Christendom have never equalled. The clergy of the United States, however, can set up no such exclusive claim; because they are not a more generally learned body than the laity. Indeed, their education very seldom comprises within its range a very profound or extensive acquaintance with history, or political philosophy, or metaphysics; it is, for the most part, confined to the acquisition of a little Latin, and less Greek, and their own peculiar system of theology, whether Calvinistic, or Arminian, or Arian, or Unitarian, together with such miscellaneous reading as they may be able to snatch in the brief intervals of time between the composition of sermons, the details of parochial business, pastoral visits to their flock, morning calls, dining out, tea and evening parties. It is to be remembered too, that their previous preparation generally consists in going to an indifferent grammar-school, till fourteen; then entering college, which is left at eighteen; then studying divinity, and at twenty-one beginning to preach.

Besides, the clergy of the United States, for reasons given in a preceding chapter, are not often men of primary talents. Sometimes, indeed, the controlling influence of piety drives men of great talents into the church; and sometimes, perhaps, other circumstances; but, generally speaking, no one clerical denomination possesses a large proportion of the strong and active talent of the country, which is, for the most part, seduced into the law, physic, and merchandise, by the more splendid rewards of wealth, reputation, and influence, held out by those callings. Whence, in fact, the philosophical chairs in our colleges are not often filled; instead of a full, systematic course of moral philosophy, including the three great branches of ethics, political economy, and international law, Beattie's Syllabus, or Paley's Treatise, is given to the boys, who learn by rote, and transcribe some pages of the book, with probably here and there a remark from the professor. Conning over " Blair's Lectures," generally serves both master and pupil for a course of belles-lettres and rhetoric; and Vattel's little Outline of the Law of Nations, read, and partly

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transcribed, completes the circle of international law. As for metaphysics and political economy, they receive a very slender portion of regard.

The elocution, in the colleges, is in general extremely vitious; in addition to the common nuisance of a mouthing, monotonous rant, a nasal twang pervades the pronunciation. This eloquence of the nose, rather than of the mouth, prevails greatly in New-England, whose surplus population has long been spread annually over New-York and the Western States; whence this mode of elocution is continually gaining ground throughout the Union. Its origin is supposed to be traced to the county of Kent, in England, and it greatly resembles the nasal sing-song, or eternal chant of the few elder Scottish congregations, whether Covenanters or Seceders, that are yet to be found in this country. Unfortunately, our ears are saluted with these funereal sounds at the bar, from the pulpit, and ex cathedra, in the colleges. In common conversation also, we meet them;and even the roseate lips of female loveliness occasionally condescend to call in the aid of the nasal organ to temper the sweetness of their silver tones.

Now, a distinct, various, well-adapted, impressive utterance, is necessary to all who desire to render their " conversation instructive and pleasing. And how much of life depends upon conversation for its means of improvement and delight! how much it heightens domestic endearments, irradiates social intercourse, enforces parental instruction, deepens filial reverence, and exalts brotherly affection! In public life, a prompt and vigorous elocution is essential to the acquisition and maintenance of that personal influence over the feelings, opinions, passions, and actions of others; without which human communities would be deprived of their greatest cement of union, and best guide to exertion. Without the aid of felicitous delivery, in vain may the divine, the politician, lawyer, or teacher, endeavour to give to their respective sentiments, doctrines, and arguments, their due weight and efficacy. Without the accompaniments of clearness, and force of enunciation, variety and adap

tation of emphasis, precision and fulness of delivery, the loftiest sentiments, the most powerful reasonings, the tenderest touches of feeling, the most animated flashes of real eloquence, are to the unfortunate audience tame and unimpressive.

