a satisfactory grounding can be given in the elements of any art or science. And in no branch of study is a stringent discipline more required than in this.

Time likewise is an important element among the requisites for success. Superior ability in delivery can only result from a gradual development of capabilities and the formation of habits. Young men who are preparing to be public speakers, sometimes express a wish that they could have it in their power for a while to devote themselves exclusively or principally to this study, and thus finish it as a distinct branch of education. Such wishes imply a serious mistake. To be ultimately successful, the study of delivery must proceed pari passu with that development of mind which results from the whole course of education. Mr. Russell, who is so extensively known as an able teacher of elocution, has well explained, that delivery proceeds from the whole character. The speaking of a schoolboy must necessarily be boyish, and that of a college student, in the early part of his course, will of course be inferior to what he will be capable of exhibiting after his mind has been strengthened by long application to severe studies. Habits also cannot be formed at once, while rules, lessons and practice are of little use except as they form habits of voice and gesture. In penmanship, "a good hand" is formed by rules and lessons, but graceful writing is executed without elaborate pains, and is the result of habits previously established. To establish habits, the lessons from which they are to proceed must not be in too quick succession. Six lessons given in as many successive hours, will have but little effect compared with what will result if they are given in successive days or weeks. Slowness in this respect is especially true in regard to the mind, and all habits of delivery may be ultimately referred to the mind and character. A further illustration of these truths may be derived from the practice of composition in our highest seminaries. The maturity of style displayed in the magazines conducted by

their members, is certainly considerable, and yet it is the result, so far as practice is concerned, not of very frequent trials in composition, but of attempts made at considerable intervals throughout the whole course of education.

For further explanation of the principles of the present work, reference may be made to part fourth of Whately's Rhetoric, a treatise which was composed when its author was at the head of one of the colleges of Cambridge University. Not only is the false mode of teaching elocution described by him, one in which teachers are liable to proceed, but the injurious habits described are still more often acquired by those who attempt to improve their own delivery, by means of a set of rules, or by imitating a favorite model.

As teachers of elocution often meet with those who are strongly prejudiced against any cultivation of an improved delivery, and who feel a disgust at the very thought of attracting popular applause as speakers, it may not be useless, and will certainly promote a good understanding between instructor and pupil, to give the subject of the true usefulness of elocution a candid consideration.

It is a popular notion, loosely entertained indeed, but often expressed, that a good delivery is the most important of all accomplishments for promoting the success in life of a man whose profession requires him to be a speaker. This appeal to worldly interest often excites aversion in the minds of young men, while the more acute among them perceive the falsity of the assertion. So far as mere success in life is concerned, impartial observation will prove that though a good delivery is often advantageous, it not only is not imperatively called for by society, but bad styles of speaking will often secure applause and patronage. Even dullness of delivery is not without its uses. Weakness of thought and incorrectness of style are often concealed from observation by obscurity of enunciation. A sort of dignified mumbling is not unfrequently resorted to by men ambitious of

influence. So much easier is it to speak with force and fluency, than to shew ability in writing; so often is an animated delivery the result merely of confidence and presumption, and so frequently are successful arts of delivery used for selfish ends only, that there exists in society a readiness to suspect a good speaker of being insincere or shallow. Men are justly satisfied with learning, talent and elevation of character, although their possessors may express valuable matter in a dull and tedious manner. A superior delivery is not even necessary in all cases for eloquence. Webster has stated a philosophical truth in saying that "eloquence must exist in the man, in the subject and in the occasion." Had he been expressly treating the point, he would probably have added, that of the three, "the occasion" is the most influential. Indeed the appropriate occasions for high eloquence are rare. Accomplished oratory, of which delivery is a part, attracts admiration and may thus be injurious to influence and usefulness. It is a critical remark of F. Schlegel, that Bishop Bossuet, the most splendid of French orators, was too eloquent for a clergyman.) There is no evidence that the Apostle Paul was admired as an orator in Greece or Rome. Had he been, his polished hearers might have excused themselves from regarding him in any other light than merely as an interesting speaker. In the most profoundly skillful piece of oratory, perhaps in any language, Shakespeare makes Antony say, "I am no orator, as Brutus is."

Still it is commonly acknowledged that there is to a greater or less extent an obligation resting upon all who are pursuing a course of liberal education, to acquire the accomplishment of a good delivery, if circumstances put in their power to obtain it. In the first place a man feels deficient without it, and experiences a natural impulse in favor of its cultivation, just as he does with respect to other branches of knowledge. Self-cultivation is a universal law of reason and conscience. On the same ground, society also expects evidences of this accomplishment from men of education.

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In the next place we owe it to our fellow men to endeavor to make ourselves useful and agreeable. A good delivery is the most powerful of all instruments for the purpose of communicating our ideas—at least to the ignorant and illiterate. For this purpose it is far more valuable than mere literary correctness or beauty of style. For uneducated minds, and the great majority of miscellaneous audiences are of this description, nothing will compensate for the want of clearness and force of delivery, if the speaker is really desirous of instructing or even of enabling them perfectly to comprehend him. Delivery should be especially cultivated by all who are called upon to teach. It is often said that this accomplishment is most valuable to lawyers, but this class of speakers have less need of cultivating it than any other, because from the situation in which they speak, they can scarcely avoid becoming, after a few trials, both fluent and forcible. Some degree of coarseness in delivery is often favorable in its influence on juries, and a lawyer can never be so absurd as to expect to influence a judge by means of elocution. No situation is so easy for a man to speak in, as that of maintaining one side only of a question before a judge or jury. Lawyers do not succeed as well as clergymen when addressing large audiences, and the debates on party questions in conventions of clergymen are at least as eloquent as those in political assemblies.

A man is bound also to be reasonably agreeable, as well as useful. So great is the just reverence for intellect and learning, that when listening to speakers whom they respect for their talents and attainments, audiences do not complain of faults in delivery, which would be considered proof of want of good manners in private intercourse. This however, is not a very good excuse for such faults on the part of speakers themselves. Avoidance of disagreeable attitudes and gestures, and a manifest pains to be at least distinct and audible, are required by common respect and courtesy, as much in a public meeting as

in a private company. It is only such considerations as these, in favor of the cultivation of elocution, that are of any real efficiency towards inducing young men to apply themselves to its study. Arguments founded in vulgar selfishness, disgust many and cause them to despise the accomplishment; while on the other hand, the same inducements rarely succeed in persuading to useful application even those who apparently consent to them. There is another recommendation to the study and practice of delivery, which being a legitimate motive, it may be well to mention. It is the pleasure which attends upon successful efforts to free ourselves from feeling restrained and hampered in the exercise of our natural faculties. Mind and body both become unfettered, and the speaker enjoys his freedom and consciousness of power.

But in reference to a College education, the strongest reason for practising elocution is found in the fact, that for the last two or three generations, there has been no other available counteractive of certain injurious effects of college life. Το say nothing of vulgar tastes and coarse manners, the established course of education for some time past has kept a young man occupied from the years of childhood up to the period when he concludes his professional studies, in such a way as directly and powerfully to induce indolent and awkward habits of character. Unmanly diffidence, absence of mind in common intercourse, social cowardice, and bodily awkwardness and laziness, have been felt extremely difficult to avoid, by serious and intellectual young men, whose time has been spent principally at seminaries of learning. There have been no counteracting influences from the practice of any accomplishment except that of composition, and this does not answer the purpose, as it is cultivated in solitude. Extemporaneous debate has indeed been of some little use, but the embarrassment which generally accompanies its first practice, fully counteracts its benefits in respect to the things now under consideration. At some former periods, the