and cogency which renders eloquence powerful: a defect owing, perhaps, in part, to the genius of the people, which leads them to attend fully as much to ornament as to fubstance; and in part, to the nature of their government, which, by excluding public fpeaking from having much influence on the conduct of public affairs, deprives eloquence of its best opportunity for acquiring nerves and ftrength. Hence the pulpit is the principal field which is left for their elequence. The members, too of the French academy give harangues at their admiffion, in which genius often appears; but labouring under the misfortune of having no fubject to difcourfe upon, they run commonly into flattery and panegyric, the most barren and infipid of all topics. "I obferved before, that the Greeks and Romans afpired to a more fublime fpecies of eloquence, than is aimed at by the moderns. Theirs was of the vehement and paffionate kind, by which they endeavoured to inflame the minds of their hearers, and hurry their imaginations away; and, fuitable to this vehemence of thought, was their vehemence of gefture and action: the fupplofio pedis," the 66 percuffio frontis & femoris," were, as we learn from Cicero's witings, ufual geftures among them at the bar; though now they would be recokoned extravagant any where, except upon the stage. Modern cloquence is much more cool and temperate; and in Great Britain efpecially, has confined itself almost wholly to the argumentative and rational. It is much of that fpecies which the ancient critics' called the "Tenuis," or "Subtilis," which aims at convincing and inftructing, rather then affecting the paffions, and affumes a tone not much higher 3 than common argument and difcourse. "Several reafons may be given, why modern eloquence has been fo limited, and humble in its efforts. In the first place, I am of opinion, that this change muft, in part, be afcribed to that correct turn of thinking, which has been so much studied in modern times. It can hardly be doubted, that, in many efforts of mere genius, the ancient Greeks and Romans excelled us; but, on the other hand, that, in accuracy and clofenefs of reafoning on many fubjects, we have fome advantage over them, ought, I think, to be admitted alfo. In proportion as the world has advanced, philofophy has made greater progrefs. A certain ftrictnefs of good fenfe has, in this island particularly, been cultivated, and introduced into every fubject. Hence we are more on our guard against the flowers of elocution; we are on the watch; we are jealous of being deceived by oratory. Our public fpeakers are obliged to be more reserved than the antients, in their attempts to elevate the imagination, and warm the paffions; and, by the influence of prevailing taste, their own genius is fobered and chaftened, perhaps, in too great a degree. It is likely too, I confefs, that what we fondly afcribe to our correctnefs and good fenfe, is owing, in a great measure, to our phlegm and natural coldnefs. For the vivacity and fenfibility of the Greeks and Romans, more efpecially of the former, feem to have been much greater than ours, and to have given them a higher relih of all the beauties of oratory. "Befides thefe national confiderations, we must, in the next place, attend to peculiar circumstances in the three great fcenes of public fpeaking, which have proved difad vantageous vantageous to the growth of eloquence among us. Though the pariament of Great Britain be the nobleft field which Europe, at this day, affords to a public fpeaker, yet eloquence has never been fo powerful an inftrument there, as it was in the popular affemblies of Greece and Rome. Under fome former reigns, the high hand of arbitrary power bore a violent fway; and in later times, ministerial influence has generally prevailed. The power of fpeaking, though always confiderable, yet has been often found too feeble to counterbalance either of thefe; and, of courfe, has not been ftudied with fo much zeal and fervour, as where its effect on bufinefs was irresistible and certain. "At the bar, our difadvantage, in comparison of the antients, is great. Among them, the judges were generally numerous; the laws were few and fimple; the decifion of caufes was left, in a great meafure, to equity and the fenfe of mankind. Here was an ample field for what they termed Judicial Eloquence. But among the moderns, the cafe is quite altered. The fyftem of law is become much more complicated. The knowlege of it is thereby rendered fo laborious an attainment, as to be the chief object of a lawyer's education, and in a manner, the ftudy of his life. The art of fpeaking is but a fecondary accomplish ment, to which he can afford to devote much lefs of his time and labour. The bounds of eloquence befides, are now much circumfcribed at the bar; and except, in a few cafes, reduced to arguing from ftrict law, ftatute, or precedent; by which means knowledge, much more than oratory, is become the principal requifite. "With regard to the pulpit, it has certainly been a great difadvan The tage, that the practice of reading fermons, instead of repeating them from memory, has prevailed fo univerfally in England. This may, indeed have introduced accuracy: but it has done great prejudice