them."* There is too much of truth in these remarks; although we are glad to believe, their accuracy in application to the inhabitants of some countries, is rapidly diminishing. A distinction must be carefully made between what is and what should be. We may wish that men were more sensible than they are; but in our intercourse with them we must have regard to their actual characteristics. In this view we may discern the great importance of delivery in recommending good principles to minds unable or unwilling to hear and ponder a jejune statement of them unaccompanied by the charms of harmonious diction and a graceful and impressive mien. Zealous recourse to the effective weapons stored up in this department of the armory of eloquence, cannot but be commendable, if we take care to employ these weapons only on the side of integrity and truth. Nor is it necessary to regard Lord Chesterfield's representation of mankind, as entirely, or indeed at all, correct, in order to uphold the importance of delivery. For the most intellectual hearer is influenced by it; and why should he not be? A good delivery is not a mere display for the gratification of the senses (though I think it is by no means to be despised in this light, for what gratification of the senses is more exquisite or more noble ?); but it gives body and impetus to thought and feeling, and sends them home into the soul of the auditor. Thus delivery does not, as is very commonly supposed, derive all its efficacy from man's weaknesses. Its principles are drawn from the whole nature of man, as a being endued with the capacities of reason as well as emotion. Were man devoid of emotion, principles of delivery would still have place, and they would be identical with some of those which must be adopted now. It would still be requisite to express intellectual truth fully and precisely, and to do this it would be necessary to subject the voice and gesture to suitable training. As man is possessed of emotions of taste we must have respect to these in forming our manner of delivery. Nor is it at all inappropriate, but on the contrary commendable, that our delivery should be suited to the particular capacities and tastes of those whom we are addressing. Those who consider attentively how many and important are the respects in which oral address can be made superior to silent reading in effective force, and then perceive that every point of this superiority falls within the province of the *Letters to his Son. Letter 307. science of elocution, will not wonder that this science should be pronounced worthy of assiduous application. Let it, however, keep its proper sphere. Manner should adorn and enforce matter, not supersede it. Lord Chesterfield remarks that "weight without lustre is lead." This is true; and it is equally true that lustre without weight is but tinsel. Thought is the material; style and delivery give it radiant beauty. Gold must be burnished in order to flash upon the vision. Thought without the aid of delivery is much like a folded balloon; something is requisite to swell it into its full proportions. There are, as it were, minute features to every conception of the mind. The general outline of a thought may be discerned, though it be very obscurely presented, as a man's form may be discerned by twilight; but only the broad sunlight of perfect style and delivery can reveal its traits with complete effect. These observations indicate the true aim of the science of elocution. Notwithstanding Talleyrand, the distinguished French statesman, is said, whether truly or otherwise I do not know, to have declared that speech was given to man to disguise his thoughts, (a remark which might with equal propriety be extended to the expression of the countenance and frame,) I shall not hesitate to aver my belief, that the chief end of our powers of delivery is to make ourselves as far as possible transparent. This truth, faithfully dealt around in all its applications, would serve to detect most of the errors which exist in our present systems of instruction in elocution. Grace, in mien and diction, is indeed of some consequence; but the principal aim should be to cast off every tittle of that opaque crust with which so many souls are almost wholly enveloped, and to make thought and feeling blaze forth with the utmost intensity from every point of that mortal part which they inform. Delivery should transmit a thought or an emotion, as some crystal media transmit light, without impediment or refraction. Thus it will be effective. Instead of absorbing or scattering the rays of intellect and feeling, it will send them surely to their destination with energetic compactness. Such delivery demands that the heart be honest. There must be the steady, keen lustre of sincerity within; its place cannot be supplied by any transient meteor-glare which interested duplicity can kindle upon the surface without. Quinctilian has been deemed very extravagant in declaring it necessary that an orator should be a good man. There is more truth in the observation than has been acknowledged. Few dare to avow bad sentiments. Hence it is often the case that an orator who possesses a vicious heart undertakes to play the nypocrite. However artful the disguise, he cannot exert the power which sincerity would give him. Thus eloquence does depend, to an important extent, upon integrity. Indeed, I can hardly believe that without pure purpose aught worthy of the name of eloquence is possible. The good qualities of delivery, then, as well as of style, may be reduced to two heads, perspicuity and grace. In delivery, as well as style, grace is of the less consequence by far; yet it is essential to perfection. It generally aids perspicuity in both, by fixing the attention more closely upon what is communicated. The quality of perspicuity in delivery is very comprehensive. It demands a manner as various as the nature of the sentiments uttered. Its office is to give these sentiments, as they are conveyed to the hearer, the very impress belonging to them in the soul of their author. Grace in mien and diction, not only has that influence