AN ESSAY UPON ORATORY.   

AN ESSAY UPON THE ACTION OF AN ORATOR; AS TO HIS Pronunciation& Gesture.  
Useful both for Divines and Lawyers, and necessary for all Young Gentlemen, that study how to Speak well in PUBLICK.  
Done out of French.  
Aliud est eloquentiam callere;  
Aliud, eloqui.  
LONDON: Printed for Nich. Cox at the Golden Bible without war.   

To the Honoured CHRISTOPHER RAWLINSON, Esquire.  
SIR,  
DEdications are so much in Fashion now adays, that a Man cannot appear well in Print without One. Some of 'em are Fine, some Foppish and others Fullsome, to the last degree of Flattery and falsehood: But among all the Dresses of this Kind, I believe, a Native Simplicity will please You best; without running into Foreign Countries for gaudy Colours or fantastical Flourishes. For your Heart is entirely in the Interest of England, and will never let You sacrifice it to Hypocrisy, Vanity or new Fashions. However I am so fully convinced of your Discretion, Prudence and Humanity, that I take it for granted You will accept of this Excellent and Polite Tract of Oratory, which I now address to You with all the Frankness and Sincerity in Nature; and though it be Originally FRENCH, yet I hope it will fare no worse, for the sake of an Honest ENGLISH Translator.  
I shall not compliment you, But I think myself so much honoured with your Name to this Translation of the ACTION OF AN ORATOR, that indeed I want Eloquence enough to express my thankfulness for so great a Favour and condescension. And yet your Goodness persuades me, that you will not discountenance this Dedication, either for its Unworthyness or Disproportion; for you know that it is not within the Compass of every Man's Fortune or Capacity to build a STATUE to his Friend.  
Give me leave to think then, that I could not have Dedicated this Book to a Worthier Patron than yourself, with regard either to your Extract, Education or Qualifications. Your Family is both ancient and Honourable. What need I mention your being Descended from the PLANTAGENETS; What need I say any thing of your being so nearly related to that Illustrious Hero, GENERAL MONK? I shall only add this, that you seem to me to inherit your Renowned Ancestors Virtues, as well as their Estate, even in a Private Capacity and Character.  
How well you deserve of the Commonwealth of Learning, the World knows by your acting so honourable a Part in it yourself, and by universally encouraging the Study of Philosophy, Language and Antiquity in others; by your Frugality in your own private Personal expenses, and your Munificence at the same time to public Letters; which is to be truly Noble without Vanity, and Generous without self-interest: So that you seem to live in Retirement only to become a Greater Benefactor to Mankind. But now You are pleased, out of a singular Humanity, wonted Candour and a general Respect to all sorts of good Literature, to promote a little Treatise of inferior Quality to the public View of the World: And how well it will answer at last for so kind a Countenance and Recommendation under your Auspicious Protection, I must wholly leave to Time and Chance to determine; for Fortune has her particular Favourit●s.  
However I could make you twenty APOLOGIES for this Undertaking, and give as many good Reasons for the Publishing of it to the Kingdom; I could tell you a long Story of the Nature and Quality of the Subject; of the Excellency of ACTION in the main, and of the extraordinary Merit of the whole Work: But this would look like forestalling your judgement, or praeengaging your Opinion of the Book at the same time, when I only invite you to the Reading on't. And therefore I entirely submit it, such as it is, without any further Ceremony, to your most judicious Thoughts and discerning Faculties, upon the Confidence of a kind Reception and a candid Interpretation in Favour of,  
SIR, Your most Obedient Humble Servant.   

THE TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE TO THE READER.  
IF I were to make any Apology for this Treatise in it's Original Language, it should be such a One as a sober Gentleman of my Acquaintance commonly makes for his Claret: He never drank better in his Life. But good Books like good Wine, in the old Proverb, need no Recommendation. However, this of the Action of an Orator, has been universally approved of and applauded through many successful Editions in France. And I confess ingenuously, that this English Translation of that Tract, is wholly owing to the extraordinary Character, which the Incomparable Sir ROGER L'ESTRANGE and the Reverend Dr. WAKE have been pleased to give it.  
The Preamble of the Book indeed is somewhat of the longest. But that's a Fault and no Fault; for whoever gives himself the trouble of Reading it all over, he will certainly be the better for't. In short, the Question was, whether Action or No Action ought to be used in public; and a Controversy naturally arising upon it, between paroxysm and Foppery, it was the longer a-determining in the Introduction to the main Work; in order to distinguish the Decency of the thing both from Extravagance and Dullness. But the Subject is wholly New, and the Novelty is worth any Young Gentlemans Money in the Kingdom; especially if he lays under any Temptation of the Air, Gallantry and Grace of a good PRONUNCIATION and GESTURE, either for the Church, the Court, or the Camp. The Divine, the Lawyer and the Soldier are the Men of the World, who have most occasion to speak well in public: And if our English Youth were trained up more in the Art of Oratory and better instructed in the Rules of ACTION, why might they not become as Great Men and as Good Speakers, as ever GREECE or ROME yet produced.  
In fine, This Book is no Enemy to Good Breeding, and it entrenches upon no Mans Education or Profession. The Dancing-School indeed teaches Gesture or Motion wonderfully well, and the balance of the Body to Perfection; but it can never do the whole Business of an ORATOR nor accomplish him with all necessary ACTION either for the Pulpit or the bar, till the Feet can speak Figures and the Hands pled Causes. 'tis certain however, that Eloquence does not lay in the Heels, nor rhetoric in Frisking and Gesticulation.  
Now I have Translated this Book as well as I could, and perhaps the FRENCH has lost nothing by't. However, I could not have been more exact and just to the AUTHOR, unless I could have had the Happiness of conversing with him. But least the Reader should expect a more particular Account of the whole Work, I shall give it in as few Words as possible.  
First then, the thing is New, Learned and Ingenious in General. It treats of Pronunciation and Gesture in particular; which are the very Life and Soul of rhetoric. It is founded upon the best Authorities of the Ancients, Ecclesiastical, Secular and Civil; and yet plausibly adapted to Modern practise and the Genius of the present Age. It is adorned with the finest Figures and Beauties of Elocution, and illustrated with the most Glorious Examples. Insomuch that I might by an easy Metaphor call it an Universal Constellation of Eloquence. But as for GESTURE, there never was any thing done like it before; the Rules are so very Nice, and New, even to a first Discovery. A Genteel regular Movement of the Body, without doubt, goes a great way in the Character of a public Orator; for there is nothing so taking or so much admired now-adays as that which is ACTED to the Life; strikes the Senses and captivates the Mind. So that GESTURE, in fine, is not improperly called the Eloquence of the Body and the last Accomplishment of Speech.  
In the next Place: Besides the intrinsic Worth of this Treatise, I may with good Reason also recommend the usefulness of it to the Grammar-Schools, the Universities and the Inns of Court; And I hope I shall not be charged either with Impertinence or presumption for my Pains, after a fair Perusal. However I shall take upon me to say, that it will make as excellent a School-Book for BOYES as any extant; to reform the vicious Habits of their PRONUNCIATION; to refine the affencted Rudeness of their BEHAVIOUR; to polish the natural Clownishness of their GESTURE, and to give them a true Light at last into the main end and design of rhetoric, which is to express themselves distinctly and handsomely in their Exercices upon all Occasions. I am confident over and above, that it will not be thought unworthy of any Young Gentlemans Pocket or Study, who has any value for the Graces of ACTION, and the Charms of ELOQUENCE. But I will be so bold at last as to assert, that if this little Tract were rightly made use of, with a just Application, by STUDENTS either of Divinity or the Law; they would have no occasion to run so often to the Play-Houses, nor fall in Love so much with comical Fopperies and extravagant Postures.  
farewell.   

THE AUTHOR'S PREFACE TO THE READER.  
THis Treatise, short as it is, will be thought too long I fear for several Reasons: But the two main Objections will be these. Some perhaps will say that I am overlarge and more nice then I need be upon the variation of the voice: And others may think that my Rules of rhetoric are over-stockt with Examples and needed not all that Train of Illustration. But in Answer to both the one and the other, I shall show 'em that there's neither a precept nor an Example too many, and that they ought not to fall out with either of them for swelling this little Book up to such a size. This I will do in as few Words as the Matter will bear.  
First, As to those on the one hand, that think I am too long and exact upon the Business of Pronunciation, and have said too much of the variation of the Voice; They cannot in Justice blame me for being so particular upon the two main Points of Oratory. For the Art of speaking well and of varying the Voice; the necessity of the one and the difficulty of the other, will abundantly answer for the length of this Discourse: And pray let 'em consider over and above, that though some People may meet with several things here not worth their while; there are many others yet, both in Church and State, will be the better for them, and find them written to some purpose. Most Men that speak in public now-a-days, whether in Churches or in Courts, are so naturally addicted to a kind of MONOTONY; a fulsome way of accenting every Word they speak, with the same Tone: They find so much difficulty also to correct the 'vice, and are so puzzled often how to vary the Voice, as they should do, with a true Government of the Tongue, that it was but necessary to give them so many Hints and Precautions against a vicious way of speaking, that is not only disadvantageous to themselves, but troublesone to others and disagreeable to all Mankind. And why should not I then arm them at all points to overcome so strong an Infirmity, as an imperfection of the Mind, fortified with Inclination? Or, why should not I prescribe to them all the Remedies I could think of for the cure of so great an Evil.  
Secondly, As for those, on the other hand, that find fault with me for stuffing my Discourse with too many Examples, and for gathering up such a Cloud of Testimonies to make good the Rules here propounded; I have this to say for't. First, That these Authorities, quoted out of the best Writers and Orators, so famous all over the World for their Learning and Eloquence, do add a certain Beauty and Lustre to the Rules of this Art. Besides, they give my precepts a Reputation and Credit as well as an agreeable Light, Air and Grace: Whereas, on the contrary, if I had exposed them Naked to the World, as they lay, and not dressed them up in these Robes of Example and Testimony, they had appeared indecent as well as mean and ordinary. And this is so noble a dress too, that if becomes the present Age; suits the Orator very well here at Home, and sets-off the Subject I am upon, though the Fashion be never so old, or never so far-fetched from abroad. But, secondly, I have this also to urge further, that these Examples do not only adorn my precepts, which are not so very pleasing perhaps or agreeable of themselves; but illustrate them too, and make them more easy and intelligible. And they are likewise the greatest helps in Nature, towards the putting of precepts in practise with a Fecility of Application, as well as for making use of them to the best Advantage upon all occasions. For there's no doubt but an Example red upon the Heels of a precept, enlightens the Mind, quickens the Understanding, and makes the precept our own for ever to all intents and purposes.  
This was the Reason I had to writ of ACTION here in so ample a manner as I have done, to show it in its just Proportion and at full length: And besides, as for the Method I have taken, be it as it will, some of my best Friends put me upon't, advised it and encouraged it into the World; for had it not been in compliment to them, I had ●ever so much as written this little Tract, and much less yet would I ever have made it public in Print. The Truth on't is: As I was equally convinced of the Light of their Understanding, the solidity of their judgement and the sincerity of their Affection; so I thought myself obliged in good manners to take every thing for granted they said concerning the disposition and order of this Work: especially considering that I undertook it purely for their Satisfaction, and out of an Ambition I had to gratify my Friends above all Men living. However, if any thing be found amiss in it, after all, they must answer for't, and let the success on't be what it will, I shall be in no great pain for my own security and defence under their Protection.   

A Table of Chapters in this Treatise of Action.  CHAP. I. Sets forth the Business of an Orator and Treats of the Parts of Oratory and of ACTION, in General. page. 1. CHAP II. That ACTION is a commendable Study both for Divines and Lawyers; and that it is neither indecent nor irreverent. page. 12 Directions about Action to young People, that apply themselves to the Art of Speaking well in public. page. 41 CHAP. IV. Of Pronunciation; and chiefly of the care we ought to take of speaking, so as to be distinctly heard and understood with ease page. 49 CHAP. V. The care we are to have of being heard with pleasure and satisfaction page. 67 CHAP. VI. Rules, in General, for the variation of the Voice page. 80 Rules, in Particular; and chiefly for varying the Voice upon all Subjects and Turns of Discourse whatsoever. page. 92 CHAP. IX. Of varying the Voice according to the different Parts and Qualities of a Speech, page. 119 CHAP. X. Of varying the Voice by Tropes and Figures. page. 128 CHAP. XI. Of the Pronunciation of Periods, viz. How to pronounce Words and Sentences to a full Point. page. 151 Of Gesture in General. page. 170 CHAP. XIII. Lays down Particular Rules for Gesture. page. 178 CHAP. XIV. Concludes with Directions for putting the whole Work in practise. page. 207  

AN ESSAY UPON THE Action of an Orator: OR, HIS Pronunciation and Gesture.  

CHAP. I. The INTRODUCTION; Setting forth the Necessity of Action, in general, by several Examples.  
There's no manner of doubt but Judicious Thoughts and Sound Reasoning do the Work of an Orator, and certainly convince the Understanding more than any Thing in the World; It must likewise be granted that the digesting of the one and the other into Order, does at once give us a distinct knowledge of Things, and a Facility of retaining them; and none can deny at last how much a curious Choice of fine Words, and the Art of placing them in a Discourse, do set-off Reason and Thought with Grace, Lustre and Power to Admiration: So that the Great Masters of rhetoric have set up Invention, Disposition, and Elocution for the three first parts of Oratory. But finding afterwards that the Sensitive Appetite and its Affections had a wonderful Ascendant over the Understanding as well as the Will; and our Passions again being most wrought upon by present Objects and what strikes in at our Senses, they found themselves under a necessity of adding a Fourth Part: That is, ACTION; which consists of Speaking and Gesture. Action, which was looked upon by the ancient Orators, to be so important a Qualification, that Demosthenes has made no difficulty of reckoning upon't for the First, Second and Third Faculty of Eloquence, all in one: and Tully was of the same opinion too, when he said that it had the Sole Power and Sovereign Command in a Speech.  
'tis true, if a Man's Business were only to make a fine Sermon, or to draw an Elegant Plea, the three first parts of Oratory would accomplish him with all necessary Perfections for the work: But when he should come then to the Point of Speaking, and of moving the minds of his Hearers to the Life, they would all seem dispassionate and Dead to the Discourse, without Action to quicken-up their attention, and to make the matter infinitely taking. For it has often been the Fortune of an Orator excellently well qualified with the most Essential Parts of Eloquence, to be heard on a public Occasion, with Impatience and Contempt, upon the very account of a Bad Pronunciation and Awkward Gestures: When not half so Great a Master of Language, that had the Genteelness of Action with it, has come-off both with the Delight and the Applause of his Audience. So powerful an Influence has this Faculty over the Senses; That the impression and Farewell it leaves upon us, is the Orator's Fate. As for instance, Philostratus tells us of one Philiscus among the Eloquent Barristers, whose Lives he has Written, that he spake Greek to Purity and Perfection; that he made it better than it came off the Lip, and that he had an incomparable voice too: but so ungainly a way of Pronunciation and Gesture into the bargain, that the Emperor Antoninus( whose very nature it was to countenance Men of the Long rob) bad him hold his Tongue once, and would not grant him the Point he Pleaded for, which several others had gained upon his Majesty before. Quintilian, on the other hand, reports it; that Trachallus was none of the best Orators of his Time, and yet out did all the Men of that Profession in his Pleading: He made so plausible an appearance, what with the stateliness of his Person and Port, the sparkling of his Eyes, the Majesty of his Looks, and the Beauty of his Mien; besides a voice, that did not only come-up to a Tragaedian's for Gravity and Compos'dness, but went far beyond any Actor's too that ever yet spake upon the Stage. So for the purpose, I have heard an Harangue made some time since to a Nobleman of France; that, to my thinking, was an excellent Discourse, as well for the depth of Argument as for the fineness and strength of Eloquence; and it had certainly got that Credit too upon any unprejudiced person's reading of it: But for all this, it was so indifferently delivered by a Gentleman that had a natural Impediment in his Speech, and one too that had no more Gesture than a Post; or if he had any, 'twas so untoward and ungenteel, that not a Man of the Company but disrelished the Eentertainment, and thought his Time lost in giving it the Hearing. I have known likewise, on the contrary, many an indifferent Orator, both in the Pulpit and at the bar, that have set themselves off with extraordinary Acclamation, and have been cried up for Good Preachers and Great Lawyers, upon the bare credit of their fine way of Speaking and Motion. In short, these External Graces of Speech work such ideas and Biasses upon the Auditors, according to the performance of them, better or worse; that they are become now the very measures of their valuing or undervaluing the Speaker.  
To say this by the By then. They that are furnished with the other Faculties of Oratory to a Felicity, and writ up to the Perfection of 'em, may do well enough in Printing their Speeches; which of themselves will not fail of giving the Reader an entire satisfaction, though at the same time they want all the pleasing advantages of the Tongue and the Body: But they again, that entertain their Hearers with little or nothing of Excellent and Considerable in an Harangue, more than the Grace of Action, should hardly publish theirs to the World; lest what was heard with Honour to the Speaker, be red yet with dishonour to him in Print. Men of Discretion and Foresight will take example at Pericles, or Hortensius, in this matter. Pericles, for all the Poets said that the Goddess of Persuasion sat upon his lips; that he thundered and lightened in an Assembly, and made all Greece tremble again when he Spake; never made any of his Orations public: For why, says one, their Excellency lay in the Action, which was the most moving part of his rhetoric; and there's nothing at all of His extant but some Decrees and public Acts, as Plutarch reports. For, as to those Speeches which we red in thucydides for His, they were made by the Historian himself, and the Orator had no hand in them. Hortensius, on the other hand, seeing himself mightily admired for his Pleading, ascribed all the honour of it to the potency of his Arguments, the Elegancy of his Reason, the Delicacy of his style, and other such like Graces; which after all, and in Truth, was only owing to his Pathetical Action: And so he put forth his Orations upon that mistake, but was not half so fortunate with his Pen as he had been with his Tongue; and Hortensius was now reputed a better Lawyer than an Author. For, as Quintilian says, his written Speeches were much inferior to his mighty Character at the bar; and it was as clear as the Sun, that he had spoken a great many entertaining things off in Court with Grace and good Action, which were never to be met with again upon the Reading of them. This puts me in mind, for the purpose, o● having heard a public Harangue once from a person, that over and above the advantages of good Natural Parts, had many acquired Graces to show his Wit upon't; and, in short, by his neat Flourish and Delivery, he was wonderfully commended for't: But some time after this success, my Gentleman was overpersuaded to publish the very same Speech; and then it had quiter another Fate in the World. For when his Hearers came now to red it, and had neither the Harmony of his delicate voice in their Ears, nor the Beauties of his fine Mien and handsome Gesture before their Eyes, but were left barely to judge of the Speech by the merits of the Speech itself; they found not a Turn in't worth the admiring, and could hardly believe at last that it was the same thing they had heard.  
This is that Faculty of Oratory, which Tully calls the Eloquence of the Body: and it is a matter of so great Moment for the prevalent Influences and effects it has upon the Mind, that 'twere to be wished the ancients had treated of Action with as much exactness of method, and in as ample a manner as they have established the other three parts of rhetoric. But neither has Aristotle been pleased to lay down any precepts of it, upon an opinion that it was a Gift of Nature, and could not well be reduced into Art or Rule: nor has Cicero himself, in his Books of the Orator, undertaken the work, so as to prescribe any peculiar Laws for it; but only presses it over and over to us for an Important Qualification and a necessary Accomplishment. Cornificius indeed has handled it somewhat more at large; but, to be frank with him, what he advances upon it comes far short of it's Perfection, and little or nothing of his Action is now in Use. There's none, in short, has yet spoken of it like Quintilian, for Nicety of Method and Pregnancy of Wit; but then His instructions also are only for the bar, and Rules of Action are still wanting as well for the Pulpit. Besides that, among a thousand fine things he says upon this Subject, which ought to be in Fashion and practise now a days as well as they were then, he teaches up several Fondnesses and Foppish Actions; as of beating his Brow, his Head, his Breast, his Thigh; of Stamping and such like: Which in his time, were decent enough perhaps; but they are very unbecoming, disagreeable and antic motions in ours, and quiter out of Countenance and Vogue now with the Age we live in.  
Wherefore many ingenious Men have wished a long time that some Body would writ such a Treatise as this; seeing that most of our public Orators, both in the Pulpit and at the bar, do often blunder very grossly against the Art of Good Speaking, for want of it: And no person appearing all the while that would take it in hand, several of my Friends and Acquaintance complemented me with the Honour and the necessity of the Subject, and gave me a thousand importunities to set about the work; which I all along declined yet, for reasons best known to myself and my own Incapacity. But two worthy Gentlemen at last, whose Judgments and Sense I submitted to far more more than my own inclination over-came me with the most pressing Instances of Favour and Friendship, and engaged me to writ this little Tract of Action: For I could not but make this Return to their Obligations in discharge of my Duty; how much soever it might be to the disadvantage of my Faculty and Understanding; and such as it is, I have here addressed it to them for their character on't to the Eloquent World, if they think it may be of any service to't for want of a Better.   

