During my stay at Valencia, I was courted and feasted by every body, and sold my goods at an enormous price; for every one thought that to possess any thing that had belonged to me must bring them good fortune. I received many handsome presents, had divers requests to become a member of the different fraternities of monks, and eventually quitted the town with a large sum of money, with which I proceeded to Toulon, with the intention of making some inquiry after my dear Cerise, whose image was still the object of my dreams, as well as of my waking thoughts. Metrop. Mag. TO EMMA. For the Olio. I love thee, I have loved thee long, Describe the pure-the hallowed feeling! Or paint the form so faultless fair, Enflamed my soul when first I saw thee, Or thy mind's worth, that made me swear To love thee ever-to adore thee! The miner, who 'mid ocean's roar, In the rich prize his toil is gaining; I'd love thee ever-I'd adore thee. Around the oak in summer's pride, The ivy clings, its homage paying; In winter still 'tis by its side, Nor leaves it yet, tho' fast decaying; And thus, in poverty or wealth, If weal or woe is hanging o'er thee; In pale decay and rosy health, I'll love thee ever-I'll adore thee. A. M. P. BAR AND PULPIT ELOQUENCE. For the Olio. THE eloquence of modern times may be considered under three distinct heads, or rather, the forms under which the art may be exercised, are three, for eloquence must ever be in itself a simple excellence. The bar, the pulpit, and the senate, can all afford scope for the display of this talent; but still they do so, only in the degree that each particular sphere of action can afford room for its exercise. Thus the senate affords the orator many great advantages that the other fields for action are in want of, and at the same time it claims most of the privileges peculiar to them. It is, however, admitted on all hands; and, perhaps, it will be sufficiently obvious to the rea der on a little consideration, that a debate in a popular assembly must, from its very nature, afford the orator his widest and most eligible field. With this theatre for eloquence, however, it is not our intention now to concern ourselves, or occupy our readers; but we proceed to institute a comparison between forensic and pulpit eloquence. It has long been a famous and contested question, which of these claims the greater merit; and that we may ascertain this point methodically, perhaps it will be better to define in the first place what eloquence is:-Eloquence, then, is the art of persuasion; it is to be distinguished from that species of oratory, which attempts conviction merely, by the aid of logic; this appeals only to the understanding, and the adversaries it professes to combat, are doubtfulness and mistake. Eloquence appeals rather to the feelings, and it is that especial gift of the mind, by which we become masters of the heart, as well as understanding of others, and are thus enabled to influence them to our purposes. True it is, that conviction is one avenue to the heart, and that we must convince before we can persuade; and yet conviction and persuasion are not only terms of very different import, but they produce different effects; a man may be convinced it is his duty, but not prevailed upon to do it. This is well illustrated by the poet: Video meliora, proboque; deteriora sequor. So also St. Augustine says, "Non persuadebis, etiamsi persuaseris;" the import of which plainly is, "Though your arguments may convince my reason, they shall not determine my resolution." Having thus settled what eloquence means, it may be seen at a glance that the pleader has in reality little or no opportunity for its exercise; conviction is his great object, and it is not his business to persuade his hearers to what he may consider advisable, but only to point out to them what is true; beyond an attempt to convince he is not permitted to go, and any appeal to the feelings of the judge or judges would be both useless and absurd; passion moreover is not roused so easily, for the speaker is not merely heard more coolly, but he is watched more narrowly, and he would be only exposing himself were he for a moment to attempt that eloquent and impassioned tone, which is only suited to a mixed assembly. On the other hand, the preacher's ap propriate and peculiar business is to make this appeal to passion, and to persuade his hearers to act conformably to truth; persuasion must ever be his ultimate object, and all his instructions it must be remembered, are to be of the practical kind, for he does not ascend the pulpit to unravel some abstruse argument, but with a view of making his hearers better men. The eloquence of the pulpit then is popular eloquence, and it must be brought home to every man's heart; to this end he is at liberty to make use of all the engaging manœuvres of oratory he can put forth, and indeed his subject is such that it admits of the highest embellishment in describing, as well as of the greatest warmth in enforcing it. The very strength of eloquence lies, as the great master of it has told us, in this excitement of the feelings; "for who does not know," says Cicero," that the great power of eloquence consists in awakening the soul to anger, to grief, to hatred; or to recall her from these affections, to gentleness and pity." It may be remarked here by the way, that this great orator employed in his pleadings all the arts of popular eloquence; the customs of the day allowed and approved it, and indeed occasionally most extraordinary and even theatrical appeals were made to the feelings of the judges; thus in his treatise "De Oratore," we find the same orator exclaim ing in raptures of that pleader who produced an aged general before the court, and pointed out to the judges the scars upon his