harmonious compofition grates it; whereas it is generally foothed with that which is foft and flowing. If the harmony be not ftrong, and the cadence too quick, the ear is fenfible that fomething is wanting, and is not fatisfied. But, on the contrary, if there is any thing heavy and fuperfluous, it cannot bear it. In a word, nothing can give it pleasure but a full and harmonious flow of words.

To prove that this tafte is natural, we need only obferve, 8 that it is common to the learned and unlearned; but with this difference, that the former know the reasons, and the other judge by opinion only. Thus Cicero cannot conceive how it is poffible for a man not to be fenfible to the harmony of an oration; and he does not judge of it fo much by his own experience, as by what frequently happened to a whole affembly, who were fo charmed with the close of harmonious periods, that they difcovered their fatisfaction and taste by universal acclamations.

It is then of the greatest importance that youth should be taught early to difcover this order and difpofition of words. We must make them admire, how words, in the orator's hands, are like foft wax,

tiunt, & parum expleta defiderant, & fragofis offenduntur, & lenibus mulcentur, & contortis excitantur, & ftabilia probant, clauda deprehendunt, redundantia & nimia faftidiunt. Quintil. 1. 9. cap. 4.

g Unum eft & fimplex aurium judicium, & promifcue ac communiter ftultis ac fapientibus à natura datum. Cic. pro Font, n. 12. h Docti rationem componendi intelligant, indocti voluptatem. Quintil. 1. 9. c. 4.

iQuod qui non fentiunt, quas aures habeant, aut quid in his hominis fimile fit, nefcio. Meæ quidem, &c. Quid dico meas? Conciones fæpe exclamare vidi, cam apte verba cecidiffent. Orator. п. 16.

k Nihil eft tam tenerum, neque tam flexibile, neque quod tam facile fequatur quocumque ducas. quam oratio.... Ea nos (verba) cum jacentia fuftulimus è medio ficut molliffimam ceram ad noftrum arbitrium formamus & fingimus. Itaque tum graves fumus, tum fubtiles tum medium quiddam tenemus: fic inftitutam noftram fententiam fequitur orationis genus. Lib. de Orat. n. 176, 177. 3.

Rebus accommodanda compofitio, ut afperis afperos etiam numeros adhiberi oporteat, & cum dicente æque audientem exhorrefcere. Quint. 1. 8. c. 4.

G 6

Idque ad omnem rationem, & aurium voluptatem, & animorum motum mutatur & vertitur. Ibid.. which

which he handles and manages at pleasure, and to which he gives whatever form he thinks fit: how, by the different ftructure he gives them, the oration proceeds fometimes with a majestic gravity, or runs with rapidity; fometimes charms and ravishes the auditor by the foftnefs of its harmony, or fills him with horfor by a sharp and harsh cadence, according to the fubject he treats. We must make youth obferve, that this ranging of expreffions has a furprising effect, not only as it pleafes, but makes an impreffion on people's minds. For, as. Quintilian obferves, it is fcarce poffible, that an expreffion fhould reach the heart, when it begins with grating the ear, which is, as it were, its portico and avenue. On the other hand, a man is willing to hear what pleafes him ", and this induces him to believe what is faid to him.

As the quality and measure of words do not depend upon the orator, and that he finds them all cut out, as it were, to his hand; "his addrefs confifts in rang、 ing them in fuch order, that their concourfe and union (without leaving any vacuity, or producing any harsh nefs) may render the oration foft, flowing, and agrees able. And there are no expreffions, however harsh shey may appear in themfelves, but may contribute.: to the harmony of a difcourfe, when judiciously difa pofed as in a building, in which the moft irregular and roughest fones have their proper places. Ifocrates, properly fpeaking, was the first among the Greeks, who made them fenfible to this beauty of harmony and cadence; and we fhall foon fee, that Cicero did the fame fervice to the language of his country.

1 Nihil intrare poteft in affectum quod in aure velut quo lam veftibulo ftatim offendit. Ibid.

m Voluptate ad fidem ducitur. Quintil.

Collocationis eft componere & Aruere verba fic, ut neve afper eorum concurfus, neve hulcus fit, fee quodammodo, coagmentatus &

lævis.... Hæc eft collocatio, quæ junctam orationem efficit, quæ cohærentem, quæ lævem, quæ æquabiliter fluentem. 3 de Orat. n. 1715

172.

o Sicut in fructura faxoruin ru→ dium etiam ipfa enormitas invenit cui applicari, & in quo poffit infiftere. Quint. 1. 9. C 4.

The

The rules which Cicero and Quintilian have given us upon this topic, as they obferved the different feet to be employed in orations, may be of fervice to young people, provided a judicious choice is made from thefe. The obfervations of Sylvius, called Progymnafmata, which are at the end of the collection of phrafes from Cieero, may likewife be of great use to them; but the best master they can ftudy on this fubject is Cicero himself. He was the first who per ceived that the Latin tongue wanted a beauty which the antient Romans were abfolutely ignorant of, or neglected; and which however was capable of raifing it to a much greater perfection. As he was extremely jealous of the honour of his country, he undertook, by embellishing the Latin tongue with found, cadence, and harmony, to make, if poffible, the language of his country equal to that of the Greeks, which has a very great advantage in this particular. It is furprifing how it was poffible for him, in a few years, to carry the Latin, in this refpect, to the highest perfection, which is not effected, generally fpeaking, without long experience, and advances gradually by flow improvements. It is Cicero, then, that youth fet before them in this, as well as in every thing else. They will meet with rich thoughts and beautiful expreffions in the hiftorians; but they muft not therefore fearch for harmonious and periodical words in them. The style of hiftory, which must be eafy, natural, and flowing, is not fuitab e to thofe grave and harmonious numbers, which the majefty of an oratorial difcourfe requires.