CHAP. II. That Action becomes both a Divine and a Lawyer.  
I know there are several People will condemn the design of this Essay at first sight, and tell you that this care of Speaking and Gesture is neither the business of Religion nor Law; and that it neither becomes a Person preaching Divinity in the Pulpit, nor a Man pleading for Justice at the Barr. Some will do this out of a fantastical Humour, like Cotta; who, as Tully says, not only affencted old Obsolete Words, but a Clownish way of speaking too, out of a vanity to be thought an admirer of Antiquity. Others will do't, upon a Principle of Laziness; for they'll not take so much pains for a laudable habit of speaking, not they: It will cost 'em more labour than the thing is worth to make themselves Masters of Action, and they had rather displease all the World than be at the trouble of acquiring it. Such as they in the Primitive Times, condemned the use of Eloquence in Preaching; till St. Chrysostom confuted them, and vindicated it against Aspersion and Calumny, in his Books of the Priest-hood. There are some precise people again, will decry it out of a fanatical Superstition and Melancholy; because it is neither for their Palate nor Purity, forsooth; and they like nothing that pleases Sense, be it never so useful and profitable to the Soul: So that whatever strikes the Humour of the Age, must needs disgust Them.  
Now, if I had only to do with those whimsical people, I should not be much concerned for the Zeal or Spleen of their Opinions, nor trouble myself with their Affectation, Idleness or ill Temper: But finding others yet, and those also Persons of good Sense, though perhaps a little too Rigid and Severe, that make it a Case of Conscience and think themselves in the right too; it is but reasonable, I should inquire into the meaning of so nice a Point and endeavour to satisfy their Tenderness; so that I will make it my business here to undeceive them as far as I can, both as to the Religion of the Scruple and the truth of the matter.  
They say in the first place, with a regard to Preachers; that Action is unworthy of their Ministry, and that it is a scandalous thing for those God hath honoured with so serious and sublime a Function, to be studying in the very Exercise of it, how to frame their voice and move their Body, when they should think of nothing but his Glory; nothing but the Majesty of his Mysteries, the Holiness of his precepts, the Edifying of his Church and the Salvation of his Elect. For to pretend ( say they) to make people believe the Truth, and to win Souls to Faith, Piety and all Christian Virtues, not only by the Eloquence of their style, but also by the Grace of Speaking and Power of Gesture, is to sink Religion into Sense, and to make that which is Spiritual depend upon Carnal Worship, human Invention and External Flourish. At this rate, they urge, Religion would be a cunning Trade indeed; and a handicraft fitter to be driven-on by the mercenary Actors of Comedy and Tragedy in Play-Houses, who have the best knack of pleasing the people with all the little Fopperies of Motion and Speech; than to be professed by the Ministers of the Word of God. They add, in the next place, that the Apostles never studied nor practised this Art of Action, and that it was not by this means they made so many Converts, brought over so many people to the Church and gained so many Souls to Jesus Christ.  
This is the Objection I am to encounter here, and my Answer will be this: First, that it is not my Design to teach Old Men the Art of Speaking, who have exercised it for several years in public Employments and Business; for they have already taken up the Way they liked best, whether it be Good or Bad: If Good, they have no need of Rules for't; and if Bad, it would be too hard a matter for 'em at their age ever to acquire a Better. However, some of them perhaps, upon the reading of this Book, will easily find out their own failings by't, among the many vices of Speaking that are so disagreeable to the Hearer, as well as prejudicial to the Speaker, and may correct them with little or no difficulty. But I propose only to instruct Youth and assist those that are bread up to Divinity or the Law; for young Gentlemen, who have not yet got an ill habit of Speaking, are most capable of learning a Good one. And I do ingenuously city St. Augustin's Declaration here, which he makes in his Fourth Book of Christian Doctrine for the use of Oratory in the Pulpit, on the behalf of my Discourse upon the Rules of Action: I do not think so well of these things( says he) as to advice Men grown up to maturity, or Men in years ever to trouble their Heads about them. It is enough for young people to make this Study their Care: And it is not fit for all those neither, that we would have well trained up in Sacred Learning for the Service of the Church; but only for such of them as labour under no Infirmities of Old Age, to apply themselves to so necessary an Art.  
But, Secondly, as to the Case of Conscience they allege, and their Arguments upon't: I confess it would be a reasonable Scruple, if Christian Preachres made this Grace of Action their whole Study, and minded nothing else in the Application: If they spent more time in studying these external things of Ornament than in making of Sermons upon matters of such eternal moment as the Glory of GOD and the Salvation of Men; if they took more Pains to set themselves off, then to edify others, with their fine Graces; if they ascribed the Conviction of Truth and the Conversion of Souls to them only; and if they had no other end in composing their voice and their Body, but their own praise and the people's pleasure. For, if this were all their pretention and practise, it is certain they would most notoriously offend God; most unworthily profane the Holiness of their Ministry; most sacrilegiously attribute that Honour to themselves, which is only due to the Grace of God and the Power of his Holy Spirit; and turn the Pulpit of Jesus Christ into a Theatre of their own Pomp and Vanity. But God forbid I should think of teaching up any such Foppery to those that aspire to this Sacred Function, and ought to know better things! My design is only to show them how to Speak with such a Grace; that, instead of giving their Hearers an aversion by a bad Pronunciation and a Disagreeable Gesture, they may edify them, not only with their discourse and Style, but in some measure also by the decency of their Speaking and the Fineness of their Action. And I shall give 'em Rules here for ordering both the one and the other so Handsomely, and with such a regard to Good Manners, that nothing may appear in it against Religion; nothing that does not become the Dignity of Preaching, the Majesty of the Subject they are to handle, and the Holiness of the place where they speak; nothing that does not breath of Piety, of Devotion and of Zeal; nothing that is not fit to move in people all kinds of Godly Thoughts and Religious Inclinations, and to carry them on to Repentance, Charity and Good Works. And where's the harm of all this now? Why, say they, he that studies in his Sermon how to render his Pronunciation and Gesture agreeable to the Congregation, must needs take more pains to please than to profit, and amuse himself how to tickle their Ears instead of thinking seriously how to instruct their Minds and edify their Consciences. 'tis true indeed, this is to please their Senses: But then that pleasure, as it tends to the Glory of God and the Conversion of their Souls; as it delights their attention to the good things they are  told and helps their memories to retain what they hear; it is without doubt very innocent, and very Holy and reverend as well as profitable and pleasing. So that if Action be suspended from public Devotion for pleasing the Senses, they may as well forbid the use of music in the Church, because it strikes the Passions of the Soul and sets them at work upon Heaven: And yet the Old Testament makes a laudable practise of it, for singing the sweet songs of Israel, and the admirable soft airs of Sion; which their very enemies, the egyptians, would have been glad to have heard from the mouths of the Israelites under the affliction of their Captivity: For they that lead them away Captive, required of them then a Song and Melody in their heaviness. Sing us one of the Songs of Sion. But then, the New Testament also sanctifies the use of Harmony and music in the Church, and makes it a most Sacred and necessary Duty, to celebrate the Honour and keep up the Praises of GOD in the Assemblies of the faithful.  
They Object further yet. The Apostles( say they) never observed any of these niceties. But who  told them, I pray, how those Holy Men spake, or what kind of Gesture they made use of in Preaching? It is certain that Jesus Christ called St. James and St. John BOANERGES; That is to say, the Sons of Thunder: And it is as easy to infer from the Title; that, when they came to preach the Gospel; to exhort People to Piety; to declaim against Error, heresy and Superstition; against Idolatry, and against 'vice; they were not to do't with a Faint and a Low voice, but with all the Vehemence, Terror and Warmth answerable to the Quality of the Commission and the Greatness of the Controversy. And when St. Paul wept his Exhortations with so many Tears, as we find in the Book of the Acts of the Holy Apostles, it is not to be imagined that he spake them Coldly, with a faint Gesture, or a languishing voice. I grant indeed that the Holy Apostles never made this Art of Action their study; but then, they as little studied either Grammar, or logic, or any other of the Parts of rhetoric: And must we therefore prohibit the use of those Arts that are necessary keys to all other Learning, because they did not poor upon them? They kept to no certain method in their Sermons, neither were they tied up to the Rules the Doctors had laid down; and must we therefore fallout with the way of Preaching that is practised at this day both with good order and decency? They were never brought-up in the Academies, nor under the Discipline of the Schools and of Tutors; and must we condemn the Education of Universities, and the Learning of Doctors, at present, because they had no occasion for't? They neither wrote nor studied their Sermons, but spake as the Holy Ghost inspired them, without Book; and must we find fault with Divines now-a days for premeditating, for writing or for Reading THEIRS? They minded none of these things and made use of no such helps, because they had no need of 'em at all. They had no need of Arts, nor Method, nor Academies, nor Doctors, nor Study; for the Holy Spirit they received in their Baptism, and the immediate Inspiration of Heaven did abundantly bless them ex tempore, as often as they preached, with all kinds of Virtues far above the Pitch of human Invention; far above the Powers of Art, the graces of method, the Faculties of the Academy, the subtleties of the Doctor and the reach of Study. And then they had the gift of Miracles too, which they no sooner wrought at any time, but the truth of their preaching was demonstrated, and people lay under the strongest convictions of Sense and Reason: It was but working a Miracle, and their Mission was as plain as the Sun. But it is not so with us now, that can neither pretend to those infused Virtues, nor to those miraculous blessings that were given them from above: So that, in short, my adversaries can draw no argument from the Supernatural Qualifications of these Extraordinary Preachers against the human helps of Education and Study; the acquired Arts and Ornaments of persuasion, and the natural means of preaching which Men use now a days in an ordinary capacity.  
However, they that have a fanatical Qualm against the Art of Action and make a scruple on't, urge yet, that we ought to leave this knack to Stage-Players; who propose no other end to themselves of acting Comedy and Tragedy but to please people and indulge a fond inclination. But I think, on the contrary, that it ought not to be left so, nor to be given up to Play-Houses; where the Actors make a very ill use on't, in prostituting it to their own ends of interest and appetite. For if those Ministers of sensual delights and public vanities, do lewdly abuse the Graces of Good Speaking and Gesture upon the Stage, to excite the wit of youth to Wantonness, profaneness and Immorality; to stir up their blood for Intemperance and debauch, and to set their Passions a Fire upon false pleasures and imaginary satisfactions: the Ministers of Jesus Christ know their Duty better, and ought to make a holier use of Action. They are to sanctify it to the service of the Church, the Edification or the Faithful, and the Salvation of Men's Souls. All the Action they use is only to touch people's hearts with a more feeling sense of sound Doctrines and everlasting Truths, and to raise their affections above the pitch of Transitory Enjoyment. And they need no more make it a scruple to set-forth their Sermons with all the Graces of Speech, for so good an end, than boggle at the ornamenting of the Tabernacle, and the beautifying of the House of GOD with the Gold of egypt. Indeed, if any Man profane the graces and blessings of GOD, we must immediately condemn the abuse; but then the right use of them ought not to suffer for it. This is the Case, and 'tis no contemptible one neither. For I would fain know of these scrupulous Gentlemen, if a Man had a good delivery and an admirable Gesture, either by the gift of Nature or Miracle, whether they would not look upon't as a particular favour of God and the blessing of his bounty: And would not they be the more willing to hear him then? Certainly they would. Why then do they blame a Man that neither has these Graces Naturally nor Supernaturally, which he may acquire yet by Art, Industry and Exercise; for attempting to make himself Master of Action to the utmost of his Power and Capacity? And what sin is it, I pray, to learn to speak well?  
So much for the Point against Preachers, and the business of Divines. As to the Lawyers in the next place, this is the reason of their Scruple: That God hath not appointed Men to the public Ministry of Justice for this purpose; that they are not called to the bar to charm the Judges with sounds, and dazzle them with appearances. They are not to endeavour to deceive them with fine words, nor to corrupt their Judgments with fair Speeches; but to tell them the naked truth of things, to show 'em the bare matter of Fact they are to Try, in the plainest Character and style, and to pled the Justice of a Cause opened in Court from solid Reasons and clear Lights, from the Laws Established, and from Reports, Precedents, or Opinions given before in such like Cases? And what need now has the honest Advocate, say they, for the Harmony of voice and the Grace of Gesture to do this. So far the Objection is Good: And in truth, as Aristotle observes, if Justice were distributed as it ought to be, Causes might be determined by their own Merit alone, without the help of these Faculties; and all external Actions and Arts would be unnecessary. If Lawyers also were always to pled before such Judges as sat in the Hall at Athens: That is to say, before Judges of perfect Probity and down-right Dealing; Judges, that over and above their Integrity, were Learned in th● Law and well qualified for the Bench in every respect; that heard Causes impartially, with all imaginable Attention and Regard to the Council on both sides; and that minded nothing but the Justice of the Issue, and directed it always in favour of Right without Passion or Prejudice to either Party: If so, I say, they needed not trouble their heads much about the Graces of Pronunciation and Gesture, nor seek for Exordiums; Perorations, Passions or any other Ornaments of rhetoric. It it would be sufficient then for the Pleader, on the defendants side, only to set forth the plain truth of things for them to give judgement upon't; to make out his Client's Right and Title by Reason and Law, practise and Precedent; and to give a solid Answer to all the Arguments that can be brought against it by the Plaintiffs Council. But, as it often happens that Lawyers have to do before Judges, who are not accomplished with all those good qualities; and, it may be, never the worse Men neither for want of Understanding and Capacity, nor the less honest for falling short of the Attention of the Areopagus; and as these Judges again are sometimes so falsely prepossessed by the plausible motions and cunning insinuations of the Council for the Plaintiff, that they lay under the bias of inclination to determine the Cause against Truth and Justice; it is absolutely necessary towards the better informing of their Judgments and th● undeceiving of them upon the trial, to use some means or other to quicken them up for a fair hearing on behalf of the defendant. Now there is nothing like a fine way of Speaking and Gesture to make them take notice of a Plea, to recollect themselves, and attend impartially to the Merits of the Cause: For, when a Case is truly stated to their very Eyes, as it were, with the Grace, Passion and Force of Action, as it ought to be adjudged; they must needs be moved with it in spite of all Prejudice and Prepossession, and ashamed to cast a Man in the face of the Court, that they see has manifest Evidence, Reason and Right on his side. The best Cause in the world may soon be lost for want of Action. This was the very Case of Rutilius, which Cicero reports in his first Dialogue of the Orator. The Council for the Prisoner were rue ilius himself, Cotta his Nephew, and Mucius: but they pleaded it so simply, says Tully, without any Ornament or Spirit at all; as if it had been upon a trial in Plato's imaginary Commonwealth. Not a Sigh nor an Exclamation among them; no Moan made, no Complaint, no Lamentation; no imploring of Authority, nor Address to the People: and not one of them so much as ever stamping his Foot upon the ground all the while, or showing any great concern for the matter: So that, in short, it was so indifferently managed that Rutilius was cast upon't: Whereas, if Crassus had but pleaded his Cause with the ordinary Air and Gallantry of his Action, he had certainly carried his Point, and acquitted him with Honour. And though 'tis granted Rutilius shew'd a great constancy of mind and a wonderful Confidence in his own Innocency by this way of proceeding, nevertheless he could not be much commended for't, nor promise himself any great praise for his Pleading in such a could irresolute manner. His behaviour was fatal. He played the stoic too much upon this occasion, and would neither use the means he might lawfully do for his Liberty, nor make his Defence with that Heat and Vigour which his Cause deserved: So that he was condemned and banished; and at once deprived the Commo●wealth of his Presence, of his good Example, of his Wife Councils and of his Great Services. But, after all, perhaps he did this on purpose; choosing a retirement rather into a Country where he was beloved and esteemed, than to live any longer at Rome, either at the discretion or under the discountenance of Sylla, and engage himself in the broils and Disturbances of Government.  
Besides this, Fine Action and Good Speaking do not only conduce very much to make the Judges more attentive and cautious, but to convince them also that the Orator is in Good Earnest, sincere and Ingenuous: For, as Cornificius says, they are the greatest signs of his Veracity, and that he speaks from the Bottom of his Heart; while they that want either one or t'other, seem not to believe themselves what they would have the Judges believe; because they show no manner of concern nor impatience for't. This made Cicero say to an Orator of his Time that had managed his Client's Cause but very coldly. If what you said there was not false, would you have pleaded on that fashion? Where was your Grief and your Grievance, your Fury and your Fire? You shew'd us no Passion of the Mind, no Action of the Body. And you were so far from inflaming our Spirits or awakening our Judgements, that we had much a do to hold from sleeping in Court. When therefore a Lawyer makes it his business to speak to his Judges with an agreeable Air and Tone, it is not to coax or corrupt them; it is not to court or cajole them with his fine Mien, nor to inveigle them with his fair Tongue: But, on the contrary, his plausible Pronunciation and Gesture is only to oblige them to do him Justice, and to discharge their own duty: 'tis to keep up their Senses from falling a slumber, and their Minds from wandering; 'tis to induce them to take the whole matter into their serious consideration, with the utmost attention of their Ears to the Truth and Right of what is so fairly made out to their Eyes; 'tis to prepare them for judging according to Law and Equity. It is, in fine, if there were no other reason for't, to speak things as Nature and Reason would have them spoken; and every body knows that a natural way of speaking is best.  
Besides, I must urge one Argument more for it, which seems to be very Considerable in itself, and as well worth my while to take notice of: And that is this, if honest Men should deny themselves these Arts of persuasion in a Good Case, others yet would make use of them in a Bad One: whereas there's all the reason in the world they should be equally matched, and dispute it out upon fair terms. The good at least ought to be as well armed as the bad. I may say as much of Action also for Divines, and apply that in particular to it which St. Austin says in general concerning all Eloquence, in his Fourth Book of Christian Doctrine. Seeing that it is the business of rhetoric to persuade things true and false indifferently, who is it dares say that Truth ought not to be guarded against Falsehood, or that a person defending it ought not to be in arms against a Fiction or a lie? As if they that endeavour to persuade an untruth should know how to obtain the good will and attention of their hearers by a fine preamble, or a fair Exordium, and other people should know nothing at all of the Art on't: As if some might set forth a Falsehood with queintness and colour to a probability; and others should assert a Truth with so little ceremony, that the very dull recital of it, at length, would make it difficult to be understood, and hard to be believed, if not incredible: As if those, on the one hand, might encounter Truth with polish and specious pretensions, and establish their Falsity into the bargain with plausible arguments; and these, on the other, might neither defend what is true nor confute what is false with the Graces of Language: As if those again, should have such an influence over the minds of their Hearers whom they go about to seduce with fair speeches, as to make them conceive things with Apprehension or Astonishment, with Sadness or with Joy, to raise the Passions and to turn them to what point of Doctrine they please; and these, that engage for Truth, should make use neither of Artifice nor Ornament, but stand like Stocks, dull, unconcerned and impotent, without all manner of Action and vigour. Who can be such a Blockhead as to entertain so extravagant a thought? Since Eloquence therefore has a mighty power to persuade things False as well as True, and is left to the discretion of those that have a mind to make use on't; why should not Good Men study it to maintain the Cause of Truth, when Ill Men put it in practise to defend. Injustice, to support Error, and to compass their own Wicked Ends?  
In fine, there are others yet that despise this Art, and reckon upon't for superfluous: For, say they, Nature has taught a Man to do well enough both as to his Pronunciation and Gesture; both how to express and how to behave himself. But they might even as good say, that since God has given the Earth power to produce Bread for the food of Man, and Wine to make his Heart Glad; therefore it will do't well enough of itself, and the art of Tilling is Useless: That Man being of a reasonable nature, therefore it signifies nothing to teach him the Art of logic and Right Reasoning: That his Creator having made him a sociable Creature and endued him with all necessary qualities for Conversation and Business, therefore he need not trouble his Brain about Morality, or economics, or politics: That God having blessed him with the use of Speech and the Faculty of Reason, therefore 'tis needless for him to study how to express himself with Purity and Politeness, or the Art of Speaking in the most plausible manner of persuasion. And certainly they would be much in the right on't, if the Earth were as Fertile in one place as it is in another, or if Ly-ground and Land that lays untilled would bring forth as good fruit, and as much on't too, as Arable, or that which is cultivated with Art and Industry: If nature were equally reasonable and regular in all Men; if they had the same capacities, and were all alike free from imperfection and Non-sense; if one Man could reason as well as another, without knowing any thing of the Rules of Argument; if this Man's conduct and temper were as discreet as his neighbour's either in sacred, Civil or Secular Societies, and that Man's example were as good as this Man's precept: If they all spake alike, or had the faculty of talking with the same Purity and Power of Persuasion, without the help of any Art. But there's a great deal of Invention wanting to bring things to this Perfection. For as to the Earth, it is not all alike fruitful over the face of the World. Some ground is barren and produces nothing at all; and some next to nothing, brings forth only Wild briars and Brambles, Thiftles and Thorns; and the Best that is, stands in need of being tilled with labour and improved according to the rules of Good Husbandry. As to Men indeed, they all reason well upon things in some measure; but not so well as they might do, one would think, being endowed both with Reason and Understanding: So that it is necessary to assist Nature by Art, both to teach those people the true way of reasoning that know nothing on't, and to improve those to a felicity of argumentation that do know it and yet lay things but very oddly together. They all live well in public Societies generally speaking, as they are sociable Creatures; but in private ones; particular Neighbourhoods, Callings and Capacities, they many times behave themselves very untowardly, one against another. And therefore the precepts of Moral Philosophy are both very useful and necessary to reform them, and to teach them Better Manners. They all have the right use of speaking too; but most Men do not speak so well as might be wished for, upon extraordinary occasions, to persuade people and to convince all that hear them, in matter of Truth and Justice: So that they stand in need of being furnished with the Rules of Grammar and rhetoric to speak fine▪ and agreeably, to express themselves to Perfection, and to come off at last with success and applause. Now, Action lays under as great disadvantages as Nature. Every one has his particular fancy, as his own Genius or other Men's Examples led him to't. But some have a way of speaking and moving far more proper to please the Eye, charm the Ear, and move the Passions, than others have. Hence came the ancients to take notice of those excellent Orators that were famous for this faculty: And finding that, by this means, they were much better heard, and convinced people far more powerfully than others did, they have carefully observed whatever was most Genteel, Delicate and Charming in their voice and their Air. They have likewise, upon considering the Reason and Force of their Action, laid down some precepts of it, and left them addressed both to the Students of their own Time, and to all Posterity: such Rules of Action and rhetoric I propose here to give Gentlemen that have occasion to speak in public Places, to qualify them either for Preaching or the practise of the Law. I design to show them how to finish what Nature has but just begun; and to teach them how to do that by Rule and good Conduct, which otherwise they would do only by Chance or Hap-hazzard; to do that with Decency, which otherwise they would be apt to do either too slovenly or too finically; to do that with variety and distinction, which otherwise they would huddle-up in confusion of circumstance and order; and, in a word, to do that à propòs, which they would often do impertinently and at a venture, if they were not accomplished with this Art. 'twas by this study, and the practise of such rules as these, that Demosthenes and Cicero attained to so wonderful a faculty of persuasion, which got them the reputation and character of being the greatest Orators that ever were heard of among the grecians or the Romans. For the first and second time Demosthenes pleaded at Athens in his natural way of speaking, without observing any rule of the voice, he was hissed for his bad Delivery, and the remarkable vices of his Pronunciation; but after he had been trained up to it a while under Masters of the Art, he was heard with universal applause and Humm'd to admiration: And 'tis as clear as day, that it was Action did his business; for Aeschines having once recited to the Rhodians a Speech which this Great Orator had made against him, and seeing them admire it one and all. Well, said he; And how would you have admired it then, if you had heard it from his own mouth. Cicero again, when he first put himself upon Pleading at Rome, was mightily commended and cried up for a very fine Wit; but his Delivery was nought, and his way of speaking did not take at all; because he kept neither to Rule nor Measure with his voice, and his sounds were very harsh and unpleasant. But when he had polished off this Roughness; and by the help of his Tutors, had refined his Pronunciation to the utmost degree of Perfection, he was preferred on all hands, before the most Eminent Lawyers of his Standing. He over-ruled every thing afterwards in the Courts of Judicature, and for the most part gained what Point soever he pleased there, upon the Honour and the Excellency of his Pleading.  
After all this now, can any Man have the face to say that these precepts of Action are either unprofitable or unnecessary? and will not the whole world grant me that it is worth while to know and observe them? For, can a Man take too much pains to be Eloquent?   

