On the Nature and Utility of Eloquence. 327 



To men who have lived in the world, and feen 

 real affairs, the utility of fuch a varied, accom- 

 modating and ready fkill, cannot but be obvi- 

 cufly apparent. It is thus fpoken of by Lord 

 Bacon, and is fet down by him among the dc- 

 fiderata. 



** Surely it will not be amifs to recommend 

 ** this whereof we now fpeak, to a new inquiry, 

 " to call it by name. The Wifdom of private 

 *' Speech, and to refer it to deficients j a thing 

 " certainly which the more ferioufly a man fhall 

 " think of, the more highly he fhall value"*. But 

 fetting afide the evident advantages arifing from 

 a fuperior ability in delivering one's fentiments 

 on great occafions, and even omitting to lay 

 any ftrefs on the obvious utility of the fame 

 fkill when exerted in a man's private affairs; 

 the pleafures that arife from fine writing are fo 

 great, fo various, fo often to be communicated, 

 and fo eafy to be obtained, that this confider- 

 ation alone would defend the art from the imputa- 

 tion of infignificance. For I can never be 



* Certe, non abs re fuerit, circa hoc ipfum, de quo 

 nunc dicimus, novam inftituere inquifitionem, eamque no- 

 mine Prudentiae fermonis privati indigitare; atque inter 

 defiderata reponere : rem certe, quam quo attentius quis 

 recogitet, eo pluris faciei. De Augm. Sclent, lib. VI. 

 cap. i, 



Y 4 brought 



