They embarrass only at the beginning, when they cross the track of established habits. Rendered familiar, they rather aid than retard delivery, and rather convey delight than excite disgust. If they destroy bad habits of speaking and superinduce such as are natural, they will prevent perhaps much sin in the hearers of the gospel, and prolong the lives of some of its preachers. Many a good pair of lungs will be delivered from the tearing and destructive effects of vociferation, and heads accustomed to nod in broken slumbers in the house of God, will be erect and attentive. If we are asked why some of those who attempt to practise on Walker's rules succeed so ill, we reply that his system has not till now been reduced to method, and rendered practicable; and that those who have attempted to follow it and have not succeeded, have either abused it, or have spent too little time in practising according to its principles. Perhaps too, their taste or organs were so defective, that they never would have learned to speak well, by any method of practice they would have been likely to adopt. The measures adopted in the generality of our schools and academies with the view of forming orators, we have looked upon as utterly inadequate. In the first place, too little time is allotted to the stu dy of elocution. An hour or two in a week, is all which is allowed by most of our schools, colleges, and higher seminaries. Young men, we know, are supposed to practise in private, before they appear in public to declaim. But many neglect this almost entirely. The chief advantage it would give them in most cases, should they pursue it, would be confidence and strength and compass of voice. As young men commonly declaim, they pay little regard to discriminating emphasis, and to variety of inflec tions and modulation. They consequently form, in almost every instance, a style of elocution pompous and stiff. If the student should at length discover that his speaking is unnatural and should resolve to change it, he must settle his own system of elocution; form his habits upon this system; and be his own instructor. All this may be done, yet few young men have the energy and perseverance requisite. Called to speak but seldom, the student feels public declamation to be an intolerable burden, decries it as a childish employment of little service, and uses all bis ingenuity to avoid it. Time is not the only thing wanted in our schools, for the successful study of elocution. Instructors are often lamentably deficient in the attention they bestow upon this department. A pupil declaims in their presence a few times only in the course of a year. Their remarks on his speaking are general and extemporaneous. They do not study his manner faithfully till they understand his faults and excellencies as a speaker; and, of course they are unable to give him those minute instructions which are alone of much value to the student of elocution. Exhortations may be dealt out from time to time, from the tutorial, professorial, or presidential chair; but however earnest these exhortations, they will be disregarded so soon as the pupil perceives that they are not followed up in the habitual instructions of those who dispense them. He too will easily lose his interest in this truly important subject, and without resistance, will follow the multitude to do evil. No college faculty should be considered complete till it has its professor of rhetoric, nor should any board of trustees be satisfied till they have so arranged the studies of college as to allow him time and opportunity for a faithful drilling of every student. Public declamation, in our apprehension, is not enough. This should be permitted only after the most careful study in private, of the meaning of the composition to be delivered, and the most careful practice in giving to each word distinctness, with proper stress and inflection, and to the whole piece the modulation its spirit demands. One of the canons of interpretation is;-The interpreter should endeavour to throw himself into the circumstances of the writer. The same should be the unviolated canon of every student who speaks the writings of another. He should acquaint himself, and his instructor should see that he does so, with the circumstances under which the speech was originally delivered, the character of the assembly, and the design of the orator. Let a pupil speak one brief extract from Demosthenes after such preparation, and it will be of more benefit to him, than a hundred of the ditties which students in academies and colleges too often speak. Then, to use the often quoted language of Sheridan," within, the memory, the judgment, the passions, [of the pupil,] are all busy without, every muscle, every nerve is exerted; not a feature, not a limb but speaks. The organs of the body, attuned to the exertions of the mind, through the kindred organs of the hearers, instantaneously vibrate those energies from soul to soul. Notwithstanding the diversity of minds in the audience; by the lightning of eloquence they are melted into one mass-the whole assembly, actuated in one and the same way, become, as it were, but one man, and have but one voice-Let us march against Philip, let us fight for our liberties-let us conquer or die! It is obvious that this course will require much attention from instructors in this department; a laborious study of the pupil's manner; and constant exertions to induce him to throw off bad habits, and adopt the tones of earnest and eloquent conversation. And it will require continual watchfulness on their part, to forewarn the student of dangers which threaten him from various causes. We say these things not because we are disposed to criminate those gentlemen who are already labouring in this department in some of our colleges. We can appreciate the arduousness of their office, and sympathize in the tedium of their miscellaneous and critical labours. We are happy to notice the testimony which Dr. Porter bears to the results