ORA 
herever per- 
formed, in procefs ie sare sae the general appellation of 
oratorio. In the of San Girolamo della Carita at 
Rome, oratorios are fil ne antly oor med on Sa: days and 
feftivals from All Saints Day till Palm Sunday; as well as in 
the church of La Vallicella, or la Chiefa Nuova, where they 
are likewife performed from the firft of November till Eatter ; 
Oratorj in Mufica, e ese led haus! evening on all feftivals. 
(See Roma moderna by Venuti, 1766, p. 207.) Thefe are 
the two churches i be which fach {piritual {peétacles had their 
Adee has fince been fo much ex- 
in the year on which one or more of thefe 
not be heard. a 
P P. della Con ratorio ; among thefe were i 
logues, in a dramatic form. aera | all’ Litor. 
della Volg. Poefia. vol-i. lib. iv. ee MysTEr1Es 
and Mora tities, which were pre se and formed 
into oratorios for convents and churches, and performed on 
feftivals. 
ORATORY is the art of {peaking well, upon any fub- 
je, in order to perfuade ; and to {peak well, as Cicero ex- 
plains i it, is oa {peak juftly, methodically, floridly, and co- 
which fenfe the word imports the fame with 
¥ 
when they adopted that word into their language, confined 
it to the teachers of the art, and called the reft orators. 
ord Bacon defines rhetoric, or oratory, to be the art of 
applying and addreffing the diCtates of reafon to the fancy, 
nd of fo aaa pee ng them as to affe&t the will and de- 
fires. The end of rhetoric, he obferves, is to fill the imagi- 
nation with idewe and images, which may aflift nature, with- 
ORA 
3 rhetoric, or oratory, becomes divided into four parts, 
heare 
viz. ian di iii elocution, and pronunciation ; which 
fee r 
believe, that the Greeks h 
early as the time of Pittheus, whofe ne 
not long: before the taking o Ard at this time 
Cicero thought it was in much efteem among them. After 
this period, there is a great’ chafm in the hiftory of oratory : 
for Quinctilian fays, that afterwards Empedocles, who flou- 
rifhed about five eerie = after aa was taken, is the 
firft upon record who attempted any thing concerning it. 
About this time there arofe feveral mates of this art, the 
chief of whom Quindtilian oy enumerated ; as Corax and 
Tifias, of Sicily ; Gorgias eontium, in the fame ifland, 
the fe _ of Ppeisces habe brea ned of Calcedon ; 
Prodicus, of Cea; Protagoras, of A a; Hippias, of 
Elis ; Alcidamus, of Elea; Antiphon, i ate wrote ora: 
tions; Polycrates, and Theodore of Byzantium. or 
fhould we omit Plato, whofe elegant dig es entit! ‘ed Gor- 
gias, is ftillextant. To thefe fucceede cepa the moft 
renowned of the fcholars of Gorgias, extolled by Cicero as 
the greateft matter and teacher of oratory ; Arittotle, whofe 
yftem of oratory is efteemed the beft and moft complete of 
any inthe Greek language ; Demofthenes, who was an au- 
ditor of Ifocrates, Plato, and If{eeus, and who has been 
efteemed by the beft judges the prince of Grecian orators ; 
fE{chines, who taught rhetoric at Rhodes ; Theodectes and 
Theophraftus, difciples of Ariftotle; Demetrius Phalereus, 
fcholar of Theophraftus; Hermagoras; Athenzus; Apol- 
lonius Molon; Areus Cecilius ; Dionyfius, of Halicar- 
naffus'; Apollonius, of Pergamws; and ‘Theodore of Ga- 
dara. Of thefe there now remains nothing upon the fubjec& 
of oratory, except fome traéts of Dionyfius, who flourithed 
in the reign of chao Leach After the time of Quinc- 
tilian we may m ogenes, and Lo: nginus, the au- 
thor of the pee Gene «Of the Sublime.” 
This art was introduced late, and with difficulty among 
the Romans. 
ew Thefeus lived 
to flourifh 
taly, a decree tied the fenate, oy which all pilofopher 
and rhetoricians were ordered to depart Rome: but 
in a few years afte 
viz. Carreades, Critolaus, and Diogen 
as well as philofophers, from Athens . Rome, the Romans 
were fo charmed with the eloquence of their harangues, ara 
Latin, and the firft Roman who engaged in it was Beane 
of the equeftrian order; and foon fucceeded by 
the orator ; but he whe carried eloquence to its higheft pitch 
was 
