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The right hand may be often used alone.

When you speak of the body, you may point to it with the middle finger of the right hand.

When you fpeak of the foul or confcience, you may lay the right hand gently on the breaft.-It should be often difplayed with an eafy motion to favour an emphafis; but feldom or never be quite extended. All its motions fhould be from the left to the right.

Both the hands displayed, and the arms extended, is violent action, and never jult or decent unless the audience be noisy, and part of them at a diftance from the fpeaker, and he is Jabouring to be heard; and then they should never be extended higher than the head, unless pointing at fomething above the audience*.

The motion of the hand fhould always correfpond with those of the head and eyes; as they fhould with the paffions expreffed. In deliberate proof or argumentation, no action is more proper or natural than gently to lay the first finger of the right hand on the palm of the left.

Of what great ufe the proper motion of the hand is in affifting pronunciation, and how many paffions may be strongly indicated thereby, when attended with that of the head and eyes, is not eafy to be defcribed, but is foon obferved in com mon converfation.

The Pofture of the Body.

THIS fhould be ufually erect; not continually changing, nor always motionlefs; declining, in acts of humiliation; in acts of praife and thankfgiving, raised.

It should always accompany the motion of the hands, head, and eyes, when they are directed to any particular part of the audience; but never fo far as to let the back be turned to any part of it.

But let it fuffice juft to hint at these things. Thofe who defire to fee them more largely treated of, may confult Quintilian.

But after all, with regard to action, the great rule is the fame as in pronunciation-to follow nature, and avoid affectation.--The action of the body, and the feveral parts of it, must correfpond with the ftyle, and the flyle with the fubject. A perfect harmony of all thefe completes the orator.

* See Raphael's cartoon, representing St. Paul preaching at Athens

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Leffons in Elocution.

AMBITION.

AMBITION is at a diftance,

A goodly profpect, tempting to the view;
The height delights us, and the mountain top
Looks beautiful, because 'tis nigh to heaven:
But we ne'er think how fandy's the foundation,
What storms will batter, and what tempefts shake it.-Otway.
AMBITION! deadly tyrant!

Inexorable master! what alarms,

What anxious hours, what agonies of heart
Are the fure portion of thy gaudy flaves!
Cruel condition! could the toiling hind,
The fhivering beggar, whom no roof receives,
Wet with the mountain fhower, and crouching low
Beneath the naked cliff, his only home;

Could he but read the statesman's fecret breaf-
But fee the horrors there, the wounds, the flabs
From furious paffions and avenging guilt,

He would not change his rags and wretchedness
For gilded domes and greatnefs !-Mallet.

THERE are but few men who are not ambitious of difliaguishing themselves in the nation or country where they live, and of growing confiderable among thofe with whom they con verfe. There is a kind of grandeur and refpect which the meanest and most infignificant part of mankind endeavor to procure in the little circle of their friends and acquaintance. The pooreft mechanic, the man who lives upon common alms, has his admirers, and delights in that fuperiority which he enjoys over thofe who are in fomne refpect beneath kịm, ambition, which is natural to the foul of man, might methinks receive a very happy turn; and, if it were rightly directed, .contribute as much to a perfon's advantage, as it generally does to his uneafinefs and difquiet.-Spectator.

This

IF we look abroad upon the great multitude of mankind, and endeavor to trace out the principles of action in every individual, will, I think, feem highly probable, that ambition runs

through the whole fpecies, and that every man, in proportion to the vigor of his complexion, is more or lefs actuated by it. It is, indeed, no uncommon thing to meet with men, who, by the natural bent of their inclinations, and without the difcipline of philofophy, aspire not to the heights of power and grandeur; who never fet their hearts upon a numerous train of clients and dependencies, nor other gay appendages of greatnefs; who are contented with a competency, and will not molest their tranquility to gain an abundance. But it is not therefore to

be concluded, that fuch a man is not ambitious. His defires may cut out another channel, and determine him to other purfuits; the motive may be, however, ftill the fame; and in thofe cafes, likewife, the man may be equally pushed on with the defire of diftinction.

Though the pure consciousness of worthy actions, abstracted from the views of popular applaufe, be to a generous mind an ample reward; yet the defire of diftinction was doubtless implanted in our natures as an additional incentive to exert ourfelves in virtuous excellence.

This paffion, like all others, is frequently perverted to evil and ignoble purposes; fo that we may account for many of the excellencies and follies of life upon the fame innate principles; to wit, the defire of being remarkable. For this, as it has been differently cultivated by education, study, and converse, will bring forth fuitable effects, as it falls in with an ingenuous companion, or a corrupt mind: it does alfo exprefs itself in acts of magnanimity or felfifh cunning, as it meets with a good or weak understanding. As it has been employed in embellishing the mind, or adorning the outfide, it renders the man eminently praife-worthy or ridiculous. Ambition, therefore, is not to be confined only to one paffion or purfuit; for as the fame humours in conftitutions otherwife different, affect the body after different manners; fo the fame afpiring principle within us fometimes breaks forth upon one object, fometimes upon another.