CHAP. III. Directions for Action, to young Men that have a mind to study how to speak well in public.  
I Writ this little Tract of Action chiefly for young Gentlemen that devote themselves either to the Pulpit or to the bar, and I come now to show them how necessary an Art it is; but I think myself obliged by the way to give them two Directions, that may be very serviceable to their study, and make them good proficients, with a little pains and exercise.  
My first advice then is this; that they begin to study it betimes, and betake themselves to the practise of it as often as they can conveniently, for fear of falling into the imperfections and vices of speaking that are here exploded. It is an easy matter for them at first to prevent an odd way of expression and an ill fashioned Gesture, before they have taken any bias or nature stands a-bend upon't; but when they have once got an ungenteel habit, and confirmed it by Custom, and Time too, it is very difficult at least, not to say impossible, either for them ever to unlearn it again, or for me to unteach it: So that they must make it the business of their youth up to years of discretion and employment. That's the Time when Nature is fittest to be wrought upon by Art; when it is most docible and apt to receive the Impressions of Education. They are not to put it off to any other Age, when Nature will be hardened and grown more inflexible. 'tis true when they come to Maturity and Manhood, they will best know their own Failings, and the Imperfections they labour under; but then perhaps let 'em repent never so much on't, the misfortune will be past Cure, or else it will be too late for Men to think of refining at Thirty or Forty. There's no discipline can correct an over-grown Error, no recovery of Time that is Lost, and no Remedy against the Register. For the purpose: It will not be impertinent to tell you that I have found many Worthy Persons who came too late to the knowledge of the Rules of this Art, lay it extremely to heart that they had not the good fortune to fall upon't sooner, in an Age, when they might have made some progress in it: And one I knew among the rest, that had extraordinary good natural Parts, and was excellently qualified to speak in a public Character; but he had never kept up to any Rule or Measure, either in his Speaking or Gesture: So that although he found out his own Faults and Infirmities at last by the help of a Friend that taught him this Art, he durst not yet venture upon mending the matter at that Age of Habit, for fear of losing his labour; and so he despaired ever to do any good on't. But certainly he had all the reason in the world for his resolution; for he would never have had any success in it, through the natural violence, liberty and confidence of his temper; and the rules he should have been ty'd-up to, would not only have cramped him intolerably, but also spoyled his chief Talent and Excellency, which was the Boldness and the Freedom of his speaking.  
My next Caution is for young People, that are naturally bent upon Imitation, and especially the Imitation of those Persons that brought them up, as their Fathers and Tutors, who are most in their thoughts and best in their Opinions; to take care lest they imitate them in things contrary to Art and Reason. For they ought to examine the practise of their Parents and Masters, as well as other Men, by the Rules of this Art of Speaking and Gesture; as they are bound to inquire into their Morals and to distinguish their honest actions from dishonest ones by the Word of God and the Principles of Morality; with a design to fly the Bad and follow the Good. Young Gentlemen, I say, ought to take great care in this matter, because Children often imitate their Fathers in the one as well as the other, without distinguishing upon the quality of their Manners. Witness Young Alcibiades that followed his Father's steps to a Fault. He imitated him in speaking fast and thick, one word crippling another. He tossed up his Head, and turned his Neck a-skew like him too; and walked the streets a-trip, as softly as he did, with the sweeping train of a Gown at his Heels, out of Pride, Foppery and Affectation: as Archippus, a Poet in those days, hit him once in the Teeth on't. Scholars indeed have commonly so great an Esteem and Veneration for their Masters, that they are too apt to admire and to practise their Vices as well as their Virtues. So we red that Plato's Scholars imitated his Clownish way of shrugging up his Shoulders; and Aristotle's affencted his Stammering. Thus likewise Alexander the Great imitated Leonidas his Governour's Example, in making too swift marches, and in fatiguing his Army to death almost upon Exploit and Victory; and he could never break himself on't. And if there's any Tutor in a University happens to have an Impediment in his Speech; wheezes, as if he had got a Burr in his Throat, snuffles through the Nose, or pronounces several words and letters very unhandsomely; not to say worse; you shall find his pupils for the most part take at him, and contract the same vices by imitation: And why? because he is the pattern of all their Actions, Good or Bad, without distinction. The same objection lays against the imitation of other Great Men too; who are not without their faillings, let 'em be never so well qualified and accomplished. Every Man of us has his weak side. As for instance. M. Brisson the President, says Monsicur du Vair, was a Man of excellent Learning and Parts, and had the best Faculties in the World for Eloquence; but his Action was nought: He stood always in the same Posture; was starched and stiff-neck'd; lift up his Eyes, and fixed 'em upon Heaven as if he had been going to Prayers; which some People say he did for fear of being diverted from his Business, and disturbed in his Memory by the variety of Objects.  
And therefore Young Men would do well to apply themselves as much as possible to the Perfections of such Great Persons as these; but for the Faults they find intermixed with their Good Qualities, they must have a care of running away with them too; lest they set up for their Action, as the over-busy followers of Seneca did for his Elocution. He was a very brave Man, and a very Great Wit, no doubt on't; so that the young people in his days had good reason to study to be like him, and to follow so fine an Example. But as Quintilian says, he had a great many good faults; and it was his agreeable vices they chiefly endeavoured to imitate, because they found the least difficulty in it, and what ever was the most easiy was the most of their business. Besides, says he, when they took upon them to speak as he did, instead of doing him an Honour or a piece of Justice, they did but do him a Diskindness, and defamed him with their Affectation and Foppery. There are many others yet, now-a-days, not only among Young Students, but also among Men who are come to years of Discretion and Government, and Men of Sense too, that commit the same Error. They think the Vices of their Language sufficiently warranted by the Authority of so Great a Man as Seneca, and their Style current enough by his way of Writing. But we must be governed in this matter, as in every thing else, by Reason; and not be lead away by Example.   

