merits. He passes on; he observes the judges conversing together, restless on their seats, frequently inquiring in the middle of a pleading whether it be not time to close the trial and break up the court This is enough for him. He perceives at once that the cause is not pleaded by a man of eloquence, who can command every mind, as a musician can produce harmonious strains by touching the strings of his instrument.

"But if he perceive, as he passes on, the same judges attentive, their heads erect, their looks engaged, and apparently struck with admiration of the speaker, as a bird is charmed with the sweet sounds of music; if, above all, he discover them most passionately affected by pity, by hatred, or by any strong emotion of the heart; if, I say, as he passes on, he perceives these effects, though he hear not a word

A finished encomium, which does equal honour to the taste and piety of the monarch, and the talents of the preacher." -Preface to MASSILLON's Sermons.

As a confirmation of this account of Massillon's eloquence, Voltaire tells us that, when he was preaching that sermon entitled "The small Number of the Elect," and which he considers as equal to anything of which either ancient or modern times can boast, towards the close of the discourse the whole assembly were moved; by a sort of involuntary motion, they started up from their seats; and such indications of surprise and acclamations were manifested as disconcerted the speaker, while they imparted an increased effect to his discourse.-ENCYCLOPE DIE, Art, Eloquence.

of the oration, he immediately concludes that a real orator is in this assembly, and that the work of eloquence proceeds, or, rather, is already accomplished."*

SECTION XIII.

OF THE ELOQUENCE OF THE BAR.

THE Bar is an excellent school for imparting that rhetorical propagation to ideas which is one of the most difficult secrets in the art of oratory.

I have attended the courts; I have heard some eloquent advocates, and a great number of those flippant orators whom Cicero styles, "not orators, but practitioners of a great volubility of speech."t

* Itaque intelligens dicendi existimator non assidens et attentè audiens, sed uno adspectu et præteriens de oratore sæpè judicat. Videt oscitantem judicem, loquentem cum altero, nonnunquàm etiam circulantem, mittentem ad horam; quæsitorem ut dimittat rogantem; intelligit oratorem in ea causâ non adesse qui possit animis judicum admovere orationem tanquàm fidibus manum. Idem si præteriens adspexerit, erectos intuentes judices, ut avem cantu aliquo, sic illos viderit oratione quasi suspensos teneri; aut id quod maximè opus est, misericordiâ, odio, motu animi aliquo perturbatos esse vehementiùs: ea si præteriens, ut dixi, adspexerit, si nihil audierit, tamen oratorem versari in illo judicio, et oratorium fieri aut perfectum jam esse profectò intelliget.

+ Non oratores, sed operarios linguâ celeri et excerci tatâ.-Brutus, 18, 83.

I acknowledge, however, that I have often admired advocates, indifferent enough in other respects, who possessed in the highest degree the valuable talent of arranging their proofs methodically, and of imparting progressive energy to the reasoning. This kind of merit, as usual at the Bar as it is scarce everywhere else, is also much less remarked there; whether it be that gentlemen of that profession are so thoroughly sensible of its value as to study it in the opening of a cause, or whether it be that arguments becoming more gradually forcible in juridical discussions, an adherence to the natural order is sufficient to enable the pleader to state them to advantage.*

There are at this time the most distinguished talents at the Bar; but there hath been a complaint for a long while, and justly, of a sad declension.†

"The best advice," says M. ROLLIN, "that can be given to young people who are designed for the Bar, is to take for the model of their style the solid foundation of Demosthenes, embellished with the graces of Cicero, so that the severity of the former may be softened by the graces of the latter, and that the conciseness and vivacity of Demosthenes may correct the luxuriancy, and, perhaps, the too loose way of writing with which Cicero is reproached."-ROLLIN's Belles Lettres, vol. ii., ch. iii., § 3, Art. ii., p. 262–266.

See the various remarks of the same author on the Eloquence of the Bar, vol. ii., ch. iii., § 3 throughout.

† Mr. Knox finds occasion to observe, that "the eloquence of the Bar is greatly degenerated from that liberal

The Chancellor D'AGUESSEAU, who, in discharging the functions of his public employment, hath acquired the greatest renown in this age, is universally esteemed a man of extraordinary abilities; a profound lawyer; a correct and elegant writer. But I am not aware that the public opinion allows him the same superiority as an orator, although he hath handled many subjects worthy of the highest strains of eloquence. This illustrious magistrate was not as yet possessed of all the strength of his genius when he employed himself on subjects of a rhetorical nature; and it would be doing him injustice to judge of his talents by a small number of discourses which were the earliest productions of his youth.

Advocates in general do not take sufficient pains with their causes. They are more copious than vehement; and many of them sacrifice glory to vanity, by lengthening out their pleadings, that they may engross more attention from a public audience.

But it is not enough to show one's self; it is necessary to be held in admiration when one wishes to become celebrated.

Nor ought it to be concealed, that literary men, who are accustomed to write with more care, have a marked superiority over advocates whenever they assume their profession.

Neither LE MAITRE nor PATRU* occupy the first oratory which immortalized Cicero."-See his strictures on this subject in his Liberal Education, § xx., p. 189.

* "PATRU was the first," says Voltaire, "who intro

place in the French Bar. This honour is reserved for PELISSON,* who hath deserved immortal fame by composing his memoirs for the superintendent Fouquet; but above all for Arnaud, who hath himself surpassed all advocates in "The Apology for the English Catholics," accused of a conspiracy against King Charles II. in 1678. Read that eloquent discussion. What tears will not Arnaud draw from

duced correctness and purity of language in pleadings." He obtained the reputation of a most exact speaker and excellent writer, and was esteemed so perfect in grammar and his own language that all his decisions were submitted to as oracles. Born 1604, died 1681.-Biog. Dictionary.

* PELISSON Composed three famous pleadings on behalf of Fouquet, who had been his patron, and superintendent of the finances, but was afterward disgraced. Voltaire says "they resemble those of the Roman orator the most of anything in the French language. They are like many of Cicero's orations: a mixture of judicial and state affairs, treated with an art void of ostentation, and with all the ornaments of an affecting eloquence."-General Biog. Dict.

"Pelisson was one of the finest geniuses of the seventeenth century. He excited the admiration of all around him his Preface to the works of Sarrasin' is reckoned a master-piece in its way. 'He was,' says Voltaire, 'an indifferent poet, but a man of great eloquence and learn. ing.'"-New Biog. Dict.

+ The author's zeal in behalf of his own church must explain his preference for that which is by no means the ablest or most celebrated of Arnauld's controversial works.

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