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emas almost superhuman? Was it not the deep sense of violated right, the strong abhorrence of that "geographical morality" which characterized the Governor of India and his minions? How could he have described the tortures inflicted by his orders, the flagrant injustice committed by his authority; how could he have painted "agonizing nature vibrating in horrid suspense between life and destruction," and, in the climax of the crimes, "death introduced into the very sources of life," in such a way that a "convulsive sensation of horror, and affright, and smothered execration pervaded all the male part of the hearers, and audible sobbings and screams, with tears and fainting, the female," unless his own moral sensibilities had been deeply excited? Without his strong hatred of vice, which is no other than a passionate love of virtue, how could he have made the accused party bear testimony the strongest ever borne to the powers of any orator in any country? "For half an hour," said Mr. Hastings, "I looked up at the orator in a reverie of wonder, and during that space I actually felt myself the most culpable man on earth;" adding, however, "but I recurred to my own. bosom, and there found a consciousness that consoled me under all I heard and all I suffered." It is an ancient opinion that none but a good man can be an eminent orator. The opinion is a sound one, for this reason, if for no other, that none but a good man can have that hatred of vice and wrong which are no other than a passionate love of right and virtue. Lacking goodness, he lacks the highest inspiration and the most powerful instrumentality.

THE END AIMED AT.

§ 559. But, in order to speak with effect, it is necessary that the orator should have distinctly in his mind the end for which he speaks. This end must stand forth in the field of his vision distinct and prominent, as the one thing to be thought of during the meditation and delivery of his discourse; as the one thing to be held up before his hearers. What he says, he is to regard as valuable only as it is a means adapted to promote that end. Whatever he regards as foreign to this instrumentality, he rejects, however beautiful in thought or expression it may be. To accomplish this end, to conduct his hearers to the point

to which he wishes to lead them, he endeavors to fill their minds with the same thoughts and feelings which fill his mind; to link in his ideas on the subject in hand with their habitual ideas concerning duty, moral excellence, the public weal, and personal happiness. Whether in the cause of justice at the bar, or in the cause of the public weal in the deliberative assembly, or in the cause of religion in the pulpit, he must have a distinct end in his mind, and distinct ideas related to this end, and a distinct mode by which he endeavors to connect his ideas with their ideas, and thus to bring them to act with him. This was what distinguished the younger Pitt. He always had a distinct end in speaking related to distinct ideas or principles thought out in his mind, which, in their application, became what was called The Pitt System.

GOOD SENSE.

§ 560. Another requisite is, that the orator should have good sense in adapting the means which he employs to the end. He must not only have in his mind truths that have a bearing upon the subject in hand, but those truths which have a bearing upon the minds of his hearers. He must, therefore, fully understand the state of their feelings, the degree of their knowledge, the strength of their prejudices and predilections; otherwise he will fail of accomplishing his end, from not applying the appropriate means. All eloquence is relative. It must be related to the audience, to the time, to the place, to the occasion. The speaker must not mistake his office, which is to apply truth, for that of the philosopher, which is to discover truth. He must have that ready perception of the proprieties of the occasion, that tact in seizing hold of any relationship between him and his audience, which Paul manifested when he made the declaration, "I am a Pharisee." Burke, as a philosophic statesman, in addressing the House of Commons, sometimes "thought of convincing while they thought of dining;" while Charles Townsend, a practical man, could always, in the language of the former, "hit the House between wind and water." The former, indeed, receives the applause of posterity; but the latter was successful in carrying his measures through Parliament.

DISTINCT AND VIVID CONCEPTION.

§ 561. Besides good sense, in addressing his audience, the orator must, for the highest excellence in his art, have the power of distinct and vivid conception, in order that he may communi⚫cate a distinct impression of the objects which he describes. It

