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B. I. things remote are brought near, things obfcure rendered confpicuous. We have seen alfo in what manner a paffion already excited may be calmed; how by the oratorical magic, as by inverting the telescope, the object may be again removed and diminished.

Ir were endless to enumerate all the rhetorical figures that are adapted to the pathetic. Let it fuffice to say, that most of those already named may be fuccessfully employed here. Of others the principal are thefe, correction, climax, vifion, exclamation, apoftrophé, and interrogation. The three firft, correction, climax, and vifion, tend greatly to enliven the ideas, by the implicit, but animated comparison, and oppofition, conveyed in them. Implicit and indirect comparison is more fuitable to the difturbed ftate of mind required by the pathetic, than that which is explicit and direct. The latter implies leifure and tranquillity, the former rapidity and fire. Exclamation and apoftrophé operate chiefly by fympathy, as they are the moft ardent expreffions of perturbation in the speaker. It at firft fight appears more difficult to account for the effect of interrogation, which, being an appeal to the hearers, though it might awaken a

clofer

clofer attention, yet could not, one would imagine, excite in their minds any new emotion that was not there before. This, neverhelefs, it doth excite, through an oblique operation of the fame principle. Such an appeal implies in the orator the strongest confidence in the rectitude of his fentiments, and in the concurrence of every reasonable being. The auditors, by fympathizing with this frame of spirit, find it impracticable to withhold an affent which is fo confidently depended on. But there will be occafion afterwards for difcuffing more particularly the rhetorical tropes and figures, when we come to treat of elocution.

THUS I have finished the confideration which the speaker ought to have of his hearers as men in general; that is, as thinking beings endowed with understanding, imagination, memory, and paffions, fuch as we are confcious of in ourfelves, and learn from the experience of their effects to be in others. I have pointed out the arts to be employed by him in engaging all those faculties in his fervice, that what he advanceth may not only be understood, not only command attention, not only be remembered, but, which is the chief point of all, may interest the heart.

CHAP.

CHA P. VIII.

Of the confideration which the speaker ought to have of the hearers, as fuch men in particular.

T was remarked in the beginning of the pre

IT

ceding chapter, that the hearers ought to be confidered in a twofold view, as men in general, and as fuch men in particular. The first confideration I have difpatched, I now enter on the fecond.

WHEN it is affirmed that the hearers are to be confidered as fuch men in particular, no more is meant, than that regard ought to be had by the speaker, to the special character of the audience, as compofed of fuch individuals; that he may fuit himself to them, both in his styleand in his arguments*. Now the difference between one audience and another is very great, not only in intellectual, but in moral attainments. It may be clearly intelligible to a Houfe of Commons, which would appear as if spoken in an unknown tongue to a conventicle of enthufiafts. It may kindle fury in the latter, which would create

* He must be "Orpheus in fylvis, inter delphinas Arion." VIRG

no

no emotion in the former, but laughter and contempt. The most obvious difference that appears in different auditories, refults from the different cultivation of the understanding; and the influence which this, and their manner of life, have both upon the imagination and upon the

memory.

BUT even in cafes wherein the difference in education and moral culture hath not been confiderable, different habits afterwards contracted, and different occupations in life, give different propenfities, and make one incline more to one paffion, another to another. They confequently afford the intelligent fpeaker an eafier paffage to the heart, through the channel of the favourite paffion. Thus liberty and independence will ever be prevalent motives with republicans, pomp and fplendour with thofe attached to monarchy. In mercantile ftates, fuch as Carthage among the ancients, or Holland among the moderns, intereft will always prove the moft cogent argument; in ftates folely or chiefly compofed of foldiers, fuch as Sparta and ancient Rome, no inducement will be found a counterpoife to glory. Similar differences are alfo to be made in addreffing different claffes of men. With men of genius the

VOL. I.

R

moft

moft fuccessful topic will be fame; with men of induftry, riches; with men of fortune, pleasure.

BUT as the characters of audiences may be infinitely diverfified, and as the influence they ought to have refpectively upon the speaker, must be obvious to a perfon of difcernment, it is fufficient here to have obferved thus much in the general concerning them.

CHAP. IX.

Of the confideration which the fpeaker ought to have

T

of himself.

HE laft confideration I mentioned, is that

which the speaker ought to have of himfelf. By this we are to understand, not that eftimate of himself which is derived directly from consciousness or felf-acquaintance, but that which is obtained reflexively from the opinion entertained of him by the hearers, or the character which he bears with them. Sympathy is one main engine by which the orator operates on the paffions.

With them who laugh, our focial joy appears;
With them who mourn, we fympathize in tears:

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