It cannot be doubted, but that there is as great a desire of glory in a ring of wrestlers or cudgel players, as in any other more refined competitors for fuperiority. No man, that could avoid it, would ever fuffer his head to be broken, but out of a principle of honour.—Ibid.

-AMBITION raifes a fecret tumult in the foul. It inflames the mind, and puts it into a violent hurry of thought. It is fill reaching after an empty imaginary good, that has not the

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power to abate or fatisfy it. Moft other things we long for, can allay the cravings of their proper fenfe, and for a while fet the appetite at reft: but fame is a good fo wholly foreign to our nature, that we have no faculty in the foul adapted to it, nor any organ in the body to relish it; an object of defire placed out of the poffibility of fruition.-Ibid.

THERE is fcarce a man living, who is not actuated by ambition. When this principle meets with an honeft mind and great abilities, it does infinite fervice to the world; on the contrary, when a man only thinks of distinguishing himself, without being thus qualified for it, he becomes a very pernicious or a very ridiculous creature.- Ibid.

THE great are deceived if they imagine they have appropri ated ambition and vanity to themselves. Thefe noble qualities flourish as notably in a country church, or church-yard, as in the drawing-room, or in the clofet.-Schemes have been laid in a veftry, which would hardly disgrace a conclave.—Here is a miniitry, and here is an oppofition-here are plots and circumventions, parties and factions, equal to those which arę to be found in courts.-Fielding.

AGE.

SOME few, by temp'rance taught, approaching flow
To diftant fate, by eafy journies go:

Gently they lay them down, as ev'ning heep

On their own woolly fleeces foftly fleep..
So, noifelefs, would I five, fuch deat
Like timely fruit, not fhaken by the wi
But ripely dropping from the fapless bough ́s
And, dying, nothing to myfelf would owe:
Thus daily changing, with a duller taste
Of lefs'ning joys, I by degrees would waste :
Still quitting ground by unperceiv'd decay,

And iteal myfelf from life, and melt away.-Dryden.

Y AGE, which leffens the enjoyment of life, increases our defire of living. Thofe dangers, which, in the vigour of youth, we had learned to defpife, affume new terrors as we grow old. Our caution increafing as our years increase, fear becomes at lait the prevailing paffion of the mind; and the fmall remainder of life is taken up in useless efforts to keep off our end, or provide for a continued exiftence.Goldfmith.

OF all the impertinent withes which we hear expreffed in converfation, there is not one more unworthy a gentleman, or

a man of liberal education, than that of wifhing one's felf to be younger. It is a certain fign of a foolish or a diffolute mind, if we want our youth again only for the ftrength of bones and finews which we once were mafters of. It is as abfurd in an old man to wish for the ftrength of a youth, as it would be in a young man to wifh for the ftrength of a bull or a horfe, Thefe withes are both equally out of nature, which fhould direct in all things that are not contradictory to justice, law, and reafon.

Age in a virtuous perfon of either fex, carries in it an authori ty, which makes it preferable to all the pleasures of youth. If to be faluted, attended, and confulted with deference, are inftances of pleasure, they are fuch as never fail a virtuous old-age. In the enumeration of the imperfections and advantages of the younger and later years of man, they are fo near in their condition, that methinks it fhould be incredible we fee fo little commerce of kindness between them.

If we confider youth and age with Cicero, regarding the affinity to death, youth has many more chances to be nearer it than age; what youth can fay, more than an old man, “I fhall live till night?" Youth catches diftempers more eafily, its fickness is more violent, and its recovery more doubtful. The youth, indeed, hopes for many more days; fo cannot the old man. The youth's hopes are ill grounded; for what is more foolish than to place any confidence upon an uncertainty? But the old man has not room fo much as for hope; he is ftill happier the youth; he has already enjoyed what the other does but hope for: one wishes to live long, the other has lived long. But, alas, is there any thing in human life, the duration of which can be called long? There is nothing, which must end, that ought to be valued for its continuance. If hours, days, months, and years, pafs away, it is no matter what hour. what day, what month, or what year we die. The applaufe of a good actor is due to him, at whatever scene of the play he makes his Exit. It is thus in the life of a man of fenfe; a fhort life is fufficient to manifeft himself a man of honour and virtue; when he ceafes to be fuch, he has lived too long; and, while he is fuch, it is of no confequence to him how long he fhall be fo, provided he is so to his life's end.-Spedator..

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AN old age, unfupported with matter for difcourfe and meditation, is much to be dreaded. No ftate can be more deflitute, than that of him, who, when the delights of fenfe forfake him, has no pleasures of the mind.-Johnson.

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