1811.] Extracts from the Portfolio of a Man of Letters* * * § ** ., 43 
** Assassination/' Brutus is ready to stab 
at a moment’s warning, 
Britannia’s lost freedom. If you tell a 
person what lie knew before, he will not 
tiiank you ; therefore be ever ready to 
inform your audience, that the freedom 
of Britons is gone. Here, of course, 
you bring in—glorious ancestors, Magna 
Charta, degenerate sons, blood, Dr. 
Priestley, time will come, my mind glows 
within me at the prospect, O, Goddess of 
Liberty ! &c. &c. 
•SA/ps.] Exert the Harlequin’s sword of 
your rhetoric, and turn all your nations 
into ships, and your statesmen into pi¬ 
lots, if you make a fleet of them. A 
storm, and all its appurtenances ofrock, 
quicksands, &c. is always ready at hand; 
and, as every orator is his own Prosjiero, 
you can let it rage as long as you please ; 
till at last, with s-unshine, &c. you bring 
all safe to port. 
Marks of interrogation..'\ This is a figure 
that may, not impropeily, be called the 
“ Spread Eagle." It is a neat method of 
dividing one sentence into two. You 
must ask a question, that you may em¬ 
ploy a sentence in answering it. Ask 
tw'enty or more, and you may dispatch 
them all as speedily as Falstaff did the 
men in buckram. 
Os.'] An O is of the same use to a 
word as it is to a figure in arithmetic ; it 
increases its value. However, there is 
this difference, that, in order to produce 
this' effect, it is to be placed on the right 
hand of the figure, and on the left of the 
word. Thomson’s Sophoiysba O ! is an 
exception which has been universally ana¬ 
thematized by the critics. 
Faiise^\ Always drive on as fast before 
you come to a period, as a coachman does 
into an inn ; and then stop as if you had 
run against a post. This gives you an 
opportunity of begging the audience to 
excuse your warmth ; and (after heaving 
and panting a little) of hoping that you 
shall be able to proceed wiili the same 
flow of eloquence. 
Start and stare. Here you must out- 
Garrick Garrick ; and start and stare as 
if you saw the ghosts of your adversary’s 
arguments. 
Vociferation.^ Observe the old proverb 
of “ Great cry where there is no wool/’ 
and vociferate most, where there is least 
meaning, Valete, 
EcVtractsJrojn the Portfolio of a Man of Letters. 
ROBERT COOK. 
R obert Cook, a kind of Pythago¬ 
rean philosopher, lived at Cappo- 
quin, in the county of Wti ter ford, where 
lie had a considerable estate: for many 
years before he died he neither ate fish, 
flesh, milk, butter, cVc. nor drank any 
kind of fermented liquor, nor wore 
woollen clothes, nor produce of any 
animal. During tiie troubles in King 
James’s time, he removed into England, 
and lived some time at Ipswich, but re¬ 
turned to Cappoquin, where he died 
about the year 1726. In 1691, he pub¬ 
lished the following paper, which will 
afford the reader some idea of his tenets. 
Several Questions asked of Robert Cook, 
zvhat is bis Religion ; and why he did 
not eat fsh,fesh, milk, butter, S^^c.nor 
drink zcine, nor beer, but water; nor 
wear woollen clothes, but linen ; and by 
him answered as follows. 
Quei'y 1. -What opinion or belief are 
you of? and what is your religion, seeing 
you are not of any sect or gathered 
people? 
Answ. I am a Christian and a Protes¬ 
tant,* and my religion is to fear Godf, 
and to keep his cominandinentsj; to 
keep my soul undefiled from the worldly 
evil nature§. I abhor the evil and love 
the goodjj, and have fellowship therein 
with all, in every sect, or gathered or 
scattered people. 
Query 2. By what rule is it possible to 
keep God’s commandments, whereby the 
soul may be kept undefiled ? 
Answ. By the manifestation of the 
Spirit of Christ^, a measure of it being 
given to me and to every man, to be by 
it guided, to profit withal*^. This is that 
law of the spirit of life in man, which 
reproves for sin, and leadsintoall truthff. 
* Micah vi. 8. 
J Eccles. xii. 13. 
X James i. 27 
§ James i. 27. 
jj Acts X. 34, 35. 1 Peter i. 1. 
^ 1 Cor, xii. 7. 
** John i. 9. 1 John ii. 27. John xvi. 
8, 13. 
tt Jer. xlii. 33. Heb. viii. 10, 11. John 
vi. 45. ^Deut. xxx. 14. Rom. x. 8. 2 Pe¬ 
ter i. 9. 
