hopes.-His feeling is vindicated by the highest authority. When our Lord approached Jerusalem, and contemplated the miseries impending on this devoted city, he wept over it, and broke into that beautiful exclamation which at once shewed his patriotic love for his country, his prophetic spirit, and his deep affliction for the guilt and misery of his people.-On another occasion, under the terror and feeling of his own personal sufferings, with the most exalted magnanimity he forbid even the spectators to weep on his account. "Weep not for me, but weep for your"selves and for your children."

To weep on every tender emotion is weakness; a whining orator quickly fails to move aught but derision. It is therefore a judicious rule of Cicero's on this point, that the lamentation should be as brief as possible. "But when you have touched "the feelings, says he, you must not dwell long on the cause of "distress. Since as the rhetorician Apollonius says, "nothing "dries sooner than a tear.

33.34.35

33 Commotis autem animis, in conquestione morari non oportebit. Quemadmodum enim dixit Rhetor Apollonius, lachryma nihil citius arescit. Cic de Inv. Rhet. l. 1.

34 The author ad Herennium repeats the same precept. Commiserationem brevem esse oportet. Nihil enim lachrymâ citius arescit. Rhet. ad Heren. l. ii. c. 31.

35 Cresollius, says, that it is allowable in some cases to sigh. He thus distinguishes them :

Duplex genus suspirii, placidum unum et quietum, alterum vehemens, turbidum et concitatum crebro anhelitu et singultu. Prius illud initiis convenit, ubi dolor morentis animi significatur; posterius autem in augendo et amplificando luctu et dolore, in explicanda misera et funesta calamitate, in incendendis auditorum animis, et miseratione commovendis adhiberi potest.

Thus he thinks St. Paul pronounced these words: Infelix ego homo! quis me liberabit de corpore mortis hujus? Cresol. Vac. Autumnales, p. 250.

The observations of Aristotle upon the characters and situation of persons casily affected, and those not to be moved, are short and worthy of attention: they may be here inserted with advantage.

"It is evident that a man likely to feel commiseration may "be classed under some of the following descriptions: One who "thinks himself liable to misfortune, either in his own person,

66

or in that of some person dear to him: or one who thinks him"self in danger either of such a misfortune as has been described in the definition, or of a similar one, or of something approaching to it. For this reason, neither they who are altogether undone are disposed to pity; for they do not think they "can suffer any thing worse, their sufferings are over. Nor they who consider themselves very fortunate; they are apt " rather to be insolent. For since they think that all good fortune belongs to them, they must evidently suppose themselves not subject to any reverse, for such a persuasion forms a part of "their happiness.-But they are apt to pity, who having already "felt misfortune, but who have got over it, suppose themselves "still liable to suffer from it. And they also who are advanced · "in life, both on account of their observations and experience.— "The feeble in constitution, and the timid still in a greater degree. The learned, because they form a just estimate of life. They who have parents, or children, or wives, for these "are a part of themselves, and may be subject to the evils men“tioncd.—And they who are not under the influence of vehement "passions, as anger and valour (for such persons are careless of the « future), or of any insolent feeling (for neither do they think them

"selves subject to misfortune); but those who are intermediate "between these. Nor they again who are under strong influence of "fear, for men when they are terrified feel no commiseration, as they are occupied with their own apprehensions.-They feel "for others who entertain a good opinion of mankind, but he "who does not think well of any one, considers of course, that “ all deserve to suffer. Upon the whole, if a man recollect, that "similar misfortunes have befallen himself or any of those dear to him; or when he apprehends, that they may befal either himself or his own relations; then we have observed that a man "so circumstanced is open to the feelings of commiseration." "

36

Thus the unfeeling, according to the account of this venerable author, are the ruined, the fortunate; the impassioned; the valiant (under the immediate action of courage); the proud ; the terrified, and the misanthropical.

