ORATORY 
684 
The myfteries and moralities, which preceded regular 
plays in France and England, (fee Mystery, vol. xvi. 
p. 470.) w’ere often fet to mufic, and performed as ora¬ 
torios, in the convents and churches, on feftivals. But 
the firft regular introdu&ion of oratorios into this coun¬ 
try, as now performed, was by Handel, in the year 173a. 
Since that time they have been regularly brought for¬ 
ward, at one or both of our theatres, two nights in each 
of the weeks during the Lent feafon, to the exclufion of 
common plays } and, originally, the oratorio was accord¬ 
ingly confined folely to facred pieces, though modern 
manners have in fome degree changed the ufage. To 
meet the prevalent innovation of the times, other per¬ 
formances have for fome years been occafionally inter¬ 
mixed and our popular fingers have now in Lent oppor¬ 
tunities afforded them of exerting their talents in praife 
of warriors and of lovers, ancient and modern, as well as 
at any other feafon of the year; or, what is yet more to 
be regretted, of intermixing, with divine and appropriate 
harmonies, fome trifling ballads, ill according with the fo- 
lemnity of the oratorio, and fubverfive of what was here¬ 
tofore deemed confident with propriety and public de¬ 
cency. - ' 
Thisabufe is animadverted upon very ftrongly and very 
juftly by a correfpondent in the Gentleman’s Magazine. 
Referring to a former communication upon the fame fub- 
jeft, this writer obferves, “ Palatinus may well fay, ‘ Ne¬ 
ver were facred and profane fubjefts fo mingled as at pre- 
fent.’ He infiances a concert: I will inftance thofe public 
concerts the Oratorios, which are allowed to be performed 
on the Wednefdays and Fridays in Lent, when plays are 
forbidden, and w'hen every thing but what is facred is in¬ 
tended to be laid afide. The following pieces fucceeded 
each other in the advertifement which I copy from a morn¬ 
ing paper of the Oratorio (as it is called) at Covent Garden 
on the 29th of March, 1816. 
1. “ I know that my Redeemer liveth.” 
2. “ Huih ye pretty warbling quire. 
Your thrilling firains * 
Awake my pains. 
And kindle fierce defire.” 
3. “ The flocks fhall leave the mountains.” 
4. “ The people that walked in darknefs.” 
5. “ O ruddier than the cherry, 
O fweeter than the berry, 
O nymph more bright 
Than moonfhine night, 
Or kidlings blithe and merry.” 
6. “ Comfort ye my people, faith your God.” 
7. “ Love in her eyes fits playing, 
And kindles foft defire.” 
8. “ Is there a heart ?” 
9. Hallelujah. Chorus. 
10. “ Oh ! the pleafures of the plains.” 
If a profane love-ftory, like “ Acis and Galatea,” is fuf- 
fered at all during this folemn feafon, it fliould be per¬ 
formed entire and by itfelf; but that fuch a mixture as 
I have pointed out above, of parts of that ftory with por¬ 
tions of the moft fublime of our Oratorios, the Mefiiah, 
fliould be endured, is ftrange indeed.” Gent. Mag. vol. 
Ixxxvi. p. 320. 
OR'ATORYj/ [oratoi-ia ars, Lat.] Eloquence; rhe¬ 
torical expreflion.—Hammond’s fubjefts were fuch as had 
greateft influence on practice, which he preft with moft 
affe&ionate tendernefs, making tears part of his oratory. 
Fell. —The former, who had to deal with a people of much 
more politenefs, learning, and wit, laid the greateft weight 
of his oratory upon the ftrength of his arguments. Swift. 
When a world of men 
Could not prevail with all their oratory, 
Yet hath a woman’s kindnefs over-rul’d. Shahefpeare. 
Exercife of eloquence.—The Romans had feifed upon the 
fleet of the Antiates, among which there were fix armed 
with roftra, with which the conful Menenius adorned 
the public place of oratory. Arluthiot. 
Rise and Progress of Oratory. 