CHAP. IV. Of Speaking; and, first of all, what the Orator must do to be Heard without Difficulty and Trouble.  
THe first thing to be considered in this Treatise is Pronunciation, or Speaking, as it regards the satisfaction of the Ear; which is called the Organ of Learning, or the Sense of Discipline: That is to say; it is the Hearing which conveys the first principles of all Sciences and the precepts of all Arts to the Understanding.  
Give me leave to say then, that the Orators chief business ought to be to Speak, in his Place, so as to be heard and understood with ease. For if he were not heard at all, he'd speak to no purpose; and if he were not well heard, without difficulty, he'd lay under these two disadvantages. The one is, that People would be unwilling to give themselves the trouble of hearing him; for whatever is difficult to the Ear, must needs be heard with Chagrin and Impatience, because it requires so much attention: And then again, the Auditor that could have the patience for a while, would without doubt be harangued quiter out of humour, and discouraged from hearing him out, if this forced attention were to hold for any long time. The other disadvantage would be this; that when the Ear were at so much Pains to make out his words, the mind would be so much the less attentive to the matter of his Discourse, which is always the best worth our while and our hearing.  
But to avoid both those inconveniencies, he had need have a clear and a strong voice: If not to the same degree of Perfection that Trachallus had ● who Quintilian tell us, upon Fou● Courts sitting all at once in the Julia● Hall for the hearing of Causes and the dispatch of Justice, was heard and understood and commended not only by the first where he pleaded, but by all Four; such a voice at least he should have, as would fill the place where he speaks. For, St. Austin very well observes, that the voice ought to be so loud as to reach the farthest Ear of the Auditory. Some Men have such a voice naturally; others have it only partly by Nature and partly by Art, as they perfect the one by the exercise of the other; and some again have it not at all, nor know which way in the world to attain to't. Now he that Nature hath endowed with this faculty to a degree of Eminent, has a great gift without question for Speaking, and is in a fair way to make an Eloquent Man; if he do but discharge his own Duty and improve so good a Talent to the best advantage. But on the other hand, if Nature has given a Man no such blessing, and his voice be good for nothing, through some Indisposition of his Organs, either of the Tongue, the Throat, the Breast or the Lungs; or if he have any notorious Lisping and invincible Hesitation or Stammering in his Speech, I cannot advice him better than Apollonius, the Rhetorician, did those Gentlemen that would have learned this Art of him. For as soon as he saw they wanted the natural Endowments that were absolutely necessary to qualify them for the work, he pronounced upon their incapacity, and declared for their studying something else; rather than beat their Brains about an exercise which was not in the Art of Man to teach them with Credit or Success, and run the risk of forcing Nature to the prejudice of their Health; which next to their very Being was the most valuable thing under the Sun, and the greatest good they had to Preserve.  
However yet, if he have all the other Parts and Powers of Oratory, and wants only this one Qualification, I would have him make use of his Talent and do as Isocrates did under the same Imperfection of Speaking, who excelled in every thing else but his voice. I knew, says he, in his PANATHENAICON, that my Nature was too Weak and too Soft for Action, and my voice too Feeble and Puny to Speak as I should do upon public Affairs. I found myself unqualified, in this respect, for Harangue; and ye●, me-thought, I was capable of conceiving the Truth of Things as well as others th●t bragged more of their Faculties and Knowledge; though not of speaking them so well off the Lip in a Great Assembly. For I want the two main things that do the work of an Orator among us, voice and Confidence, as much as my Neighbours; and they that are not furnished-out with these Excellencies, are of no Esteem in the World. However I had so much Courage left yet, that I could not bring myself to resolve upon leading a life of Obscurity and Dishonour: So that being unfit for managing the business of Law, and no ways qualified for public Employment, I be-took myself to the Private Study of Wisdom, and to writ my sense of things, not upon such little Subjects as Deeds, Bargains, Covenants or Contracts betwixt Man and Man; but upon the State of Greece, upon the public Affairs of Government and of Kings.  
In this Case, let him take my Council, and follow the Example of that Great Orator; and though he cannot set-off his Harangues with the Graces of Good Speaking and Gesture, I would advice him to make a mends for that failing by Figures that adorn the Speech and soften the sound of words; by fine Turns of Expression; by the Elegant number of Oratory and the delicate Cadences of his Periods: So that his Discourses, like Isocrates's, may be agreeable enough of themselves, without Action; or without being red with much Art and Study. But the Man that lays under no greater Impediment then of having only a weak voice, need not despair, nor be discouraged from attempting to Speak upon public Occasions, but ought to do what he can rather to strengthen it up and accomplish it for that purpose. Demosthenes did so, and gained his point too. However, Plutarch says in his Life, that he had naturally a weak voice, an Impediment in his Speech, a Short-Breath; and yet he ventured in spite of Fate and all his failings, to speak publicly twice: But he was hissed both times. He adds also, that the Orator being discountenanced by the bad success, made his Complaint to Satyrus, to this Effect: That he took more pains than any Orator of 'em all, and could never yet please people. Why, says Satyrus, take no thought, Man: I'll mend that matter presently, I warrant you. Upon this he made him repeat some Verses out of Euripides, or Sophocles; which he did, you must think, with a very ill Grace. But when he had made such stuff on't, Satyrus said the same Verses after him: and he gave them such an Air in the Repetition; Spake them with an Accent and a Gesture so suitable to the Subject, that Demosthenes himself thought them quiter another thing, and discovered his own Failing and Infirmity. Eunomus and Andronicus, two Great Masters of rhetoric, gave Demosthenes the same Advice too, and the same Encouragement; and after that, he fell upon the Study of this Art of Speaking and Gesture with the utmost Application and Eagerness. Well then! And what came on't at last? Why, first he built him a little Closet underground, and then he went down thither every day to practise his voice and manage his Body. He would often stay there two or three months together a-poring upon this Study: and he would shave his Head half-way on purpose, when he had a mind to go abroad either upon Business or Diversion, that he might not appear in the Condition and Dress he was in there. There did he exercise himself with no little Contention and Force, upon speaking what he had red and what he had got by Heart, with a Loud voice: So that his Organs opened by degrees, and his voice clear'd-up very sensibly and grew stronger every day than other. But he had many other great difficulties to encounter yet besides this. His Tongue was so Gross, that he could not speak his words Plain and Distinct, nor pronounce some Letters at all; as the( R) in particular: Which made people say in a Joke, that he knew not so much as how to pronounce the first Letter of the name of his Art. He was so short-winded, in the next place, that he could speak but a very few words together without taking his breath upon't; which was a Resty and a Broken-winded kind of Pronunciation. The great noise of Assemblies before which he was to speak, was another difficulty he h●● 〈◇〉 ●urmount. But for all this, he found out a way to overcome every one of these obstructions. First, he cured the grossness of his Tongue by putting Pebble-stones in his Mouth that he pick't-up out of the purling Stream; which was a very troublesone experiment to him, and hindered his Speech mightily at first; but afterwards, when he came to practise without Pebbles in his Mouth, he found the good effects of it in the Liberty of his Tongue and the Facility of Speaking. He broke himself of breathing-short, in the next place, by running up-hill and repeating over certain Verses or some Sentences of his Harangues that he had by Heart, boult upright as he went; which strengthened his Lungs and made him long-winded. And last of all, he conquered the clamour of Assemblies, by going now and then to the Sea-shore, when it was most troubled, boisterous, and roaring at Full-Sea; saying off some or other of his Orations there aloud, and striving to raise his voice above the murmuring noise of the Waves. So that, in fine, he made himself absolute Master of Speaking. And for Gesture, he took this method, after he was well instructed in the precepts and exercise of it: He had a great Looking-glass made him, where he might see all his Shapes at once in full Proportion and Symmetry; and know how to correct every Motion or Posture of his Body, which transgressed the Rules of Art that his Masters had taught him, by the help of so Just a reflection. By this means, he became at last one of the Best Speakers of the Age he lived in, for Action as well as for all the other parts of Oratory. Well then Gentlemen! Imitate Demosthenes, towards the accomplishing of this work. Do but give yourselves so much trouble as the thing will require, and your Nature will easily bear up to't, and I'll warrant the rest, both for Success and Applause. 'twill make you as good Orators as the best Favourite of them all at the Barr.  
Have you a weak voice then? Make it your business to fortify it as much as possible. Whatever you red or get off-Book, speak it out a loud, and make it your own by Pronunciation. This exercise, if it be moderate, is very good for your health; but you must have a special care at first not to over-strain your voice. And therefore Plutarch very well recommends several Exercices of Body to other People, that may conduce to the Health as well as divert; but he appoints no other for those Persons that speak upon public occasions, than what their Profession obliges them to in course: That is, to be often discoursing and haranguing, or at least reading out a loud and raising up the voice as High as Nature will well bear. An exercise, in his Opinion, far more wholesome and useful for this purpose than all others; for says he, while other motions only set the Limbs at work and stir the External Members of a Man, the voice exercises a Nobler Part of the Body and strengtheners the Lungs that give it breath. It augments the natural Heat, thins the Blood, cleanses the Veins, opens all the Arteries, prevents every obstruction, and keeps the gross Humours from thickening into a mischief. But if this exercise prove too hard for you; too violent for your Constitution, or too dangerous for your Breast and your Lungs; you may then very well be allowed the conduct of managing it as St. Ambrose did; who, St. Austin tells us, used to red low down to himself to preserve his voice, because he knew well enough if it▪ had been spent in his private readings, it would have failed him upon his public Performances. However, in the mean time, you would do well to be turning over a Leaf now and then, and Reading some Pages a-loft, to try your strength, and to keep up the vigour of your voice.  
Are you apt to falter in your Speech● accustom yourself in your private Lectures and Rehearsals, to pronounce your Words and Syllables so distinctly, one after another, that they may all have their full Sound and Proportion. And when once you have got a habit of speaking intelligibly plain, you may afterwards express yourself more fluently, without maffling through a Sentence. But do you find it a difficult matter to avoid this fault of Stammering in some cases, as upon set forms of Speaking or Phrases that you commonly make use of? Why then, if you cannot otherwise bring your business about, as 'tis impossible for some Stuttering People to do't; it is but changing the Order of the words, inserting a smooth Particle or two, and putting a Synonomous word in here and there for that which made you falter; and you'll gain your point with the greatest facility imaginable.  
If you cannot pronounce the Letter( R), after all the pains you have taken to master the weakness, and think it in vain to attempt it against a natural incapacity, you are not to give it over yet for an impossibility, but to use all means within the power of Nature and of Art, to correct the Error and conquer the Difficulty. For although the Athenians, that had so Nice and Delicate an Ear, could endure this Imperfection in Alcibiades, it was either out of the fond Affection and Favour they had for his person, or because he had some other Charms in his Pronunciation to make amends for't, and they thought that it gave a certain Natural Grace and Attraction to whatsoever he said. But if Stammering be a 'vice for all that, which very much offends the Ear, renders the Expression often Ambiguous to the understanding, and is made the subject of Raillery and Ridicule,( as the Poets of those days give us to understand it was laughed at in the Theatre of Athens:) we ought to endeavour the correction of it for our own Interest, and need not despair either of Power or Capacity to do it, by good Instruction and constant practise. Thus Demosthenes industriously refined his Pronunciation of the( R), and thus may you as well perfect yours too if you please. And if this do not come up to your point of pronouncing that Letter roundly, with the utmost Liberty and volubility in the World; provided yet that you do but pronounce it indifferently well, in some degree only of Perfection, it will be sufficient perhaps to establish you a Reputation of having the Grace on't among some or other of your Hearers.  
There are some persons again that are affencted with another 'vice, which the Greek Rhetoricians call Plateasm: That is to say; a Broad way of Speaking with the mouth wide open, and of bellowing out a great sound, but nothing so confused and inarticulate as the noise of it: Insomuch that a Man may hear them a great way off with ease, but understand no more of their Bawling than of the Bruit of Wild Beasts. Now this is not Nature's Fault, but a 'vice of mere Affectation and Conceit. For these noisy People affect to speak open-mouth, and fancy that this thundering Clatt of theirs gives Power and Majesty to their Speech: But, on the contrary, 'tis this deprives it of it's greatest Virtue and Perfection, which is to be well Heard every word on't, and well understood in all it's Parts. Besides that it robs it of it's very Being a Speech too; for there's not a Word in it, but only an Inarticulate Huddle of Sound and voice. And where's the Elocution of unintelligible Gibberidge? We must therefore take care to avoid this way of Speaking that renders a Discourse as contemptible to the hearing as it is Unprofitable to the Understanding. For five or six Words pronounced O'this fashion must needs make us lose the Sense of a whole Sentence, and many Sentences so ill Spoken and so ill Heard must needs endanger the Understanding of a whole Discourse: So that a Man can carry nothing away with him, either of neat or of perfect, from such a Clamorous Harangue and so Clownish a piece of Jargon.  
There's another 'vice of Speaking yet quiter contrary to the former, which the grecians have called Coelostomy. It consists in Mumbling, when a Man does not open his mouth wide enough for his Words. He makes a confounded noise rumbling about the Roof of his Mouth, as if he were speaking out of a Cave or a Churn, but hardly ever sends forth one distinct Sound all the while on this side his Teeth, or conveys you one Articulate Word farther than his Lips: And this hollow way of Speaking is no less troublesone and disagreeable than that above mentioned.  
I am now to advance only two words more upon the Orators Care to be Heard and Understood without difficulty. First, there are two things requisite to qualify a Man for this Work: That is, a very Distinct and Articulate voice, and a very Strong and Vigorous Pronunciation; but the former is the more important and necessary of the Two. For a Man that has only an indifferent voice, if his Pronunciation be but Distinct, he shall be understood with far more ease than another that has a stronger and more Audible Faculty of Speaking, but does not articulate his words so well. For the purpose, I have the Honour to be acquainted with a Worthy Person of about Threescore years of Age or upwards, that speaks in a public Character; and though he always had but a very mean voice, yet because he pronounces his Words so distinctly, without losing the Sound of a Syllable, he's always Heard with Admiration, and understood with the greatest facility in Nature: And that to this day too, unless his Organs have failed him very much within these few years, and be grown too weak for an Auditory, through the Infirmities of Old Age. Secondly, the next thing required is an Aud●ble and a strong voice; and we must not think to acquire it all on a sudden neither by main strength or intemperate violences upon Nature, but to come to't by degrees. For so the voice which at first was Faint, Low, or Weak, will become Louder by little and little, and grow Stronger insensibly, by accustoming ourselves to the moderate exercises of Art; without doing any prejudice either to the Breast or the Lungs. By this means, in short, a Man may bring his voice at last to that Pitch of Perfection; which he never thought himself able to Accomplish.   

CHAP. V. The way to be Heard with Delight.  
IT is not enough for the Orator to be Heard only without difficulty and pain, but he must endeavour to be Heard also, if possible, with Pleasure and Delight. And therefore you must make it your main business, in the first place, to render your voice as Sweet and Soft, and Agreeable to the Ear as you can: So that if you be naturally inclined to any thing either of a Harsh, Hoarse or Obstreperous voice, you must inquire into the cause on't for a cure. And if you find it comes only from an Ill Habit you have got, or so; you ought to take up a resolution of unpractising it as soon as possible, and of running up a Counter-Custom against it, of better Service and Satisfaction to the public. But if you discover that it proceeds from some Natural Indisposition of your Body and the Organs of your voice, you must then try to recover it, as well by sobriety and good Regimen according to the Advice of your Physicians, as by careful and constant exercise. As for T●mperance and Government, I leave it to the Doctors; but the ancients have observed the morning for exercise, and advised it for the best time when all the Organs of the Body are least embarassed and obstructed. But that this Art of Softening and Timing of the Pronunciation may be acquired by care, Industry and exercise, it is plain from the example of Cicero, to a Conviction: For Plutarch says in his Life, that he had at first a very Rude and Obstreperous voice, before he went into Greece, but by staying there a while, he brought it to so much Sweetness and Delicacy, that he charmed the Ear with the Softest Sounds and a most Agreeable Harmony. In fine, you must endeavour to give your voice such a Smoothness, that the Turns, the Tones and the Soft measures of it may please the Ear of your Auditor, though he understand nothing at all either of your Language or of the Subject of your Discourse: As Philostratus tells us of Phavorinus the Sophist and of Adrian the Phoenician, that those very Persons who knew nothing of the Greek Tongue, took great delight yet to hear them declaim in Greek, their Periods were so Smooth and their Cadences so Delicate.  
In the next place, you must also shun that reigning 'vice among many People, of Coughing and Spitting often, while they are a Speaking, which mightily interrupts the Pronunciation, and is extremely ungrateful and disagreeable both to the Eyes and the Ears of the Hearers. But that it is not impracticable to avoid this 'vice, on the one hand, and that it is for the most part an effect rather of an ill Custom than of necessity or Nature, on the other; is as Plain as experience can make it, because most Men refrain from it: And I know a Divine that never Coughs nor Spits in the Pulpit, when he has got the greatest could in his Head; 'tis no matter whether he comes to have this Conduct by long practise, or whether it be the Heat of his Action which stops the Defluxion of Rheum for that time. However, I mean yet that you are to do no more than you can to avoid Hawking and Spawling; for some People are so troubled with Phlegm and Tisick at certain Times and Seasons of the year, that it is impossible for them to abstain wholly from one or t'other in their Preaching: but they ought to do as much as they can at least towards the correcting of so Unmannerly a 'vice, if they have any value for a decent way of Speaking, or would make the Pronunciation agreeable to their Hearers. But as to the matter of Coughing, it was in Fashion in former days; and there have been Preachers formerly so extravagant as to affect it for a thing that added Grace and Gravity to their Discourse. As for example. Oliver Maillard, in one of his Sermons he made at Bruges in the Year Fifteen Hundred, marked the Places and Paragraphs of his Discourse with a Hem, Hem, Hem, where he had a design to Cough upon't; as it may be seen at this Day in Print.  
The only thing, after this, I can recommend to your care and your time, is to put yourself upon varying your voice according to the diversity of the Subjects you are to set forth, of the Passions you would either express yourself, or excite in others, and of the several parts of your Speech; according to the variety of Words, Stronger or Weaker, Higher or Lower, as will best serve your Turn and answer their quality. For as a Scraping Fiddler that should harp always upon one String, would be Ridiculous; and his music Intolerable: So there is nothing can grace the Ear of your Auditors so much, and give them so great a disgust as a voice still in the same Key, to the Tune of Hum-Drum, without either Division or Variety. This 'vice is remarkable in most Speakers, and I cannot but take notice on't. There's hardly a good voice to be found among Men, that fills the Ear well, which has not something agreeable in't, let them manage it never so much without measure: But it would be infinitely more pleasing, if they knew how to give it the just Turns and a Variation suitable to Subjects and Passions. Besides that, such voices, which are so fine and yet so ill governed, are very rare and uncommon: But for ordinary ones that are common enough in the World, this 'vice renders them disagreeable to all Intents and Purposes.  
To pass on further then. I say that this stiff uniformity of the voice is not only unpleasant to the Ear, but prejudices the Discourse itself extremely too, and disappoints the effect it should have upon the Hearers, for two reasons. The one is, that an equal way of Speaking, when the Pronunciation is all of a piece and every where upon the same Sound, renders all the Parts of the Speech equal too upon a very unjust level; for it takes away all power from that which has the greatest strength of Argument in the reasoning part, and all Lustre from that which has the greatest splendour of ornament in the figurative part of a Discourse, throughout the whole Work: So that, in short, that which ought to strike the Passions most, moves them not at all in effect, because it is spoken all alike so, and slabbered over without any distinction or variety. The other, that there is nothing lulls us a Sleep sooner, nothing so dull and heavy as a long Discourse without ever turning the Tone or changing a Note for't: and there are many Persons, although they should fix never so steadfastly upon such a Speaker and resolve to hear him with the utmost regard and attention, would not be able yet to hold up their Eyes till he had half-done, upon this deficiency of his Pronunciation. And yet, for all this, Monotony is not only a common 'vice, but almost universal too among public Orators. I was subject to't myself, at first, as well as other Men; and I cannot imagine how any body could endure to give me the hearing upon't; for my Delivery then was so troublesone and disagreeable, that I could hardly reconcile it to my own Ears: Upon which, I bethought myself ever after of varying my voice several ways to make it less uniform, and ungrateful. In the first place, I began to consider how this vicious way of Speaking came to such a height among Men, and crept up so much into Fashion and Discipline; some people running carelessly into it, without ever giving themselves leave to think, and others knowing very well it is vicious, but have much a do to reform it: and I could find no other cause of it at last, but bad Education. For they that teach Children to red, learn 'em an ill custom of pronouncing every word a like, in the same Cant and Tone; the fault of most School-mistresses: And when these Children again advance into Grammar or rhetoric, they fall perhaps into no better hands, of Masters that teach them their Rudiments in the same measure and method, without ever taking care to correct the ill habit of Speaking they have got; but rather giving them a bad example themselves by pronouncing every word they red or say off-book, with the same Accent, and quiter another tone than what we use in our daily Discourse and Common Conversation, then instructing Youth in the variation of the voice for public business; how they ought to proportion and adjust their Pronunciation upon every punctillo( when they come to make Speeches) to the Grandeur of their Audience and the multitude of their Auditors. Upon this, I resolved to be governed by better Masters, and to make Nature and Reason my Guides: and they must be your Masters too, take my word for't, if you would do any good in this Art.  
Nature itself tells us that we ought to pronounce ourselves otherwise when we speak of Melancholy and mournful Things, then we should do a Merry-making upon Joy or Pleasantry; otherwise, when we reprove people for committing some Great Crime or other, than when we are a comforting them that are in Affliction; otherwise, when we upbraid a Man with his faults, then when we would ask Pardon for our own; otherwise again, when we threaten; otherwise, when we promise, or pray a thing and humbly beg the favour; otherwise, when we are in a good humour, the Passions calm, and the Mind serene; and otherwise, when we are upon the transports of Choler and ill Nature. This variation is so natutural to us, that if we should hear two persons haranguing both together in a Language we did not understand at all, the one in Anger, and t'other in fear, one of them speaking with joy, and t'other, with sorrow: We might easily distinguish the Passions of the one from the other, not only by their countenance and their gesture, but by the different Tone and Cadence of the voice. So that the pronunciation ought to be natural, and we must do as Nature dictates: For the nearer it comes up to Nature, the more perfect it is; and the further off from it, the more vicious. The less affencted, still the better; for a natural variation is best. The only way then to get this knack of varying the voice, is to make your own reflections upon common Chat, and to take notice of any ordinary Discourse, either in Town or in Table-Talk. You are likewise to mind how you Speak yourself, when you are in Company; what a Woman says in a Passion for an injury done her, and how she pronounces upon the loss of her dear Husband or her Child. And when you have made these private Observations, you must endeavour to express yourself after the same manner upon the like occasions in public; only you would do well to distinguish upon the place, how much more audible your voice ought to be for the Court or a Church, than for a private Chamber. Our best Actors change their voice thus, according to the different quality of persons and the diversity of Subjects; and they speak as naturally upon the Stage, and in the same Tone too, as they would do in a familiar Club-room; saving that they are obliged to accent their words louder there, and to proportion the force and vehemence of their voice to the vastness of a Theatre.  
As for Reason, it teaches us, in the first place, that God Almighty hath-blessed Us with the faculty of Speech above all other Creatures, and given us words for the interpretation of our Thoughts and the mirror or reflection of our passions: So that we are under the greatest duty both to him and ourselves, to set forth the naked truth of things, and to express the different operations and sentiments of our Souls, ingenuously, by the different Accents and Turns of our voice, for the raising of the like Passions and Opinions in those that hear us. But it shows us also, in the second place, that as God in the Creation of the World, in general, divided it into so many several shapes and forms and figures in the visible Order and Harmony we admire now; without which, it would have been but a confused Chaos still and an indigested Lump; and as in the production of our human body, in particular, he made it up of so many different parts and particles, members of Life and Action; without which, it would only have been a monstrous dull mass of Flesh: So ought we to make use of variety to enliven the matter of our public Discourses; not only by Invention, Disposition and Elocution; but as well also by the Powers of pronunciation and speaking.  
Now if we would polish and refine our Speech, and set-off our pronunciation with so much Grace and Agreeableness, that it should oblige the hearers, even under the greatest prejudices and disgusts, to recollect their attention to it with Relish and Delight; we must vary the voice as often as it lays in our power. All the difficulty therefore that remains, is to know how to do't; and to do it well to the purpose too: Which I am now going to remark into the best Rules I can.   

