SECTION I. THE INTRODUCTION. HOEVER has an ambition to be heard in a crowd, must press, and squeeze, and thrust, and climb, with indefatigable pains, till he has exalted himself to a certain degree of altitude above them. Now, in all assemblies, though you wedge them ever so close, we may observe this peculiar property, that over their heads there is room enough, but how to reach it is the difficult point; it being as hard to get quit of number, as of hell; -evadere ad auras, Hoc opus, hic labor est.t-VIRGIL. To this end, the philosopher's way, in all ages, has been by erecting certain edifices in the air: but, * Democritus, dum ridet, philosophatur.-BENTLEY. + But to return, and view the cheerful skies; In this the task and mighty labour lies.-DRYDEN. whatever practice and reputation these kind of structures have formerly possessed, or may still continue in, not excepting even that of Socrates, when he was suspended in a basket to help contemplation,* I think, with due submission, they seem to labour under two inconveniences. First, That the foundations being laid too high, they have been often out of sight, and ever out of hearing. Secondly, That the materials being very transitory, have suffered much from inclemencies of air, especially in these north-west regions. Therefore, towards the just performance of this great work, there remain but three methods that I can think of; whereof the wisdom of our ancestors being highly sensible, has, to encourage all aspiring adventurers, thought fit to erect three wooden machines for the use of those orators, who desire to talk much without interruption. These are, the pulpit, the ladder, and the stage itinerant. For, as to the bar, though it be compounded of the same matter, and designed for the same use, it cannot, however, be well allowed the honour of a fourth, by reason of its level or inferior situation exposing it to perpetual interruption from collaterals. Neither can the bench itself, though raised to a proper eminency, put in a better claim, whatever its advocates insist on. For, if they please to look into the original design of its erection, and the circumstances or adjuncts subservient to that design, they will soon acknowledge the present practice, exactly correspondent to the primitive institution, and both to answer the etymology of the name, which in the Phoenician tongue is a word of great signification, importing, if literally interpreted, the place of sleep; but, in common acceptation, a seat well bolstered * See the "Clouds" of Aristophanes. and cushioned, for the repose of old and gouty limbs senes ut in otia tuta recedant. Fortune being indebted to them this part of retaliation, that, as formerly, they have long talked, while others slept; so now they may sleep as long, while others talk. But if no other argument could occur, to exclude the bench and the bar from the list of oratorial machines, it were sufficient that the admission of them would overthrow a number, which I was resolved to establish, whatever argument it might cost me; in imitation of that prudent method observed by many other philosophers and great clerks, whose chief art in division has been to grow fond of some proper mystical number, which their imaginations have rendered sacred, to a degree, that they force common reason to find room for it, in every part of nature; reducing, including, and adjusting, every genus and species within that compass, by coupling some against their wills, and banishing others at any rate. Now, among all the rest, the profound number THREE is that which has most employed my sublimest speculations, nor ever without wonderful delight. There is now in the press, and will be published next term, a panegyrical essay of mine upon this number; wherein I have, by most convincing proofs, not only reduced the senses and the elements under its banner, but brought over several deserters from its two great rivals, SEVEN and NINE.* * The numbers seven and nine were supposed to have a certain inherent and fatal power annexed to them, especially in computing the years of human life. Hence the great importance formerly attached to the sixty-third year of human life, which number, being produced by the multiplication of seven by nine, was termed the Grand Climacteric. The arrival of this æra was dreaded, and it was accounted a favour of fate, and a pledge of longevity, when it was safely passed over.-See MORE's Vulgar Errors, Book iv. chap. 12. Now, the first of these oratorial machines, in place, as well as dignity, is the pulpit. Of pulpits there are in this island several sorts; but I esteem only that made of timber from the sylva Caledonia, which agrees very well with our climate. If it be upon its decay, it is the better both for conveyance of sound, and for other reasons to be mentioned by and by. The degree of perfection in shape and size, I take to consist in being extremely narrow, with little ornament; and, best of all, without a cover, (for, by ancient rule, it ought to be the only uncovered vessel in every assembly, where it is rightfully used,) by which means, from its near resemblance to a pillory, it will ever have a mighty influence on human ears. Of ladders I need say nothing: it is observed by foreigners themselves, to the honour of our country, that we excel all nations in our practice and understanding of this machine. The ascending orators do not only oblige their audience in the agreeable delivery, but the whole world in the early publication of their speeches; which I look upon as the choicest treasury of our British eloquence, and whereof, I am informed, that worthy citizen and bookseller, Mr. John Dunton, has made a faithful and painful collection, which he shortly designs to publish, in twelve volumes in folio, illustrated with copper-plates. A work highly useful and curious, and altogether worthy of such a hand.* * Mr. John Dunton, as we have elsewhere found ourselves required to notice, was a broken bookseller, who commenced author in despair; a sinking in rank from which it may easily be guessed he derived little profit. He published his own memoirs under the modest title of his Life and Errors, in which he characterizes every bookseller, publisher, stationer and printer in London; and brings up the rear of the catalogue with the character of seventeen principal binders. This biography he perhaps substituted for the scheme recommended in the text. VOL. X. E The last engine of orators is the stage itinerant,* erected with much sagacity, sub Jove pluvio, in triviis et quadriviis. It is the great seminary of the two former, and its orators are sometimes preferred to the one, and sometimes to the other, in proportion to their deservings; there being a strict and perpetual intercourse between all three. From this accurate deduction it is manifest, that for obtaining attention in public, there is of necessity required a superior position of place. But, although this point be generally granted, yet the cause is little agreed in; and it seems to me, that very few philosophers have fallen into a true, natural solution of this phenomenon. The deepest account, and the most fairly digested of any I have yet met with, is this; that air being a heavy body, and therefore, according to the system of Epicurus, continually descending, must needs be more so, when loaded and pressed down by words; which are also bodies of much weight and gravity, as it is manifest from those deep impressions they make and leave upon us; and therefore must be delivered from a due altitude, or else they will neither carry a good aim, nor fall down with a sufficient force. Corpoream quoque enim vocem constare fatendum est, LUCR. Lib. 4. And I am the readier to favour this conjecture, * The mountebank's stage, whose orators the author determines either to the gallows, or a conventicle.-H. † In the open air, and in streets where the greatest resort is.-H. Lucretius, Lib. 2. § 'Tis certain then, that voice that thus can wound, Is all material; body every sound. |