessed with delight the reconciliation of the friends. RULE IV.. Words or phrases in apposition, or when the latter only explain the former, have a short pause between them. EXAMPLES. Hope, the balm of life, soothes us under every misfortune. RULE V.. Who and which, when in the nominative case, and the pronoun that, when used for who or which, require a short pause before them. EXAMPLES. Death is the season which brings our affections to the test. Nothing is in vain that rouses the soul: nothing in vain that keeps the ethereal fire alive and glowing. A man can never be obliged to submit to any power, unless he can be satisfied who is the person who has a right to exercise it. RULE VI.- Pause before that when it is used as a conjunction. EXAMPLES. The charge is too trifling to be confuted, and deserves only to be mentioned that it may be despised. It is in society only that we can relish those pure delicious joys which embellish and gladden the life of man. RULE VII. Whatever words are put into the case absolute, must be separated from the rest by a pause. EXAMPLES. If a man borrow aught of his neighbor, and it be hurt or die, the owner thereof not being with it, he shall surely make it gcod. That day shall find us, Heaven consenting, free. RULE VIII. - In reading blank verse, avoid the one extreme of ending every line with too marked a pause; and the other, of confounding one line with another so as to destroy the measure.* RULE IX. EXAMPLE. The heart is hard in nature, and unfit For human fellowship, as being void Of sympathy, and therefore dead alike To love and friendship both, that is not pleased Nor feels their happiness augment his own. COWPER. · A simile in poetry ought generally to be delivered in a lower tone of voice than that part of the passage which precedes it. EXAMPLE. But ere he could arrive the point proposed, I, as Æneas, our great ancestor, Did from the flames of Troy upon his shoulder The old Anchises bear, so from the waves of Tiber SHAKSPEARE. Mr. Sheridan, in his Art of Reading, has insisted largely on the necessity of making a pause at the end of every line in poetry, whether the sense requires it or not. Walker, in his Elements of Elocution, tells us that he asked Dr. Lowth, Mr. Garrick, and Dr. Johnson, about the propriety of this pause, and they all agreed with Mr. Sheridan, though Walker differed. We think that Sheridan is right; but the pause should be so delicate and slight as, while it preserves the music of the verse, not to interrupt the sense or the passion. THE INTERMEDIATE STANDARD SPEAKER. PART FIRST.-THE ROSTRUM. I. THE WORTH OF ELOQUENCE. LET us not, gentlemen, undervalue the art of the orator. Of all the efforts of the human mind, it is the most astonishing in its nature, and the most transcendent in its immediate triumphs. The wisdom of the philosopher, the eloquence of the historian, the sagacity of the statesman, the capacity of the general, may produce more lasting effects upon human affairs; but they are incom ́parably less rapid in their influence, and less intoxicating from the ascendency they confer. In the solitude of his library the sage meditates on the truths which are to influence the thoughts and direct the conduct of men in future times; amid the strife of faction the legislator discerns the measures calculated, after a long course of years, to alleviate existing evils, or produce happiness yet unborn; during long and wearisome campaigns the commander throws his shield over the fortunes of his country, and prepares in silence and amid obloquy the means of maintaining its independence. But the triumphs of the orator are immediate; his influence is instantly felt; his, and his alone, it is "The applause of listening senates to command, The threats of pain and ruin to despise, To scatter plenty o'er a smiling land, And read his history in a nation's eyes! "I can conceive," says Cicero, "of no accomplishment more to be desired than to be able to captivate the affections, charm the understanding, and direct or restrain, at pleasure, the will of whole assemblies. This single art has, amongst every free people, commanded the greatest encouragement, and been attended with the most surprising effects. For what can be more astonishing, than that from an immense multitude one man should come forth, the only, or almost the only man, who can do what Nature has made attainable by all? Or can any thing impart to the ears and the understanding a pleasure so pure as a discourse which at once delights by its elocution, enlists the passions by its rhetoric, and carries captive the conviction by its logic? "What triumph more noble and magnificent than that of the eloquence of one man, swaying the inclinations of the people, the consciences of judges, and the majesty of senates? Nay, farther, can aught be esteemed so grand, so generous, so public-spirited, as to relieve the suppliant, to raise up the prostrate, to communicate happiness, to avert danger, to save a fellow-citizen from exile and wrong? Can aught be more desirable than to have always ready those weapons with which we can at once defend the weak, assail the profligate, and redress our own or our country's injuries? "But, apart from the utility of this art in the Forum, the Rostrum, the Senate, and on the Bench, can any thing in retirement from business be more delightful, more socially endearing, than a language and elocution agreeable and polished on every subject? For the great characteristic of our nature that which distinguishes us from brutes is our capacity of social intercourse, our ability to convey our ideas by words. Ought it not, then, to be preeminently our study to excel mankind in that very faculty which constitutes their superiority over brutes? 66 Upon the eloquence and spirit of an accomplished orator may often depend, not only his own dignity, but the welfare of a government, nay, of a people. Go on, then, ye who would attain this inestimable art. Ply the study you have in hand, pursue it with singleness of purpose, at once for your own honor, for the advantage of your friends, and for the service of your country. II. MEANS OF INSTRUCTION IN BOOKS. THERE is one source of gratification, perhaps the most important of all, and which, it is to be hoped, will be considerably augmented in power and importance in this institution, and that is the Library. Thanks to heaven that we can read! Thanks to heaven that there are books worth reading - books in which the wisdom of ages is collected in a convenient space! Yes, eternal honor to that Pelasgian hero, that mythical Cadmus, who crossed the snowy mountains, and brought the Asiatic gift of letters to the western world, and with that spell awoke the magic muse of Greece! Honor to those scribes - not pharisees who, on the papyrus leaf and parchment roll more durable than brass or |