22

Proper Mode of Republishing.

which do not belong to him, and that he should still receive exact credit for all which is really his. It is not possible, perhaps, to determine precisely, at what point a compilation, selection, or abridgment, such as history, becomes so far the production of a writer that he may claim to be the author. But in our view, both honesty and policy require him rather to err by claiming too little, than too much. The simpler and safer course undoubtedly is, to state precisely what is done, and if practicable, in the title page itself.

But we are sometimes told by those who go to an extreme on the other hand, that the work of an author is as sacred as his property, that no man has a right to publish his ideas in any country in any other form than he himself pleases, and that the public have a right to every foreign work, verbatim et literatim.

In all works referred to as authorities, this will indeed be admitted. Neither will we for a moment defend those who send forth a work of known reputation as an 'American edition revised and corrected,' without giving us the editor's name, or informing us what alterations are made, or giving us the opportunity to ascertain the sentiments of the author. It is in reality a mere trick, (beneath the honorable members of the trade,) intended to secure a copy-right-and it has more than once excited our indignation to see a respected name thus insulted, by an anonymous editor and corrector. As for those who attempt to measure the giants of intellect or learning, with the span of a dwarf, no other punishment is necessary than the contempt which public opinion will pour upon their puny efforts.

We also admit, of course, that every man has a right to procure a work unchanged; but there is no right of American readers, which can impair the rights or duties of an American editor, or which can impose on him the obligation to sacrifice his own views of usefulness or expediency, in order to furnish an exact copy of a foreign work. Nor if it be properly announced, can there be any pretence of fraud upon the public.' In regard to the rights of the author, where they are not legal rights, they must be regulated by the question of general usefulness. English courts have decided, that it was no injustice to the author of a sea-chart, to publish another, in which serious errors were corrected; but on the contrary, that the public good required it. How then could an American author be reproached, for omitting or altering such parts of a foreign work as he believes calculated to produce intellectual and moral error? How could he be justified in giving them circulation? His own views may be wrong, and so

Addison on the importance of Gesture.

23

may the observations of a surveyor, who endeavors to correct the errors of his predecessors. If this be allowed in a country where the author has legal rights, how much more in one where his works are public property?

Indeed, when we recollect the vast difference in the state of society in this country and in England, when we consider that every work published in our country, which gains circulation, has more influence on its character than almost any law of Congress, it seems to us as strange to insist that we should receive and circulate English works, unchanged, as it would be to require that we should transfer the acts of the English parliament to our statute books. For ourselves, we think that the good of our country ought never thus to be sacrificed to foreign claims, and we consider the nation as much indebted to those who furnish foreign works, divested of useless or injurious characteristics, or adapted to our own habits and state of society, as to those who introduce foreign laws or improvements, so modified as to conform to our circumstances. Could the torrent of English works, which is poured upon us, be limited or purified, much evil would be prevented; and the prospect of elevating the public opinion, and the literature of our country would be much more promising.

We are aware that this subject is still sub judice, and we should be happy to know and to publish the views of our readers, on either side of the question.

ADDISON ON THE IMPORTANCE OF GESTURE IN PUBLIC SPEAKING.

[The following article was written by Addison, and designed for Englishmen, in 1712. It is not less applicable to the descendants of Englishmen, in 1835. Would that it might rouse some of those who speak with the immobility of listless indifference, on the most elevating of all subjects. Would that it might shake, if not subdue, the prejudices of some who are so fastidious as to consider every attitude but that of a contemplative statue, as theatrical, in the pulpit! The authority of Addison is of some value.]

MOST foreign writers who have given any character of the English nation, whatever vices they ascribe to it, allow in general, that the people are naturally modest. It proceeds, perhaps, from this our national virtue, that our orators are observed to make use of less gesture or action than those of other countries. Our preachers stand stock still in the pulpit, and will not so much as move a finger to set off the best sermons in the world. We meet with the same speaking statues at our bars, and in all public places of debate. Our words flow

24

6

Effects of Action in an Orator.

from us in a smooth continued stream, without those strainings of the voice, motions of the body, and majesty of the hand which are so much celebrated in the orators of Greece and Rome. We can talk of life and death in cold blood, and keep our temper in a discourse which turns upon everything that is dear to us. Though our zeal breaks out in the finest tropes and figures, it is not able to stir a limb about us. I have heard it observed more than once by those who have seen Italy, that an untravelled Englishman cannot relish all the beauties of Italian pictures, because the postures which are expressed in them are often such as are peculiar to that country. One who has not seen an Italian in the pulpit, will not know what to make of that noble gesture in Raphael's picture of St. Paul preaching at Athens, where the apostle is represented as lifting up both his arms, and pouring out the thunder of his rhetoric amidst an audience of Pagan philosophers.