CHAP. VI. General Rules for the variation of the voice.  
AS the Body has three dimensions, for it's Length, Breadth and Thickness; so the voice has three principal differences, of Highness or Lowness, of Vehemence or Softness, and of Swiftness or Slowness. The Orators business is to keep up a just measure in all these distinctions, and to observe that variety, throughout the whole Speech, which we have asserted for so necessary a Virtue.  
But the chief thing will be to maintain a true medium of the Voice, because both the extremes of it are vicious and disagreeable. And therefore, first, with a regard to the height of it, we must have a care of raising it always to the highest Note it can reach, on the one hand, or of debating it always to the lowest it will go, on the other: For to strain it up always to such an extraordinary height, would not be to Preach or to pled, but to make a noise, like those loud-tongued Orators in the time of Tully, whom he compares to Cripples that got a Horse-back because they could not walk a foot: They made a bawling because they knew not how to Speak. And as he did himself too, before he was better instructed in this Art by the skillfulest Masters; forcing his voice often up to the harshest accents and the most obstreperous heights. For, over and above the indecency and ungenteelness of Clamour and Noise, it very much offends the Throat of the Speaker to a Hoarseness, and the Ears of the Hearer to an aversion. To sink the voice likewise, on the contrary, into the lowest base, and keep it always in the same tone, would be to mutter rather than to Speak; and it would make a very silent meeting, where a Man could not be heard at all, or be heard but by a very few people, and the rest of the Auditors might go away as they came, not one word the wiser for him. Martianus Capella is mightily mistaken in this Point, or else he explains himself very ill, when he says that the Orator ought to set his voice to the best of his Ear, by reading to himself in private, before he pleads in public, and to begin it rather with a low murmur than a loud noise in his Chamber, that he may be able to speak with the same voice and the same Tone in Court: For how could he be heard in a Great Assembly, I would fain know, with a low murmuring voice? There's no Consort or music without keeping a mean betwixt high and low, muttering and making a noise.  
Secondly, For the vehemence of the voice in the next place, a Man must not force it upon every turn to the last Extremity. For he would not be able to hold it long-up to this violence, till it would fail him all o'the sudden; like the Strings of a Musical Instrument, that break when they are wound up a Pin too high. In this case, he would either have the same fortune with Adrian the Phoenician, that Philostratus speaks of, who suffered himself to be transported into such a Tragical Fit of Speaking, that he lost his voice in a moment, and was forced either to hold his Tongue, or to mourn it out so Faint and so Low, that people could hardly hear him and much less understand what he said: Or else, he would run the risk of Zosimus the Freeman of Pliny Junior; who having overstreined himself with the violence of his Rehearsals, vomited Blood upon't: So that his Master was forced to forbid him that exercise for some time, and made him take a short tower into egypt for the Recovery of his Health. The Country-retirement and good Air set him quickly to rights: but, upon his return, he fell a Rehearsing again with the same vehemence, and relapsed into the same indisposition and danger, worse than ever.  
A Man of a Weak Constitution, and in Years especially, ought to beware of this Intemperance, for fear of falling into King Attalus's misfortune. He made a Speech once at Thebes, in a public Assembly; and being transported upon it into an Action too Violent for his Crazyness and old Age, he was struck Speechless all on a sudden, without the least motion or appearance of Life in him, so that he was forced to be carried home to his Lodging: But a little while after, he was conducted from thence to his Palace at Pergamus, and there he Died. On the other hand, an Orator ought not to be too Remiss neither in his Action, nor too Mild-spoken: For such a soft resolution of the voice argues an Infirmity, and too much mildness destroys the Energy and Force of a Speech, because a dispassionate Discourse raises no bodies Affections a pitch above common Story and ordinary Tattle.  
Thirdly, As to the Swiftness and volubility of the Orator's voice, he ought to moderate it in such a manner as to avoid all precipitation; the 'vice of Haterius, which made Augustus say once in Rallery, There must be a spoken put in our Haterius's Speech, comparing his Discourse for its rapidity to a Flying-Coach upon the descent of some steep Hill or other: We put Spokes in it's Wheels then, for fear of running down too fast, and of tumbling or overturning upon us. This was Serapion's weak-side also, of whom Lucilius wrote thus to Seneca, that he spake exceeding fast and thick, one word upon the neck of another; insomuch that one single Tongue seemed insufficient to express the vast multitude and hurry of his Thoughts, so much did the Fruitfulness of his fancy precipitate his Pronunciation. But this is a vicious way of Speaking in several respects. For such an extravagant volubility is either the fault of a School-boy, that, to show you how perfect he has conned his Lesson, gabbles it off as fast as his Tongue can go, in a hurry; or, the faculty of a Montebanck-Doctor that would draw a Crowd about his Stage by rapid Clack and Non-sense: Not the business of a Man of Honour or Eloquence that addresses himself upon a Grave, Solemn and Noble Subject. It is as ungenteel for a Gentleman to transport himself into such a Rant of Jabbering in his Discourse, as to run himself out of Breath about the Streets, which is only fit for Foot-men and Fools. A Man of Sense and Breeding speaks no faster than he Walks, and minds his words as well as his Steps, keeping an even place both in the one and the other: As Seneca says, Tully did in his Ora●ions. But however, a Man that labours under this 'vice of Jabbering in his Speech, will perhaps be admired yet by some or other for his Fluency. For, as St. Jerom observes, after St. Gregory Nazianzen his Master, there's nothing so easy as for an Ignorant Fellow to make himself popular, and to win the Esteem of the mob, by a Rally of Words and a jabbering volubility of the Tongue. But then all the vulgar Reputation he'll get by't, will not last him long; and the character will not weare-out his Life: For his fluency of Speaking will neither do any honour to his Writings, nor to his Memory: So that when either he comes to writ or to Die, the credit on't is quiter lost for ever. For the purpose, Tacitus says of Haterius above mentioned; that He was famous for Eloquence in his Life-time; but the Works he left behind him, had not the same approbation and applause: And as he shew'd more of Fire then of Study, and more of Fluency than of Art; so that Fire was extinguished with him, and never out lived his Speeches nor passed into his Writings. Whereas the Labours and Meditations of other Men keep up the same Spirit still after their Death and preserve their Memories for ever.  
This 'vice is not only very unbecoming an Orator either a Preaching or a Pleading, but it is also very prejudicial to the main end he ought to propose to himself, of persuading others: For how should he convince his hearers, if he do not give them time to think, or leave to consider his Reasons and weigh his Arguments? How should a Judge be able to keep up with a Lawyer that talks as if he were Riding Post; or what better can he be for such a precipitated Plea? How should people ever remember one Reason in Twenty that are hurled upon their Ears at this rate, like Flashes of lightning upon their Eyes; or how should they be convinced at last of the Truth and Justice of the Cause by Jabbering?  
This extraordinary volubility of the Tongue, without any pause, is a great disadvantage also to the Speaker himself as well as an injustice to the hearer, for it does not so much as give the Auditors leisure to observe the distinction of his Periods and the fine Cadences that illustrate the Speech with so much Grace and Ornament. Not to say, that there's nothing, over and above, so hurtful to the Lungs, as to speak with violence and precipitation, without any intermission or ever drawing breath for't: Insomuch that it has cast many Persons into deep Consumptions, and cost some of them their Lives too. But when I precaution a Man against this extreme, I do not mean that he should throw himself upon the other; and when I find fault with him for running too fast, I am not presently to be understood as if I would have him walk like a Sick Man just come out of a lingering Disease, that can hardly draw his Legs after him. All I would be at in the matter is this, that the Orator's Tongue should be agreeable to the Ears of his Auditors; without either running faster than they can follow, or drawling out his words slower than they can have the patience to attend: Vinicius's great failing; of whom Asellius said, that he spake always upon the delay, by the slowest snatches, pauses and intervals; and Geminus Varus, that he wondered how he managed his Eloquence to any credit or account, for he could not speak three words together without intermission. There's no manner of pleasure in hearing a Man drawl-out his words so, one after another, that one might very well bid him, Speak, or hold his Tongue. His Speech must be more fluent, before it be good for any thing; but then it ought to flow like the gliding Stream, and not as a rapid Torrent.  
I have likewise added that our Speech ought to have the grace of variety, because the medium of the voice I mention does not consist in an indivisible point, but admits of a certain Latitude and certain degrees. For as to the highness or lowness of the voice, there are five or six Tones between the highest and the lowest: So that the Orator, although he avoid both extremes which I condemn, and keep-up to a discreet measure, may find room enough yet to vary his voice betwixt the excess and the defect of it, by turning these five or six notes to a just Harmony. As for the violence or the softness of it, in the next place; his business will be to govern it with such a moderation; that although he neither force it to the utmost extremity of violence that either hurts nature or offends the Ear, on the one hand; nor make it languish to the last degree of softness or effeminacy, and droop into contempt, on the other: he may yet give his pronunciation more or less vehemence and mildness, at discretion, as the different circumstances of his Subject or the qualities of his Speech shall require. And as to the swiftness or slowness of it at last, though the Orator avoid an extraordinary dullness in speaking, on this side, as well as an extravagant precipitation on that, he may never the less speak faster or slower, upon occasion, according to the best of his judgement; and be as quick, voluble and smart, more or less, as he pleases, if it do but answer the Subject and Passions of his Discourse.  
However let him take this hint along with him into the bargain; that whenever he has a mind to vary his voice, upon a turn of Discourse, he must not do it over hastily, and with too remarkable a distinction of this from that; but with all the Softness, Courtliness and Moderation imaginable. I take notice of this 'vice by the By, because I have seen many a Great Man run foul upon't; for when they came to vary their voice, they did it so very grossly all on the sudden, like a Thunder-Clap, and with so palpable a change, that it at once surprised and displeased all their Auditors: Besides that they who heard them out of sight, thought it was some other Person a speaking to them; the voice was so different and the varition so notorious. But in short, this 'vice is to be avoided for it's fulsome indecency and precipitation.   

CHAP. VII. Particular Rules for the Variation of the voice; and first, how to vary it according to the Subjects.  
'tis not enough for the Orator to know that it is his business to vary his voice the best he can, to make his Speech the more acceptable and agreeable to his Hearers; nor sufficient neither to practise it in general only: But he must have Particular Rules also for all the changes and variations of the voice that are necessary to set-off his Discourse with a taking Air of Elocution, according to the quality of the Subjects he treats of, the nature of the Passions he would show in himself or raise in others, the several parts of his Discourse, the different Figures he makes use of, and the variety of his words and his Phrase.  
To begin then with the Subjects of Discourse which the Orator may chance to fall upon; there are several sorts of them: As things natural, the good or evil actions of men; the happy or unhappy events of Life: And these things being all of a very different nature, ought to be spoken with a quiter different accent and air. If you've occasion to speak of natural things, with an intention only to make your hearers understand you and no more, there's no need of any great heat or motion upon the matter; but a clean and a distinct voice will do't; because your business here is not to move the Will and Affections, so much as to inform the Understanding. But if your design be to make them admire the Wonders of his Bounty, of his Wisdom and of his Power that created them; you must then do it with a Grave voice and a Tone of Admiration.  
If our Discourse fall upon the Actions of Men; either just and honest, that we would have our Auditors value as much as we esteem them ourselves, by the way of panegyric and Commendation, or unjust and infamous, that we have a mind to make them abhor as much as we abhor them ourselves, by the way of invective or Philippick: We must then adjust our voice to the quality of the one and the other; expressing the Just and Honest with a full, lofty and noble accent, with a Tone of satisfaction, honour and esteem; but pronouncing upon the unjust and infamous, with a strong violent and Passionate voice as well as with a Tone of Anger, Disgrace and Detestation.  
If it be upon the events of human Life, some are Fortunate and others Unfortunate: So that the Orator must then also vary his voice according to this difference; speaking of the Fortunate, as in Congratulatories, with a brisk and a Cheerful Air; and of the Unfortunate, on the contrary, as in Funeral Orations, with sad and mournful Accents: For Mirth best answers the Character of Good-Fortune; and Moan, the story of Disappointment and Affliction. The one is the Subject of Gaiety and Good humour, and t'other, of Melancholy and Moroseness.  
I have one Observation more yet to make upon all these Subjects, and that is this. As for natural things, they are not all alike. Some are more considerable than others, for their Grandeur, their Beauty and their lustre, as the Heavens are far more noble than the Earth, and the Sun and Stars are far more Illustrious than Herbs and infects. And therefore they are not to be spoken with the same voice, nor set forth with an equal Gallantry, State and Magnificence of Pronunciation.  
As to the Actions and Events of human Life, good or bad, happy or unhappy; they are not all of the same size and import: And because a Great Crime or an Extraordinary Cruelty is of worse Consequence than a common venial Peccadillo; because the interest of Honour and of Life is of greater concern than the Interest of Money; the noble exploits of a Brave Conqueror than the vulgar Actions of a Captain of the mob, the safety or the destruction of a whole Kingdom than the profit or the disadvantage of a Private Person: They also require a quiter different Elocution according to the diversity of the Subject; some of them a far more vehement Accent and Passionate Pronunciation than others. For it would be ridiculous to speak Common and Ordinary Things, that happen every day, with a Tragical Concern or a Tone of Admiration; and as absurd on the other hand, to speak of Great Affairs and matters of extraordinary moment with a low unconcerned and familiar voice.   