The invention of oratory is, by the Egyptians, and the 
fables of the poets, afcribed to Mercury. And it is well 
known, that the Greeks made their deities the authors 
likewife of other arts, and fuppofed that they prefided 
over tliem.^ Hence, they gave Mercury the titles of 
Aoyioi; and both which names come from words 
that fignify “ to fpeak.” And Ariftides calls eloquence 
the gift of Mercury ; and, for the fame reafon, anciently 
the tongue was confecrated to him. He was likewife 
faid to be the interpreter or meffenger of the gods ; which 
office very well fuited him, as he excelled in eloquence. 
Hence we read in the Sacred Writings, that, when the 
people of Lyftra took Barnabas and Paul for gods in hu¬ 
man fhape, becaufe of that fudden and furprifing cure 
w'hich was wrought upon the lame man, they called Bar¬ 
nabas Jupiter, and Paul Mercury ; for this reafon, as the in- 
fpired w riter tells us, “ becaufe he was the chief fpeaker,” 
that is, (as the fpeftators then thought,) the interpreter 
or fpokefman of Barnabas. 
But to pafs over thefe fictions of the heathen deities, 
let us hear wffiat Quintilian fays of the origin of this art; 
who feems to give a very probable account of it in the 
following paflage. “The faculty of fpeech (fays he) we 
derive from nature; but the art from obfervation. For 
as, in phyfic, men, by feeing that fome things promote 
health and others deftroy it, formed the art upon thofe 
obfervations ; in like manner, by perceiving that fome 
things in difcourfe are faid to advantage, and others not, 
they accordingly marked thofe things, in order to imitate 
the one and avoid the other. They alfo added fome 
things from their own reafon and judgment, which being 
confirmed by ufe, they began to teach others what they 
knew themfelves.” But no certain account can be given, 
when, or by whom, this method of obfervation firft began 
to take place. And Ariftotle fuppofes, not without rea¬ 
fon, that the firft lineaments of the art were very rude 
and imperfedt. Paufanias, indeed, in his Defcription of 
Greece, tells us, that Pittheus, the uncle of Thefeus, 
taught it at Trcezene, a city of Peloponnefus, and wrote a 
book concerning it; Which he read himfelf, as it was pub- 
liihed by one of Epidaurus. But, as Pittheus lived about 
1000 years before Paufanias, who flouriflied in the time of 
the emperor Adrian, fome are of opinion he might be im- 
pofed upon by the Epidaurian, whopubliflied this book un¬ 
der the name of Pittheus. But, be that as it will, it is very 
reafonable to believe that the Greeks had the principles 
of this art as early as the time of Pittheus; for Thefeus, 
his nephew, lived not long before the taking of Troy, 
which, according to fir Ifaac Newton, happened 904 years 
before the birth of Chrift; at which time Cicero thought 
it was in much efteem among them. “ Homer (fays he) 
would never have given Ulyffes and Neftor in the Tro¬ 
jan war fo great commendations on account of their 
fpeeches, (to one of whom he attributes force, and to the 
other fweetnefs of expreflion,) if eloquence had not in 
thofe times been in great repute.” And, left any one 
fhould imagine, that in thofe days they made ufe only of 
fuch helps as nature and practice could afford them, the 
fame poet informs us, that Peleus fent Phcenix with his 
fon Achilles to the Trojan war, to inftrudt him not only 
in the art of war, but likewife in eloquence. 
But who were the profeffors of this art for fome ages 
following, is not known : for Quintilian fays, that after¬ 
wards Empedocles is the firft upon record who attempted 
any thing concerning it; and he, by fir Ifaac Newton’s 
account, flourifhed about 500 years after Troy was taken ; 
at which time, as Cicero obferves, men being now fen- 
fible of the powerful charms of oratory, and the influence 
it had upon the mind, there immediately arofe feveral maf- 
ters of it, the chief of whom are mentioned by Quintilian ; 
who tells us that “ theoldeft writers upon this art are Corax 
1 and 