It is certain, that proper gestures and vehement exertions of the voice, cannot be too much studied by a public orator. They are a kind of comment to what he utters, and enforce every thing he says, with weak hearers, better than the strongest argument he can make use of. They keep the audience awake, and fix their attention to what is delivered to them, at the same time that they show the speaker is in earnest, and affected himself with what he so passionately recommends to others. Violent gesture and vociferation naturally shake the hearts of the ignorant, and fill them with a kind of religious horror. Nothing is more frequent than to see women weep and tremble at the sight of a moving preacher, though he is placed quite out of their hearing; as in England we very frequently see people lulled asleep with solid and elaborate discourses of piety, who would be warmed and transported out of themselves by the bellowing and distortions of enthusiasm.

If nonsense, when accompanied with such an emotion of voice and body, has such an influence on men's minds, what might we not expect from many of those admirable discourses which are printed in our tongue, were they delivered with a becoming fervor, and with the most agreeable graces of voice and gesture?

We are told that the great Latin orator very much impaired his health by the laterum contentio, the vehemence of action, with which he used to deliver himself. The Greek orator was likewise so very famous for this particular in rhetoric, that one of his antagonists, whom he had banished from Athens, reading over the oration which had procured his banishment,

On the Character of Teachers.

25

and seeing his friends admire it, could not forbear asking them, if they were so much affected by the reading of it, how much more they would have been alarmed, had they heard him actually throwing out such a storm of eloquence.

How cold and dead a figure, in comparison of these two great men, does an orator often make at the British bar, holding up his head with the most insipid serenity, and stroking the sides of a long wig that reaches down to his middle? The truth of it is, there is often nothing more ridiculous than the gestures of the English speaker; you see some of them running their hands into their pockets as far as ever they can thrust them, and others looking with great attention on a piece of paper that has nothing written on it; you may see many a smart rhetorician turning his hat in his hands, moulding it into several different cocks, examining sometimes the lining of it, and sometimes the button, during the whole course of his harangue. A deaf man would think he was cheapening a beaver, when perhaps he is talking of the fate of the British nation. I remember, when I was a young man, and used to frequent Westminster Hall, there was a counsellor who never pleaded without a piece of pack thread in his hand, which he used to twist about a thumb or a finger all the while he was speaking; the wags of those days used to call it the thread of his discourse, for he was unable to utter a word without it. One of his clients who was more merry than wise, stole it from him one day in the midst of his pleading; but he had better have left it alone, for he lost his cause by his jest.

I have all along acknowledged myself to be a dumb man, and therefore may be thought a very improper person to give rules for oratory; but I believe every one will agree with me in this, That we ought either to lay aside all kinds of gesture, (which seems to be very suitable to the genius of our nation) or at least, to make use of such only as are graceful and expressive.

ON THE CHARACTER OF TEACHERS OF COMMON SCHOOLS.

THE following extract of a letter from a devoted friend of common education to the editor, contains so much that is true and important on the subject, that we cannot withhold it from our readers. It will serve as an introduction to a succeeding article.

26

Should Teachers be properly trained?

'You have been struggling long alone but do not give up your efforts. I believe many others will soon come to your help. The christian community of New England, and the good citizens, will not always sleep over a subject so totally important as that of their schools; they will not spend their hundreds of thousands to sustain schools, which often prove worse than useless for want of proper attention.

The American School Society I have thought much of, since I saw you. I am convinced the state of our country calls for such a society, and that no time should be lost. There are some circumstances respecting our common schools, that should arouse the feelings of every christian and patriot. The family institution excepted, all other institutions unitedPublic Worship-Sabbath Schools-Academies and Colleges -do not have so much influence in giving a character to New England and New York, as common schools. More than fifteen thousand teachers are employed in New England every year, in the primary public schools, and as many in New York. Who are these teachers? Nine tenths of them are inexperienced youth, from 18 years of age to 25 and 30. Yes-that institution which probably does more than all others to form the character of our citizens, is in the hands of head-strong, unqualified and often dissipated youth. And what is worse, I fear it is the voice of public opinion, that the common schools must be and ought to be taught by young persons. Now it is wonderful, that men require the experience and wisdom and stability of mature age, to manage all their money concerns, and their political affairs, but carelessly turn over to inexperienced young men, the great and holy business of forming that character on which rests the whole fabric of civil society, and on which depends our very existence and happiness as a nation. Is there a merchant in Boston who would give up the whole management of his shop, even for a day, to a 'green,' inexperienced boy? Is there a farmer in Massachusetts, who would give up his farm, his cattle or his sheep, to such an one? Yet he turns over his own children to such an one, to form their characters for time and eternity-to one whom he would not trust to manage his beasts-and then thinks they should be very grateful to him, for making such good provision for their education!

'Besides, we will not trust a man to draw a tooth, or prescribe an emetic, till he has studied his profession three years, and comes to us with a diploma, signed and sealed, from a college of scientific and experienced physicians. A man cannot manage a case before our courts, involving the value