CHAP. VIII. How to vary the voice according to the Passions.  
THose Objects I have just now mentioned, being well weighed and imprinted in your imagination, will give you such ideas as are able to raise in your own breast the Passions of Joy or of Sorrow; of Fear or of Boldness; of Anger or of Compassion; of Esteem or of Contempt: and if they be well represented and pronounced with that variety which they ought to be, they will move the very same Affections also in your Hearers. The Orator must therefore, first consider the thing he's to speak of, with care, and carry a deep impression of it in his mind, before he be either sensibly touched with it himself or able to move others upon it with a more effectual Sympathy. As the Lawyer ought to be well instructed before hand, in the Cause he is to pled, to be thoroughly satisfied of his Clients Right, to engage himself in his business with Concern, to be moved with his Misfortunes, and to be in some indignation at the Wrong done him as well as at the Malice and Vexation of his Adversaries; if he would convince the Judges either of his own Integrity or the Justice of his Cause, and strike their Judgments with the same Passions which they perceive in him for his Client. The Divine ought, first, to frame in his mind the best Conceptions he can of the Majesty of God, of the Truth of his Doctrines and of the Justice of his Commands: He must have a true love for Virtue, a real hatred for 'vice, a great tenderness for the Poor he recommends to the Charity of the Rich; and be inflamed with an ardent desire for the Salvation of all his hearers: And being so sensibly touched before hand upon the main point, he will then easily show the inward motion and concern of his Soul by his Pronunciation, and by adjusting his voice to every one of those Passions that may affect the hearts of People with Regard and Compassion. For the String sounds as it is touched: if it be softly touched, it entertains the Ear with a soft sound; if strongly, it gives you a strong and a smart one. 'tis the same in speaking as in music: Words for the Euphony of the one, and notes for the Harmony of the other. If your Speech proceeds from a violent Passion, it produces a violent Pronunciation; if it comes from a Peaceable and Gentle Thought, the Pronunciation again is as Peaceable, Gentle and Calm: So that the Orator would do well to adjust every Tone and Accent of his voice to each Passion that afflicts or overjoys him, which he would raise in others to a degree of Sympathy.  
He will show his Love best by a Soft, a Gay and a Charming voice; and his Hatred, on the contrary, by a Sharp, Sullen and Severe one. He'll discover his Joy well with a Full, Flowing and Brisk voice; and his Grief, on the other side, with a dull, Languishing and Sad Moan; not without breaking-off abruptly sometimes, with a Sob; and fetching-up a Sigh OF a Groan from the heart. His Fear will be best demonstrated by a Trembling and Stammering voice, somewhat inclining to uncertainty and apprehension. His Confidence, on the contrary, will be easily discovered by a Loud and a Strong voice, always keeping-up to a decent Boldness and a daring Constancy. And he cannot give his Hearers to understand his Anger better than by a sharp, impetuous and violent voice; by taking his Breath often, and speaking short upon the Passion. So when Geta says in Terence's ADELPHI; Oh misfortune and misery! I am so transported with Anger, that I'm almost out of my Wits. The thing of the world I desire most, would be to encounter the whole Family of that Wretch, fresh and fasting; and to spit the Fire of my Passion in their Faces, while it burns for Revenge. I'd be satisfied, if I could but be revenged of 'em out of hand. I'd hamper 'em sufficiently. I would first sand the Old Rogue's Soul to the shades of Darkness for begetting such a Monster of a Villain; and for Syrus the Author and Abetter of all this mischief and disappointment, Oh how I'd tear him in a Thousand Pieces! I'd snatch him-up by the wast, toss him into the Air, and dash his Brains out in the fall against the stones in the Street for the Scavenger. I'd pull-out Aeschines's Eyes for him, make him dance upon the High-Rope and leap at his own Destruction. And as for the rest of that Treacherous Gang, I'd maul ye them so; take 'em by the Noses, sand 'em a-packing to the Devil's Arse-a-Peak; Kick 'em about; knock 'em down, and trample on 'em; set my foot upon their Necks, and Sacrifice 'em to my Fury. He must needs speak those words with an elevated Tone; an enraged voice, and the Accents of a Man all on Fire and in a Fury next to Distraction. And when he says again, upon meeting his Mistress there, in the Crisis of his Passion; Madam. Alas! We are, we are all undone. There's no Remedy. Aeschines has now forsaken us. He's fallen in love with another Lady. And he makes no secret on't neither. He carries-on his Amour in the Face of the World, and bo●y● of the Intrigue. It is plain by Sostrata's expressions inserted there between those short Sentences, that the Actor spake puffing and blowing, and took his Breath at every Period: As if his Passion had choak'd-up his Pronunciation, and he could not utter more words together for vexation and Choler.  
If the Orator be moved with a Compassion which he would influence upon others, he must express himself with a very soft, submissive and pitiful voice. So when Cicero concludes his Speech for Quintius, in this Manner; Quintius hath left no ston unturned, Sirs, he has tried all the ways and means in the world that are just and honest; but he could never yet find a Praetor that would so much as give him leave to make his demands, nor a Friend of Nevius so far as to grant him the Favour of his Ear to his Complaints. He has often cast himself at their Feet. He has prayed them over and over by all that 's Sacred and Solemn, either to do him Justice and proceed against him according to Law; or at least to preserve him his Honour, if they did confiscate his Estate. He has not denied himself to the angryest frowns of his Enemy, but born his Discountenance with Resignation and Patience. He has kissed the hand that threatened him the Blow. He has endeavoured to mollify the hardness of his heart by all that might work upon the inclinations of obstinate Men. He has adjured him by the Ashes of his Brother, by the dear name of Father, by the passionate tenderness of his poor Wife and Children, by the Sacred Obligation of their Affinity and Friendship, to take Pity of him; to have Compassion of his Age, if he had no regard to his Fortune: If Quintius could not move him to Mercy, the name of Man at least was in his good Graces; and Humanity might induce him to condescend to an Agreement, where he insisted upon nothing but Honour; quitted all other pretensions at his Enemy's Discretion, and gave up every thing else but Integrity to his courtesy. In fine, Sirs, Quintius being turned out of Doors by his Kinsman; rejected by those whom he addressed to with Tears; brow-beaten and terrified by his Judges: He has nothing more left now to rely on but your Justice and Humanity, Aquilius, for his Good Deliverance. And therefore he throws himself upon your judgement, and puts his Honour, his Estate, his Life and all into your hands. You are the Umpire of his Innocence; you are the Arbitrator of his Fortune, his Hopes and his safety. After so many trials and Troubles both of obloquy and scandal, he appeals at last to your Justice and Decision of the matter; not in the quality of an Old Offender, or a notorious Malefactor; but in the Circumstances of an injured Wretch, a Miserable Object and an Innocent Person. 'tis a hard Case, Gentlemen, He's cast out of such an Inheritance. 'tis hard he's over powered thus with Reproach, Calumny and Contempt, and forced to truckle under Wrong and Ignominy. He sees Another Man put into Possession of his Paternal Estate and his own Right. He has a Daughter Unmarried yet to provide for, and can make her no Fortune at all; not a Farthing of a Portion to give her. In a Word, he's oppressed on all sides by Might and Misfortune; and after all these Grievances, he has done nothing yet unworthy of the Character of an Honest Man. Wherefore he humbly beseeches you, Sir, to grant him your Authority to be gone, and begs leave to take that Reputation away with him, which he brought Hither; after having lived a Life of Threescore years in the Approbation and esteem of the World, without ever a Blot in his Escutcheon or the least note of Infamy in his Quality, Conduct and Character: So that he may not see either his Enemys triumphing over the spoils of his Fortune, or Nevius insulting upon the ruins of his honour; that he may be allowed to carry-off his Glory with him to the Grave, and that the Credit and Good Name he has got in his Life-Time and kept-up to his Old-Age, may be upon Record yet after his Death and live in the Mouths of Posterity as well as in the memoirs of famed. It is as clear as day now that the Orator was obliged to Pronounce those Words with the Lowest voice and the Humblest Accents of Submission imaginable; as he was Pleading before the Judges, upon whom the All, the Honour, the Estate and the Life of Quintius depended. He must needs have turned his voice upon such Tones in Court as he thought fittest to incline their Affections and set Inclination itself a Bend. He could not but speak with Passion too; but then 'twas a Passion of Tenderness, a Passion of a mind afflicted and sensibly touched with the misery and Oppression of his Client, that he might move the same Pity in the Bench: And there's no doubt but they were all touched to the quick too, upon the hearing of the motion; for 'tis impossible that a Passion so tenderly represented should not melt the hearts of those People before whom it is Pleaded, into Sympathy and Compassion.  
To this purpose, the same Author again, Tully in his First Tusculan Question, says; that, when these Verses, out of one of the Ancient Tragedians, which represented a young Man Dead, and Unburi'd yet; rowzing-up the Earth in the Character of her Son, and invoking his Mother.  
Mother, awake! thy careless rest defer;  
Think on thy Son, and his poor Bones inter:  
Before wild Birds, and Beasts, for Prey that roar,  
My scattered Limbs and mangled Corps devour.  
When these Verses, I say are spoken with a doleful and deplorable voice, they fill the whole Theatre with Grief and Melancholy. But for the Speaker to do this well, there are several ways of softening the voice required, according to the different quality of the Words he makes use of and the Character of things he treats of in his Discourse: However, 'tis far more easy to be Taught off the Lip in express Language than in Writing.  
We come now to other Passions of the Mind and other variations or Inflexions of the voice and to show how our Orator shall acquit himself in the Action of them to the best advantage. If he would give his Audience a Character of some Brave Hero and testify his own Esteem of the Person, he should do't with a Lofty and a Magnificent Tone, and his voice must be as noble as his Strains; as when Tully speaks in his Oration for the Manilian Law, after this manner: Now there's none but a Pompey in the World, who by his Immortal Exploits hath out-done the Glory of the Living and the Memory of the Dead; why do we doubt any longer, and delay giving him the Commission of all our Hopes? For in my Opinion, a Great Captain ought to have these Four Eminent Qualities at Command; Military Discipline, Virtue, Reputation and Fortune. But who was ever yet more knowing in the Art of making War than Pompey? And who so fit a General as he that left his Play and his Pastime at School in the most troublesone Times, and went out against the most Powerful Enemies to learn the business of Arms in his Father's Camp, who was one of the most Famous Warriors of the Age? As he that has been trained up to Arms from his Cradle; a Soldier and a Child at one and the same Time, and and has had the Command of Armies even in his Infancy? He that has fought more Battles than others have Duels; put an end to more Wars than others have red, conquered more Provinces than others have attempted only in Wish? He that has advanced himself from his Youth-up to the knowledge of Military Discipline by his own Conduct and not by other Men's Wisdom or Council; by Triumphs and not by Misfortunes; whom Victory has flushed to an Illustrious Character, rather than Experience, Service or Time? He has not served so many years, but he has made more Conquests than Campagnes. In short, is there any danger and difficulty he has not encountered; or any Country, where the Fortune of the Commonwealth has not exerciced him to the hazard of his Life for't? In Africa, beyond the Alps, and in Spain; against strong Towns and warlike Kingdoms; in Civil Wars, in Wars with Slaves, in Servile and Sea Fights. And now, what are so many Wars that have all been waged, carried-on with success and happily concluded by Pompey, but so many trials of his Skill, his Knowledge and his Virtue? What are so many Enterprizes he has bravely accomplished, and the Battles he has won, but Heralds of his Glory and his Valour? What are so many Enemies he has vanquished and slain in the Field, but Eternal Monuments of his Courage and Conduct? Let a Man speak those fine words with a Low and Languishing voice, and nothing can appear more could, Flat, or Insipid; nothing more unworthy, either of the Eloquence of Cicero, or of the Honour of Pompey. But, on the other hand, let him pronounce them with a Noble Accent and animate them with a lofty Tone of the voice answerable to their own Spirit and Magnificence; and then they will appear in their proper Lustre, quicken the Hearers with Admiration, and entertain as if they came from the Mouth of Tully himself yet, Sixteen Hundred years and more after his Death.  
To pass now from Admiration or Esteem to the contrary extreme of it. If the Orator would show the Contempt he has of a Man, and expose him to his Auditors, he must do't with a Scornful Tone; but without any Passion, Eagerness or Violence of the voice: As Cicero spake to Coecilius, who pretended to be preferred before him for Pleading in the Accusation of Verres. But you, Coecilius; pray what can you do? Where's your Capacity, upon this mighty pretention of yours? When, and upon what Affair have you ever made any trial of your Skill or given any proofs of your Parts and sufficiency to Men of Sense, and have not attempted at the same time upon your own Weakness, and run the hazard both of your Reputation and judgement? Do you not consider the difficulty of managing the Cause of the Commonwealth, of maintaining the Peace of the public from Disgrace and Oppression, of dwelling the whole Life of a Man from the first breath of business, and not only of setting it forth in it's proper colours to the understanding of the Judges, but of exposing it also to the Eye of the whole world? The difficulty of defending the safety and welfare of allies, the Interest of Provinces, the Power of Laws and the Authority of our Courts of Judicature? Take it from me, Sir, This is the first opportunity you have met with of learning something from your Betters: you must know there are a great many good qualities a Man had need be endowed with himself, to accuse Another; if you find one of them in yourself upon a strict Scrutiny, I'll be bound to give-up the Cause to you frankly, and quit the Charge of this Affair to your Ambition; &c. Reflect upon your own Conscience and Capacity; weigh the matter well, and consider who you are, and what you can do. Do you think you are able to assert the thing from Aspersion and Blunder? And if you should undertake to defend the Cause of our Confederates, the Common Good of a whole Country, the Rights of the Romans, the Liberties of the People, the Authority of Laws and the Obligation of Judgments and Decrees; could you maintain so many weighty matters and difficult Points in question, as you should do, either by the strength of your voice; the Faithfulness of your Memory; the Justice of your Conduct; the Integrity of your Wisdom, or the Elegancy of your Wit? &c. No, you know nothing of that, not you: you never think on't; never inform yourself, nor take the Pains to be made Wiser than you are in you own Conceit and pretention. If you can but steal out of some Old Harangue or other, an, I beseech the Good and Great Jupiter; and, I could have wished, SIRS, if it had been Possible: Or, some such formal expression for a Preamble: and have time enough to con it by heart for your own, you are well enough, you think: you are ready for the bar and finely furnished for a Favourable Hearing; and yet if no Soul were to appear against you in Court now, I dare say that you could never state this controversy fairly for a Decision, nor acquit yourself of the Cause with Honour or Success. But do you not remember now, that you would have the most eloquent Adversary living to encounter; be obliged to fight him at all Weapons, and to pled against him with all the Powers of our Profession. He'd baffle you to your Head else with Art, Argument and Reason; &c. But you, Coecilius! methinks I see how he would play upon you; how he would banter you out of your little Sense at every turn; how he'd confounded you upon matter of fact; confute you upon the merit of the Cause; and laugh at you upon the main Point, when he had done. O poor Mortal! What blunders you would commit! In what a Pother and Ferment, in what disorder and confusion, in what shane and ridicule would you be engaged! How much in the dark you'd be! you that are none of the wisest of Politicians, nor the most accomplished Gentleman in the World. This is a Discourse of Slight and Disdain; and by so contemptible a Character of Coecilius, he endeavoured to persuade people that the poor Man did not deserve the Office he set up for: And he gained his point too; disgraced his pretention, and disappointed his hope. But if he had spoken with a passionate voice, and shew'd any great concern of indignation in the matter, he had palpably contradicted his Design. For then he had declared his contempt of him only in Word; but in dead, thought him worthy of his Anger and rhetoric; and encountered the little Creature with all his might, as if he had been some considerable Enemy. The prudent Orator will be sure to avoid this Error, when ever he would treat a Man with Scorn and Derision, or fool any ridiculous argument of his Adversary. For he would be laughed at himself, if he should answer a dull Reason with Heat, and pled in a Passion against that which deserves only to be bantered; if he should put himself upon the last effort of his voice and his Eloquence for a trifle, against silly people and insignificant arguments; as if he should make use of herculeses Club to kill a Worm, which is easily trod to pieces and crushed underfoot.  
But if the Orator have a Barbarous Injustice to complain of, that has been done him by an Enemy, as Demosthenes did of those abuses he had received at the hands of Midias upon the Feast of Saturn; he must speak in another manner, and express his Affliction and Grievance with an Elevated Tone; proportioning the vehemence and passion of his voice to the Cruelty of the Injury: And certainly he could not do't otherwise, without doing himself wrong; for if he should speak it without any Heat or Concern, People would neither believe the Case to be True nor himself really aggrieved; and all that he could say then of the Indignity, would never avail him in Court before the Judges of his Complaint. This was the reason Demosthenes reprimanded a Man once that came to him upon an Assault and Battery, and desired him to pled his Cause for him; telling him the plain truth of the matter with a great deal of simplicity, and showing no manner of concern or vexation by his voice. Why, says the councillor, I cannot believe what you tell me. But another Man having  told him the same story over again in a Great Passion, with a Spirit of Fury and Revenge for the Affront. Well! I believe you( says he) now you speak with the Accent and Zeal of a Man that has been assaulted and drubb'd. And this was to show him with what tone of the voice he ought to speak upon Oppression and Injury, either to be believed or to make his Cause Good.  
Cicero, in his Speech for Gallus, makes use of this argument against Callidius; who, as we mentioned before, had spoken very coldly upon a most Important Affair of his own, and pleaded it without any Warmth and Emotion. You, Callidius, if what you say were not false, would you speak with that Air of Indifferency? You that used to defend others with so much vigour, and to assert them out of Trouble and Danger with Zeal, would you so neglect your own safety and welfare? Where is the Grief; where is the Fervency; where is the Affliction of your Mind that used to draw cries and Complaints even from the mouths of little Children, on the behalf of your Clients?  
One word more upon this Subject of varying the voice according to the Passions. 'tis plain, when the Speaker comes to cool upon a violent Passion and to command himself after a Transport, that he ought to lower the Tone of his voice and humble it as Tully certainly did in his Oration for Celius, where he says: But I must now return to the Crime; although the Grief that sensibly afflicts me in speaking of so Great a Man, hath already very much weakened my Faculty and Speech, and almost deprived me of the freedom of Thought.  
Besides, not to omit any thing that may contribute to the advancement of so necessary a Work, as the several inflexions of the voice are in point of speaking, I must add this; That the only way to acquire the Faculty of varying the voice upon all kind of Subjects as well as Passions, is to be often reading of Comedies, Tragedies, and Dialogues a loud, or some other Discourses of Authors, whose style comes nearest up to the dramatic: For nothing can be more serviceable to the engagement of Action and Elocution.   

CHAP. IX. Of varying the voice according to the different Parts of a Discourse.  
THe several Parts of a Speech must needs be of a very different nature; and so ought the manner of speaking to be as different, as the Quality and Character of each Part shall require.  
The Exordium ought to be spoken with a low and a modest voice; for to begin with modesty is not only agreeable to the Auditors, as it is a virtue which shows how great an esteem we have of them, and demonstrates the respect we pay to their presence; but a necessary qualification also for the Orator, to manage his voice discreetly and to work it up by degrees of moderation to a higher pitch of warmth and Passion: Otherwise, he would put himself out of breath at first start for want of good conduct, and never be able again to recover himself genteely at the full stretch of his Lungs, to so much moderation and command of his voice as would give the other parts of his Speech a greater force than the Exordium; where the stress of it lies more, and requires a more vehement Pronunciation. However, I do not mean that he should begin so low neither, as to be heard only by a very few People, just under his nose; but, on the contrary, I would have him speak-up, at first, so clear and distinct, as to be heard without difficulty or trouble by every Man of his Auditors that would give himself the liberty of attending: Let him say what he will else, 'tis no more than a Wall-Lecture and a disappointment to his hearers; for what signifies the preamble of a Speech, when they can be never a word the better for't? I have heard a great Divine fail mightily in this Point, and run foul upon that dull 'vice in Preaching. He began so low at first, that hardly a dozen people of a great Congregation could hear him; but presently Up he lift his voice so loud, chafed his Accents to such an excess and rung such a Peal in the Auditory, that he both offended and astonished their Ears with the violence of the Transport and Thunder. I am only for having the Exordium, courteous, soft and easy, and to be spoken with a lower tone, or in a humbler address, than the other parts of a Discourse. But this rule yet will admit of an Exception; for there are some Exordiums do not fall under it, which we may call unexpected or abrupt, from a Term of Art, and the common EX ABRUPTO of the Schools; as that of Cicero's is, in his first Oration against catiline. How long will you, catiline, abuse our Patience? How long shall that madness of yours impose upon us, and falsely insult? Whither will your ungovernable Impudence carry you at last? And that of St. John Chrysostom's( if we may believe Socrates) in his Discourse against the Empress Eudoxia; who having got him deprived once and persecuted out of the Empire, was yet working after his return and re-establishment to have him banished again in a Pe●● for a Sermon he preached against a kind of Ball she kept at the consecration of her Image, or the Dances which were celebrated before the Temple of Saint Sophia upon the Dedication of the Statue of that Princess. The words were these Herodias then is once again incensed; Once again she Dances; once again she demands the Head of John in a Charger! That Exordium of the Homily he made to the People of Antioch immediately after the demolishing of the Statues of the Emperor and Empress, deceased; is also of this quality and latitude: What shall I say now? How shall I speak? This is a time to Weep and not to Speak; to Groan and not to Discourse; to pray to God and not to Harangue the People. He has another of this kind too, in his Sermon to the Christians of the same Place, upon a panic Fear that had seized them in their Assembly, for want of being established by a Heathen governor. Truly I cannot but commend the care and conduct of your governor;( says he) who, seeing the whole Town in Consternation and all the Inhabitants ready to fly for't, is come into this place; has encouraged you with his Presence; established you by his Authority, and given you that resolution and hope which you had utterly lost. But for you here, I am covered with confusion; That after so many excellent Sermons to teach you better things, you should yet want to be put in Heart and confirmed by a Man out of the Pale of the Church. I could have wished that the Earth had opened under me and swallowed me up, when I heard him speak to you; sometimes comforting you under the apprehension, and sometimes blaming you for taking so groundless and impertinent a fright without any shadow of reason or colour of Religion for't. It was not sit for such a Man as He, among Heathens, to tell you what you ought to do: but 'twas your business to be Doctors to the Infidels, and to teach them their Duty. With what Eyes now shall we behold them hereafter, with a regard to Faith and Conversion, and keep in Countenance upon the guilt of so timorous a behaviour! with what tongue shall we undertake to comfort or confirm them under their calamities; having shew'd ourselves more fearful than Hares, with so much impatience, Chagrin and weakness upon this occasion! We are Men, say you; why, for that very reason, you ought not to be frightened with bugbears nor hared with suspicions or appearances of Persecution; because you are Men and not Beasts. Beasts are afraid of every thing that stirs; and the least noise commonly alarms them, for want of reason to dispute the Fear and keep off the Impression: But you that have the gift of Reason and Understanding; How are you sunk into the last degree of Irresolution and Cowardice! Such Exordiums as these that begin abruptly and break forth on a sudden with a violent Passion, are very rare, and seldom found but upon extraordinary occasions: But when ever we have occasion to make use of them, 'tis manifest that they are to be spoken with an elevated voice, according to the Passion, either of anger that transports, or of grief that afflicts, and obliges us to set-out so abruptly in our Discourse.  
In the next place, the Orator need not put himself in a Passion nor raise his voice to any great vehemence upon the Proposition or Narration of his Speech; for his business in this part is only to inform his hearers, or to instruct his Judges, and to give them a right understanding of the matter in question. So that 'tis enough here for the Pronunciation to be a degree higher than that of the Exordium; only he must take care all the while to be very Articulate and Distinct upon it, because the Narration lays the groundwork of the whole Discourse and contains the virtue of all those reasons that are to be drawn from it: And therefore it mightily imports and concerns him to have it well heard, if he would Build well or raise any great Arguments upon that Foundation. There must needs be some difference too, in the manner of speaking it, according to the different quality of Actions and Events in the relation: But this is not the proper place yet for the vehemence and contention of the voice, which must be kept in reserve for a better occasion and the following parts of the Speech.  
As to the Confirmation, which sets forth the main arguments of our Cause; and the Confutation, which consists in solving our Adversaries Objections: There lies the greatest stress of our Discourse and the last effort of the voice; for as our mind is most moved there, upon all the fine Figures of Speech we make use of in rhetoric, so 'tis there also we ought to speak with the utmost Force and Contention, and to vary our Pronunc●●●ion over and above with Decency and Good Grace.  
As for the Peroration, the Orator would do well to make a handsome little Pause between this part and the former, and to begin it again with a lower Tone and a different Accent from the last Cadence of his voice upon the Confutation. After that he should break forth upon it with a louder voice, and pursue it with more Gaiety, Magnificence and triumph of his Pronunciation; upon an assurance both of the Justice of his Cause, which he presumes sufficiently made good, and of the entire satisfaction of his hearers whom he supposes fully convinced of his Right and Integrity. And at last, he should arrive at the Conclusion of his Speech, like a Vessel that has been long out at Sea; had a difficult Voyage on't; weathered many dangerous Points and Passages, and comes into Port Full-sail, with the greatest acclamations of Joy and Good Cheer.   

