Mr. Bright was of opinion that extemporaneous speaking must be resorted to by a man, who knows his subject, and has a good hold of it, otherwise writing is necessary. He (Mr. Bright) wrote out the most important and highly worked passages, and got them by heart. The rest he filled in as he went along. Mr. Gladstone used notes only for facts, and the order of his points; and trusted exclusively to the moment for his words. Lord Palmerston always spoke extemporaneously, and scarcely ever referred to a paper. Mr. Disraeli only used notes for dates and figures. He prepared his speeches with great care, grouping his points artistically, and polishing up his epigrams. Lord Granville and Earl Russell both spoke off-hand.

A man may be called

passion or sentiment with into the breast of another.

eloquent, who transfers the which he is which he is moved himself,

-GOLDSMITH.

Eloquence is the best speech of the best soul; the right eloquence needs no bell to call the people together, and no constable to keep them.

-EMERSON.

True eloquence is the art of placing truth in the most advantageous light for convincing and persuading men. -SHERIDAN.

Eloquence may sometimes effect its object by means of splendid images and sublime expressions, but that alone which springs from the heart takes the certain road to success.

-ELIZABETH STARLING.

Discretion of speech is superior to eloquence.

All eloquence, which is affected or over-laboured or merely imitative, though otherwise excellent, carries with it an air of servility, nor is it free to follow its own impulses.

-BACON.

In pulpit eloquence, the grand difficulty lies here; to give the subject all the dignity it so fully deserves, without attaching any importance to ourselves.

--COLTON.

True eloquence consists in saying all that is proper and nothing more.

-ROCHEFOUCAULD.

That which eloquence ought to reach is not a particular skill in telling a story, or neatly summing up evidence, or arguing logically, or dexterously addressing the prejudice of a company, no, but a taking sovereign possession of the audience. Him we call an artist who shall play on an assembly of men as a master on the keys of the piano-who, seeing the people furious, shall soften and compose them, shall draw them when he will to laughter and to tears. Bring him to his audience, and be they who they may, coarse or refined, pleased or displeased, sulky or savage, with their opinions in the keeping of a confessor, or with their opinions in their bank-safes, he shall have them pleased and humoured as he chooses, and they shall carry and execute that which he bids them. Such is the despotic power, which those who are truly eloquent wield.

-EMERSON.

Considering the word (eloquence) in its ordinary sense, what are its essentials ?

I.-Without truth and moral dignity in the background, nothing can be graceful, nothing can prevail. This is the soul of eloquence.

II. You must have fact. This is the substance. It is always a good rule, never to attempt to say anything unless you have something positive to say.

III.-You must have the power of expression. This is the action of eloquence, and herein are comprised all the artificial graces of delivery which we have to learn by culture.

There is one thing in eloquence which art can seldom supply-a good voice.*

*

"THE CENTRAL HINDU COLLEGE MAGAZINE."

The poet is born such; the orator is made such.
--CICERO.

It is said that a man must be born a Poet; but that he can make himself an Orator. Nascitur Poeta, fit Orator. This means, that to be a poet, one must be born. with a certain degree of strength and vivacity of mind; but that attention, reading, and labour are sufficient to form an orator.

--LORD CHESTERFIELD.

I shall not spend any time upon the circumstances of Demosthenes' life; they are well-known. The strong ambition which he discovered to excel in the art of speak

*From a Communication by An Erode, F. T. S.

ing; the unsuccessfulness of his first attempts; his unwearied perseverance in surmounting all the disadvantages that arose from his person and address; his shutting himself up in a cave, that he might study with less distraction; his declaiming by the sea-shore, that he might accustom himself to the noise of a tumultuous assembly, and with pebbles in his mouth, that he might correct a defect in his speech; his practising at home with a naked sword hanging o'er his shoulders that he might check an ungraceful motion, to which he was subject; all those circumstances are very encouraging to such as study Eloquence, as they show how far art and application may avail, for acquiring an excellence which nature seemed unwilling to grant us.

-BLAIR.

There are two things which must always combine to form an orator. The first is good matter, the second good manner.

-J. FLEMING.

Remember that there never has been, that there never will, there never can be, a truly great orator without a great purpose, a great cause behind him. -RALPH WALDO TRINE.

There is as much eloquence in the tone of voice, in the look, and in the gesture of an orator, as in the choice of his words.

-ROCHEFOUCAULD.

Those orators who give us much noise and many words, but little argument and less wit, and who are most loud when they are the least lucid, should take a

lesson from the great volume of Nature; she often gives us the lightning even without the thunder, but never the thunder without the lightning.

-COLTON.

Trained and experienced orators, venerable old men,
Ponder well, then give utterance to their thoughts:
Proceed not with speech inconsiderately;

Speak well if thou speak tardily, what matter?
Reflect, then speak;

And cease before they cry "Enough."

By the faculty of speech (it is that) man is superior to the brute.

A brute-beast is better than thou, if thou say not what is right.

-SADI'S GULISTAN.*

Oratory is to be estimated on principles different from those which are applied to other productions. Truth is the object of philosophy and history. Truth is the object even of those works which are peculiarly called works of fiction, but which, in fact, bear the same relation to history, which algebra bears to arithmetic. The merit of poetry in its wildest forms, still consists in its truth,-truth conveyed to the understanding, not directly by the words, but circuitously by means of imaginative associations, which serve as its conductors. The object of oratory alone is not truth, but persuasion. The admiration of the multitude does not make Moore a greater poet than Coleridge, or Beattie a greater philosopher than Berkeley. But the criterion of eloquence is different. A speaker, who exhausts the whole philosophy of a question, who displays every grace of style, yet produces

* Translated by Platts.