The eafieft and fureft way of making young people fenfible of the beauty of ranging expreffions is to practife what Cicero himfeif did, in treating of this fubject in his books de Oratore; that is, to felect fome of the most harmonious and periodical paffages in the books which are explined to them; and to throw fiftentes claufula, Quintil. 1. 9. c. 4.

p. Hiftoriæ, quæ currere debet ac ferri, minus conveniunt inter

them

them out of the order and form in which they lie. There will be the fame thoughts and expreffions, but not the fame grace, nor the fame force; and the more those passages fhine in fenfe and diction, the more grating will they be when thus displaced; becaufe the magnificence of the words will make this ftill the more remarkable. The ears of young people being formed after this manner by an affiduous reading Cicero, and accustomed to the foft and harmonious cadence of his periods, will become delicate, and difficult to be pleased; and, as he fays of himself, their ear will discover, perfectly well, a full and harmonious period, and perceive alfo whether there is any defect or redundancy in it.

S

Although there must be harmony in the whole body and texture of the period, and the harmony of which we are treating refults from this union and concert of all the parts; it is allowed, however, that the effect is more evident in the close. The ear being carried away in the other parts of the period, by the continuity of words, like a flood, is not capable of forming a proper idea of their founds, till the rapidity of utterance, ceafing a little, gives it a kind of pause. And, indeed, it is here that the auditor's admiration, fufpended till then by the charms of the difcourse, breaks out on a fudden in cries and acclamations.

The beginning likewife requires particular care, because the ear, from the particular attention natural to what is new, eafily discovers its faults.

q Quod cuique vifum erit vehementer, dulciter, fpeciofe dictum, folvat & turbet: aberit omnis vis, jucunditas, decor... Illud notâffe fatis habeo, quo pulchriora & fenfu & elocutione diffolveris, hoc orationem magis deformem fore: quia negligentia collocationis ipfa verborum luce deprehenditur. Ibid.

r Meæ quidem (aures) & perfecto completoque verborum ambitu gaudent, & curta fentiunt, nec amant redundantia. Orat. n. 168.

In omni quidem corpore, to

toque, ut ita dixerim, tracto numeris inferta eft (compofitio.) Magis tamen defideratur in claufulis, & apparet. Aures continuam vocem fecutæ, du&tæque velut prono decurrentis orationis flumine, tum magis judicant, cum ille impetus ftetit, & intuendi tempus dedit.

Hæc eft fedes orationis: hoc auditor expectat: : hic laus omnis declamat. Quintil. 1. 9. c. 4.

t Proximam claufulis diligentiam poftulant initia: nam & ad hæc intentus auditor eft. Ibid.

It is therefore upon the beginning and end of the period, that the difquifition youth are to make should principally turn; nor muft we omit to make them attend to the furprising variety with which Cicero has interfperfed his numbers, in order to avoid the offenfive uniformity of the fame cadences, which tire and difguft the auditors: I except however that trivial clofe, effe videatur, which he was justly reproached to have affected, and with which he concludes a great number of his phrafes. We find it above ten times in his oration pro lege Manilia.

There is another difpofition or order of words more vifible and ftudied, which may fuit with pompous and ceremonious speeches; fuch as thofe of the demonftrative kind, u where the auditor, not being upon his guard against the furprifes of art, is not afraid that fnares are laid for his opinion; for then, fo far from being difgufted at those harmonious and flowing cadences, he thinks himfelf obliged to the orator, for giving him by their means a grateful and innocent pleafure. But it is otherwife when grave and ferious matters are handled, whofe only view is to affect and inftruct. The cadence must then be alfo fomething grave and ferious; and this charm of numbers prepared for the auditors must be concealed, as it were, beneath the juftnefs of the thoughts, and the beauty of the expreffions, which may fo engross their attention, that they appear inattentive to the harmony and difpofition.

EXAMPLES.

Every part of Cicero will convince our eyes, or ra ther ears, of the truth of what is now afferted.

u Cum is eft auditor qui non vereatur ne compofitæ orationis infidiis fua fides attentetur, gratiam quoque habet oratori, voluptati au-. rium fervienti. Orat. n. 208.

w Sic minime animadveritur delectationis aucupium, & quadrande orationis induftria, quæ latabit eo magis, fi & verborum &

2

fententiarum ponderibus utemur. Nam qui audiunt, hæc duo animadvertunt, & jucunda fibi cenfent, verba dico & fententias: ear que dum auimis attentis admirantes excipiunt, fugit eos & prætervolat numerus; qui tamen fi abeffet, illa ipfa delectarent. Ibid. n. 197..

Quod