αν

30 2. Δῆλον γὰρ ὅτι ἀνάγκη τὸν μέλλοντα ἐλεήσειν ὑπάρχειν τοι τον· ὅιον, διήσεσθαι παθεῖν ἄν τι κακὸν, ἢ αὐτὸν, ἤ τῶν αυτᾶ τινὰ, καὶ τοι τον κακὸν, διον ἔἴρηται ἐν τῷ ὅρῳ· ἢ ὅμοιον, ἤ παραπλήσιον· διὸ, ἔτε οι παντελῶς ἀπολωλότες ἐλεῦσιν ἐδὲν γὰρ ἄν ἔτι παθειν ὄιονται· πεπόνθασι γὰρ ἔτε οι ὑπερευδαιμονεῖν ὀιόμενοι, ἀλλ ̓ ὑβρίζεσιν· ἐι γὰρ ἅπαντα ὄνονται ὑπάρχειν τἀγαθὰ, δῆλον ὅτι καὶ τὸ μὴ ἐνδέχεσθαι παθεῖν τι κακὸν. καὶ γὰρ τῦτο τῶν ἀγαθῶν. 3. Εἰσὶ δὲ τοι τοι, διοι νομίζειν παθεῖν ἀν' ὅιτε πεπονθότες ἤδε καὶ διαπεφευγότες. 4. Καὶ ὁι πρεσβύτεροι, καὶ διὰ τὸ φρονεῖν, καὶ δι ̓ ἐμπειρίαν. 5. Καὶ δι ἀσθενεῖς· καὶ ὁι δειλότεροι μᾶλλον. 6. Καὶ ὁι πεπαιδευμένοι· ἐυλόγισοι γαρ. 7. Καὶ δις ὑπάρχεσι γονεῖς, ἢ τέκνα, ἤ γυναῖκες· αυτᾶ γὰρ ταῦτα, καὶ δια παθεῖν τὰ ειρημένα. ที่ ที 8. Καὶ ὁι μήτε ἔν ἀνδρίας πάθει ὄντες, διον ἔν ὀργῆ καὶ θάρρει· ἀλόγισα γὰρ τῇ ἐσομένε ταῦτα·) μήτ' ἐν ὑβρισικῇ διαθέσει· (καὶ γὰρ ἔτοι ἀλόγισοι τῇ πείσεσθαί τι·) ἀλλ ̓ δι μεταξὺ τέτων· μήτ' ἂν φοβέμενοι σφόδρα· κ γὰρ ἐλεῖσιν οἱ ἐκπεπληγμένοι διὰ τὸ εἶναι πρὸς τὸ οικείῳ πάθει 9. Καν ὄιωνταί τινας εἶναι ἐπιεικεῖς· ὁ γὰρ μεδένα οιόμενος, παντας οίσεται αξίας εἶναι κακό. 10. Ολως δὴ, ὅταν ἔχῃ ὅντως, ὡς ἀναμνησθῆναι τοιαῦτα συμβεβηκότα ἢ αυτῷ ἤ τῶν αυτό, ἤ ἐλπίσαι γενέσθαι ἢ αὐτῷ, ἢ τῶν αὐτῷ· ὡς μὲν ἔν ἔχοντες ἐλευσιν, ειρηται. Aristot. Rhetor. l. ii. c. 10.

The feeling are those, who have themselves suffered, but have got over their misfortunes; those advanced in life; those of delicate constitution; the timid; those connected by dear relations; the worthy, who think well of mankind; and they who think themselves liable to similar misfortunes.

From these last, tears may be drawn for the afflictions of others, and in their eyes the orator may find grace, when he manifests his own feelings in the same manner: " but from the others he has little to expect in the way of impression or indulgence, and if they withold derision, he need look for no other favour. And it is worthy of his observation, that in every audience these characters are pretty equally mixed, and that ridicule or disgust are more easily caught and communicated than the finer feelings."

37

Sunt lachrymæ rerum et mentem mortalia tangunt. Virg.

The effect of the orator's painting is like that of the pictures which Æneas contemplated in Dido's palace, and the sympathy of his audience is his greatest glory.

38 Extraordinary circumstances are however sometimes able to move the hardest hearts, as the deluded Othello confesses:

Whose subdu'd eyes,

Albeit unused to the melting mood,

Drop tears as fast as the Arabian trees

Their medicinal gum.

Jaffier is always in tears, and loses in estimation for his weakness.-Yet Pierre himself is moved in the last sad scene:

Jaff. Tears! amazement! tears!

I never saw thee melted thus before.

In Othello's character after his last fatal act, the paroxysm of jealousy is over, his cruel injustice has debased him, he is lowered and softened after his fever. All is according to the poet of nature. The pride of Pierre is wrung to tears by the ignominious death prepared for him. This too may be in nature. Milton says of Orpheus, that he

Drew iron tears down Pluto's cheek

And made hell grant what love did seek.

But these cases are rare, and more rare are the talents of the orator who on ordinary occasions can move such hearts as Aristotle has pronounced to be unfeeling.

On these accounts he will restrain himself as much as possible, and not suffer his pathetic imagination to get the better of him, except on the most justifiable occasions; and then he will be brief. If he burst out for a moment, he will stifle his emotion and quickly recover his voice, and speak his feelings with firmness, even though the silent tear obscure his eyes, and trickle down his manly cheek. Precepts are unnecessary on this head for the public speaker, who is not apt thus to be moved; unless we except this caution, that he never venture to assume the affectation of emotion, which would be incongruous and offensive.

That tears were not thought unworthy of an orator we may prove from the practice of the ancient orators, and from the approbation of antiquity. Indeed if the sincerity of the orator can have any weight, what can evince it more, or what stronger evidence can he give of his own feelings? Ludovicus Cresollius, to whose labours we are already so much indebted for information, and from whom we shall borrow much more, has collected many instances of the unrestrained indulgence and efficacy of the tears of the ancient orators, and with a few of these we shall close what we have to say on this subject.

"The most celebrated orators (says Cresollius) used formerly "to shed tears in their pleadings. Demosthenes, the light of "Greece, made this such an established and regular custom, that "he seemed by it alone to gain his causes, and to raise the trophies of his victorious eloquence in the theatre of Athens. Dinarchus being engaged in a capital cause at the oppo"site side, warns the judges not to suffer themselves to be carried Q