to eloquence; for a difcourfe read, is far inferior to an oration spoken. It leads to a different fort of compofition, as well as of delivery; and can never have an equal effect upon any audience. Another circumstance, too, has been unfortunate. fectaries and fanatics, before the Reftoration, adopted a warm, zealous, and popular manner of preaching; and those who adhered to them, in after-times, continued to diftinguish themselves by fomewhat of the fame manner. The odium of these sects drove the established church from that warmth which they were judged to have carried too far, into the oppofite extreme of a ftudied coolnefs, and compofure of manner. Hence, from the art of perfuation, which preaching ought always to be, it has paffed, in England, into mere reafoning and inftruction; which not only has brought down the eloquence of the pulpit to a lower tone than it might juttly affume; but has produced this farther effect, that by accuftoming the public car to fuch cool and difpaffionate difcourfes, it has tended to fashion other kinds of public speaking upon the fame model. "Thus I have given fome view of the state of eloquence in modern times, and endeavoured to account for it. It has, as we have feen, fallen below that splendour which it maintained in ancient ages; and from being fublime and vehement, has come down to be temperate and cool. Yet, ftill in that region which it occupies, it admits great fcope; and, to the defect of zeal and application, more than to the want of ca pacity and genius, we may afcribe its not having hitherto rifen higher. It is a field where there is much honour yet to be reaped; it is an inftrument which may be employed for purposes of the highest importance. The ancient models may ftill, with much advantage, be fet before us for imitation, though, in that imitation, we muft, doubtless, have fome regard to what modern taste and modern manners will bear." GENERAL REMARKS on ANCIENT and ORIENTAL PROSE FABLE. [From Dr. BEATTIE's Differtations, Moral and Critical. "THE love, and "It is owing, no doubt, to the weakness of human nature, that fable fhould ever have been found a neceflary, or a convenient vehicle for truth. But we must take human nature as it is: and, if a rude multitude cannot readily compre. hend a moral or political doctrine, which they need to be inftructed in, it may be as allowable to illuftrate that doctrine by a fable, in order to make them attend, and understand it, as it is for a phyfician to ftrength en a weak stomach with cordials, in order to prepare it for the business of digeftion. Such was the defign of Jotham's parable of the trees chufing a king, in the ninth chapter of the book of Judges: and fuch that famous apologue, of a contention between the parts of the human body, by which Menenius Agrippa fatisfied the people of Rome, that the welfare of the ftate depended on the union and good agreement of the feveral members of it. In fact, the common people are not well qualified for argument. A fhort and pithy proverb, which is easily remembered; or little tales, that appeal as it were to their fenfes, weigh more with them than demonítration. "We need not wonder, then, to find, that, in antient times, moral precepts were often delivered in the way of proverb or aphorifm, and enforced and exemplified by fictitious narrative. Of thofe fables that are afcribed to Efop, fome are no doubt modern, but others bear the stamp of antiquity. And nothing can be better contrived, than many of them are, for the purpose of impreffing moral truth upon the memory, as well as the understanding. The dif appointment, that frequently at tends an exceffive defire of accumu lation, is finely exemplified in the fable of the dog and his fhadow; and and the ruinous and ridiculous nature of ambition is with equal energy illuftrated in that of the frog and the ox. Thefe little allegories we are apt to undervalue, because we learned them at fchool; but they are not for that reafon the lefs valuable. We ought to prize them as monuments of ancient wifdom, which have long contributed to the amufe⚫ment and inftruction of mankind, and are entitled to applaufe, on account of the propriety of the inven tion. ers. "The Greek apologues afcribed to Efop, and the Latin ones of Phedrus, are mafter-pieces in this way of writing; and have hardly been equalled by the best of our modern fabulifts. They are (at leaft many of them are, for fome are trifling) remarkable for the fimplicity of the ftyle; and for the attention, which their authors have generally given, to the nature of the animals, and other things, that are introduced as agents and speakFor in most of the modern fables, invented by Gay, La Fontain, L'Estrange, Poggio, and others, the contrivance is lefs natural; and the language, though fimple, is quaint, and full of witticifm. That a dog fhould fnap at the fhadow of a dog, and by fo doing lofe the piece of flesh that was in his own mouth, is fuitable to the character of the animal, and is indeed a very probable story but that an elephant hould converfe with a bookfeller about Greek authors, or a hare intreat a calf to carry her off on his back, and fave her from the hounds, is a fiction wherein no regard is had to the nature of things. In