due Punishment, recover or defend Property ufurped or attacked: Or whether, laftly, you lay before Men their Duty as reasonable Creatures and Chriftians, paint the Charms of Religion and Virtue, or display the Horrors of Infidelity and Vice: In all these important Offices, of what mighty Efficacy is Eloquence? Without this, Knowledge proceedeth faintly, flowly, like unaffifted Strength in manual Works, which may at length obtain its End, but with much clumsy Labour: Oratory we may compare to the mechanical Arts, which, by furnishing Engines, and well adapted Inftruments, produce the fame Effects with Ease, and finish with Elegancy.

THOSE Who understand the Nature of Society will not, I believe, esteem it a Paradox, if we affert, that the Orator who employeth his Talent aright, is one of the most useful Members of the Community, infufing Principles of Religion, Humanity, and virtuous Industry in all who hear him, contributing to preferve Peace, Justice, and Harmony among Men.

WE may therefore lay it down as acknowledged, that this Art is excellent. At the fame Time it should not be concealed, that it is difficult, and cannot be obtained by meer Approbation and indolent Wishes. This we might fully prove, by a bare Recital of the many Endowments of Mind, which, befide outward Qualifications of Perfon, Voice, Action, are requifite to the forming of a great Orator: An Affemblage

rarely

rarely mét with; and, where met, ftill infufficient without Care. For Nature hath dealt with the Mind of Man as with the Earth about him, which produceth not Grain, unless she hath before fown the Seeds in it, and Culture be afterwards added.

THIS Remark points out the two great Articles, of which are formed, as it were, the Root and Stem of this lofty Tree of Eloquence, from whence the leffer Parts, like Branches, quickly fhoot. These are GENIUS and APPLICATION. Concerning which, as some Obscurity hath arifen, allow me to add a few Words in Explanation of them.

THE Air and Features of every Individual in the human Species are different: Not less Diverfity is obfervable in their Minds: Their Difpofitions, their Likings, their Powers also are altogether different. Take any Number of Perfons, you will find them inclined to different Studies; each capable of fucceeding well in his own, yet averse from, and ufually unable to make a Progress in that chosen by another. Nothing is more commonly met with. Here is one, who in early Youth reads the Poets with Pleasure, learns with Eafe to imitate them, but can scarcely be brought to comprehend the first Elements of Geometry: While this other young Person can hardly be dragged through a Page of Homer or Horace, who yet runs over Euclid with Rapidity. As again, others there are utterly inept for Letters, who become good Mechanicks, or raise a Fortune by Commerce.

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THIS Distinction is effential; it gives to Life its whole Colour and Character. If a Man fet out in the Path, to which Nature pointeth, he will on easily and fwiftly to his utmost Degree of Perfection; for there are Limits to all: But if, by wrong Influence or Choice, he be forced or feduced into another Road, he will meet with Difficulties at every Step, go on struggling and ftumbling, and, if he have Resolution to perfevere, will arrive in the End, to Mediocrity. RICHLIEU, the greatest Statesman of his Age, had an immoderate Ambition to be admired as a Poet, and became in that Respect ridiculous: Somewhat of the fame Kind we fee in Machiavel; and perhaps in Cicero. Even the most versatile Mind, that which can beft fuit itfelf to different Things, confeffeth still this Power of Nature: For, though it may perform tolerably well in a foreign Province, yet it doth far better in its own. [g] Every Circumstance and kind of Life, faith the Poet, became Ariftippus; yet we cannot imagine, that stoical Severity fuited him fo well, as his own foft voluptuous Philosophy.

IF I might be allowed to borrow a Comparifon from Science, I would liken fuch Nature to a Body placed in a Ray separated by paffing through a Prism, which appeareth always of the fame Colour of that Ray; but is much brighter, more luminous, when beheld in Light of its own natural Colour. Boccace hath left behind

[g] Omnis ARISTIPPUM decuit color, & ftatus, & res. HOR.

behind him fome ferious Writings which are defervedly neglected; take up his Decameron, you must be pleased: What comick Wit and Humour! What Delicacy, yet Simplicity of Stile and Sentiment! He is a Model in this Kind It was his Genius. Milton's Sublimity transports, astonisheth; his Attempts of Humour move Pity.

"UNIVERSAL Genius may feem an Exception."—This, like univerfal Conqueft, is chimerical, fought after by many; always with ill Succefs, and to the Prejudice of the Seeker. No Man feemeth to have fairer Pretenfions to it than Lord Bacon. What Depth of Thought! What vaft Extent of Learning! What grand Ideas! Yet when he aimeth at Ornament, as he doth not seldom, how doth this great Perfon fail! He becomes forced, unnatural, obfcure. Nature hath fixed the Bounds. Some exalted Souls have a much wider Range to move in; within which, they seem to be more than human; beyond, are but as common Men: They are Sampfon, fhorn of his Strength; Antaus held up aloft in Air. Where the Impulse is ftrong, it cannot be mistaken; divert, cover, overwhelm it, ftill it will fend out Sparks, if it cannot blaze. Mallebranche, an Enthufiaft in the Caufe of Truth, inveigheth against all rhetorical Embellishments, as Inftruments of Falfehood; and Nature breaks out, betraying him in every Page; he is unawares an Orator, and a fine one.

IN the general Course of Mankind, the Difference

ference is much less strongly marked; but it always is. As no Man is alike fit for every Employment, so there is not any unfit for all.

THE Sum is; in the original Frame of our Souls, there is a Difference proceeding from the Hand of the great Maker, by which every Man is enabled to make a better Progress in fome one Thing, Study, or Art, or Handicraft, than in another; which natural Ability we name GENIUS. Sometimes it comprehendeth a wide Circuit; is fometimes confined to one Science or Art, or even to one Branch of each: But the most extenfive is bounded; the narroweft hath open to it its peculiar Path. The Usefulness or final Caufe of which Difpofition is manifeft, that Men, thus differently qualified, should stand in Need of, and be benefited by each other; thus all mutually obliged and obliging, whilft each moveth in his own peculiar Sphere, fhould confpire to promote the Good of the Whole.

LET us now bring home these Obfervations to the Point before us. The first Article to be regarded in one destined to the Study of Oratory is this, GENIUS. It is the Foundation of all; to this all fubfequent Improvement must be proportional; without fome Degree of it all Attempts are vain, no Progress can be made; in which Cafe, the Attention should be turned some other Way.

THIS precious Gift being fupplied by the Hand of Nature, you then proceed to the second Article mentioned as neceffary to perfect

the