117 



overwhelms all the caprices and eccentricities of men, by 

 the force of terror. 



It has been obserretl, that the terms, used to express the 

 products and efforts of eloquence, at Athens and Rome, 

 mark the different genius of the people. The Greeks 

 called regular harangues, ^c"/o., discourses; a word that marks 

 operation's of the intellect: and the use of this term seems 

 to imply, that their harangues were addressed to the un- 

 derstanding, and sought to attain thei? end, by the pow- 

 ers of reasoning. The Romans called speeches of a shni- 

 lar kind, orations: a term taken from prayer, and including 

 the idea of intercession, supplication, and an address to 

 the passions. Tiiis is no fanciful or chimerical distinction. 

 AVe fmd this difference of character fully exemplified, in 

 the productions of Demosthenes and Cicero. The reason 

 of this variation, in the style of public speaking, is to be 

 found in tlie difference of political circumstances and na- 

 tional character. The Greeks were more lively, more in- 

 genious, more spiritualized; their passions were all in arms, 

 and ready at a call. The Romans were more steady, and 

 less impassioned; and it required more application, and 

 display of oratory, to rouse thek feelings. 



There is a fact, related in the annals of music, which 

 shews the connexion between the arts, and the political 

 state of a country. Many of the ancient writers, who vi- 

 sited Egypt, after it became a Roman province, speak of 

 the inhalDitants as the most melancholy and abject race of 

 people in the world. Ammianus MarcelUnus says, " The 



" Egyptians 



