468 LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC. 



instances by divines, while discharging the practical performance of their public 

 ministry. "All men," said the lecturer, "are not endowed with voice and 

 external qualifications to render them distinguished in pulpit oratory ; but every 

 candidate for the priesthood of our Church, can be taught to pronounce the 

 Liturgy, that sublime and solemn composition, if not with impressiveness and 

 grace, at least with precision and propriety. Numerous are the ambiguities 

 created in the Church Service by careless or injudicious reading : and there are 

 many clergymen who even contradict, thereby, the doctrines of Christianity, not 

 having the judgment to perceive, or not exercising their judgment sufficiently to 

 perceive, that their pronunciation of important passages conveys a meaning at 

 variance with the text." 



The lecturer next applied his powers of eloquent diction and energetic elocution, 

 to a well-merited censure on the system so general of electing incompetent persons 

 to the office of parish clerk. "These men," said he, " on whom devolves, unfor- 

 tunately, so great a portion of the elocutionary performance of the sacred service, 

 are not unfrequently distinguished in their manner, pronunciation, and mode of 

 reading, by the vilest metropolitan vulgarity, or the coarsest provincial igno- 

 rance. They are, in general, mechanics, or mere artizans, selected, without dis- 

 cernment, to fill, what I do not hesitate to pronounce, an important station in the 

 service of religious worship. They may be skilful enough in their art to arrange 

 the mortal corpse and convey it to the grave — but, alas, for the highest interests of 

 man ! it too frequently occurs that when such men take part in the ceremonies 

 intended to prepare the immortal spirit for a celestial destination, their disgraceful 

 incapacity tends only to divert the thoughts from a heavenward direction ; and 

 the soul of men, yielding, unhappily, to the terrestrial impressions of ridicule and 

 disgust, is rendered less susceptible of divine communication, by the same means 

 whereby Salvation is impeded, Religion debased, the Deity dishonoured !" 



After an highly eloquent eulogium on the Poetry of the Scriptures, Mr. Ball 

 drew the following conclusion from his preceding line of argument : a conclusion 

 to which we annex our unqualified assent : — " When we consider the number of 

 those who are weekly, nay daily, called upon, by the duties of their ministry, to 

 act as the medium through which Che light of Divine illumination may pass to 

 the understandings and the hearts of men — when we consider that, if the medium 

 be imperfect, not only will the transmitted rays be deprived of their original lustre, 

 but they may be rendered so oblique in their transmission, as to present an 

 inadequate and distorted image to the vision; we may then pronounce, without 

 hazarding a presumptuous assertion, that they who undertake the important duty 

 of transmitting to the mental vision of God's worshippers, that marvellous and 

 unwaning light enkindled by the sun of righteousness, ought to undergo a 

 regular preparation for their peculiar office, lest they convey the doctrines of sal- 

 vation faintly, or involve them in misconception moie dangerous than darkness, 

 because more blinding and deceitful." 



On the following Monday, Mr. Ball delivered a lecture on the character of 

 Shylock ; but we do not feel that we should be justified in entering minutely on 

 an analysis of the arguments by which he supported his conception of the character 

 of the Hebrew, whose "badge" was " sufterance," until the hour of retribution 

 seemed to have arrived. We have already drawn sufficiently, perhaps unreason- 

 ably, on our notes of Mr. Ball's preceding lectures. Therefore we will content 

 ourselves with affirming that, by his recitations, the lecturer presented an admi- 

 rable picture of a man of " suff'erauce," and of strong and deep resentment, 

 " crouching to his foe, that he might spring upon him at advantage, and with the 

 greater violence." Those recitations were distinguished, throughout, by great 

 variety of excellence. It is, however, in his subdued and level speaking, not- 

 withstanding the extraordinary power and volume of his voice in its upper tones, 

 that Mr. Ball's elocutionary skill is the most to be admired. For instance, Shy- 

 lock's expostulation addressed to Antonio — the Duke's interposition with the 

 Hebrew in behalf of Antonio at the opening of the trial scene — Shylock's pleading 

 in his own cause — Portia's panegyric on mercy — and Antonio's Farewell to 

 Bassanio. Such passages are the test of true elocutionary skill, because they 

 require taste, discrimination, and feeling, which " the judicious" often vainly 

 seek for in declaimers who, nevertheless, draw plaudits from "the unskilful." 



The sixth and last lecture of this most interesting and instructive course, was 



