and any other kind of movement, I should observe, that though in performing any ordinary action,-in walking, for example, across the room, a person may manifest both grace and agility, yet if he betrays the least intention of showing either, he is sure of offending more or less, and we never fail to accuse him of some degree of vanity and affectation. In the performance of any such ordinary action, every one wishes to appear to be solely occupied about the proper purpose of the action; if he means to show either grace or agility, he is careful to conceal that meaning; and in proportion as he betrays it, which he almost always does, he offends. In Dancing, on the contrary, every one professes and avows, as it were, the intention of displaying some degree either of grace or of agility, or of both. The display of one or other, or both of these qualities, is, in reality, the proper purpose of the action; and there can never be any disagreeable vanity or affectation in following out the proper purpose of any action. When we say of any particular person, that he gives himself many affected airs and graces in Dancing, we mean either that he exhibits airs and graces unsuitable to the nature of the Dance, or that he exaggerates those which are suitable. Every Dance is, in reality, a succession of airs and graces of some kind or other, which, if I may say so, profess themselves to be such. The steps, gestures, and motions which, as it were, avow the intention of exhibiting a succession of such airs and graces, are the steps, gestures, and motions which are peculiar to Dancing. . . . The distinction between the sounds or tones of Singing, and those of Speaking, seems to be of the same kind with that between the steps, &c., of Dancing, and those of any other ordinary action. Though in Speaking a person may show a very agreeable tone of voice, yet if he seems to intend to show it, if he appears

to listen to the sound of his own voice, and as it were to tune it into a pleasing modulation, he never fails to offend, as guilty of a most disagreeable affectation. In Speaking, as in every other ordinary action, we expect and require that the speaker should attend only to the proper purpose of the action, - the clear and distinct expression of what he has to say. In Singing, on the contrary, every one professes the intention to please by the tone and cadence of his voice; and he not only appears to be guilty of no disagreeable affectation in doing so, but we expect and require that he should do so. To please by the Choice and Arrangement of agreeable sounds, is the proper purpose of all music, vocal as well as instrumental; and we always expect that every one should attend to the proper purpose of whatever action he is performing. A person may appear to sing, as well as to dance, affectedly; he may endeavor to please by sounds and tones which are unsuitable to the nature of the song, or he may dwell too much on those which are suitable to it. The disagreeable affectation appears to consist always, not in attempting to please by a proper, but by some improper modulation of the voice."

It is only necessary to add, (what seems evidently to have been in the author's mind, though the Dissertation is left unfinished,) that Poetry has the same relation to Prose, as Dancing to Walking, and Singing to Speaking; and that what has been said of them, will apply exactly, mutatis mutandis, to the other. It is needless to state this at length; as any one, by going over the passages just cited, merely substituting for "Singing," "Poetry," for "Speaking," "Prose," — for "Voice," "Language," &c., will at once perceive the coincidence.*

* This probably was in Aristotle's mind when he reckoned Poetry

What has been said will not be thought an unnecessary digression, by any one who considers (not to mention the direct application of Dr. Smith's remarks, to Elocution) the important principle thus established in respect of the decorations of style viz. that though it is possible for a poetical style to be affectedly and offensively ornamented, yet the same degree and kind of decoration which is not only allowed, but required, in Verse, would in Prose be disgusting; and that the appearance of attention to the Beauty of the expression, and to the Arrangement of the words, which in Verse is essential, is to be carefully avoided in Prose.

Elegance of style in prose not to be thought of during the act of writing.

best models

And since, as Dr. Smith observes, "such a design, when it exists, is almost always betrayed;" the safest rule is, never, during the act of composition, to study Elegance, or think about it at all. Let an author study the

mark their beauties of style, and dwell upon them, that he may insensibly catch the habit of expressing himself with Elegance; and when he has completed any composition, he may revise it, and cautiously alter any passage that is awkward and harsh, as well as those that are feeble and obscure but let him never, while writing, think of any beauties of style; but content himself with such as may occur spontaneously. He should carefully study Perspicuity as he goes along; he may also, though more cautiously, aim, in like manner, at Energy; but if he is endeavoring after Elegance, he will hardly fail to betray that endeavor; and in proportion as he does this, he will be so fai from giving pleasure, to good judges, that he will offend more than by the rudest simplicity.

among the imitative arts; viz. that it is imitative of Prose-composition, in the same manner as Singing, of ordinary Speaking; and Dancing, of ordinary action.

On the importance of this branch, it is hardly necessary to offer any remark. Few need to be told that the effect of the most perfect composition may be entirely destroyed, even by a Delivery which does not render it unintelligible; that one, which is inferior both in matter and style, may produce, if better spoken, a more powerful effect than another which surpasses it in both those points; and that even such an Elocution as does not spoil the effect of what is said, may yet fall far short of doing full justice to it. "What would you have said," - observed Eschines, when his recital of his great rival's celebrated Speech on the Crown was received with a burst of admiration," what would you have said, had you heard him speak it ?"

The subject is far from having failed to engage attention. Of the prevailing deficiency of this, more than of any other qualification of a perfect Orator, many have complained; and several have labored to remove it: but it may safely be asserted, that their endeavors have been, at the very best, entirely unsuccessful. Probably not a single instance could be found 33*

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of any one who has attained, by the study of any system of instruction that has hitherto appeared, a really good Delivery; but there are many, probably nearly as many as have fully tried the experiment, who have by this means been totally spoiled; who have fallen irrecoverably into an affected style of spouting, worse, in all respects, than their original mode of Delivery. Many accordingly have, not unreasonably, conceived a disgust for the subject altogether; considering it hopeless that Elocution should be taught by any rules; and acquiescing in the conclusion that it is to be regarded as entirely a gift of nature, or an accidental acquirement of practice.

It is to counteract the prejudice which may result from these feelings, that I have thought it needful to profess in the outset a dissent from the principles generally adopted, and to lay claim to some degree of originality in my own. Novelty affords at least an opening for hope; and the only opening, when former attempts have met with total failure.*

Requisites of Elocution.

$2.

The requisites of Elocution correspond in great measure with those of Style: Correct Enunciation, in opposition both to indistinct utterance, and to vulgar and provincial pronunciation, may be considered as answering to Purity, Grammatical Propriety, and absence of Obsolete or otherwise Unintelligible words. These qualities, of Style, and of Elocution, being equally required in common conversation, do not fall within the proper province of Rhetoric. The three qualities, again, which have

* This is, in substance, one of Bacon's Aphorisms.