CHAP. X. How to vary the voice according to the Figures of rhetoric.  
AS Figures are the lights of Speech, that render it most agreeable both for variety and Good Grace; every one of 'em carrying a long with it a particular Air, Ornament and Novelty: So they are to be spoken with a different Tone from the rest of the Discourse, upon an Exclamation. The very name of that Figure shows the reason; for nothing would appear so Hat and Ridiculous, if it were not pronounced with a louder voice and a more Passionate Accent than any other. As for example; when Cicero, in his Oration for Cluentius, said of Sassia that had inveigled her Son-in-Law to a Decauche; got him divorced from her own Daughter, and married him her self: Oh the incredible wickedness of the Woman! A crime that had been unheard of yet in the world, but for this abominable wretch! Oh the raging and ungovernable lust on't! Oh lascivious and unparalleled impudence! Neither to stand in awe of the Majesty of the Gods nor to regard the Honour of Men! Not to tremble into an Aversion at the Approach of that very Night; not to blushy at the light of those very Nuptial Torches; not to stumble at the threshold of the Chamber, at the sight of her Daughter's Bridal Bed, and at the walls, that were so many witnesses of the former Marriage! If he had spoken those words without any Elevation of the voice, had he not deprived them of all their Clatt, Ornament and Force? And had he not better have said then Plainly, without any more ado; She was a very lewd, lascivious and Impudent Woman to mary her Son-in-Law; in which there would have been no Absurdity at all and no P●ssi●● required? Much better sure, th●● to ●●●nounce those Exclamatory Expressio●● without either Grace or Exclamation  
The same way of speaking must be used too upon forms of Swearing; especially when there's something extraordinary in the Affair: As that of Demosthenes in his Oration for C●esiphon, which has been so much esteemed and admired by the ancients. You have not failed in that Point, Gentlemen: no, I swear by those of our Ancestors that so bravely hazarded and won the battle of Marathon; by those that generously maintained the Fight at Plataeae; by those that fought by Sea at Salamis; by those that were slain at Artemisium, and by all those other Gallant Men that have deserved to be interred in public Monuments, with all the Glories of Honour, Fortune and famed. There's no doubt now but the Orator pronounced this asseveration with a very Elevated Tone and a Great Contention of the voice; or else nothing would have chilled the Passions more upon the Hearing.  
In a Prosopopoeia, nature her self shows us; First that the Orator ought to change his voice, to the end it may appear as if it were not he a speaking, but some other Person brought in by the By: And secondly, that he must vary it according to the Diversity, Character and Business of the Persons that he introduces, and feigns a speaking in this Disguise. For Instance, In those two Prosopopoeia's which Cicero makes use of in his Oration for Celius; the one of the Venerable Old Man APPIUS, the other of the young rak CLODIUS, a Debauchée; who may not see with half an eye how differently they are to be spoken; and how that ought to be Grave and Severe; but this loose and effeminate, according to the different qualities of the Persons? red over the one and the other in the Speech itself, and you will easily judge of them for the Pronunciation. But if you would bring in a Man talking with himself, upon a point of deliberation, and arguing in his own breast what he should do in the matter, you must manage it with a low voice, and introduce him as if he were only speaking to himself and within the compass of his own Ears, with a design not to be overheard by any body else. We have an example of this in Tully's Oration for Cluentius, where he says of Stalenus; When the poor perfidious wretch saw a round sum of Money brought home to him, he began to think of all the ways and means that Malice, Corruption and Fraud could invent. Talking thus with himself. If I should let the rest of the Judges come in now for snacks with me, what should I get by the bargain but Danger and Disgrace? Can I think of nothing, to have this Oppianicus condemned for't? What then! Why, I'll try what can be done, &c. And when Cicero says again in his Speech for Quintius against Naevius's hard-heartedness and inhumanity: you have not asked Council of yourself. You have not consulted your own Conscience and Honour. You have not recollected upon the question; What am I a doing? For two hours that are gone and past, must I ruin my Friend? For failing an appointment, must I undo him for ever? The Orator must observe here to pronounce these words, you have not consulted your own Conscience and Honour; you have not recollected yourself upon the Question, with as loud a voice as is commonly made use of in an Apostrophe, upon a sudden diversion of the Speech to a different Person; but the following words must be turned off with a low voice, as t'were in a secret soliloquy or a private reflection.  
Upon an Apostrophe, you ought to have a peculiar regard both to the Circumstance of the Person to whom you address your Speech and to the design you have of making use on't; so that you may adjust the Tone of your voice to the turn of your Discourse and the necessity of the figure. For Example. First, when you speak to inanimate things, you must raise your voice above an ordinary pitch or a common tone, as you would to people that are very thick of hearing. And without doubt Cicero himself spake with an uncommon Accent upon that fine Apostrophe, in his Speech for Milo, to this purpose. I call you to witness, you little Hills and Groves of Alba; and you Altars also of the Albans, that were once of the same Religion and Antiquity with those of the Romans: Which, Clodius being hurried on with Sacrilegious Madness and Ambition, has now cut down and destroyed, to lay the Foundation of all his cursed Practices, and has profanely butted them under the Weight and Oppression of his own prodigious Buildings, &c.  
Secondly, This holds also in an Apostrophe to God. For, as you raise your voice to a proportionable height when you would be heard a far-off, and reach the utmost Ear of your Audience: So, when you speak to the great Divinity that sits upon his Throne in Heaven above, you ought to do't in a higher strain and a loftyer tone of the voice; than if you were only a speaking to Men here on Earth, that are even as low as yourself, upon the same Turf and Level. And with this elevated Accent too, we must red all those happy turns and Apostrophe's, which we meet with in the Perorations of the First Catalinary, of the last Oration against Verres, and of Pliny's panegyric to Trajan.  
Upon a Dialogism, or Conference, where two Persons are brought in as 'twere Dialoguing one another, one of 'em moving the Question and t'other making the Answer, you must change your voice by turns, as if two Men were really a talking together. We have an example of this, in the Dialogism, which Cicero makes use of in his Oration for Plancius; where he first personates Laterensis a speaking for himself and complaining against the People for preferring Plancius before him to the Commission of EDILE; and then brings in Plancius as it were answering his Competitor's Objections and justifying the Election, in a feigned Conference betwixt the two Candidates for the Office. The People have not judged right. But they have judged. They ought not to have done so. But they have don't. I cannot endure it. But many better Men of the wisest and most Illustrious Citizens have endured it before you: &c. And that dialogism in his Oration for Flaccus, upon the Examination of Asclepiades against him, is of the same quality and requires the same change of the voice. Let's hear Sextilius, what he has to say. I have not brought him a long with me, say you. Produce his Papers and Accounts then in Court. I have not brought them neither. Where are your Brothers? Let them appear at least. I have not Subpaena'd them hither for Witnesses. Why then, shall we take that for a Crime or good Evidence, whatever Asclepiades alone, a Man of a notorious character, shall please, forsooth, to charge upon us without any Account, Credit or Authority? Upon these Conferences and Rencounters, we must always observe to pronounce the Answer with a different Tone from the last Cadence of the foregoing Question and Objection.  
In the Figure called Epimone by the Greeks, and which we may call Insistance, whereby the Orator presses his Adversary to a pinch and dwells upon it; insisting still upon the same argument, and expressing it home to him several ways over and over till he seems ashamed of it, and confounded at the Repetition: Here the Orator must make use of a brisk, pressing and insulting voice, where he lays the main stress of his Speech and clinches it upon the hearers. As when Tully says in his Oration for Ligarius: What did you, Tubero, in the battle of Pharsalia, with your Sword drawn there? Against whose breast did you direct the point of it? What was the sense of your Weapon, the design of your Arms the Intention of your appearance? Where were your thoughts, your wishes, your desires, your expectations? What meant those Eyes, that Zeal, that Passion, that hand, that Weapon? But I urge the thing too far upon him: The young Man is ashamed, and in Confusion at the Conviction; I'll say no more. And so likewise when Crassus was a pleading in Court against the lewd Debauchée, BRUTUS, seeing the Corps of Junia, the Old Matron and Mother of his Family, carried By at the same time in public pomp and Parade to her Grave, took occasion to say thus to that dissolute Spark. What do you there, you loose and lazy Brutus? What news would you have that venerable defunct carry of you, to your Father in another world? What do you pretend she should acquaint the Illustrious Dead withall, whose Images you see born before her hearse? What shall she say to your Grandfathers, and especially to the famous Lucius Brutus, whom the people are beholden to for asserting their Liberties and freeing them from the Government and Tyranny of Kings? Upon what noble Study, upon what glorious design, upon what Virtue shall she tell 'em you employ your Time? Upon engagement of your Estate? That's below your Character, and does not become your Nobility: But suppose it did, you have not a foot of Land left; you have spent it all in Debauchery and Extravagance. Upon the knowledge of the Law? That would be to follow the footsteps of your Father indeed and to inherit his Glories; but she'll say you have sold your House, and not reserved among all the movables so much as your Father's Chair, out of which he spake so many Oracles. Upon the Exercise of Arms? But you never saw a Battle fought save only in Paper and Picture. Upon the study of Eloquence? But you do not know the very Rudiments of rhetoric: And if you have any thing of a voice, or a faculty at prattling, you employ it all to your own disadvantage, and make a trade of your foul calumnies and bawdy expressions. Infamous creature! Dare you then behold the day? Dare you look upon this Assembly? Dare you show your head now in the Court, in the Town, in the business or Conversation of Men? Is not your Conscience struck with Horror; does it not fly in your Face, when you cast your Eyes upon that dead Body there, and those Images which have not the least hope left of finding, either any imitation of 'em in your manners, or any place for 'em in that which was once your House? This Figure that great Orator, as Tully says, did attend and enforce with a Pronunciation wonderfully Grave and Pressing, Solemn and Clinching.  
Upon a Parrhesia, or the bold Figure of taking the liberty to say every thing we have a mind to say, let the danger be what it will, where there's any confidence in the Cause, or any fear of losing the Point, our voice must be full and loud, as upon these words of Tully in his Oration for Ligarius. Oh admirable Clemency; worthy of eternal praise, honour and memory. Cicero has the boldness now before Caesar to confess himself guilty of a Crime, for which he cannot endure another should be falsely arraigned, neither does he fear the private resentments of his Judge for't. See how undaunted I am now, upon the confidence of your Goodness. See the great lights of Generosity and Wisdom that countenance me from your Royal Aspect. I will raise my voice as loud as I can, that all the People of Rome may hear me. The War being begun, Sir, and almost ended, I went over to your Enemy's Camp before the finishing stroke of it, upon my own choice and without any Compulsion. The voice must be as round and as frank too, when the Lawyer is forced to pled in private and Speaks things that he would have the whole world hear; as in these words of a Famous counsellor, spoken sometime since in the Parliament of Paris. This Audience will either deliver France from the upstart Monsters that are bread here to destroy it: or else, if their cunning Policies; if their tricks of slight and artifice, if their reports that are spread abroad bear-up and take: I say it aloud( They have found out the way to shut up the Gates upon us; but my voice shall ring to the Four Corners of the Kingdom: And I will transmit it now to Posterity, which will judge without Fear and Prejudice, who have been the best Frenchmen, the Truest Subjects, and the most desirous of leaving their Country a Liberty after them, like unto that which we have receive from our Ancestors:) I say it aloud then, and will raise my voice to the utmost effort of it; They will do us more mischief yet then ever they did or we are ware of. Where it is easy to perceive with what Passion and Height of voice the Orator spake those words, and how he pronounced himself with the boldest Elevation.  
Upon a Climax, or a Gradation; where the Discourse climbs up by several clauses of a Sentence to a Period or Full Point; 'tis manifest that the voice must be raised accordingly by the same degrees of elevation to answer every step of the Figure, till it is at the utmost height of it: as upon this Climax of Cicero's in his last Speech against Verres. To lay a Roman Citizen by the Heels, and in Irons, is a bold attempt; to whip him, an Abominable Crime; to put him to Death, a notorious piece of Parricide. What shall I say of executing him upon the across? I cannot find a word to express such a wicked horrible attempt. And upon another, in a Remonstrance to the City of Paris, after the death of Henry the Third. Thou could not endure so debonair and Gallant a King. What do I say, could not endure him? 'tis far worse than so. Thou banished him his Town, his House, and his Bed. What banished him? Thou pursued him. What, pursued him? Thou murdered him; thou canonised his Assassinator, and made bonfires and Illuminations upon his Death.  
Upon an Aposiopesis, or holding one's peace and concealing what might be said farther in the matter, the Orator must lower his voice a tone or two, and pronounce the foregoing words that introduce it with the highest Accent; as in this of Demosthenes for Ctesiphon: For I can say of myself.— But I will not say any thing piquant or severe at the beginning, though every body sees he is come to accuse me of Alacrity and Lightness of Heart.  
In a subjection, where several questions are put and an answer made to every one of them, the Orator must vary his voice, and give the Interogation one Tone, and the Answer, another; either pronouncing the demand higher and the answer lower, or on the contrary; as when Cicero says in his Oration for Flaccus. And indeed, Sirs, to what other assistance shall I apply myself now? What other help shall I beg? What other Power shall I implore? Shall I address to the Senators. The Senate itself craves your assistance, and know, that you alone have the power to confirm their authority. Shall I address to the Roman Knights? you that are Heads of that order here, know the sentiments of all the rest. Shall I address to the Commons? They have given up to you all their power and authority of judging our Affairs. And in this again for Sylla. When the Plot grew high, and all things were ready for a dispatch, where was Sylla, I pray? Was he at Rome? Nay, he was a great way off from that place. Was he in those Legions and Forces, which catiline went about to raise? He was yet further off still. Was he in the field of Camertus, of Pi●enum, or of gall? Whither did the fury of this Conspiracy transport him; What places did he invade, or whose minds did he infect there? Nothing more false. He was then at Naples, in that part of Italy which was not in the least suspected.  
In an Antithesis, he must distinguish upon both the contraries, and pronounce the first of 'em with a different Tone from the latter; this with a louder Accent than that, to show the opposition betwixt the one and the other and to adjust the voice to the Contrariety, as in this example of it in the second Catalinary: If we will but compare both parties, and weigh the Justice and the Reasons of the one against the other, we shall find how inconsiderable our Enemies are and how easy it is to conquer them. For modesty fights on this side, and impudence on that: Here's purity of manners, there Impurity; Here's Faith, there Fraud; Here's Piety, there Wickedness; Here's Constancy, there Fool-hardiness; Here's Honour, there Infamy; Here's ꝯtinence, there Lust. Here, in fine, Justice, Temperance, Courage, Prudence and all kind of Virtues are in Confederacy, and contending with Injustice, with Luxury, with Cowardice, with Temerity and all kind of vices got a head together upon the Rendezvous. Here Abundance makes War upon Necessity, Reason disputes it against Madness, Good Sense against Folly, certain Hope against Despair, and Assurance against Uncertainty. And if the hearts of Men should fail 'em now, in such a famous rencontre as this, would not the Gods declare themselves in favour of so just a Quarrel, vindicate your Cause against the foulest of Crimes, and give those heroic virtues of yours the victory over these abominable vices of a Conspirator?  
Upon the figure which the Greeks call Anadiplosis; That is to say, a redoubling, or an immediate repetition of the same word: As, It was, it was a virtue formerly in this Commonwealth, &c. The Senate knows all this, the Consul sees it, and yet catiline lives: Nay he does not only live, but comes into the Senate too; &c. And nevertheless, you live; and live, not to forsake, but to confirm your presumption and impudence; &c. He has reigned three and twenty years now, and reigns still with so much Insolence, that he never absconds for't. The Orator must give the same word repeated here a different sound, and pronounce it the second time over far louder and stronger than at the First.  
In an Anaphora, where one and the same word is repeated over and over in the beginning either of several Sentences one after another, or of several clauses of the same Sentence; as it is in the Oration for the Manilian Law: A witness of it is Italy, which the conqueror himself confessed was owing its deliverance to Pompey's Bravery and Council: A witness of it is Sicily, which he saved from a Thousand imminent dangers that begird it on all sides, by the Wisdom of his Conduct and the quickness of his Dispatches, without ever striking a blow for't: A witness of it is Africa, oppressed with the numerous Armies of the Enemies, where he made the Field flow with the Blood of the Slain: A witness on't is France, &c. And in the second Philippick again: My Consulship does not please MARK ANTONY at all; but this is my Glory, that it has pleased all honest Men. It pleased P. SERVILIUS, whom I name the first as the oldest of the Consuls, and the last that died in our Time. It pleased Q. CATULUS, whose Credit and Authority will never die in this Commonwealth. It pleased the two LUCƲLLUSES, M. CRASSUS, Q. HORTENSIUS, L. MURAENA, that were all then appointed to the Consular Dignity. It pleased several others also, whose Reputation will always be had in Honour and Veneration of the republic. He must pronounce the word here repeated, always with the same Accent and Sound; but in a different manner from the Pronunciation of all the other parts of the Period, to give the Figure its due Emphasis and Distinction in his Discourse, upon the Repetition of the same words. And so again in an Epizeuxis, when the same word is reiterated several times over one after another at the end of Sentences, he must likewise humour the Emphatical Redoubling of the word, with the same Accent of his voice; as it is in the same Philippick above mentioned: You lament the loss of three Armies of Romans that were ruined. 'twas MARK ANTONY ruined them. You resent the Death of so many Noble and Famous Citizens destroyed. 'twas MARK ANTONY destroyed them. The Authority of the Senate suffers extremely, and is entrenched upon. 'tis MARK ANTONY entrenches upon't, and' does it this Disgrace, &c. Or when several words are repeated over and over again, as they are in the Seventh Philippick: What! Sirs, when you decreed such great and just honours to Young Caesar for raising an Army against MARK ANTONY; did you not then declare MARK ANTONY an Enemy to the Commonwealth? When you ordered the Thanks and the Praise of the Whole House to be given to those old Disciplined Soldiers that listed themselves volunteers in Caesar's Service and followed him to the War; did you not then declare MARK ANTONY an Enemy to the Commonwealth? And when you promised a reward to the strongest Legions for coming over to us from Antony, that usurped the Title of Consul and was our vowed Adversary; did you not then declare MARK ANTONY an Enemy to the Commonwealth, &c.   