of their exertions. "The fifteen years in which I have been connected with a Theological Seminary, which receives its members from all the colleges, have enabled me to observe, as I have done with much satisfaction, a gradual and growing advance, in our educated young men, as to the spirit of delivery. This advance has been especially obvious since several of these colleges have had able Professors of Rhetoric and Oratory, a department of instruction in which it is presumed none of them can much longer remain deficient, consistently with the claims of public opinion." Until something effectual is done, which shall break down and root up bad habits of speaking; the pulpit, and the bar, and the senate-house will not often resound with the stirring note of eloquence. Timely admonitions would guard the youthful speaker against the evil tendencies from which he will otherwise suffer. Were young preachers told that they would be tempted, through diffidence and other causes, to hurry in their delivery, to speak on a key too high and uniform; and thus to lack that unction which causes the hearer's soul to melt, till it can pour itself out like water before God, he would be saved much pain and trouble. Ministers who have preached with hurry and vociferation till they have injured their lungs, have, when they perceived their error, suddenly exchanged their whole style of preaching for one that is calm, manly, simple, and subduing. Their gaudy and youthful style of composition, has at the same time given place to that simple way of telling what the gospel is, and how it should induce us to act, which alone touches the heart and changes it to kindness and love. 66 ing thus finished the circuit of his travels, he returned to Italy after an excursion of two years, extremely improved, and changed as it were into a new man; the vehemence of his voice and action was moderated; the redundancy of his style and fancy corrected; his lungs strengthened; and his whole constitution confirmed.'-Middleton's Life of Cicero, vol. I. pp. 43, 47, 48. But We will close this article with Cicero himself fell into the same some brief account of the mode of habit, and to correct it, journeyed instruction in elocution, practised to Athens, and Rhodes, that he among the Greeks and Romans; might avail himself of the aid of the as serving to confirm what we have best masters and orators. "My advanced. We are not so blind in body," says he, was very weak our veneration for the ancients, as to and emaciated, my neck long and believe that their orators excel ours small, which is a habit I thought lia- in every point of comparison. Ours, ble to great risk of life if engaged we believe, have more good logic in any fatigue or labour of the lungs; and argument than theirs, and we and it gave greater alarm to those have a greater number of eloquent who had a regard for me, that I men than they could boast. used to speak without any remis- their eloquence evidently produced sion or variation, with the utmost a much greater effect on the popustretch of my voice, and great agi- lace than ours. This may be owtation of my body; when my ing, in part, to the greater excitafriends, therefore, and physicians bility of these nations, especially of advised me to meddle no more with the people of Greece, and in part causes, I resolved to run any ha- to the popular form of their instizard, rather than quit the hopes of tutions. But it cannot be accountglory which I had proposed to my- ed for wholly, without supposing a self from pleading: but when I con- superior style of elocution in their sidered, that by managing my voice orators. The principal causes of and changing my way of speaking, this superiority were two. The I might both avoid danger and speak Greeks and Romans were a hearwith more ease, I took a resolution ing and not a reading people. Their of travelling into Asia, merely for books were few, and they gained an opportunity of correcting my their information chiefly by the ormanner of speaking. I went to gans of hearing. The instructions Rhodes and applied myself to Molo, of their philosophers were not in whom I had heard before at Rome, the shape of lectures, but were who was both an experienced plead- communicated in familiar converse; er and a fine writer, and was par- their poets and historians recited ticularly expert in observing the their compositions with all the faults of his scholars, as well as in grace they could assume, and the his mode of teaching and improv- whole process of instruction, or of ing them. His greatest trouble mental amusement was managed in with me was to restrain the exuber- the easy and delightful tones of conance of a juvenile fancy, always versation. Hence fewer bad haready to overflow its banks, within bits of elocution were formed among its due and proper channel." Hav-them, than with us; and more of what are called natural speakers existed among their learned men. This was especially the case at Athens, where a defective articulation, a false pronunciation or quantity, was visited with the hissing of the populace. Another cause of their superior elocution is, the great pains which were taken in forming youth to just habits of speaking. Quintillian and Chrysippus would have the nurse who taught the child, destined for public life, to articulate, free from every fault of speech. Women were sought as nurses for the infant orator, who were gifted with fine and liquid voices, and spake with propriety and elegance. (Quintil. Lib. I. cap. I.) It was deemed a fortunate circumstance if the parents of the boy, especially if the mother, spake with ease and refinement. (Quintil. Lib. I. c. I. Cic. Brut.) Lelia is mentioned with enthusiasm by Cicero for her mild and unaffected elocution, (Cic. de Orat. L. III. c. XII.) and the Gracchi, celebrated for their sweet voices and interesting delivery, were nurtured, he says, not so much in their mother's lap, as in the elegance and purity of her language. The whole of this family, as well as that of Curio, were distinguished for their powers of elocution, and this fact is attributed by Cicero, to the inimitable examples each had when children, in their parents. (Cic. ad Brut.) Quintillian also directs that regard should be had to propriety and elegance of speech in selecting playmates for the young orator. Great pains were taken to modulate the voice as soon as the pupil was able to read. He was then taught the rudiments of delivery, and for the purpose of practice was committed to those who were most skilled in *Of course they would not approve that absurd and ungrammatical mode of talking to their babes, which many excellent mothers practise. VOL. I.