11 "words. (This last sentence is interpreted literally.) Upon this he built for himself a subterraneous study (κατάγειον μελετητήριον), which Plutarch says was standing in his time, into which he descended every day to practise delivery (ὑπόκρισιν), and to modulate his voice. In this he often remained two or three months, with a part only of his head shaved, in order to put it out of his power to go abroad. After going through such labours as these, in order to acquire a just delivery, and having been in consequence crowned with the most complete success, it is not surprising that Demosthenes should have estimated this art even beyond its worth. Men are apt to set the highest value upon that which is of most difficult attainment. And the most difficult part of oratory, to Demosthenes, was probably the delivery, because he had natural impediments to surmount. But although Demosthenes may have been supposed for these reasons to have over-rated delivery, there can be nothing deduced either from its own nature, or from the anecdote which we have related, that does not prove it to be a very important part of the business of a public speaker. 11 ων Πάλιν δὲ ποτε φάσιν ἐκπεσόντος αυτᾶ καὶ ἀπιόντος ὄικαδε συγκεκαλυμμένε καὶ βαρέως φέροντος, ὑπακολεθῆσαι Σάτυρον τὸν ὑποκριτὴν, ἐπιτήδειον ὀντα καὶ συνελθεῖν· ὀδυρεμένα δὲ τῇ Δεμοσθένες πρὸς αυτόν, ὅτι πάντων φιλοπονώτατος ὤν τῶν λεγόντων, καὶ μικρὰ δέων καταναλωκέναι τὴν τῇ σώματος ἀκμὴν ἐις τᾶτο, χάριν ἔκ ἔχει πρὸς τὸν δῆμον· ἀλλὰ κραιπαλῶντες ἄνθρωποι, ναυται καὶ ἀμαθεῖς ακέονται, καὶ κατέχεσι τὸ βῆμα, παρορᾶται δ' αυτὸς· ἀληθῆ λέγεις, ὦ Δημόσθενες, φάναι τὸν Σάτυρον· ἀλλ ̓ ἐγὼ τὸ ἄιτιον ἴασομαι ταχέως, ἄν μοι τῶν Ευριπίδε τινὰ ῥήσεων ἤ Σοφοκλέας, ἐθελήσῃς ἐιπεῖν ἀπὸ στόματος· ἐιπόντος δὲ το Δημοσθένες, μεταλαβόντα τὸν Σάτυρον ὅντο πλᾶσαι καὶ διεξελθεῖν ἔν ἤθει πρέποντι καὶ διαθέσει τὴν αυτὴν ῥησιν, ὡς θ ̓ ὅλως ἑτέραν τῷ Δημοσθένει φανῆναι. πεισθέντα δ ̓ ὅσον ἐκ τῆς ὑποκρίσεως τῷ λόγῳ κόσμε καὶ χάριτος πρόσεςι μικρὸν ἡγήσασθαι καὶ τὸ μεδὲν εἶναι τὴν ἄσκησιν ἀμελᾶντι τῆς προφορᾶς καὶ διαθέσεως τῶν λεγομένων. Plut. in Vit. Demosth. It may therefore be fairly concluded, that to neglect all or any part of the labour which constitutes correct delivery; whether it be the due management of the voice, the expression of the countenance, or the appropriate gesture, is so far an injury to the cause in which the speaker is engaged, and so far deprives his composition of its just effect. Yet a strange prejudice has seemed to prevail against every effort to improve delivery. The voice is indeed so indispensable that some attention is given to its management. The countenance is left altogether to nature; and perhaps if feelings do exist, nature will be found to form it best. But gesture, unless some accidental and uncouth motions may be so called, is altogether reprobated. The origin of this prejudice may be traced to two sources; first, the injudicious use of gesture, that is the neglect or ignorance of its proper character, as suited to certain subjects and certain places. Thus, although the introduction of the gesture of the theatre into the pulpit is indecorous and offensive; yet to the pulpit belongs its own proper and becoming gesture. The second source of this prejudice may be found in the difficulty of determining the proper standard of gesture, and of suiting it to the particular case. All that the ancients have laboured on this business, or almost all, has died with them. Even modern speakers, if any succeed in this part of éloquence, can impart instruction only within a very limited space, and within a very limited time. Every man has to begin for himself; and hence few are willing to venture upon the labour of contriving a system, and choose rather to trust to the gesture suggested by the moment, than hazard the more dangerous exhibition of gestures imperfectly conceived, and which will consequently be imperfectly executed. Each public speaker therefore falls into a manner of his own, as it is called, which is pardoned as being his and way, which is in general most unimpressive and most ungraceful. If these gestures contribute in the warmer parts of an oration to give any force to the expression, nothing more can arise from them; they deduct from it amply by their wearisome sameness and iterated monotony. Some speakers, aware of this, do not venture upon any gesture of the limbs at all, but nod with their head, and labour with their body through the whole discourse. However excellent the compositions of our speakers may be, and many will be found to vie with the most perfect of the ancients, their