The ancient Greeks and Romans, in the best days of their republics, made the study of elocution an essential part of liberal education. Many years were devoted to learning, in the schools of rhetoric, the rules and elements of appropriate and energetic delivery. Neither Demosthenes nor Cicero would have deemed himself qualified to appear as a public speaker at the bar, or in the senate, until he had diligently studied the means of obtaining a prompt, easy, apt, and forceful utterance. But the scholars, and great men of modern Christendom have, in general, been too negligent of their delivery, both in reading and speaking. Whence, it is not uncommon to hear, from the pulpit, at the bar, and in the senate, orations, full of learning, argument, and eloquenee, so marred in the enunciation as nearly to destroy their effect. The public speaking and reading of the present day is too often disgraced, either by a drawling, drivelling monotony, or a quick, indistinct, sing-song cadence. The whole law of eloquence is comprised in a single sentence; "gravitas sententiarum, splendor verborum, proprietas actionis ;"-weight of sense, splendour of language, and aptness of delivery. The three requisites of good delivery, or elocution, are, a clear and distinct articulation of every word, syllable, and letter; an adaptation of the various inflections and intonations of the voice to the various sense and feeling of what is spoken or read, and the following of the action or gesture, as a faithful expositor of the feeling and sense exhibited by the reader and speaker.

But what a difference is generally exhibited between the easy, various, apt, energetic, and natural tones of animated conversation, and the stiff, constrained, monotonous, vapid, and unnatural sounds emitted in public reading and speaking. Children almost universally are taught to read in a different manner, and to use different

tones, cadences, pauses, and emphases, from those which nature dictates by the impulses of feeling and passion in unconstrained conversation. And this artificial, unnatural method, is either inculcated or tolerated in the recitals, public speakings, readings, and declamations of schools and colleges. These reading and speaking tones are seldom more than two; one, marking, that the sense is not quite completed, the other, that the sentence is closed. The first one consists of a uniform elevation, the second of a uniform depression of voice. Hence arises the unnatural and monotonous manner of reading and speaking which is so prevalent, and which habit only renders more inveterate and incurable. The only effectual remedy would be, to make the study of elocution an essential part of liberal education. At present, the rudiments of delivery are generally taught by unintelligent dames, and old women, or illiterate men, who are quite ignorant of the general principles and practical rules of elocution. And, when boys thus initiated into the mysteries of bad reading are transferred to the grammar-school, the matter is not mended; for the teachers are too much absorbed in drilling their young recruits in construing and parsing, to pay any attention to the manner in which they read and speak their own vernacular tongue. We are not then to marvel, that a thick and indistinct, a monotonous, drawling, and vapid elocution is so general.

Next to the acquisition of that primary requisite of good delivery, a clear, distinct, and forcible articulation, the student should labour to obtain a proper pronunciation, or the most approved method of sounding words, including the intonation and inflexion of the voice, the accent and emphasis. An awkward pronunciation, a bad management of the voice, the pitching too high or too low a key-note, speaking too loudly, or feebly, to be distinctly heard, the use of harsh intonations, of false, uncertain, irregular cadences and emphases, are the peculiar imperfections of particular classes of men in every community, and spring from a faulty education, vulgar society, low examples, inveterate habits, and

provincial barbarisms. The difference of pronunciation, between different men, relates to bodies rather than individuals, whether inhabitants of the same or different countries. For instance, the English, Irish, and Scottish, have each their own peculiar idiomn in pronouncing the English tongue; and also the different provinces and countries of each of those nations have a peculiar dialect; whence, not only do the Scottish, Irish, and English differ from each other in the pronunciation of the same language, but the Aberdeen dialect is scarcely intelligible to a man of Edinburgh; that of Dublin to the people of Belfast; that of Cornwall to the cockneys in London. The great object, therefore, is to discover the standard pronunciation of a country. In every entire, consolidated sovereignty, the seat of government or court fixes and regulates that standard. The court at Paris is the model for all those who aspire to speak French exquisitely; the court of Madrid is the pattern of Spanish pronunciation; that of Berlin regulates the pronunciation of the north, as the cabinet of Vienna does that of the south of Germany; the government circle in London gives the tone of pronunciation to all those in the British isles who profess to be liberally educated and well-bred. All other idioms or dialects are considered as tokens of a low and defective education, and, as such, disgraceful. This standard pronunciation being, in its minuter niceties, continually fluctuating with the fluctuations of the manners and fashions of the age, cannot easily be taught by written or printed rules, but can be acquired only by habits of intercourse and conversation with those who have been thus liberally trained.

These observations, however, do not apply to the United States, where there is no standard pronunciation of the English language; for America not being a consolidated sovereignty, but a confederacy of independent states, no one state or portion of the Union can arrogate to itself the privilege of fixing the standard by which every well-bred American shall regulate his pronunciation. Massachusetts will not implicitly follow the