On the Nature and Utility of Eloquence. 311 



" it is an eafy matter to be eloquent." To the 

 Bifhop's authority it may be objefted, as 

 Thucydides fays it was to Cleon's, " that becaufe 

 " he ufed to hold the bad fide in the caufes he 

 •^ pleaded, therefore he was ever inveighing 

 " againft eloquence and good fpeech*." It 

 were eafy to multiply the examples of fuch mif- 

 reprefentations ; the fophifts and the fathers of 

 old, the metaphyficians and theologians of 

 late, have united in abufing an art, which they 

 wanted judgment as well as tafte to underftand. 

 Yet in all the various inftances of thefe incon- 

 fiderate attacks, it ever appeared to me, that 

 the objedions and cenfures conftantly arofe 

 from a mifconception of the real nature of the 

 art. 



How often is the epithet eloquent applied to 

 fome ignorant coxcomb, who in every gefture, 

 look, and word, offends againft the firft rudi- 

 ments of fpeaking ! forgetting, Ars eft celare 

 artem ! How many times muft every man have 

 heard the title of Orator given to fome wretched 

 phrafe-monger, whofe Ikill confided only in the 

 frequent ufe of a gaudy word, or an affeded 

 antithefis ! Thus has this efficacious and im- 

 portant art become difreputable, and been of 

 courfe difregarded by many great and wife men, 

 even among thofe whofe profeflions are con- 



• Thucyd. lib. III. 



X 4 ne(fled 