this, as in the higher forts of fable, it is right to adhere, as much as may be, to probability, Brute animals, and vegetables too, may be allowed to fpeak and think; this indulgence is granted, from the neceflity of the cafe; for, without it, their adventures could neither improve nor entertain us: but, with this exception, nature should not be violated; nor the properties of one animal or vegetable afcribed to a different one. Frogs have been feen inflated with air, at leaft, if not with pride; dogs may fwim rivers; a man might take a frozen viper into his bofom, and be bit to death for his imprudence; a fox might play with a tragedian's headpiece; a lamb and a wolf might drink of the fame brook, and the former lofe his life on the occasion: but who ever heard of an elephant reading Greek, or a hare riding on the back of a calf? "The wisdom of antiquity was not fatisfied with conveying fhort leflons of morality in thefe apologues, or little tales. The poets entered upon a more extenfive field of fable; in order to convey a more refined fpecies of inftruction, and to please by a more exquifite invention, and a higher probability. But I confine myself at prefent to profe fable. "One of the firft fpecimens of fabulous hiftory, that appeared in thefe western parts of the world, is the Cyropedia of Xenophon. This work, however, we are not to confider as of the nature of romance; for the outlines of the story are true. But the author takes the liberty to feign many incidents; that he may fet in a variety of lights the charac ter of Cyrus, whom he meant to exhibit as the model of a great and good prince. The work is very elegant and entertaining, and abounds in moral, political, and military knowlege. It is, nevertheless, to be regretted, that we have no certain rule for diftinguifhing what is hiftorical in it, from what is fabulous. The hiftory of Cyrus the Great, the founder founder of the Perfian empire, who has the honour to be mentioned by name in the Old Teftament, is furely worth knowing. Yet we are much in the dark in regard to it. The account given of him by Herodotus differs greatly from Xenophon's; and in many inftances we know not which to prefer. It is obfervable, however, that Xenophon's defcription of the manner in which Cyrus took Babylon, by turning afide the courfe of the Euphrates, and entering through the empty channel, under the walls of the city, agrees very well with feveral intimations of that event, which we find in the prophecies of Ifaiah, Jeremiah, and Daniel. "Allegorical fables were not unknown in the days of Xenophon. The table, or picture, of Cebes the Theban was written about this time; as well as the story of Hercules converfing with Virtue and Vice, and preferring the honours promifed by the former to the pleasures offered by the latter. Cebes's picture of human life excels in accuracy of defcription, juftnefs of allegory, and a fweet fimplicity of ftyle. The fable. of Hercules, as originally written by Prodicus, is loft, and feems not to have been extant in the time of Cicero ; but Xenophon gives a full and elegant abstract of it, in the beginning of his fecond book of Memorabilia. "Excepting fome allegorical fables fcattered up and down in Plato, I do not recollect, among the claffick productions of Greece and Rome, any other remarkable fpecimen of profe fable for the heathen mythology, though full of allego ries, I am not to touch upon in this place, on account of its connection with poetry; and because my chief purpofe is, to inquire into the origin and nature of the modern romance. "But, firft, it may be proper to obferve, that the oriental nations have long been famous for fabulous narrative. The indolence peculiar to the genial climate of Afia, and the luxurious life which the kings and other great men, of thofe countries, lead in their feraglios, have made them feek for this fort of amufement, and set a high value upon it. When an eaftern prince happens to be idle, as he commonly is, and at a lofs for expedients to kill the time, he commands his grand vifir, or his favourite, to tell him ftories. Being ignorant, and confequently credulous; having no paffion for moral improvement, and little knowledge of nature; he does not defire, that they should be probable, or of an inftructive tendency: it is enough if they be astonishing, and hence it is, no doubt, that thofe oriental tales are fo extravagant, Every thing is carried on by inchantment and prodigy; by faries, genii, and demons, and wooden horfes, which, on turning a peg, fly through the air with inconceivable swiftnefs. "Another thing remarkable in these eastern tales, is, that their authors expatiate, with peculiar delight, in the defcription of magnificence; rich robes, gaudy furniture, fumptuous entertainments, and palaces fhining in gold, or fparkling with diamonds. This toe is conformable to the character and circumstances of the people. Their great men, whofe tafte has never been improved by studying the fimplicity of nature and art, pique themfelves chiefly on the fplendour of their equipage, and the vast quantities of gold, jewels, and curious things, which they can heap together in their repofitories. "The greatest, indeed the only, collection, that I am acquainted |