the whole, previous to the publication of Mr. Locke's Eflay, is, to us, perfectly unintelligible. It is natural to afk-has Mr. Sheridan difcovered any new faculties in the human mind? Is a right regulation of the feat of the paffions, of more importance than a right regulation of the paffions themselves? Are there any peculiar faculties belonging to the feat of the paffions, and the feat of the fancy? Have the writings of Butler, Hutchefon, Smith, Hume, &c. left us as much in the dark, with regard to the paffions and imagination, as mankind were with regard to the understanding, before the publication of Mr. Locke's Effay?.

"But it will be faid, continues our Author, how, or from whom is this to be expected? Are not thefe the very points about which the most eminent of our Writers have employed their labours, hitherto to little purpofe? Have not these been the chief objects in the works of our moft celebrated Divines, Moralifts, and Metaphyficians, Critics, Writers of Effays, &c. and have we any reafon to believe that this age will produce writings in thofe feveral ways fuperior to what hath hitherto appeared? Such are the queftions likely to be asked by those whofe minds have been narrowed by an early false bias given to us in our fyftem of education, and afterwards continued through life? I mean that extravagant idea entertained of the power of writing, far beyond what in its nature it can ever attain. But fuppofe it be afferted, that this is the very caufe of the failure, in the attempts made by fo many men of diftinguished abilities to reform mankind. Suppose it be af ferted, that they have all ufed an inftrument, which in its very conftruction was incapable of accomplishing the work they were about. In fhort, that fome of our greatest men have been trying to do that with the pen, which can only be performed by the tongue; to produce effects by the dead letter, which can never be produced but by the living voice, with its accompaniments. This is no longer a mere affertion; it is no longer problematical. It has been demonftrated to the entire fatisfaction of fome of the wifeft heads in these realms: and Readers of but moderate difcernment, will find it fully proved in the fixth and feventh Lectures, on Tones and Geftures; and in the two following Differtions. on Language.

"But that the bulk of my Readers may not enter upon the difcuffion of this point, with all their prejudices about them, they are defired to reflect, that language is the great inftrument by which all the faculties of the mind are brought for

ward,

ward, moulded, polished, and exerted: and that we have in ufe two kinds of language; the spoken, and the written. The one, the gift of God; the other, the invention of man. Which of these two is moft likely to be adapted to its end, that of giving the human mind its proper fhape, and enabling it to display all its faculties in perfection?

"If they want to judge by effects produced in our own times, how far the one language has the advantage over the other, let them only reflect on a recent instance of a late minifter, who by the mere force of cultivating the language bestowed by the Deity on human kind, as far as he could carry it by his own pains, raised himself to the fole direction of affairs in this country and not only fo, but the powers of his living voice fhook diftant thrones, and made the extremities of the earth to tremble. When it is well known that had the fame fentiments been delivered in the language of men ; had they been fent out into the world in a pamphlet; they would probably have produced lefs effects upon the minds of a few readers, than those of fome hireling writers. And we have many flagrant inftances in our Methodist preachers, of the power which words acquire, even the words of fools and mad men, when forcibly uttered by the living voice. And if the language of nature be poffeffed of fuch power, in its prefent neglected and uncultivated ftate, how immenfe must be its force, were it carried to the fame degree of perfection, that it was amongst the antient Greeks and Romans?"

How immenfe indeed! it must certainly fhake the foundations of the earth, and make the very pillars of Heaven to tremble.

Had the Greeks or Romans been bleft with the light of revelation; had they been poffeffed of fuch a religion, and fuch a conftitution as ours, together with fome difcoveries which time has produced; they would, Mr. Sheridan fays, have carried all the powers belonging to human nature to the utmoft degree of perfection; and the state of fociety amongst them would have approached as nearly to that blifsful ftate, to which we are taught to look forwards, a fellowship with angels, as the boundaries of the two worlds would permit. And would not this neceffarily be our cafe, were we poffelfed of those articles, in which the Greeks and Romans confeffedly excelled us? We want only their Arts added to our Sciences. Now they had no arts whatfoever, we are told, in

6

which

which they excelled us, that did not take their rife, either immediately, or confequentially, from the pains bestowed upon the culture of the language of nature, the living fpeech. What is there wanting then amongst us, but to apply ourselves with induftry to the fame means, in order to attain the fame ends.

"I know there are few, continues our Author, capable of tracing a fpeculation of this fort, thro' all its fteps, fo as to perceive the juftnefs of the deduction. But I am now little folicitous about what judgment fhall be past upon the theory, fince the time is approaching of trying it experimentally. A few fenfible effects produced from practice, will carry more conviction to the bulk of mankind, than a thoufand fpeculative arguments. It is with true fatisfaction of heart I hail the approaching day, when all that I have advanced upon this fubject, will be put to that teft."

