13b 



m 



reasonable beings, the faculty of speech was bestowed on 

 man; and it deserves the highest cultivation of which it is 

 susceptible. The power of deUvering the thouglits in easy 

 unaffected perspicuous animated language, is in every con- 

 dition of life a pleasing accomplishment ; but in the higher 

 ranks and more public avocations of society, it is an indis- 

 pensable requisite. In these free countries where popular 

 discussions have such mighty sway, this popular talent is of 

 the utmost moment; and its acquisition is the surest means 

 of attaining the highest summit of political ambition. But 

 it cannot be acquired without the aid of habit, early and 

 unremitting. At the outset of life we imagine that nothing 

 more is necessary to the expression of our thoughts, than to 

 possess a valuable and abundant store. Accordingly we shut 

 ourselves up in our studies — we devote ourselves to our 

 books — we heap fact upon fact, and truth upon truth, and 

 the indefatigable student at length becomes a magazine of 

 science. Then triumphing in his acquisitions he enters into 

 society ; and when the wished for opportunity occurs for the 

 display of his learning, he finds to his astonishment that he 

 wants the only means to give it utterance — words. He 

 opens his ears and learns to his mortification, that the shal- 

 lowest talker, who deals only in common-place, exceeds him 

 in the art of conversation and the powers of amusing — that 

 the stranger to books who owes all his information to acci-^ 

 dental intercourse with the learned, can shine with more 

 lustre than himself, even in the field of hterature; and too 



