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address was so exquisitely fascinating as to dissolve fierce jealousies and animosities, lull suspicion, and beguile the subtlest diplomacy of its arts. His fascinating smile and winning tongue, equally with his sharp sword, swayed the destinies of empires. Before the bland, soft-spoken commander, "grimvisaged war," in the person of Charles XII. of Sweden, "smoothed his wrinkled front;" and the fiery warrior-king, at his appeal, bade adieu to the grand and importunate suitor for his alliance, Louis XIV., whom it was his great mission to defeat and humble. It was by the same charm of manner that he was able so long to keep together the members of the grand alliance against France, and direct them, in spite of their clashing interests, their jealousies, and their perpetual dissensions, to the main object of the war.

IMPRESSIVE ORATORY.

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Every one is familiar with the magic effect of manner on oratory. Lord Chesterfield has given us an instance of this in his legislative career. Being asked to procure the adoption of the Gregorian Calendar by England, he introduced into Parliament a bill for that purpose. But then," he adds, "my difficulty began. I was to bring in this bill, which was necessarily composed of law jargon and astronomical calculations, to both of which I was an utter stranger. However, it was absolutely necessary to make the House of Lords think that I knew something of the matter, and also make them believe that they knew something of it themselves, which they did For my own part, I could just as soon have

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talked Celtic or Sclavonian to them as astronomy, and they would have understood me full as well; so I resolved to do better than speak to the purpose, and to please, instead of informing them. . . . I was particularly attentive to the choice of my words, to the harmony and roundness of my periods, to my elocution, to my action. This succeeded, and ever will succeed; they thought I informed, because I pleased them; and many of them said I had made the whole very clear to them, when, God knows, I had not even attempted it. Lord Macclesfield, who had the greatest share in forming the bill, and who is one of the greatest mathematicians and astronomers in Europe, spoke afterward with infinite knowledge and all the clearness that so intricate a matter would admit of; but as his words, his periods and his utterance were not nearly so good as mine, the preference was most unanimously, though most unjustly, given to me.'

Chesterfield also said of the Duke of Argyle that he was the most impressive speaker he ever heard in his life. He ravished his audience, "not by his matter, but by his manner of delivering it. I was captivated, like others," continues Chesterfield; "but when I went home and coolly considered what he had said, stripped of all those ornaments with which he had dressed it, I often found the matter flimsy, the argument weak; and I was convinced of the power of those adventitious concurring circumstances which it is the ignorance of mankind to call trifling." Lord Chatham was a wonderfully eloquent man, but his manner added to his eloquence. The delivery of Lord Mansfield, the silver-tongued Murray, had such

ease, grace, and suavity that his bare narrative of a case was said to be worth any other man's argument. The student of English history, as he reads Wilberforce's speeches, wonders at his reputation; but, had he heard them from the lips of the orator, delivered in tones full, liquid, and penetrating, with the matchless accompaniments of attitude, gesture and expression, he would have found that a dramatic delivery can convert even commonplace into brilliant rhetoric. Few men have influenced more powerfully the persons with whom they have come in contact than Bishop Fenelon. The secret of his sway over hearts was his uniform courtesy, a politeness springing from a profound love for his fellow-beings, of whatever rank or class. Lord Peterborough, the distinguished English general, said of him, that he was "a delicious man,"-that "he had to run away from him to prevent his making him a Christian."

It is sometimes thought in this day and age of the world that if a person pretends to be very polite and agreeable and obliging, that he or she lacks essential force of character-is, in fact, a little "soft." But nothing is wider of the real truth. It is true, a man may push his way through the world by main force. But advancement so gained is gained by a great waste of power. The same abilities accompanied with prepossessing manners, would have achieved far more brilliant results. No doubt, by the use of mere brute force one may make a certain amount of impression; and so, too, may a soldier hew down his foes with an old-fashioned battle-axe or with a scythe, but would he be wise in preferring such a weapon to the keen Damascus blade?

COURTESY.

"Hear every man upon his favorite theme,
And ever be more knowing than you seem.
The lowest genius will afford some light
Or give a hint that had escaped your sight."
-STILLINGFLEET.

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ILITARY men as a class, are courteous the world over, attention to manner being a part of their training. Besides, true courage and courtesy always go hand in hand. The bravest men are the most forgiving, and the most anxious to avoid quarrels. Canon Kingsley observes that the love and admiration which that truly brave and loving man, Sir Sidney Smith, won from every one, rich and poor, with whom he came in contact, seems to have arisen from the one fact, that, without perhaps having any such conscious intention, he treated rich and poor, his own servants and the noblemen, his guests, alike, and alike courteously, cheerfully, considerately, affectionately, so leaving a blessing and reaping a blessing wherever he went. It was said of Sir John Franklin that he was a man "who never turned his back upon a danger, yet of great tenderness."

At a late period in life the Duke of Wellington wrote to a friend: "I am not in the habit of deciding upon such matters hastily, or in anger; and the proof of this is, that I never had a quarrel with any man in my life!" Considering the long and varied career, civil and military, of "The Iron Duke," and that, too, in different parts of the globe; the countless persons, of the most opposite qualities, with whom he had to deal; his constant vexations in the Peninsula with Spanish pride and suspicion, and redtapeism at home; the habits of his army at that time; and his trials in political life, it is truly wonderful that the great captain, whose truthfulness was extreme, could at the age of sixty have thus spoken of himself. It is evident that he could never have said it, had he not learned, before commanding others, to command himself, watching and governing his own feelings with the same coolness and selfpossession with which he handled his troops on the battlefield.

PLEASANT ADDRESS.

Hundreds of men have owed their start in life to their winning address. It is said that some years ago in England a curate of narrow income but kindly disposition, perceived two elderly spinsters, in oldfashioned costume, beset with jeers and jibes by a mob of men and boys lounging round the church porch while the bell was ringing for church service. Forcing his way through the crowd, he gave one lady his right arm and the other his left, led them both into church, and escorted them politely up the

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