may see that a speaker who has learned to stand in the pulpit on two feet, will be less fatigued, at the end of an Lour, than if he has been limping and hopping on one foot, as we have seen preachers do; twining one limb around the other, as the ivy embraces the oak. By the disastrous effects of public speaking, we mean the derangement of the functions of the throat and chest. There is a mode of employing the vocal muscles, which seriously and needlessly wastes the nervous energy of the system, inflames the membrane of the throat and the delicate structure of the bronchia. All this could be avoided by learning to use the muscles that were designed for the purpose, and so to speak, that the respiration and pulsation and vocal utterance shall move in harmony; and an hour's speaking will then be, for the body, merely a healthful exercise. This is not exaggeration. The recent experience of some preachers, who, by proper exercises have totally recovered the use of their vocal powers, and have learned to speak with an ease to which they were formerly strangers in the pulpit, confirms it. A young minister will find difficulties enough in his work, to make the diminution of those which are merely physical, a matter of some moment to him.

Nor do we deem it unworthy of a preacher's attention that he should remove everything unnecessarily disagreeable from his speaking, and add to it everything that is adapted to satisfy the refined taste of his hearers. When Cowper expresses his abhorrence of the "start theatric practiced at the glass," all the world approves the censure, because all the world understands him to mean the affected and contemptible exhibition of one's self as the object of admiration to an assembly, who are waiting to hear a message from God. There certainly is neither piety nor power in clownishness. And it cannot be denied that if some speakers had practised their attitudes and starts before a glass, they would never have inflicted them on their hearers. It is true, that people of good taste will bear much from the pulpit, which, in the parlor, would seem to them offensive. But there is an evident impropriety and disadvantage in so taxing their respect for the office and its incumbent. The preacher is often called to speak unpal

atable truths. There is thus a sufficient degree of offensivenes in his employment, to spare him from superadding that which may arise from uncouth positions and motions of the body, grimaces and frowns, monotony and false emphasis. An audience is often wearied under a sermon full of sound sense, distinctive remarks, and the fervent spirit of piety. They often associate with a preacher of sterling excellence some uncomfortable feelings. They know not why; for he is a good man, a sensible man, a man of true piety, and a good theologian. The true reason is, that he wearics the car.

The mind of every hearer is so constituted, that variety pleases, and monotony wearies it. This is true of the body also. The muscles of the limbs, the organs of taste, the eye, the car, all demand variety. And while the highest moral effect from discourse, demands unity, this law of the mind requires, at the same time, variety in unity. This principle should control alike the thought, the style, and the delivery. The unity of delivery depends upon the pitch and general current of the voice; the variety depends not only upon the occasional variation of pitch and direction, but upon another circumstance which we would briefly explain. The spoken English language contains upwards of forty distinct sounds. Some of them are very grateful to the car; and all of them together make the music of our language. Now it generally happens that every uncultivated speaker fails to utter several of them; and usually those which are the most musical. He likewise gives those which he does employ, too much in the same mould. Indolence has made every one pronounce his words as much alike as is consistent with being understood. Hence it results that some of the most musical sounds of our language, are not heard from the lips of many speakers; and instead of more than forty, uttered in their varied combinations, we are confined to a greater or less number below this. The hearers do not know why, but their minds seldom continue aroused to the end of some discourses, when they know, at the same time, that the preacher thinks well and writes well. The monotony of sound itself is sufficient to account for it.

To overcome

this indolent and inelegant habit, requires the careful cultivation of the car, to distinguish these sounds, and of the vocal organs to utter them with precision and purity.

But these considerations are still inferior to another, which is, that the perspicuity and impressiveness of a discourse require a correct delivery. The shades of thought in the mind depend for their correct expression, not merely upon words, but also upon the mode of pronouncing them. It scarcely needs to be repeated here that a bad emphasis may make a true statement become a falsehood. It is not merely the tongue that speaks; the whole frame utters a language definite and powerful. The moment a speaker rises before an audience, he makes an impression. His attitude is a language. If he be a man of true dignity, and his soul be elevated by the noblest sentiments, he may, for want of a proper cultivation of his body, produce the contrary impression on his hearers. An erect attitude is dignified, and becomes no man more than him who approaches his fellows with messages from God. And every man of true dignity should accustom his body to correspond to his mind, and not to belie it. Physical uprightness is not an unbecoming representative and expression of moral rectitude. There is more moral effect on an audience in a posture which presents the expanded front, than in the side-posture of a fencing-master. There is also more power in the gestures which are made by a body firmly sustained, than by one which reels upon its base. The voice, too, is capable of countless inflections, each one of which is itself a language to the soul. Every shade of sentiment in a discourse has an appropriate modulation of the voice; and if that modulation be not made, that sentiment must lie buried in the bosom of the speaker: the hearer fails, just so far, to participate in it. With many preachers, the exercise of reading the Scriptures and the hymns, appears to be a mere form. This is a great loss to their hearers. The reading of the Scriptures by Dr. John Mason, was said to be a commentary on them. The reading of the hymns by Mr. Nettleton, was often a sermon to the assembly.

All this may be admitted, however, and yet the convic

tion not be received, of the importance of cultivating elocution. Let it then be repeated, that the powers of utterance come under the great law of education, which pertains to the entire man. No physical function of man is capable of greater improvement than the voice. Its compass, its musical quality, its distinctness, its flexibility, its delicate utterance of sentiment, admit of indefinite improvement. The oratorical taste, too, can be cultivated to a very high degree, so that the body shall enter into the most delicate sympathy with the mind and heart, and faithfully symbolize to every other eye and ear all the wonderful workings of the spiritual man. The age of miracles is past. And since it has pleased God, by the foolishness of preaching to save" men; and since preaching employs organs and faculties which we find to be capable of so great improvement, we must believe that God will employ a preacher who has cultivated his oratorical powers, to do a greater amount of good by preaching, than another of equal piety and learning, who has neglected this cultivation. From the present style of the pulpit and the senate, one might suppose that the age of eloquence is past. We believe it is yet to come. The power of a preached gospel is yet to be seen as our eyes have not seen it. And if we may still farther express our anticipations, we believe that three things are demanded for the coming of that age; a stronger faith in God and his word, a profounder knowledge of divine and human things, a thorough cultivation of the functions of speech.

ELOCUTION,

AS A

DEPARTMENT OF PREPARATORY STUDY IN THEOLOGY.

[By the Author of the present volume.]

THE preceding observations will, no doubt, be received with that full weight of effect, which justly belongs to the sources from which they come. Nor would the author feel disposed to present his own thoughts on the subject, were it not for the necessity of meeting objections such as he hears frequently offered to the systematic study of elocution, as either unnecessary or injurious.

A teacher in the department of elocution, has to communicate with minds under every variety of impression on the subject of culture. He meets, occasionally, with students whose lack of self-confidence, and even of a just self-reliance, leads them to despair of effecting anything in the way of successful cultivation, even after the most resolute and persevering exertions. He finds, sometimes, on the other hand, those whose self-esteem induces a perfect satisfaction with their habitual manner, be it what it may, and who are confident that they need little aid from any source but what is within themselves. He secs, perhaps, one individual who has formed an undue estimation of mere tuition and preparatory training, and who evidently expects too much from such aids, and subjects himself too passively to mere processes; and another who, from superficial attention to the merits of the question, or from prejudice or whim, contemns cultivation, as a thing wholly supererogatory, or necessarily artificial and false, or, at best, but mechanical and external.