LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC. 43t 



Mr. Ball next drew the attention of his auditors to the mode in which a sermon 

 ought to be composed, contending skilfully, and with the aid of an apposite 

 quotation from La Bruyere, against the system pursued by those preachers who 

 commence their sermons by enumerating the various heads under which they 

 intend that their subject shall be treated by themselves and considered by their 

 congregation. The lecturer then proceeded to show that a sermon ought to be 

 as simple as possible in its plan ; and that, *' as a skilful dramatic writer, who 

 wishes to produce effect, should confine his powers to the development of a single 

 passion — so the sacred orator, in the composition of his discourse, should propose 

 to himself some single truth to be enforced, some single fact to be illustrated, 

 some single passion to be denounced ; and, then, summoning all the powers of 

 his intellect, all the resources of his knowledge, all the auxiliaries of his literary 

 acquirements, to bear upon that single point, he cannot fail lo instruct, and 

 benefit, and persuade, where he might otherwise have only bewildered or misled." 

 From the plan of a sermon, Mr. Ball proceeded to consider the style of com- 

 position best adapted'for pulpit eloquence. " A nervous simplicity of expression,** 

 said he, " is, undoubtedly, the true characteristic of apostolic eloquence." To 

 enforce this position, the lecturer condemned all learned allusions, all erudite 

 explications, all terms of foreign origin, unless rendered by long established 

 custom "as familiar" to the ears of the people "as household words;" and 

 having, likewise, contended for the propriety of rejecting from the composition of 

 a sermon all sterile conceits and affected verbal figures, he disclaimed the wish to 

 be understood as advocating the Attic simplicity, which is so fastidious as to exclude 

 elevation of thought, and dignity of expression. ** The simplicity," added he, 

 "for which I would contend, is that which equally rejects the coarse and the 

 effeminate, the violent and the tame, the inflated and the low ; while it receives, 

 and condenses into one well-assorted combination, the nervous, the earnest, the 

 ardent, and the clear." The lecturer then proceeded to notice another style of 

 clerical composition, namely, that which is adopted by the pulpit poetasters, — the 

 drawing-room divines — the beauties of holiness, according to their profane 

 appellation. " Such men," said Mr. Ball, " enamoured with the beauty of their 

 own ideas, and, not unfrequently, with that of their own persons, forget the real 

 duties of their sacred mission. Their thoughts are so exclusively concentered 

 upon self, that their only desire, their only aim, seems to be the effect which their 

 composition may produce on the imaginations of their hearers, without regard to its 

 influence on their hearts and conduct." 



The lecturer then commenced what may be considered the didactic portion of his 

 discourse, by elucidating the manner in which a sermon ought to be delivered; 

 weighing, with consummate judgment, the peculiar advantages of each of the three 

 different modes — by reading from the manuscript, — by reciting from memory — and 

 by extemporaneous discourse. He then closed his dissertation on this head, with 

 an illustration of pulpit oratorical delivery, by reciting a most powerful and ex- 

 citing passage from Dean Kirwan's Sermon on the uncertainty of human life, 

 premising the recitation with a most judicious admonition, which many clergymen 

 might find it advisable to follow — that "the more natural the delivery, the more 

 certain will be the effect produced; — above all, no charlatanism in voice or 

 person — no drawl, no twang, no curled locks, no sparkling ring — nothing that can 

 lead the hearers to suspect that the mind of the preacher is divided between the 

 inward thoughts, that furnish matter for his solemn admonitions, and the adven- 

 titious ornaments resorted to by the vain, the weak-minded, and the worthless, 

 whose only object is to preach themselves." In his delivery of this illustration of 

 pulpit elocution, Mr. Ball produced a visible effect upon his auditors, who listened 

 with a concentrated attention, and seemed to believe that the preaching which 

 forced its way so irresistibly to their hearts, and which so excited their imagina- 

 tions, was the immediate effusion of a consecrated divine. The language of the 

 passage WdS admirably adapted to display the varied intonations of the lecturer's 

 voice — rising, at one moment, to the swelling tones of awful denunciation, and, 

 at another moment, subsiding to the deep touching notes of pathetic expostulation, 

 or the expressive utterance of sympathetic communion. 



Mr. Ball next proceeded to a review of the other branches of elocutionary 

 accomplishment connected with the service of the Church, expatiating in terms o( 

 censure and regret, on the negligence or the incompetency betrayed in so many 

 NO. VI. 3m 