-No. VII. 48 the art of speaking. His recitations were frequent and laborious. As soon as the youth attained a suitable age, he was put under the care of the rhetoricians, with whom he remained till prepared for public life. Cicero was trained up in this discipline, and was favoured by a father, anxious mainly for the education of his sons, with the best masters of elocution in Rome; who were generally emigrants from Greece. He pursued all his studies in the department of eloquence with an assiduity truly astonishing. "He heard the daily lectures of the most eminent orators of Greece, and was perpetually composing somewhat at home, and declaiming under their correction." (Middleton's Life of Cic. vol. I. p. 37.) After having practised for a time in his profession of the law, he went, as we have seen, to Greece and Asia, to correct some bad habits into which he had run in the vehemence of his early attempts. Even amid the laborious duties of his Sicilian quaestorship, he did not suffer a day to pass without some exercise in rhetoric. Crassus, Hortensius, Isocrates, and Demosthenes laboured with great care and perseverance in the same department of study. The Cæsars, Pompey, Severus, and some other illustrious generals, continued their rhetorical exercises amid the severe duties of the camp. We need not wonder then, that the ancients, while they fall below us in science and various literature, should have been so far our superiors in moving, delighting, and persuading men, since they so assiduously and enthusiastically cultivated the art of delivery, which we so unjustly and tamely neglect. That we are right in attributing much of the superiority of the ancient orators to their elocution, we will adduce a case affording strong presumptive evidence. No one, at all acquainted with the writings of Demosthenes, can believe that he ever was wanting in intellectual strength, or ever exhibited a production without inerit. But before he cultivated his delivery, he was hissed from the rostrum ; while, after he had acquired a proper and manly elocution, he was crowned with unexampled success. His cave and his lamp will ever be mentioned as a stimulus and encouragement to those who are suffering from unnatural habits; and his perseverance to obtain honour from man will always be a reproach to those who, with the ministry of Jesus before them, and the salvation of souls as the object of their lives, shall be too indolent to cultivate an art which, at least, will be an useful auxiliary in their important work. Though we mean to be cautious how we join in the hue and cry for reform in our colleges, we confess that we should rejoice to see a radical improvement in the mode of teaching delivery through all our seminaries of learning. Especially should we rejoice to see those who are training up to be sons of the church, free from the influence of bad habits of elocution. We know eloquence will not save the soul. We know good elocution is not, of course, eloquence. We know there is an unction in a preacher whose heart is touched by the Holy Spirit, which does more than any thing else to affect an assembly, but we see not why a good speaker may not have this unction as well as any other man, and why, having it, he will not speak with greater power than one whose delivery is disagreeable. We shall be very sorry if we have said aught which shall lead young preachers to depend on oratory to the neglect of deep and pious feeling; but we shall feel happy if they will turn from our page encouraged to pursue eloquence in strict subserviency to the glory of God and the salvation of souls. Juvenile Psalmody: prepared for the Use of Sunday Schools, at the request of the Directors of the Western Sunday School Union. By THOMAS HASTINGS, Author of a Dissertation on Musical Taste, one of the Editors of Musica Sacra, &c. Utica. At CHURCH Music was formerly taught in Scotland, at the parish school, along with other branches of a common education. Parents thought it proper that their children should know how to praise God in psalms as well as to read his holy word. Hence the precentor, or church-clerk was commonly the school-master of the parish. length, however, a noted teacher of psalmody devised a Plan for teaching a crowd," which introduced singing-schools. The practice of making psalmody a branch of common school instruction is now in use among the Shakers in our country. We remember having heard several entire classes, after an exercise in spelling, unitedly sing a hymn with seriousness and propriety. No one was excluded from the exercise for harshness of voice, but all joined (except such as were quite young,) and discipline had made them all very tolerable singers. We have no desire that sacred music should be introduced into our school-houses; but we think there is a peculiar propriety in its being made the subject of attention in our sabbath schools. Infant voices should be early taught to hymn their Maker's praise, and at the sabbath school, this sacred art may be early and gradually acquired, while at the same time, that solemnity of mind will be cherished, which should ever characterize this part of divine worship. At the singing school" our young people learn indeed to sing, but with all the noise and unbeseeming mirth which are usually attendant on such meetings, a just sense of |