Philosophical Society of London, 143 



grand classes, Dramatic and Oratorical, Mr. W. proceeded 

 to maintain the propriety of this division, and to interest 

 his hearers by a wide range of citation from our critical, 

 metaphysical, and dramatic writers. Nor did the annals of 

 senatorial eloquence pass unheeded, enriched as the page 

 has been bv the stupendous taients of a Chatham, — a states- 

 man and orator whose luminous and capacious intellect, 

 ardently employed in the cause of truth and humanity, has 

 left so decided a claim on the admiration and gratitude of 

 his countrymen. 



We should not however overlook the observations of the 

 lecturer which immediately preceded these examples, inas- 

 much as they are explanatory of his system, and were iu 

 substance nearly as follows : " I am aware," he said, 

 *' that as the Drama represents ' the very age and body of 

 the time, its form and pressure,' all the passions m.av be 

 called dramatic ; but as some of them only are oratorical, 

 and the rest purely dramatic, it appears requisite to distri- 

 bute them into the two classes 1 have adopted. By dra- 

 matic passion I mean selfish, — and by oratorical, I wish to 

 be understood, social feeling. Man is urged into action 

 by selfish and social feehngs. If the one be necessary to 

 his individual preservation, the other may be considered re- 

 quisite to engage him into vigorous and laborrous services 

 to his friends, his country, and his whole species. Com- 

 passion will engage him to succour the distressed, even with' 

 his private loss or danger ; an abhorrence of the unjust, 

 and commiseration with the injured, a sense of virtue and 

 honour, can make us despise labour, expense, wounds, and 

 even death. What is properly understood by social feeling 

 constitutes the genuine principle of true, unsophisticated 

 oratory. ' Social feeling,' says Dr. Hutcheson, ' is fixed 

 humanity ; it is such a desire of the good of all to whom 

 our influence can extend, as uniformly excites us to every 

 act of beneficence, and makes us careful of informing our- 

 selves rightly concerning the truest methods of promoting 

 their interests.' That social appeals are oratorical, and that 

 an unqualified eflfusion of pride is not oratorical, no one 

 would doubt who saw them exemplified : an audience 

 would hardly be influenced in favour of a speaker who dis- 

 played before them the selfish passion of haired, as actuat- 

 ing his own mind. At the same time, could we listen to the 

 detail of the accumulated crimes of Piso, as enumerated 

 and denounced by Cicero, we should join willi the orator, 

 and participate in his feeling. 



" from what has bceu advanced, it may be readily under- 



