"The orator's conclusion must not be confined to simple speculative consequences. He has done nothing as yet when he has proved the truth of his principles. This is the point from which he should proceed, in order to subdue the passions, that the sinner may retain no excuse, and that conviction may bring him to repentance.

Now, that you may produce such effects, take leave of your proofs and your divisions, and be assured that whatever is repeated enfeebles.

Comment upon some verses of a psalm relative to your subject, and in the compunction or in the weaknesses of David, point out the remorse and secret troubles of all. Exhort, instruct, confirm by varied repetitions, and such as may interest the feelings of the different classes of which society is composed. Display all the strength of your genius to prove that happiness doth not consist in pleasure, but in virtue.

What, in short, shall I say to you? Forget method; forget art itself. Lift up your heart to God by an affectionate prayer. Become the intercessor on behalf of your auditory, that the multitude who resisted your threatenings may be constrained to yield to the effusions of your Christian charity,

SECTION LVIII.

OF MEMORY.

You may in vain have received from nature this happy gift of persuading and moving; in vain may you have brought your talent to perfection by the study of rules; you may attain to eloquence in writing; still you would never speak like an eloquent man if you were impeded in the delivery of your discourse by the treachery of your memory.

Cicero calls this faculty "the treasure of the soul;"* and he always reckons it among the qualities essential to an orator.

What is not clearly understood is badly repeated; for, to a stiff pronunciation, which is already become too perceptible in Christian pulpits, there is added a want of freedom, which wearies the congregation.†

When once hearers experience this disgust, they are afraid of meeting with a similar embarrassment, and never listen afterward without uneasiness. Hence it follows that a defect of memory, which is by no means injurious to the merit of the orator, does infinite injury to the success of the discourse.

Never, therefore, consider the time lost which you may devote to this mechanical study. It is not

* Memoria thesaurus est mentis.-De Orat., 27. + Quel déplaisir de voir l'orateur entrepris

Relire dans la voûte un sermon mal appris!

this time which you lose, but it is the labour of composition, which becomes fruitless if you do not carefully make yourself master of a sermon on which you have bestowed much pains.*

Bourdaloue and Massillon, both of them born with treacherous memories, were obliged to have recourse to their manuscripts during almost the whole period of their exercising the sacred ministry; but they perceived at that time, with a degree of mortification, how much they diminished the pleasure which people received in hearing them. The Bishop of Clermont from thence conceived such a dislike for

* "Those," says Dr. Watts, "who are called to speak in public, are much better heard and accepted when they can deliver their discourse by the help of a genius and ready memory, than when they are forced to read all that they would communicate to their hearers. Reading is certainly a heavier way of conveying our sentiments; and there are very few mere readers who have the felicity of penetrating the soul and awakening the passions of those who hear by such a grace and power of oratory as the man who seems to talk every word from his very heart, and pours out the riches of his own knowledge upon the people around him by the help of a free and copious memory. This gives life and spirit to everything that is spoken, and has a natural tendency to make a deeper impression on the minds of men; it awakens the dullest spirits, causes them to receive a discourse with more affection and pleasure, and adds a singular grace and excelleney both to the person and his oration."-WATTS on the Improvement of the Mind, vol. i., 8vo, p. 247,

the pulpit, that he was unwilling to mount it during the last twenty-five years of his life; and it is a fact that, when urged one day to declare to which of his sermons he gave the preference, he very shrewdly replied, "to that which I know the best.”*

The custom of repeating from memory hath brought forward in the road of sacred eloquence that multitude of preachers who, through indolence or defect of talents, deliver the sermons of others.

* To corroborate our author's remark respecting Bourdaloue and Massillon having treacherous memories, let it be remarked, that "it is often found that a fine genius has but a feeble memory; for where the genius is bright and the imagination vivid, the power of memory may be too much neglected, and lose its improvement. An active fancy readily wanders over a multitude of objects, and is continually entertaining itself with new-flying images; it runs through a number of new scenes or new pages with pleasure, but without due attention, and seldom suffers itself to dwell long enough upon any of them to make a deep impression thereof upon the mind, and commit itself to everlasting remembrance. This is one plain and obvious reason why there are some persons of very bright parts and active spirits who have but very short and narrow powers of remembrance; for, having riches of their own, they are not solicitous to borrow."-Ibid., p. 250.

Useful directions for the improvement of the memory will be found in WATTS on the Improvement of the Mind, vol. i., c. xvii., p. 245, 8vo; in Mason on Self-Knowledge, c. XV., p. 131, 8vo; and in ROLLIN's Belles Lettres, b. i., c. iii., § 4, p. 244, 8vo,

As for such, their ministerial labours are wholly confined to the painful and unpleasant task of imprinting in the memory discourses which they have not had the trouble or pleasure of composing. Memory equalizes all Christian orators before the eyes of the people, and serves as a supplement to genius.

But this slight inconvenience may promote religious instruction, without preventing the improvement of the art of preaching; and it may be inferred that he who preaches the sermons of others does so from an inability to produce better himself.

Should it ever be the case that ministers of the Gospel would wish to rest satisfied with reading religious instructions from the pulpit, their hearers would become fewer and their discourses less successful; for memory resembles a sudden inspiration, whereas reading is only a cold communication.*

* If the practice of preaching sermons memoriter be objectionable, the practice of reading them verbatim is still more so. Against the former method, which M. Maury seems to approve of, it may be objected that it renders preaching a great labour; that if the preacher forget one word, he perplexes himself and confuses the auditory; and that it puts a restraint upon pronunciation, action, and the movement of the passions, while the mind is wholly taken up with recollection and repetition. See PERKINS's Art of Preaching, vol. ii., c. ix.

A slavish attachment to written notes, which has become prevalent in the present day, both among the established and dissenting clergy, unquestionably tends to en