Iv. P ' R E F A C E. 



examples from DemoRhenes; whofe language, for this reafon, I 

 think I underftand better when I read him, or when he is well 

 read to me, than what is written even in Englifh. A man, how- 

 ever, may write very good orations; but he is no orator, unlefs he 

 can pronounce them ; for aCiion, as Demofthenes faid, is the firft, the 

 fecond, and the third quality of an orator. Now, of adion, I hold 

 pronunciation to be the chief part* ; for it is by it that the words and 

 the fenfe of them are conveyed to the hearers. The pronunciation 

 of the Greek language was a thing of very great art, requiring not only 

 a good natural voice, but alfo a mufical voice: For, in the Greek lan- 

 guage, there was, as the Halicarnaffian informs us, both melody and 

 rhythm f; and, ainong other things he praifes in the ftile of De- 

 mofthenes, he lays, 'That, when the fubjeEl requires it, his melody is 

 magnijiccnt and his rhythm digtiified X. Such a pronunciation, ac- 

 companied with all the graces of action, muft have made the ora- 

 tions of Demofthenes, the nobleft produdion of an art, the greateft, 

 as well as the moft ufcful, among men ; I mean the art of language, 

 which, the Halicarnaffian fays, is the moft wonderful^, though, 

 at the fame time, it be the moft common of all arts ; a propofi- 

 tion which I have endeavoured to maintain through the whole of 

 this work, and particularly in the ift and 4th chapters of the fecond 

 book of this volume. Such fpeeches, therefore, as thofe of Demof- 

 thenes, I do not w^onder that people from all parts of Greece came 

 to Athens to hear. 



Having, therefore, as I have faid, formed my tafte of ftile upon 

 the compofition of the antients, and particularly of Demofthenes, I 



could 

 * See vol. 6. of Origin of Language, book 3. chap. i. in the beginning, 

 f See what I have faid at great length upon both of thefe, in vol. 2. of the Origin of 

 Language, book 2. chap. 4. and 5. 



:j: His words are T« MtA)) nrnu ftty»>,»jr^tir)i, xui row; TvSfcov; tt^iUfiKTixtv;. Cap. 48. 

 De Adiniranda vi dicendi in Demoflhene. 

 § Ibid. cap. 52. 



