with such powerful motives as may affect the hearers, and employ their passions to just and worthy ends; to raise their indignation at ingratitude; their horror against cruelty: their compassion for the miserable; their love of virtue and to direct every other passion to its proper objects. This is what Plato calls affecting the minds of an audience; and moving their bowels. Do you understand me, Sir?

B. Very plainly and I see too that eloquence is not a trifling invention to amuse and dazzle people with pompous language; but that it is a very serious art; and serviceable to morality.

A. It is both a serious and a difficult art. For which reason Tully said he had heard several persons declaim in an elegant, engaging manner; but that there were but very few complete orators, who knew how to seize and captivate the heart.

C. I am not surprised at that: for I see but very few who aim at it: nay I freely own that Cicero himself who lays down this rule, seems oftentimes to forget it. What do you think of those rhetorical flowers with which he embellished his harangues? They might amuse the fancy, but could not touch the heart.

Tu

A. We must distinguish, Sir, betwixt "ly's orations. Those he composed in his 'when he chiefly aimed at establishing - have oft-times the gay defect

youth

his character,,

you speak of. He was then full of ambition; and far more concerned for his own fame, than for the justice of his cause. And this will always be the case when people employ one to plead for them, who regards their business no farther than as it gives him an opportunity of distinguishing himself, and of shining in his profession. Thus we find that among the Romans their pleading at the bar, was oft-times nothing else but a pompous declamation. After all, we must own that Tully's youthful and most elaborate orations

• Nunc causa perorata, res ipsa et periculi magnitudo, C. Aquilli, cogere videtur, ut te, atque eos, qui tibi in consilio sunt, obsecret, obteste turque P. Quintius per senectutem ac solitudinem suam, nihil aliud, nisi ut vestræ naturæ, bonitatique obsequamini: ut, cum veritas hæc faciat, plus hujus inopia possit ad misericordian quam illius opes ad crudelitatem-si quæ pudore ornamenta sibi peperit, Nævi, ea potest contra petulantiam, te defendente, obtinere; spes est et hunc miserum atque infelicem aliquando tandem posse consistere. Sin et poterit Naevius id quod libet ; et ei libebit, quod non licet; quid agendum est? Qui Deus appellandus est? Cujus hominis fides imploranda ?--Ab ipso [Naevio] repudiatus, ab amicis ejus non sublevatus; ab omni magistratu agitatus atque perterritus, quem præter te appellet, [C. Aquilli] habet neminem; tibi se, tibi suas omnes opes fortunasque commendat: tibi committit existimationem ac spem reliquæ vitæ. Multis vexatus contumeliis, plurimis jactatus injuriis non turpis ad te, sed miser confugit; e fundo ornatissimo dejectus, ignominiis omnibus appetitus--itaque te hoc obsecrat, C. Aquilli, ut quam existimationem, quam honestatem injudicium tuum, prope acta jam ætate decursaque attulit, eam liceat ei secum ex hoc loco efferre ; ne is, de cujus officio nemo unquam dubitavit, sexagesimo denique anno, dedecore, macula, turpissimaque ignominia notetur; ne ornamentis ejus omnibus, Sex. Naevius pro spoliis abutatur; ne per te ferat, quo minus, quæ existimatio P. Quintium usque ad senectutem perduxit, eadem usque ad rogum prosequatur. Cic. Orat. pro P. Quintia.

shew a great deal of his moving and persuasive art. But to form a just notion of it, we must observe the harangues he made in his more advanced age, for the necessities of the republic. For then, the experience he had in the weightiest affairs, the love of liberty, and the fear of those calamities that hung over his head, made him display the utmost efforts of his eloquence. When he endeavoured to support and revive expiring liberty, and to animate the commonwealth against Antony his enemy; you do not see him use points of wit and quaint antitheses: he is then truly eloquent. Every thing seems artless, as it ought to be when one is vehement. With a negligent air he delivers the most natural and affecting sentiments; and says every thing that can move and animate the passions.

C. You have often spoke of witty conceits and quaint turns. Pray, what do you mean by these expressions? For I can scarce distinguish those witty turns from the other ornaments of discourse. In my opinion, all the embellishments of speech flow from wit, and a vigorous fancy.

A. But Tully thinks, there are many expressions that owe all their beauty and ornament to their force and propriety; and to the nature of the subject they are applied to.

C. I do not exactly understand these terms: be pleased to shew me in a familiar way, how I may readily distinguish betwixt a fash of

wit, (or quaint turn,) and a solid ornament, or* noble, delicate thought.

A.

Reading and observation will teach you best there are a hundred different sorts of witty conceits.

C. But pray, Sir, tell me at least some general mark by which I may know them : is it affectation?

A. Not every kind of affectation: but a fond desire to please, and shew one's wit.

C. This gives me some little light: but I want still some distinguishing marks, to direct my judgment.

A. I will give you one then, which perhaps will satisfy you. We have seen that eloquence consists not only in giving clear, convincing proofs; but likewise in the art of moving the passions. Now in order to move them, we must be able to paint them well; with their various objects and effects. So that I think the whole art of oratory may be reduced to proving, painting, and raising the passions. Now all those pretty, sparkling, quaint thoughts that do not tend to one of these ends, are only witty conceits.

* True wit is nature to advantage dress'd,

What oft was thought, but ne'er so well express'd;
Something, whose truth convinc'd at sight we find,
That gives us back the image of our mind.

As shades more sweetly recommend the light;
So modest plainness sets off sprightly wit.

For works may have more wit than does them good;
As bodies perish through excess of blood.

ESSAY ON CRITICISM.

C. What do you mean by painting? I never heard that term applied to rhetoric.

A. To* paint, is not only to describe things; but to represent the circumstances of them, in such at lively, sensible manner, that the hearer shall fancy he almost sees them with his eyes. For instance: if a dry historian were to give an account of Dido's death, he would only say, she was overwhelmed with sorrow after the departure of Æneas; and that she grew weary of her life, so went up to the top of her palace, and, lying down on her funeral pile, she stabbed herself. Now these words would inform you of the fact; but you do not see it. When you read the story in Virgil, he sets it before your eyes. When he represents all the circumstances of Dido's despair; describes her wild rage; and death already staring in her aspect; when he makes her speak at the sight of the picture and sword that Æneas left, your imagination transports you to Carthage; where you see the Trojan fleet leaving the shore, and the queen quite inconsolable. You enter into all her passions, and into the sentiments of the

* See Longinus §. xv.

Plus est evidentia, vel ut alii dicunt, repraesentatio, quam perspicuitas et illud quidem patet: haec se quodammodo ostendit-magna virtus est, res de quibus loquimur, clare atque ut cerni videantur, enunciare. Non enim satis efficit, neque ut debet plene dominatur oratio, si usque ad aures volet,atque ea sibi judex de quibus cognoscit,narrari credit,non exprimi, et oculis mentis ostendi-atque hujus summae, judicio quidem meo, virtutis facillima est via Naturam intueamur, hanc sequamur.QUINTIL. lib. viii. c. 3.