is only when he sees the objects in the past, the distant, and the future, that he can so describe them to others; that they can see them as in a picture, in their true forms and colors, as if they were actually before their eyes. Leonardo da Vinci had in his mind certain vivid and distinct conceptions of the Last Sup per, which, with his pencil, by light, and shade, and color, he exhibited, in his celebrated painting in the Cathedral of Milan,' in forms so true to nature that the spectator could hardly resist the impression that he was actually gazing upon breathing bodies. What are light, and shade, and color to the painter in one of the fine arts, such are words, and tones, and gestures to the orator in another and a higher art. By means of them, his own conceptions, as if pictured, are visibly set forth to the view of others. He who has the power of picturesque description has an advantage over him who has not: first, in his power of se curing attention; secondly, in his power of making himself understood; thirdly, in awakening a deep interest in the speaker, such as he could not awaken if he trusted to dull generalities. It was this power of picturesque description which gave a charm to the eloquence of our countryman, Fisher Ames: "Experience," he says, "has already been the prophet of events, and the cries of our future victims have already reached us. The western inhabitants are not a silent and uncomplaining sacrifice. The voice of humanity issues from the shade of their wilderness. It exclaims, that while one hand is held out to reject the treaty, the other grasps a tomahawk! It summons our imagination to the scenes that will open. Indeed, it is no great effort of the imagination to conceive that events so near are already begun. I can fancy that I listen to the yells of savage vengeance and the shrieks of torture. Already they seem to sigh in the west wind; already they mingle with every echo from the mountains." Every sentence here contains a distinct image; and the whole is so picturesque, that we can see the whole as if on canvas.

A STRONG DESIRE TO EXPRESS EMOTION.

§ 562. Moreover, there must be a strong desire to express to others the emotions which the speaker feels. Strong feeling naturally seeks to express itself in words; for in doing this man finds relief, just as the brute creation show forth pleasure or pain by inarticulate sounds. In the intercourse of private life, men, under the influence of any emotion, ever seek to pour out their thoughts into the ear of private friendship, or in a more public way give vent to their feelings. Such is the strength of the social principle, that speak the orator must. He is a man of high sympathies. He has thoughts which he longs to communicate to his audience, that they may feel as he feels. He speaks because he has something which he wishes to say, and not because he wishes to say something. And when, under the influence of his emotions, he rises to address an audience, in his strong sympathy with his hearers, whom he wishes to think as he does, he is prepared to appeal directly to their hearts. Or if he uses the forms of dialectics, it is "logic set on fire" by the ardor of conviction. And if he possess the other attributes of the orator, thoughts will force their way from the well-spring of his heart up to his lips, where words, "like nimble servitors," will skip into their places to supply his wants.

A STRONG WILL.

§ 563. Another attribute in the soul of the orator is a strong will, which shows itself in a fixed determination not to give up the cause which he has espoused, if he believes it to be a good one. Firmness of purpose has the same advantage over feebleness and fluctuation, in eloquence, that it has in any other department of human action. Let one come into an assembly determined, at all events, to carry that measure; let him act and speak in accordance with this high resolve, and the impression produced upon the audience will not only be deep, but controlling. Tenacem propositi virum

Non civium ardor prava jubentium

Non vultus instantis Tyranni,

Mente quatit solidâ.

The stormy waves of debate roll round him, dashing upon him

without moving him. The outbreakings of popular phrensy, the darkening frown of the tyrant, terrify him not, shake him not from his firm purpose.

The influence which a man of a strong will has upon others sometimes amounts almost to fascination. He is to them a master-spirit, to be obeyed; a controlling genius, to be followed. All the energies of his nature, his reason and good sense, his imagination and taste, his social affections and passions, his voice and his hand, stand ready to obey the bidding of his will, and, as a consequence, others obey it too. An unconquerable will gave a power to the speeches of Lord Chatham in Parlia ment far beyond what their mere logical argumentation could have done. Men yielded to him because they saw that he would not swerve from his purpose. Opposition shrunk away because it was unavailing. Men sympathized with his mental energy, and willed and acted as he willed.

The orator must have a generous, confiding spirit, if he wishes his audience to have the same spirit toward him. He must have a quick perception of the beautiful in nature and in art, since, in captivating the minds of his hearers, he must instrumentally use the beautiful as well as the true. He must have a heart full of kindly affections toward his audience and toward his species, if he expects his audience and men around him to give him their kindly regards and their influence, their determinations and their votes, if they have votes to give. The mind of the orator always kindles into a sympathetical feeling when brought into contact with the minds of an audience.

Having seen what eloquence is in its matter, we can the better understand what it is in its forms and its origin. Having seen what eloquence is in its relation to the soul of the orator, we are prepared to understand what it is in its external manifestation, particularly what it is when expressed in language, whether written or spoken.

RHETORICAL FORMS.

§ 564. Language being, in general, the image of the soul of man, RHETORICAL FORMS are those peculiar forms of language which express or image forth the soul of the orator, as distinguished from other men; or they are those forms of lan

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