was proposed to limit this definition, as had been done by Gorgias, Aristotle, and others, and to make eloquence the art of persuading men by speaking, he adds that even this "

*

was

not sufficiently comprehensive, since many others besides the orator so speak as to persuade, while, on the other hand, persuasion is not in all cases the object or province of the orator."

When this great and judicious critic, after reviewing the attempts of his predecessors, proceeds to construct a definition of his own, it may seem presumptuous to call it in question. In his estimation, the simplest and most precise definition of eloquence is the art of speaking This is certainly an improvement on Blair's, since one may so speak as to attain the immediate end for which he speaks, and yet, in a critical or æsthetical sense, not speak well. To do this requires taste and a skilful adapta

well.

lence, than I could have expected from the most artful speech." He then mentions one or two instances in which he had cast more discredit upon an adversary's irrelevant arguments by declining to notice or answer them, than he could have done by the most elaborate reply.

*Ne satis est comprehensum is the phrase of Quintilian; though it is obvious that, while the definition is not sufficiently comprehensive in one respect, it is too much so in another, since it includes kinds of speaking which are not eloquent.

tion of his manner to the subject, the occasion, and the character of the audience. "Is enim est eloquens," says Cicero, "qui et humilia subtiliter, et magna graviter, et mediocria temperate potest dicere." Yet even such a one is not always eloquent. When discoursing on some subjects, he is precluded, by their very nature, from soaring to that height, where alone eloquence dwells. If he were called, for instance, to expound a theorem in mathematics, or to discuss an account current, or apply a merely technical rule of law, he might in each case evince the utmost perfection in speaking of which the case admits, and yet not be eloquent. It is the province of a man thus endowed to know when to call in the highest efforts of his art, and to observe a proper temperance and moderation in their use. . . . .. On the other hand, it is worthy of remark, that some men, though unable to speak well in a rhetorical sense, yet often rise to true eloquence. They are disfigured with great faults; but with hearts full of passion, and minds labouring with great truths, and an utterance that supplies unbidden the appropriate words, they seize and bear away with irresisti ble force the minds of their hearers.

To gain clear ideas of eloquence, we must distinguish between two meanings of the term,

which, though quite different, are often confounded. The words eloquent and eloquence are sometimes used to indicate a single quality of discourse written or spoken-more especially of spoken discourse-and sometimes they indicate the art, by which the power of producing discourses possessing that and other qualities, is cultivated and perfected. Let us attend to each of these.

To

1. Of what kinds of discourse, then, do we predicate eloquence? What gives to a passage that mysterious power, by which it fastens a spell upon our hearts? In what part of a discourse, do we expect to find it? Rarely in the introduction; not often in simple narration; never in appeals to pure reason. be eloquent, a passage must speak to the imagination and the passions. It must emanate from a mind that feels deeply and conceives vividly, and must be clothed in language which paints rather than describes; causing the distant to become near, and the absent or invisible to start up before us with a living power. Bacon has described it with his usual pith and discrimination: "The office and duty of eloquence (if a man well weigh the matter) is no other than to apply and command the dictates of

reason to the imagination, for the better moving of the appetite and will." "Plato saith elegantly (though the saying be now popular), that virtue, if she could be seen, would move great love and affection but rhetoric paints our virtue and goodness to the life, and makes them in a sort conspicuous. For, seeing they cannot be showed to sense in corporeal shape, the next degree is by the fair attire of words to show them to the imagination, so far as may be, in a lively representation; for the custom of the Stoics was deservedly derided by Cicero, who laboured to thrust virtue upon men by concise and sharp sentences, and conclusions which have no sympathy with the imagination and the will."*

But if this be the essential characteristic of eloquence, we need not wonder that men sometimes attain it, though destitute of many of the graces and accomplishments taught in the schools. It is not among those only, who frequent the schools, that God dispenses the gift of an imaginative and susceptible spirit, or the power which enables such a spirit to sway others. Let a mind be once fraught with intense feeling, or with clear and vivid conceptions of a great truth which it burns to proclaim, and it will find or make a way to the sympathy of * De Augm. Scient., lib. v., cap. vi.

Such minds Neither knowl

mankind. Eloquence sometimes bursts forth, even from the most rude and unlettered, when their hearts are full. It is like the poetry which is now and then seen gushing from uncultivated minds, even as water flowed from the rock stricken in the desert. may want judgment and taste. edge, by which they could give coherent shape to the visions floating before their fancy, nor artistic skill, by which those visions could be woven into one consistent and symmetrical whole, nor language adequate to give them utterance, may be theirs; still they have thoughts, and their bosoms swell with emotions, known only to those who have been cast in the poet's mould. So it is with eloquence. On great emergencies, or when passion presses, it breaks forth often like the fitful fires of a volcano, and from minds that know nothing, and, perhaps, care little, about the art styled oratory.

2. What is the object of that art? It is to develop, and perfect, powers of thought and speech, which can be bestowed in the first place only by Nature. That creative energy which originates eloquence, resides chiefly, as we have already intimated, in reason exalted by imagination, and fired by passion. With these

B