N°. 407.

Tuesday, June 17.

—abeft facundis Gratia dictis.

MOST

Ov.

OST Foreign Writers who have given any Character of the English Nation, whatever Vices they afcribe to it, allow in general, that the People are naturally Modeft. It proceeds perhaps from this our National Virtue, that our Orators are obferved to make use of lefs Gesture or Action than those of other Countries. Our Preachers stand stock-still in the Pulpit, and will not fo much as move a Finger to fet off the best Sermons in the World. We meet with the fame fpeaking Statues at our Bars, and in all Publick Places of Debate. Our Words flow from us in a smooth continued Stream, without those Strainings of the Voice, Motions of the Body, and Majefty of the Hand, which are fo much celebrated in the Orators of Greece and Rome. We can talk of Life and Death in cold Blood, and keep our Temper in a Difcourfe which turns upon every thing that is dear to us. Though our Zeal breaks out in the finest Tropes and Figures, it is not able to ftir a Limb about us. I have heard it obferved more than once by those who have feen Italy, that an untravell'd Englishman cannot relish all the Beauties of Italian Pictures, because the Poftures which are expreffed in them are often fuch as are peculiar to that Country. One who has not feen an Italian in the Pulpit, will not know what to make of that noble Gesture in Raphael's Picture of St. Paul preaching at Athens, where the Apostle is reprefented as lifting up both his Arms, and pouring out the Thunder of his Rhetorick amidft an Audience of Pagan Philofophers.

It is certain, that proper Gestures and vehement Exertions of the Voice cannot be too much studied by a publick Orator. They are a kind of Comment to what he utters, and enforce every thing he fays, with weak Hearers, better than the strongest Argument he can make ufe of. They keep the Audience awake, and fix their Attention to what is delivered to them, at the fame time that they fhew the Speaker is in earnest, and affected himself with what he fo paffionately recommends to others. Violent Gesture and Vociferation naturally fhake the Hearts of the Ignorant, and fill them with a kind of Religious Horror. Nothing is more frequent than to fee Women weep and tremble at the Sight of a moving Preacher, though he is placed quite out of their Hearing; as in England we very frequently fee People lulled asleep with folid and elaborate Difcourfes of Piety, who would be warmed and tranfported out of themselves by the Bellowings and Distortions of Enthusiasm.

IF Nonfenfe, when accompanied with fuch an Emotion of Voice and Body, has fuch an Influence on Mens Minds, what might we not expect from many of thofe admirable Difcourfes which are printed in our Tongue, were they delivered with a becoming Fervour, and with the most agreeable Graces of Voice and Gefture?

WE are told, that the great Latin Orator very much impaired his Health by this laterum contentio, this Vehemence of Action, with which he ufed to deliver himself. The Greek Orator was likewife fo very famous for this Particular in Rhetorick, that one of his Antagonists, whom he had banished from Athens, reading over the Oration which had procured his Banifhment, and seeing his Friends admire it, could not forbear asking them, if they were fo much affected by the bare

read

reading of it, how much more they would have been alarmed, had they heard him actually throwing out fuch a Storm of Eloquence?

How cold and dead a Figure, in Comparison of these two great Men, does an Orator often make at the British Bar, holding up his Head with the most infipid Serenity, and froaking the Sides of a long Wigg that reaches down to his Middle? The Truth of it is, there is often nothing more ridiculous than the Geftures of an English Speaker; you fee fome of them running their Hands into their Pockets as far as ever they can thrust them, and others looking with great Attention on a Piece of Paper that has nothing written in it; you may fee many a smart Rhetorician turning his Hat in his Hands, moulding it into feveral different Cocks, examining fometimes the Lining of it, and fometimes the Button, during the whole Course of his Harangue. A deaf Man would think he was Cheapning a Beaver, when perhaps he is talking of the Fate of the British Nation, I remember, when I was a young Man, and used to frequent Westminster-Hall, there was a Counsellor who never pleaded without a Piece of Pack-Thread in his Hand, which he used to twift about a Thumb, or a Finger, all the while he was fpeaking: The Waggs of thofe Days ufed to call it the Thread of his Difcourfe, for he was not able to utter a Word without it. One of his Clients, who was more merry than wife, ftole it from him one Day in the midst of his Pleading, but he had better have let it alone, for he loft his Caufe by his Jeft.

I have all along acknowledged my felf to be a dumb Man, and therefore may be thought a very improper Perfon to give Rules for Oratory; but I believe every one will agree with me in this, that we ought either to lay afide all kinds of Ge

fture,

fture, (which feems to be very fuitable to the Genies of our Nation) or at least to make ufe of fuch only as are graceful and expreffive.

N° 408.

Wednesday, June 18.

Decet affectus animi neque fe nimium erigere, nec fubjacere ferviliter. Tall. de Finibus.

Mr. SPECTATOR,

'I

I Have always been a very great Lover of your Speculations, as well in Regard to the Subject, as to your Manner of Treating it. Human Nature I always thought the most useful Object of human Reafon, and to make the Con⚫fideration of it pleasant and entertaining, I always thought the beft Employment of human Wit: Other Parts of Philofophy may perhaps make us wifer, but this not only anfwers that < End, but makes us better too. Hence it was 'that the Oracle pronounced Socrates the wifest ' of all Men living, because he judiciously made ' Choice of human Nature for the Object of his

Thoughts; an Enquiry into which as much ex'ceeds all other Learning, as it is of more Con'fequence to adjust the true Nature and Meafures of Right and Wrong, than to fettle the 'Distance of the Planets, and compute the Times of their Circumvolations.

'ONE good Effect that will immediately arise from a near Obfervation of human Nature, is, that we fhall ceafe to wonder at those Actions which Men are used to reckon wholly unac'countable; for as nothing is produced without ( a Caufe, fo by obferving the Nature and Course of the Paffions, we shall be able to trace every Action from its firft Conception to its Death: We shall no more admire at the Proceedings

of

N° 408. ⚫ of Cataline or Tiberius, when we know the one was actuated by a cruel Jealoufie, the other by a furious Ambition; for the A&tions of Men follow their Paffions as naturally as Light does Heat, or as any other Effect fows from its 'Caufe; Reafon must be employed in adjusting the Paffions, but they must ever remain the Principles of Action,

THE ftrange and abfurd Variety that is fo " apparent in Mens Actions, fhews plainly they can never proceed immediately from Reafon; fo pure a Fountain emits no fuch troubled Waters: They must neceffarily arife from the Paffions, which are to the Mind as the Winds to a Ship, they only can move it, and they too of ten destroy it; if fair and gentle they guide it into the Harbour, if contrary and furious they overfet it in the Waves: In the fame Manner is the Mind affifted or endangered by the Paffions; 'Reason must then take the Place of Pilot, and can never fail of fecuring her Charge if the be not wanting to her felf: The Strength of the Paffions will never be accepted as an Excufe for complying with them; they were defigned for Subjection, and if a Man fuffers them to get 'the upper Hand, he then betrays the Liberty of his own Soul.

As Nature has framed the feveral Species of เ Beings as it were in a Chain, fo Man feems to be placed as the middle Link between Angels and Brutes: Hence he participates both of Fiefh ' and Spirit by an admirable Tie, which in him 'occafions perpetual War of Paffions; and as a Man inclines to the Angelick or Brute Part of his Conftitution, he is then denominated good or bad, virtuous or wicked; if Love, Mercy, ' and Good-nature prevail, they fpeak him of the Angel; if Hatred, Cruelty, and Envy predo

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