m 



the assemblies or congresses that have been held 

 between the two nations, on which occasion they 

 had much rather submit to the inconvenience 

 of listening to a tiresome interpreter, thfin, by 

 speaking anothef language, to degrade their 

 native tongue. ' 



The speeches of their orators resemble those 

 of the Asiatics, or more properly those of all 

 barbarous nation^. The ptyle is highly figura- 

 tive, allegorical, elevated, and replete with pe- 

 culiar phrases and e;xpressions that are employed 

 pnly in similar compositions, from whence it is 

 called coyngtucan, the style of parliamentary 

 harangue^. They abound with parables and 

 apologues, which sometimes furnish .the whole 

 substance of the discourse. Their orations, not- 

 withstanding, contain all the essential parts re- 

 quired by the rules of rhetoric, which need nO;t 

 excite our surprise, since the same principle of 

 nature that led the Greeks to reduce eloquence 

 to an art, has taught the use of it to these people. 

 They are deficient neither in a suitable exordium, 

 p, clear narrative^ a well-founded argument, or 

 a pathetic peroration. They commonly divide 

 iheir subject into two or three points, which they 

 call thoy, and specify the number by saying epu 

 thoy-gei tamen ptavi7i, what I am going to say is 

 divided into two points. They employ in their 

 oratory ^several kinds of style, but the most 



B 4 