Happy, thrice happy Britain! what a glorious day begins to dawn upon thee! All thy fons are to have their underStandings enlightened, their taftes refined, their hurtful paffions fuppreffed, and all the nobler principles of their nature invigorated, and carried into due exertion. The giant Corruption, with his hundred hands, is to be banished from this realm of freedom, the fetters of that tyrant CUSTOM to be broken, and the bonds of prejudice to be fnapped asunder: thy Senators, happy country! thy Minifters of religion too, are all to become ORATORS; the ambiguity and obfcurity of thy laws is to give way to clearness and precifion; thy language is to be refined, and eftablifhed on fo folid a foundation, that time fhall no more prevail against it, than it has against the languages of Greece and Rome; thy Miltons and thy Shaketpears fhall not perish, but with Homer and Virgil, in the general diffolution of the world; in a word, thou art to be rafed to fuch heights of knowledge, virtue, and happiness, as no other country ever reached, and thy condition is to approach as nearly to that blifsful ftate, to which we are taught to look forwards, as the boundaries of the two worlds will permit.

What honours are due to that godlike man, from whom fuch important bleffings are to flow upon us! How little, and infignificant, do all the Legislators and Orators, nay, we had almost faid, the Prophets and Apoftles of former days, appear, when compared with him! But our language, in its prefent neglected and uncultivated ftate, is not worthy to

be

be employed in celebrating his praifes; we must therefore content ourselves with filent admiration,

We now proceed to the Lectures themfelves, which are really ingenious, inftructive and entertaining.-In the first Lecture, Mr. Sheridan fets out with obferving, that a general inability to read, or speak, with propriety and grace in public, runs thro' the natives of the British dominions; that it fhews itself in our Senates and Churches, on the bench and at the bar.

There cannot be a better clue, we are told, to guide us to the fource of this general deficiency, than a due attention to the following obfervation, viz. that there are few perfons, who, in private company, do not deliver their fentiments with propriety and force in their manner, whenever they fpeak in earneft.-Here, therefore, is a fure ftandard fixed for propriety and force in public fpeaking, which is, only to make ufe of the fame manner in the one, as in the other, And this, men certainly would do, if left to themselves; and if early pains were not taken, to fubftitute an artificial method, in the room of that which is natural.

"Here then, continues our Author, is to be found the true source of the bad manner of reading and fpeaking in public, that fo generally prevails; which is, that we are taught to read in a different way, with different tones and cadences, from thofe which we use in speaking; and this artificial manner is ufed inftead of the natural one, in all recitals and repetitions at fchool, as well as in reading.

"Till therefore a way shall be found out to counteract for the present, and deftroy hereafter, the bad cuftom which has given rife to this unnatural manner of reading and speaking, we shall in vain hope, for the many excellent effects, which might be produced by good elocution, in a country, where there is fuch an abfolute neceffity for it, to the fupport of our conflitution, both in church and state.

"I fhall therefore confider, in the first place, how the power of this cuftom may be counteracted, for the immediate relief of fuch as are labouring under the effects of its bad influence; and afterwards fhew how it may be wholly fubverted; fo that the rifing, and future generations may no longer be tainted by it. As the firft of thefe is the point in which my hearers are more immediately concerned, I fhall chiefly in the prefent courfe dwell upon that."

The

The purposes which may be answered by reading, 'Mr. Sheridan obferves, are chiefly three; viz. the acquifition of knowledge; the affifting the memory to treasure up this knowledge; and the communicating it to others. The first two may be done by filent reading; the laft, requires reading aloud. This leads him to examine how far the art of writing, (under which head he includes printing) is in its prefent ftate fitted to anfwer the feveral purposes, and how far, and in what refpects it is deficient.

To prove that our written language is by no means calculated to answer the third purpose, of reading aloud to others, he fhews, that it contains no vifible marks, of articles, which are the most important of all others, to a juft delivery. A juft delivery, he tells us, confifts in a distinct articulation of words, pronounced in proper tones, fuitably varied to the fenfe, and the emotions of the mind; with due obfervation of accent; of emphafis, in its feveral gradations; of rests or paufes of the voice, in proper places and well measured. degrees of time; and the whole accompanied with expreffive looks, and fignificant gefture. Now of all these ingredients, not one of which can be spared from a good delivery, there are but two, he obferves, that are at all regarded in the art of writing; and thofe are, articulate founds or words, which are marked by letters; and ftops, or pauses of the voice, which are marked by little figures or tittles.

But with refpect to the other articles of tones, accent, emphafis and gefture, there are no vifible marks to serve as guides in thefe. And as thefe latter must be allowed to be the fources, of every thing which is pleasurable, or forcible in delivery; and to contain in them, all the powers of ftrongly impreffing the mind, captivating the fancy, roufing the paffions, and delighting the car; it muft alfo be allowed, we are told, that the most effential articles to a good delivery, have been wholly left out of the graphic art.

"That the great difficulty, fays our Author, of reading with propriety, and in fuitably varied; tones and cadences, arifes from the want of fufficient figns and marks, in the art of writing, to point them out; and were there but a fufficient number of thofe marks, reading juftly at fight, might be rendered almoft as eafy and as certain, as finging at fight, is a matter which might unquestionably be proved, were it to be attended by any advantage. But as that would be merely a fpeculative point, inafmuch as there is little likelihood that.

any