delivery, it is to be feared, has advanced but little beyond that state in which it stood so long ago as Mr. Addison's time. 66 "Our preachers stand stock still in the pulpit, and will not so “much as move a finger, to set off the best sermons in the world. "We meet with the same speaking statues at our bars, and in all public places of debate. Our words flow from us in a smooth " continued stream, without those strainings of the voice, motions “of the body, and majesty of the hand, which are so much cele"brated in the orators of Greece and Rome. We talk of life and "death in cold blood, and keep our temper in a discourse which "turns upon every thing that is dear to us. 9912 Mr. Sheridan repeats this charge against the English preachers with even greater seriousness, and in many passages: I shall quote but one: "There is no emotion of the mind, which nature "does not make an effort to manifest by some of those signs (tones, looks, and gestures), and therefore a total suppression "of those signs is of all other states apparently the most unna 66 12 Spect. No. 407. "tural. And this, it is to be feared, is too much the state of the pulpit elocution in general in the church of England. On "which account, there never was perhaps a religious sect upon แ earth, whose hearts were so little engaged in the act of public worship, as the members of that church. To be pleased, we "must feel, and we are pleased with feeling. The Presbyterians are moved, the Methodists are moved; they go to their meetแ ings and tabernacles with delight. The very Quakers are moved. "Fantastical and extravagant as the language of their emotions is, yet still they are moved by it, and they love their form of worship for that reason; whilst much the greater part of the "members of the English church are either banished from it through disgust, or reluctantly attend the service as a disagree"able duty."" แ The Rev. James Fordyce has written expressly on the eloquence of the pulpit." He is speaking of gesture, and in a note makes the following observations: "I cannot forbear regretting here, that a matter of such vast importance to the art under "consideration, should be so generally neglected or misunder"stood. There is a common apprehension prevails indeed, that " a strict regard to these rules would be deemed theatrical; and "the dread perhaps of incurring this imputation, is a restraint upon many. But is it not possible to attain a just and expressive 66 manner, perfectly consistent with the gravity of the pulpit, and perfectly distinct from the more passionate, strong, and diver"sified action of the theatre? And is it not possible to hit off "this manner so easily and naturally, as to leave no room for 13 Sheridan's Lect. VII. p. 166. 14 Printed at Glasgow, 1755. 66 66 66 "just reflection? An affair this, it must be owned, of the utmost delicacy; in which we shall probably often miscarry, and meet "with abundance of censure at first. But still I imagine, that through the regulations of taste, the improvements of experience, the corrections of friendship, the feelings of piety, and "the gradual mellowings of time; such an elocution may be acquired, as is above delineated; and such as when acquired "will make its way to the hearts of the hearers, through their "ears and eyes, with a delight to both that is seldom felt; whilst, contrary to what is commonly practised, it will appear to the "former the very language of nature, and present to the latter "the lively image of the preacher's soul. Were a taste for this "kind of elocution to take place, it is difficult to say how much "the preaching art would gain by it. Pronunciation would be "studied, an ear would be formed, the voice would be modu"lated, every feature of the face, every motion of the hands, every posture of the body would be brought under right "management. A graceful and correct and animated expression "in all these would be ambitiously sought after; mutual criti"cisms and friendly hints would be universally encouraged; light and direction would be borrowed from every quarter and " from every age. The best models of antiquity would in a par"ticular manner be admired, surveyed, and imitated. The singsong voice and the sce-saw gestures, if I may be allowed to use "those expressions, would of course be exploded; and in time 66 nothing would be admitted, at least approved among performers, but what was decent, manly, and truly excellent in "the kind. Even the people themselves would contract insensibly a growing relish for such a manner; and those preachers “would at last be in chief repute with all, who followed nature, |