upon perspicuity which we have mentioned, but attracts the favorable regard of all who observe it, facilitates the passage of sentiment to the soul, and gives poignancy to its effect. We come now naturally to inquire, what are the best means by which these qualities of delivery may be attained and perfected? In this inquiry it is of primary importance to determine the respective shares of nature and art in conferring the external endowments of consummate eloquence. Misapprehension and neglect of the distinction to which we refer has given rise to very many of the most prominent faults which disfigure systems of Elocution now in vogue. Even in the self-same system we find that which can be procured only by the hand of art left to nature or accident, and the proper province of nature invaded by the comparatively dull formality of art. Art, however, receives far more of real homage than nature; what is granted to the latter being granted, usually, rather through neglect than through thoughtful intention, while to art is awarded by common, though lamentable consent, the credit of being the main source of effect in delivery. Fatal mistake! The principal well-spring of eloquence in matter or manner is emotion. Art may pour in her subsidiary streams to augment the force of nature's mighty tide, and thus be useful; but unless she is subservient to nature, she must be comparatively inefficient, and moreover, the little efficiency she possesses must be hurtful, and cannot merit the approbation of an honest mind. "Unerring nature, still divinely bright, One clear, unchanged, and universal light, or a speaker can at best be but a paragon of hypocrisy. Articulate sounds, considered merely as such, are wholly conventional, and differ very much in different languages. Their enunciation is acquired and perfected as an art. But the tones denoting emotion which accompany articulate language, owe their origin to nature, not art. Hence it is idle to endeavor to produce them by artificial rules. Art may imitate the natural tones of feeling, but never equal them. In a work miscalled a "Philosophy of the Human Voice," which has been regarded with much respect as a noble contribution to the science of Elocution, an attempt is made to analyse the intonations of the voice by principles of art. Indeed, common vocal utterance is treated by the author of this book as if it were a system of artificial music. Among other things, the rise and fall of the voice in speaking are designated by fixed intervals. Strange that such a scheme should be devised by a man of sense, and acquire repute among enlightened men! What would be thought of a man who should undertake to construct an analogous system, denominated a Philosophy of the Human Countenance, denoting by artificial means the various delicate and flitting expressions which spring up in the features from internal emotion? I trust that universally and at once the undertaking would be scouted as ridiculous. Yet geometrical admeasurement by lines and angles is really as applicable to a smile or a frown, as a plan of musical notes to the voice of one speaking in earnest. The expression of the voice is often as delicate and evanescent as that of the countenance. Instead of always exhibiting determinate intervals, it often rises and falls in correspondence with the equable increase or diminution of feeling, melting, as it were, upward or downward, not altering by a sudden and marked transition. Moreover, real intervals in the voice may be almost infinitely various. The impossibility of fixing the degree of emotion by * *Pope's Essay on Criticism. Part 1. 70-74. any artificial rules involves the impossibility of fixing its expression. Thus the theory referred to is plainly inaccurate. But were it accurate, its practice could not do much, if any good, and would almost certainly do much injury. Real emotion always suffices of itself to regulate its expression by proper tones; and it only can regulate them with perfect precision. To admit the interference of art in the matter must be worse than useless. Why not as well attempt to regulate a blush by art? There are characteristics of the human voice as truly out of the sphere of art as a blush. When a man is angry, the tones of anger present themselves unbidden. He does not need philosophy for their attainment; though he may need it for their suppression. Suppose that a man of science, after having attentively examined the act of shutting the eyes, and determined what muscles are exerted in it, and how they are exerted, should undertake to impress upon others the importance of the knowledge which he had attained, in order that they might shut their eyes with propriety, would they be inclined to consider this knowledge as of any use in the performance of the act. Would they not reply, what you say may be very true, but we have generally been able to shut our eyes when we wished to do so, without knowing anything about the muscles which you mention? Just as readily will an orator exhibit the exact tones of emotion, if he feel it; and if he do not, he should not attempt to exhibit them. The case is the same in regard to gestures expressive of emotion. Yet efforts have been made to designate these, too, by artificial means. A large quarto volume was published in London, in 1806, called "Chironomia, or a Treatise on Rhetorical Delivery, by Gilbert Austin," in which manual gesture is taught by diagrams. The value of this system may be perceived, in part, from the two following remarks of the author. After applying it in a particular instance, he says: "The manner of delivery is such as occurred, and might have been varied in a thousand ways." In another part of his book, having treated of certain gestures which he terms nonsignificant, he says: "These may be used in any part of an oration, and belong to every character of style and speaking." In the first place, such a system must fail to comprehend more than comparatively a few out of the boundless variety of human gestures, all of which may be significant and apprópriate in certain cases; and, moreover, could we attain to per |