spoken of as antagonists in Oratory. But what is matter without manner? Matter is the native unquarried rock; Manner is the chiseled statue, or the sculptured palace. Matter is the chaos "without form and void" when "darkness brooded over the face of the earth;" Manner is the rolling globe launched in the flood of light, and beautified with hill and dale, ocean and streamlet, herb, and tree, and flower. Manner is the manifestation of all matter; and no matter can be known but by the manner of its presentment.

This is equally true of intellectual as of physical material. The matter of the finest oratory may lie hidden within the brain, worthless and unappreciated; as the marble of that sweetest creation of the sculptor-the "Greek Slave"-lay buried in its native hill, till a Power arose that could unveil its symmetry and grace. And it depends entirely on the speaker's skill,-his power over manner--whether he fashion his matter into a paving stone or a Medicean Venus.

But this prejudice has a moral root from which it derives all its vitality: The eloquence that fascinates may be employed to dazzle and seduce. It may be used to make the worse appear the better reason." True, but the greater the attractiveness of Eloquence for purposes of mere amusement or for more unholy ends, the stronger is the reason and the more imperative the duty to master its refinements, and utilize its influence in all good and sacred causes.

The adage cannot be too often repeated that whatever is worth doing at all, is worth doing well; and we may add, the worthier any object of effort, the higher should be the standard of efficient execution. Slovenliness is intolerable in the meanest business. How much more so in the highest, and especially in that which has an aim beyond all earthly objects!

But by whom is this prejudice entertained? Who are they that shake the head at oratorical refinement in the pulpit, and denounce preparatory study of "manner as "theatrical?" Are they the eloquent of the Church, the ornaments of their profession. speakers refined by culture, or endowed with natural powers of eloquence? No! They are those only who are themselves destitute of any pretensions to effectiveness. No man who is conscious of the ability to speak effectively can undervalue the power, and none who is not competent in this respect, can judge of its value or pronounce it worthless.

The study of Oratory is, however, hindered by another pre- judice, founded-too justly-on the ordinary methods and results of elocutionary teaching; the methods being unphilosophical and trivial, and their result not an improved manner, but an induced mannerism. The principle of instruction to which Elocution owes its meanness of reputation may be expressed in one word. Imitation. The teacher presents his pupils with a model or specimen of reading or declamation, and calls on them to stand forth and do likewise. The model may be good, bad, or indifferent; it is, at all events tinged with the teacher's own peculiarities, and the pupils, in their imitative essays, can hardly be expected to distinguish between these accidents of style, and the essentials of good delivery which may be embodied in the model. Thus, becoming accustomed to imitate the former, they naturally confound them with the latter. Each pupil, too, has his own peculiarities, already more or less developed--arising from structural differences in the organs of speech, from temperament, or from habit.-the result of previous training or of previous neglect. These fixed idiosyncrasies and tendencies, mingled with the imitated peculiarities, form a compound style which, whatever its qualities, can hardly fail to be unnatural. Besides, as imitation is in a great degree an unconscious act, habits are thus formed of the existence of which the subject of them is entirely ignorant. Ih no other way can we account for those monstrous perversions of style which are so common, and so patent to all but, apparently, the speakers themselves. The very purpose of a philosophical system of instruction should be, to give us a standard by which to measure our own shortcomings and primarily by which we can discover them.

But it may be urged by adherents of the imitative methods of instruction, that they do not teach by imitation alone; that they teach by Rule, and merely illustrate rules by their model readings, in imitating which, the pupils consciously apply the rules. There has been far too much of this teaching by "Rules" in all departments of education. The rules of nature are few and simple; at the same time extensive and obvious in their application. These are PRINCIPLES rather than rules, and it is the highest business of philosophy to find out such. Principles alone are worthy of the student's care. These he cannot too perfectly learn and con by rote." But the rules of elocutionary

books are not of this kind. The latter are cumbersome in number, limited in application to certain forms of grammatical construction, and very far from obvious in their use. Some principle must be involved in every rule. Rules are but logical deductions from understood principles; and, often, a single principle will be found to underlie a whole category of rules. If Principles are understood, the mind will deduce Rules for itself, but the knowledge of the most elaborate code of rules may be possessed without acquaintance with a single principle. Besides, in actual practice, rules cannot be applied. They keep the mind in leading-strings which prevent self-effort, and destroy natural freedom, being rather fetters than assistances to one who has learned to walk alone. For instance, a certain movement of voice implies incompleteness of statement, and its mechanical opposite implies completeness. A knowledge of this simple Principle involves at once a knowledge of more than half the rules for Inflexion with which Elocutionists have bewildered their students. The mind can grasp this principle and carry it along without effort through all the complexities and involutions of composition; but if, instead of this, the student is made to learn all the possible arrangements of words in sentences, and to apply a separate "Rule" for each new form, he can never bring his rules into spontaneous application. He may apply them, or fancy that he applies them, in the reading of selected sentences, but beyond this he cannot carry them a step, without feeling them an incumbrance and a hindrance to mental action. Constant thinking of inflection proves fatal to reflection. (What a student chiefly requires to know, is how to vary his voice; if his own judgement and appreciation of the sense, in connection with defined principles, Az do not inform him when to do so, the most minute direction by Rules will be of little service.) The mechanics of expression are what he must master, if he would use and manifest his mind in reading; but he must be unfettered in their application, in order that he may develop and improve his manner without acquiring the formality of mannerism.

