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Let the Orator then, always reflect that he is placed in the Pulpit of truth; that he is surrounded with a number of intelligent hearers; that that which ceases to be probable revolting; that the public opinion is new posed on with impunity; and that extravagant compliments de base him who bestows them, without ever exalting him who receives them. Lysippus said justly, that he had honoured Alexander more by representing him with a pike in his hand, than Appelles, who always painted him hurling the thunderbolt like Jupiter.

When the subject of a panegyric is fertile in events, the moral ought to arise out of the historical narrative, without smothering it under a heap of reflections which occur to every auditor. A method too didactic would be injurious to the discourse, by impeding its rapidity.

Thoroughly comprehend the character and actions of the man whom you celebrate. Surround him with his contemporaries, Describe e manners of the age in which he lived. Coll, combine, all the particulars which tend to the same point, that, with them, you may frame your materials. Arrange, so to speak, the virtues, the talents, the events, the misfortunes, which history presents to your view, and you will then impart to your narrations all the strength of argument, and all the glow of Eloquence.

We cannot but reprobate the method of those inanimate Panegyrists, who confound rhetorical distribution with chronological order.

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That severentence alights on such, which the Critic Boileau passed on poets, who are destitute of poetical rapture, and who write without enthusiasm: He styles them sorry histori ( ans, that will follow the order of time without daring for one moment to lose sight of a sub'ject."*

But it is no less certain, that, in the plan of a Panegyric, we must attend to the plain relation of facts, so that the discourse, composed in other respects according to the rules of art, may appear the simple developement of the subject.

It is with some astonishment, that, after having read in Massillon all the circumstances of the death of a martyr or saint, we find the Orator afterwards promising the second part of the same Panegyric.

This confusion of the plan destroys the effect of the subject; and the hearer, continually bewil

Maigres Historiens suivront l'ordre des temps;
Ils n'osent un moment perdre un sujet de vue.
Pour prendre Gand, il faut que Lille soit rendue,
Et que leur vers exact ainsi que Mèzerai,
Ait deja fait tomber les remparts de Cou trai,

dered, through the want of historical order, departs without obtaining the knowledge of him, whose praises he came to hear so emphatically delivered. What, but a panegyric, is this, which does not describe the man to whom it is consecrated, and whose history I am still obliged to consult, if I wish to form clear ideas of his life?*

* Memoirs and Panegyrics of eminent characters, when well selected and applied, are instructive and important branches of composition and reading.

In the list of Biography, among a great variety which might be mentioned, the Editor may venture to say, that perhaps, there is no work of the sort better composed, nor of greater utility to the young student and divine, than Memoirs of the life, character, and writings of Dr. DODDRIDGE, by the late Rev. JOB ORTON; in which this excellent man pre-eminently shines forth a pattern for imitation, as a scholar, a gentleman, and a divine.

Of detached Eulogiums on particular characters, none, perhaps, are more forcibly expressed, or more justly applied than Mr. Burke's, on that singularly benevolent character, Mr. HOWARD, the fame of whose disinterested actions hath raised him in Europe, what Horace styles monumentum are perennius.

Says Mr. Burke; I cannot name this gentleman, with'out remarking, that his labours and writings have done 'much to open the eyes and hearts of mankind. He has

visited all Europe-not to survey the sumptuousness of pa'laces, or the stateliness of temples; not to make accurate 'measurements of the remains of ancient grandeur, nor to 'form a scale of the curiosity of modern art; not to collect medals, or collate manuscripts; but to dive into the depths of dungeons; to plunge into the infection of hospitals; to survey the mansions of sorrow and pain, and to take the · gage and dimensions of misery, depression, and contempt;

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SECTION XXI.

OF

OF S. VINCENT DE PAUL.

F all the subjects of Panegyric, which the modern history of religion affords us, the best, in my opinion, is the eulogy of S. Vincent

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"to remember the forgotten; to attend to the neglected; to 'visit the forsaken; and to compare and collate the distresses of all men, in all countries.

His plan is original; and is as full of genius as it is of humanity. It was a voyage of discovery; a circumnaviga'tion of charity. Already the benefit of his labour is felt 'more or less in every country; I hope he will anticipate 'his final reward, by seeing all its effects realized in his own. 'He will receive, not by retail, but in gross, the reward of "those who visit the prisoner; and he has so forestalled and 'monopolized this branch of charity, that there will be, I 'trust, little room to merit by such acts of benevolence hereafter."-BURKE's Speech to the Electors of Bristol, 1780.

The well known writer of the above elegant encomium has also given the public a later specimen of his talent for Panegyric, in that highly coloured painting of the "beauteous Queen of France,” in his work entitled, Reflections on the Revolution in France, p. 112.

However divided the public are respecting the political sentiments contained in this celebrated work, it seems to be a prevailing and just opinion, that, in this description, Mr. Burke has suffered his imagination and gallantry to gain the ascendancy over his sober judgment; and that, while painting the hardships of an individual, he has discovered the very spirit of a knight-errant, and carried his readers back to the almost forgotten age of chivalry,

de Paul; a man of great virtue, though possessed of but little renown; the best citizen whom France hath had; the Apostle of humanity, who, after having been a shepherd in his childhood, hath left in his country establishments of more utility to the unfortunate, than the finest monuments of his sovereign, Louis XIV.

He was, successively, a slave at Tunis, Preceptor of the Cardinal de Retz, Minister of a village, Chaplain-General of the galleys, Principal of a college, Chief of the missions, and Joint-Commissioner of Ecclesiastical Benefices.* He instituted, in France, the Seminaries of the Lazarists, and of the Daughters of Charity, who devote themselves to the consolation of the unfortunate, and who scarcely ever change their condition, although their vows only bind them for a year. He endowed hospitals for foundlings, for orphans, for the insane, for galley-slaves, and for old men. His generous compassion reached

all kinds of wretchedness, with which the human species is oppressed, and monuments of his beneficence are to be found throughout all the provinces of the kingdom. When reading his life, we remark, that nothing does more honour to religion, than the history of institutions formed in favour of humanity, when humanity is beholden for them to the ministers of the altars.

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