body! In short, with the ancients, eloquence, rather than jurisprudence, was the study of a pleader, and strict law was so much less an object of attention than it is at present, that a term of three months was considered sufficient to qualify a man to be come a civilian; with us on the contrary, the same number of years scarcely suffice. The barrister's reputation must be laid solely in a profound knowledge of his profession, as we have before had occasion to remark; and should that knowledge be but superficial, he will be neglected, though his abilities as a speaker be ever so eminent; to know what is law, and speak to the point, is the only rhetoric approved or indeed suffered in a modern law-court. The second distinguishing property of eloquence is, that its foundation must be good sense; natural abilities do indeed require art to perfect an orator, but no art whatever can qualify a man for a speaker, unless he has a fund of good common sense, and that everyday knowledge which the generality of hearers can appreciate and be interested with. In short the orator must be natural as well as artificial, and he must be careful to deliver what he has to say in the most unaffected manner, for of all the vices injurious to eloquence, affectation is the worst. We have the authority of the great master of eloquence for saying this, for he tells us expressly that "eloquence consists in the most obvious principles, and in a knowledge of common life, and the habits and conversation of mankind. In other arts, he who excels is the man who strikes deepest into a road, the most distant from the knowledge, and the most impervious to the capacity, of the ignorant; whereas in eloquence, the most dreadful blunder that can be committed, is to deviate into abstruse expressions, and out of the beaten track of common sense." (Cicero de Oratore.) Now we may reasonably ask, do the dry abstract questions of law come within this description? Are they interesting, are they (in the absence of all study) even intelligible to the general ear? We know on the contrary that this field of oratory is both complicated and confined, that the imagination of the speaker is fettered down by the very nature of his thesis, and that the statute-book is the rampart, beyond which he must not pass! But consider the pulpit on this head; the subject matter of the preacher is noble indeed, but at the same time it is sufficiently common, and it is intelligible as well as dignified; for the topics of his discourse are subjects upon which his audience must have often thought, and in which, at all events, they are equally interested with himself. But the last and grand distinguishing feature of eloquence, that in fact which makes it eloquence, is sincerity in the speaker ; for to become a persuasive orator it seems to have been a first principle with all who have handled the subject, that a man must firmly believe both the truth and importance of whatever he would inculcate on others; he must speak the language of his own conviction, and utter only his real sentiments; for never can a man be eloquent, but when he is thus in earnest, and his simplest auditor would be able to distinguish counterfeit warmth from genuine emotion. That all high eloquence must be the offspring of real unaffected passion was the favourite maxim of Demosthenes, for he advises that "the principal aim of a good orator should be, to appear to his audience the very man he wishes they should take him for. It would be needless to inquire whether the pleader can stand in such a situation as this; it is perceptible in a moment that he never can, for the reader must be aware that one half of our lawyers plead on the bad side of a cause, and on that side which, from their acknowledged acuteness, they must generally know to be the bad one. As to sincerity in a pleader, there can be nothing but the semblance of it; for sincerity can scarcely be felt by men, who hurry from cause to cause, and are eternally occupied in transacting the affairs of utter strangers. But as to sincerity in the preacher, its existence there is clearly more probable, for not only his worldly but his future interest is concerned; and though we may occasionally see an absence of it, charity would incline us to believe that for the most part it is not only apparent but felt; and that in all ages of the church, the general habit of our clergy have been consonant with their maxims, and illustrative of their professions. It cannot be denied for a moment that the pulpit confers great and exclusive privileges, and that where success is wanting the preacher turns very peculiar advantages to a very moderate account. His audience have assembled before him purposely to be addressed on the truths of a religion, sublime beyond all the speculations of philosophers yet in all its most important points simple, and of the easiest apprehension; in short, the most elevating, the most touching, the most interesting of all topics is to be the subject matter of his address, and this address is to be directed to persons sufficiently versed in them and assembled solely from the desire they feel to hear them handled. Independant, however, of his subject, the preacher has advantages of a kind not enjoyed by the pleader: he speaks with the most complete preparation; he is obliged to no replies or extemporaneous efforts; he speaks in the most profound silence, secure from all interruption and without the slightest contention to ruffle him, or distract his audience; he chooses his theme at leisure, and he comes before the public with all that assistance which the pages of divinity can afford, and which the most accurate premeditation can give; above all, he speaks as from a lofty eminence, not soliciting but commanding attention; not discoursing as man