25^ London Philosophical Society. 



disputants and metaphysicians, and of the Greeks and 

 Roman* as excelling in the art ot rhetoric. 



Having considered the efficacy of graceful and energetic 

 delivery, by which the ancients were enabled to carry the 

 art of oratory to unrivalled perfection, of which Cicero and 

 Demosthenes are striking examples, the learned lecturer 

 proceeded to state, that being enabled by the exercise of 

 the understanding;, the will and the nteniory, to apjireciate 

 the whole circle of science, such a one would readily in- 

 vent suitable aru;ninents, and dispose them in their proper 

 order; and while he remembered every bearing of the ques- 

 tion, he could arrange, modify and round, variously every 

 period, and so deliver the whole with order, contrast and 

 nature. The acc!)n)plished orator will avoid every extreme; 

 and while he alternately moves the passions and convinces 

 the understanding, through the medium of the moral 

 sense, he will finally succeed in arresting the attention, in- 

 spiring the mind, exciting the whole man, and impelling 

 him irresistibly to action. 



Further : To command attention, the orator must par- 

 ticipate in the feelings of all around him; in a word he 

 must flatter the senses of his auditory : that once accom- 

 plished, contending or opposite opinions will be rendered 

 more susceptible to receive impressions of improvement ; 

 and liowever modified by affection or passion, or from 

 other causes, however the appearance of right and wrong 

 may be altered to the intellectual faculty, the love of truth 

 is firmly implanted in the breast of every individual; and 

 consequently the mind of man, if judiciously assailed, 

 mtiit he open to the entire conviction of reason. The au- 

 thor then spoke of elocution, and its utility in arresting 

 attention. Jn consequence of the perverted plan of con- 

 veying instruction in this branch of education, he con- 

 ceived, many of the finest specimens of argumentative 

 writing, many of the sublimest arrangements of composi- 

 tion, finely interwoven with sentiments of penetration and 

 feeling, to pass by unheeded from negligent enunciation 

 and delivery : after which he submitted an analysis of vocal 

 sounds, proving the human voice susceptible of five modifi- 

 cations; the two inflexions, the two circumflexes, and the 

 monotone ; endeavouring also to prove, that when the mind 

 is tranquil, the compass of inflect^ed and clrcumflected 

 accentuation accords exactly with musical phsenomena, 

 forming the substructure of " The Philosophy of Elocu- 

 tion." 



With 