Elocutionary Exercise is popularly supposed to consist merely of Recitation, and the fallacy is kept up both in schools and colleges, where Elocution is said not to be wholly neglected, because an hour is occasionally set apart for a competitive display of the declamatory powers of the pupils or students. This is a miserable trifling with an art of such importance,- -an art that

embraces the whole Science of Speech, as well as sentimental expression. With as much justice might it be said that music was attended to, if a class were called on once or twice a week, or half a dozen times a session, to whistle a popular air in competition for a prize. Music is both a Science and an Art. So is Elocution; and such an amount of attention as is limited to the occasional "spouting" of passages learned anywhere or anyhow, is to Elocution merely what whistling is to music. The cultivated orators of old, esteemed Delivery the chief of all the arts of Oratory, and they "being dead yet speak to us:" and they should do so with authority, for the letter of their eloquence is still the model in our colleges. We admire the orations of Demosthenes so did contemporary judges; but they tell us that truly to appreciate these compositions we must have heard them! How would the Grecian Thunderer" esteem our modern wisdom, in practically reversing as we do, the relative importance of writing and of speaking well! Oratory, doubtless, is not now an art of such high consequence as it was before the invention of the printing press, and the general diffusion of knowledge through its blessed agency; but the sphere or oratorical influence, though narrowed, is yet large, and within that sphere the value of an effective Delivery is as preponderating as it ever was.

Oratory was of old a very comprehensive subject, and its study was the labour of a life. It included almost every department of general knowledge, and mental and moral discipline, as well as Pronunciation, or what we now call Elocution or Delivery. The latter department was the one most sedulously cultivated, as being that on which all the rest depended for successful exhibition. Hoary hairs were considered indispensable to the consummate orator, that his manner might be duly refined with that art which hides itself; and also because his laborious preparations were supposed to require the length and vigour of the youth and prime of life. Consistently with this, Oratory was emblematized under the figure of an Old Man, threads of amber issuing from his lips, and winding into the ears of deferential auditors. modern orators expect to jump into the rostrum and oratorical ability at once, and without preparation even for the primary requisite of public speaking—distinct Pronunciation. They expect to find the amber in their mouths, born with them;—like Dogberry, who thought that to write and read comes by nature." They expect to drop the native substance from their lips--as the

Our

princess in the fairy tale did pearls-at every opening. But men are not orators by birth, and the amber of eloquence is seldom found save as the rich deposit of assuetude and science.

Elocution may be defined as the EFFECTIVE EXPRESSION OF THOUGHT AND SENTIMENT, by Speech, Intonation, and Gesture. Speech is wholly conventional in its expressiveness, and mechanical in its processes. Intonation and gesture constitute a Natural Language, which may be used either independently of, or as assistant to, speech. Speech, in all the diversities of tongues and dialects, consists of but a small number of articulated elementary sounds. These are produced by the agency of the lungs, the larynx, and the mouth. The lungs supply air to the larynx, which modifies the stream into whisper or voice; and this air is then moulded by the plastic oral organs into syllables, which, singly or in accentual combinations, constitute words. These words are arbitrarily appropriated to the expression of ideas, and thus we have Language,―variously intelligible in every community, but the same in its elements, throughout the world.

Elocution, as it involves the exercise of language, must embrace the Physiology of Speech—the mechanics of vocalization and articulation. A knowledge of the conventional meanings of words is of course also implied, but this may be obtained independently of Elocution, in the modern sense of the term. The student of Elocution, then, should be made acquainted with the instrument of speech, as an instrument, that all its parts may be under his control, as the stops, the keys, the pedals, and the bellows, are subject to the organist. These principles of Instrumentation are equally applicable to all languages, and the student who has mastered them in connection with his vernacular tongue, will apply them to the pronunciation of any foreign language with which he may become acquainted.

Elocution has also a special application to the language or dialect employed, that the elements and vocables of each may be pronounced according to its own standard of correctness;—that being correct in one, which is incorrect in another. Thus, in the elocution of the northern British, the Irish, the New England, and other American dialects of our tongue-for all dialects may have their elocution, or effective utterance-the vowels a and o, and the letter r, have different pronunciations from those which obtain in the southern dialects of England. The student of elocution should be capable of discriminating these and all