to man, but delivering a divine message! It may be inquired here," How is it then that sermons produce so little effect?" We reply that their want of effect must be attributed not to the speaker but to the hearer! and it is lamentable enough that the same speaker who is heard with indifference from the pulpit, might be listened to with enthusiasm from the hustings. The reason of this is obvious; that excitement is wanting to a religious discourse, which is easily created by a present interest, and such is the grovelling nature of man, that he is ever disposed to feel more strongly those appeals, which are made to him on matters before his eyes, than those which refer to the period when " Time shall be no more!" In conclusion, we cannot but assign, the palm of real eloquence to the pulpit, and as to forensic eloquence, there seems to us a sort of antethesis in the very words: there have been indeed illustrious men who have flourished at the British bar, and eloquence of the richest vein is to be found in the pleadings of a Curran. This great man, however, it should be remembered, trespassed on forbidden ground; he travelled boldly, but without sanction, out of the beaten track of his predecessors and his cotemporaries, and candour will not allow us to consider such eloquence as his, as a specimen of the ordinary speechifying of a modern lawyer! Any encomium on the oratorical productions of our well known and eminent divines would be both officious and superfluous, but we cannot but feel proud in closing this short essay, in directing attention to the writings of a Hooker, or the unrivalled, faultless eloquence of a Jeremy Taylor! F. CHARACTER OF SHERIDAN. THE Source of Sheridan's misfortunes was ambition, or an insatiable appetite for display. At the outset of his career, he adopted a style of living, the expenses of which far exceeded his limited means; and he plunged headlong into debt, to keep up an appearance equal to that of his opulent associates. His pride, and increasing desire to shine in superior society, prevented him from attempting to retrieve his independence, by abandoning the course which he had thus rashly adopted; had he done so, when he began to discover its manifofd inconveniences, his future progress in life would perhaps, have been more happy and more honourable, but, in all probability, much less brilliant; for the same vice which ultimately led to his ruin, was also the cause of his celebrity. His ruling passion prompted him, by dint of intense application, to aim at achieving extraordinary reputation as a dramatist; he succeeded, but was not satisfied. The supreme controul of one of the great theatres then became the pinnacle of his aspiring views: by some miraculous means he attained it; but, cloyed with possession, and eager to distinguish himself in a more important station, he formed expensive political connexions, with the view of obtaining a seat in parliament. His wish was again gratified he became a member of the House of Commons; and, at length, one of the leaders of his party. But his success as an orator tended to accelerate his ruin. To maintain his political eminence, he devoted his attention to public affairs; his private concerns were consequently neglected. The emoluments which he might, perhaps, have acquired, by a sedulous attention to his business, as a stageproprietor, were considered as dust in the balance, against the congenial society, the entertainment, and flattering applause, which he met with in parliament. Intoxicated by his reputation for eloquence, he beheld, with indifference, his respectability vanish, his pecuniary resources diminish, and his liabilities enormously increase. Privileged from arrest, and gifted with an extraordinary power of appeasing the most clamorous creditor, debt, in his opinion, appeared to be no disgrace, and scarcely an inconvenience. He frequently so infatuated his victims, that, many who called upon him for payment, were cajoled to lend him more money, or furnish him with more goods. Selfishness was a predominant quality in his character. With an apathy, evincing a lamentable want of principle, he borrowed and squandered away what he had no prospect of repaying; and thus reduced to beggary, several who had the strongest clains on his gratitude. Although affected even to the shedding of tears, at the profanation of his person by the touch of a bailiff, he appears to have been contemptibly callous to the distresses of those on whom he had entailed misery, and, in some cases, absolute want, by his carelessness and extravagance. Amid the struggles of party, and all the feverish, but to him, delectable excitements of political life, the drama still possessed some of its original fascination. He shamefully neglected, but would not, until absolutely compelled by circumstances, altogether abandon his theatrical pursuits, incompatible as they were with his political avocations. His finances were suffered to fall into ruinous confusion; while, in return for the devotion of his talents and time to public affairs, he obtained little but fame; his party, though able and energetic, having but rarely and briefly enjoyed the sweets of office. His debts rapidly accumulated; his intellectual powers gradually diminished; and the more nearly he approached towards poverty, the more grossly did he abandon himself to sensual indulgences. In the course of his career, he had made numerous enemies, many admirers, but few friends; and, at length, he found himself, not only destitute of health, but,-partly, it must be confessed, by calamity, but principally through his own imprudence, of credit, influence, reputation, and almost the means of existence. Although patriotism, as a public character, may be no atonement for the injuries he inflicted on many of his fellow countrymen, by his reckless profligacy as an individual, it is due to his reputation to state, that he was, eminently, to the best of his judgment, the friend of his country. His conduct in parliament appears to have been, invariably, conscientious. Few politicians have been assailed by stronger temptations; yet it has been justly said of him, that he never would sacrifice his principles to his pocket, and that when most embarrassed he was most incorruptible. At a period, fertile beyond precedent, in eloquence, he rivalled as an orator, the most exalted of his cotemporaries. His figure was manly; his contenance expressive; and his voice singularly flexible, rich, and sonorous. His style was generally pure; his sentiments liberal; and his embellishments exquisite. Georgian Era, Vol. 1. AMERICAN ASSIZES. THE first matter that occupied the attention of the court was the marshalling of the grand jury, to whom the usual charge was delivered. This office was assigned by the court to one of the members of the bar, a young practitioner, who did not fail to embellish the summary of duties, which he unfolded to their view, with a plentiful garniture of rhetoric. Notwithstanding the portentous exaggeration of the solemnity of the occasion, and the multitudinous grave topics which were urged upon the grand inquest, it seems that this quintessence of the freehold dignity was sadly puzzled to find employment in any degree commensurate with the exaltedness of its function. It is said that the jurors revolved in their minds the whole list of national grievances. One party suggested the idea of presenting the established mode of electing the president of the United States as a grievance to the good people of the country; another thought of a formal denunciation of the tariff; a few advocated an assault upon the supreme court; but all were happily brought into a harmonious concurrence in the design of presenting a mad-cap ragamuffin, by the name of Jemmy Smith, for disturbing the peace of a camp meeting, by drinking whiskey, and breeding a riot, within the confines of the conventicle. Accordingly, after an hour's deliberation upon these various suggestions, they returned to the court room with a solitary bill, made out in due form, against Jeminy; and this matter constituting the sum total of their business for the term, they were thereupon discharged, with the thanks of the court for the able and vigilant administration of their inquisitorial duties. Jemmy Smith had anticipated this act of authority, and was now in court, ready to stand his trial. He had already selected his counsel-a flowery and energetic advocate, whose strength lay, according to the popular opinion, in his skill in managing a jury. The name of this defender of Jeremy's fame was Taliaferro (pronounced Tolliver) or, as it was called for shortness, Toll Hedges, Esq.; a gentleman whose pantaloons were too short for him, and whose bare legs were, consequently, visible above his stockings. Toll's figure, however, was adorned with a bran-new blue coat, of the most conceited fashion, which, nevertheless, gave some indications of having been recently slept in, as it was plentifully supplied with down from a feather-bed. He was conspicuous also for an old straw hat, that had been fretted at the rim by a careless habit in handling it. This learned counsel had apparently been keeping his vigils too strictly the night before, for his eyes were red, and his face inflamed. His frame had all the morning languor of a sedulous night-watcher; and, altogether, Toll did not appear to be in the best condition to try his case. However, he had now taken his seat at the bar; and close beside him sat his client, Jemmy Smith, an indescribably swaggering, saucy blade, who had the irreverence to come into court without coat or waistcoat, and to shew a wild, grinning, disorderly countenance to his peers. Whilst the gentleman who conducted the case for the commonwealth was giving a narrative of Jemmy's delinquencies to the jury, and was vituperating that worthy's character in good set terms, Toll was, to all appearance, asleep upon his folded arms, resting upon the desk before him. When the charge was fairly explained, one witness was called to support it. This individual was pretty much such a looking person as Jemmy himself. He was rather downfaced and confused in his demeanour before the court, and particularly shabby in his exterior; but he told a plain straightforward story enough, in the main, and his evidence went the full length of all the traverser's imputed enormities. The truth was, Jemmy had certainly broke into the camp, and played some strange antics, considering the sanctity of the place. But during all this time, Taliaferro Hedges, Esq. maintained his recumbent position, except now and then, when Jemmy, feeling himself pinched by the testimony, would recline his head to whisper in his counsel's ear, which act would rouse him enough to bring upon Jemmy a rebuke, that was generally conveyed by pushing him off, and an injunction to be quiet. At length the whole story was told, and bad enough it looked for Jemmy! The attorney for the commonwealth now informed Mr. Hedges that the witness was at his disposal. At this Toll completely roused himself, and sitting bolt upright, directed a sharp and peremptory catechism to the witness, in which he required him to repeat the particulars he had before detailed. There was something bullying in the manner of the counsel that quite intimidated the witness, and the poor fellow made some sad equivocations.At last, said Toll, after admonishing the witness in a very formal manner, that he was upon his oath, and explaining to him the solemnity of his obligation to speak the truth-"I will ask you one question-answer it catego |