CHAP. XI. Of the Pronunciation of Words and Sentences.  
SEntences commonly consist of two principal Parts, that are linked together with certain Particles; which the Grammarians call Causals, Copulatives, Conditionals, Comparatives, Relatives or Adversatives: But they are not All of the same measure and length.  
For there are some Sentences very short; each part of which is but a simplo expression and consists only of one single Proposition; as these of Malherbe. He died young, but he died happy. His Friends have not had him long, but his Death is the greatest Trouble and Grief they ever had for the Love and the Loss of him. He has enjoyed the Sweets of the World only for a little while, but he never tasted the Bitters on't. He has not taken a long Walk, but he went only upon Flowers. Whatever Life has of Rugged, or of Harsh, Piquant and uneasy, was to come in those years which he has not lived to see. Those Periods may not only be pronounced with one Breath; but can hardly be pronounced otherwise, without prejudice to the expression.  
There are some Sentences again, longer; as those in the same Author. Look upon the World as a Place where you will be losing something every Day, till you have lost All and have no more to lose; and with those Meditations prepossess your dear Soul, that, having its Original from Heaven, it will one Day have the happiness to return thither. And those may be pronounced all at a Breath too, if the Voice be naturally good for any thing: and however, you ought also to do it as well as you can; for a Period so pronounced looks rounder, and appears with more Beauty and Force, than it would do upon several Breathing's by fits. For this purpose, you must make it your main Bus●ness to acquire a long-winded Habit by Study and exercise: but that must be done by degrees: For Nature is not changed in an instant from a short Breath to a long one. Nature indeed is absolutely necessary in the matter; but Art also can do much towards the accomplishing of this end: and we red in the Bibliotheca of Photius, that Demosthenes, who had naturally a very short Breath; finding that he had need of a very long one to speak upon public Occasions, gave Neoptolemus the Stage-player, and a great Actor of Comedy, a thousand Drachms to teach him this Art; which he became Master of at last to perfection by the force of practise and by exercising himself upon all the difficulties of Respiration. You must likewise exert your Faculties, as he did, and neither spare any time, nor pains, nor cost, to make yourself long-winded and an Orator.  
There are other Periods that have a longer Train yet, and take a larger tower than either of the former; which you cannot pronounce without taking your Breath once or twice; as this of St. Bernard for instance. As it is prejudicial to one's Health to take Food and not to digest it, because Crude and Indigested Meats create ill Humours, and do not nourish, but clog and corrupt the Body: So when the Stomach of the Soul, that is, the Memory, is filled with a great deal of Knowledge; if this Knowledge be not well digested by the warmth of Charity; if it do not diffuse itself after that through the Arteries and Marrow of the Soul and pass into the Manners and Actions of Men; and if it does not become good itself upon knowing what is good, and what goes to the making of a good Life; does not this Knowledge turn into Sin, as that Nutriment does into bad Humours? You must pronounce the first part of that Period without ever taking Breath for't; but you cannot pronounce the second in the same manner: So that you ought rather to make a pause upon't, than force your Voice to an Absurdity and run yourself quiter out of Breath; which would be very ungenteel and indecent. Only you must take care by the Way to stop in proper and convenient Places: that is to say, after two Points, a Colon, or a Semi-colon, or at least after a Comma; for to do it otherwise, or oftener, would be a thing extremely disagreeable. Nothing is more untoward, and uncourtly than to break off in the middle of a Word or an Expression.  
In fine, there's another sort of Periods, that the Rhetoricians call Spiritus; which have not the same Order, Scope and Composition of those Sentences that are properly called Periods, but only couch and contain a great number of Articles, simply propounded all in the same manner; as this of the aforesaid Father again for an Example: Let your Spirit rest upon those Prelates who fear nothing but God, and Hope nothing but God: Who being sent into Provinces, go not after Gold, but follow Jesus Christ: Who do not believe their Missions to be for a Money-Bank, but seek the Fruits of their labour for God, and not Presents for themselves: Who are, a John Baptist to Kings and Princes; a Moses to egyptians; a Phineas to Fornicators; an Elias to Idolaters; an Elisha to Niggards; a Peter to Liars; a Paul to Blasphemers; a Christ to Mercenaries and money-changers: Who do not despise the People, but instruct them: Who do not flatter the Rich, but rebuk them: Who do not oppress the Poor, but relieve them: Who do not dread the Men●ces of Princes, but contemn them: Who do not go into their Assemblies in Trouble, nor come out again in Anger: Who do not rob Churches, but reform them: Who do not pick People's Pockets, but comfort their Hearts and correct their Vices: Who take care of their own Reputation, and bear no Malice to another's: Who love Prayer and apply themselves to Devotion: And who, in all Affairs of the World, have more confidence in their Prayers, than in their Industry and Labour, whereby their Discourses may be Edifying; whereby their Lives may be Just; whereby their Presence may be Agreeable; whereby their Memories may be Blessed: Who render themselves Amiable, not by Words but by Deeds; and Venerable, not by Pomp or State, but by their Actions: Who are Humble with the Humble, and Innocent with the Innocent; but rebuk the hard-hearted with boldness and severity; who reprimand the Wicked with Authority, and who render to the Proud according to their Deserts: Who neither enrich themselves, nor their Parents, nor their Officers with the Portion of the Widow and the Patrimony of the crucified; but who give gratis that which they received gratis, and do Right out of mere good Will to them that suffer Wrong: Who testify, in fine, they have received the divine Spirit, as the seventy Judges did the Spirit of Moses; who both absent and present endeavour to please you and to please God; who return home to you now wearied, but not laden with the spoils of Nations; and who do not glory in having brought away with them the most curious and precious things of the Countries whither they were sent, but in leaving behind them Peace to Kingdoms, Laws to Barbarians, Quiet to Monasteries, Order to Churches, Discipline to the Clergy and a People Just to God. In such Periods as those, you are upon no force at all to strain your Lungs; for you may take your Breath as often as you shall have occasion, and make an equal pause at every Article they contain; there being no manner of Reason why you should not make a stop upon one as well as another. So much for what concerns the Breath and its Pauses; when and where it is to be taken upon all sorts of Periods. As for what remains to be said of it, I think the Orator would do well to observe the following Rules.  
You must not distinguish the parts of a Period, as if there were more Periods then one in a Sentence; and yet you must make some Distinction too, that the Auditor may more easily discover the several Clauses of it one from another: But this is to be done especially, when the Period is longer than ordinary; otherwise the Mind and the Memory of those that hear you, and perhaps your own faculties too, would be confounded: and the Period, tho' never so well turned, would perplex the Pronunciation and appear embarassed by the length of it. However when there are several Clauses in a Sentence, and every one of them requires a peculiar distinction for some reason or other, you would do well to distinguish them by the Pronunciation, but without taking your Breath for all that; except there be so many of 'em, that one single Respiration cannot serve all their Turns, nor reach the end of the whole Period. Cicero without doubt observed that upon this Period of his Oration for the Manilian Law. What a shameful thing 'tis, Sirs, that he who Massacred such a vast Number of our Citizens in one Day throughout all Asia, in so many Cities there, at a Word's Warning and upon one single Dispatch; has not only not condign'd Punishmennt yet for so barbarous a Crime, but has reigned now three and twenty Years since that Butchery: and reigned too with so much Insolence, that he neither lurks for it in the Kingdom of Pontus nor in the obscurity of Cappadocia; but Hectors in the Inheritance of his Fore-fathers, braves you in your own Revenues, and appears in the open Light of all Asia.  
'tis proper to make a pause upon every Period, but it must be a very short one upon short ones, and a little longer upon long ones: For, over and above that it very much conduces to the better distinguishing of Periods among themselves, and does not a little assist the Understanding and the Memory of the Hearer; it is almost incredible how it also reinforces the Lungs, the Breast and the Arteries of the Speaker: And if you do but practise this Rule you will find the benefit and advantage of it by Experience. I would advice you also to take care to begin the following Period always a degree lower than you concluded the first; which will both contribute to the variation of your Voice and to the reinforcement of your Organs. Sometimes on the contrary, 'tis better to begin it with a Tone a little higher than the Cadence of the last, according as the Orator shall best judge of the Nature and the necessity of the Subject: which will serve also to vary even the variation of the Voice itself; for you must not do't always on the same fashion or in the same Key.  
There's another Observation yet which I have to make here. 'tis this. When you have a Period to Pronounce that requires a great contention or elevation of the Voice, you must moderate and manage your Voice with good Conduct upon those Periods that precede it; lest by employing the whole force of it upon those, you be spent and constrained at last to pronounce this languidly, which requires more of vigour, vehemency and effort. 'tis this Government that Roscius and Esopus, two of the famousest Actors the Romans ever had, very well observed; as Tully takes notice in his third Book of the Orator. For Roscius did not rehearse these Verses.  
The brave Warrior's noble Choice and Shield,  
Is Honour, not the Booty of the Field.  
with all the vehemence of Action and Gesturo, that he might have done; but altogether simply, with moderation and conduct, to the end that falling immediately upon this exclamatory Period; 
What is't I see! he comes armed,  
Even into our very Temples!  he might act it more earnestly, represent it more strongly, and accent it with greater Admiration and Astonishment. And Esopus did not pronounce these Words, 
Where shall I find Relief?  
Or whither shall I fly?  with all the contention of Voice and Accent within the compass of his Power; but softly or languidly, and without any immoderate Action at all; having a regard all the while to what immediately follows; 
But, O Father, O Country,  
O House of Priam!  which he could not have spoken with all necessary Exclamation, if he had already spent himself and as it were exhausted his Voice beforehand upon a former Emotion and Violence. Thus Painters represent some Parts of a Piece with Shades and Distances, to set-off others with greater light and advantage and to make them bear so Masterly, that one would almost swear they stood out of the Picture and have Life.  
From Periods and perfect Sentences, I come now to Words. First, you must observe to pronounce them according to common custom and the ordinary Conversation of those that speak well. In every Country or Province, there are certain vicious Pronunciations and Dialects, that are peculiar to particular People; either for the quantity of Syllables, as we find where they pronounce the first Syllable of VALET, of HABIT, of PAPIER, long, and the first of Teste, of Paste, &c. short; or, for the sound of Vowels, as there are some People make use of an e Open, or Neuter, instead of an e Shut and Masculine, in the Words more, PERE, FRERE; or, for the Elision of an e, where it ought not to be left-out, as there are some say PARL'IL, instead of PARLE-T-IL; or, for the Addition of an e at the beginning of a Word, where it ought not to be used, as there are some Places where they both say and writ L' ESPLENDEUR, L' ESCANDALE, L' ESPHERE; or, for the s which some People insert where it ought not to be inserted, writing and pronouncing CONSTRAINDRE for CONTRAINDRE; and which they omit again where it ought not to be omitted, as in JUSQUES and PRESQUE, pronouncing them JUQUE and PREQUE; or, for the Letter h, which some do not pronounce with an Aspiration, where it ought to be pronounced harshly; as they that say L' hazard, L' HARANGUE, L' HALEBARDE. There are also many more Corruptions crept into vulgar Heads, and talked into custom among the common People in City as well as Country; not excepting even that where the Court is kept: For you shall meet with a false Pronunciation now a days at Paris, as well as you might have done formerly at Athens. But a Man that speaks in public ought carefully to avoid all those faults above-mentioned, for fear of being laughed at and treated with the contempt of a fleering Auditory; which was the Sophister Pausanias's Misfortune, of whom Philiscus writes that he spake coarsely, and pronounced his Words very gross and corrupt; making long Syllables short, and short ones long: for though he was an eloquent Person in all other respects, a ready Wit, and famous for speaking off Hand; he was compared yet for his unhandsome Pronunciation, to a Cook that could not dress good Meat well when he had it in his Hands, and made but a very bad Dish of the best in the Market. For this purpose; he must converse as much as possible with Persons that speak better than himself; observe their Pronunciation so nicely as to make it his own; and not only not be ashamed to ask their advice, upon a doubt, how to pronounce such and such Words; but desire them also to set him right at every turn, if he chance to blunder and be out in the Pronunciation of other Words, where he makes no scruple at all: so that by little and little he may polish his Speech to that perfection at last in good Conversation and Private Discourse, that not a Word which drops from his Mouth shall fall into Contempt or disoblige his Hearers in public.  
My next Observation is this; that he must pronounce emphatical Words with an emphasis and a distinction: Whether it be to affirm strongly; as, certainly, assuredly, infallibly, undoubtedly, necessary, absolutely, expressly, manifestly, are Words of a very strong and positive Pronunciation: or, to Praise and Extol; as, admirable, incredible, incomparable, ineffable, inestimable, glorious, glittering, pompous, triumphant, illustrious, heroic, august, majestic, adorable, are terms of Honour that must be pronounced with a magnificent Tone: or to dispraise and detest; as cruel, heinous, wicked, detestable, abominable, execrable, monstrous, which are all to be pronounced with a most Passionate and loud voice: or, to complain and lament; as, unfortunate, miserable, fatal, mournful, pitiful, deplorable, lamentable, are all sorrowful Words and require a melancholy Accent. He must also lay more stress upon Words of Quantity; as, grand, high, sublime, profound, long, large, innumerable, eternal; as well as upon Words of Universality; as all the World, generally, every where, always, never: Here the Pronunciation must be poised to a certain gravity and height of Accent. As for those terms of extenuation and slight; as, pitiful, insignificant, little, low, mean, despicable, feeble, he must pronounce 'em with a very low, lessening, abject voice, and an Accent of the greatest scorn and disdain. For the purpose: If a Divine a Preaching, should bring-in a Soul labouring under the sense of many great Infirmities, and saying: When I searched into the Faith of my Heart, I found it so weak, so imperfect, so languishing, &c. To speak that Resentment with an elevated Tone or any great Contention of the voice, would be a ridiculous Pronunciation, and contrary to the very Nature of things, as well as the Rules of sense, Reason and Reflection. For those Words of weak, imperfect, languishing, require a doleful Accent, an Accent of Moan, and a low as well as a slow voice. This Distinction of the Pronunciation, besides that it is more agreeable to the things signified by such Words, will serve over and above for the variation of the voice, which the Orator must always make it his Business to observe.  
To conclude this Discourse: I shall add, that you must keep-up your voice still to an audible height upon the Pronunciation of the last Words of the Period; so that they may be as well, not to say better heard than the rest: But this is to be done chiefly, when those final Words are composed of Syllables that make but a weak and a dull Sound of themselves. For if your Period were to conclude with these Words, une splendeur éclatante et incomparable; though you should not raise your voice upon 'em, nor make 'em ring half so loud a peal as you might in the Ears of your Auditors, they would not fail yet of being heard well enough for all that, because of the great and strong Sound which the Letters a and o make of themselves in that expression. But if your Sentence were to end with these Words, Ce n'est q'une figure, une type,& une similitude; and you should pronounce 'em faintly, they would die in your own Mouth and never reach the Ear of your nearest Auditor under your Nose, because the Letters e, i, and u have so little of Sound in themselves, and appear very low and flat off the Lip. This precept upon the Pronunciation of the last Words of Sentences ought to be as much taken notice of and practised as any other; for most of our public Orators now a days commonly fail in this Point.   

CHAP. XII. Of Gesture, in General.  
'tis Time now to come to Gesture, which is of no little importance and advantage to a Man that speaks in public; for it qualifies the Orator to convey the Thoughts and the Passions of his Mind to his Auditors with greater force and delight; their Senses being far more effectually wrought upon by Pronunciation and Gesture TOGETHER, than by Pronunciation ALONE. For this reason, when a Man is Hearing a Sermon, he desires mightily to see the Face of the Preacher; and if his Pew deprive him of that Happiness, he goes Home with less Satisfaction, let it be never so well spoken. However, these two things are not less important, the one than the other; and as both faculties joined together express a Thought to perfection, so either of them apart do not fail of expressing it as well too, though with less Power and Vigour. For if it is by Speech alone we converse with the Blind, 'tis by Gesture alone that we can converse also with the Deaf; and without this Faculty, we should have no Commerce or Conversation at all with' em. Besides Gesture has this advantage above Pronunciation; that, by Speech we are only understood by People of our own Country and Lingua; but by Gesture, we render our Thoughts and our Passions intelligible to all Nations, indifferently, under the Sun. 'tis as it were the common Language of all Mankind, which strikes the Understanding in at our Eyes as much as Speaking does in at our Ears. And no wonder things of Movement and Action should touch us so sensibly; since Painting which has nothing of it, penetrates so far into our Affections, and imprints so strongly, that it sometimes surpasses the very force of Words. Speaking alone does the main Work in the Minds of those that understand it; but when it is destitute of Gesture, which is the Life of all Speech,( as Asconius says) it makes but a Dispassionate and a Dead Discourse. For this reason, Pliny Junior mentioning the Recitations which People in his Days made of their Orations and Poems to their Friends, either in reading 'em themselves or in having them red by others; says, that this Reading of them was a mighty disadvantage to their Eloquence and Character, because the main helps of Pronunciation, the Eyes and the Hands were hindered by't; and that it was no wonder if the Attention of their Auditors droop'd upon it. But on the contrary, when the Discourse is help'd-on and enforced, not only with a Pronunciation suitable to the Subject, but with an agreeable and powerful Gesture, it appears truly animated to a wonderful degree of Life and Vigour: For then the Orator holds his Auditor( as it were) by the Eyes as well as by the Ears and absolutely engages both his Attention and his Reason at once: And if he speaks thus to an Adversary not so well qualified, he dashes him out of Countenance, he confounds him with fear, and overcomes him with shane. Cicero discountenanced Cecilius with this reflection, when he would have Pleaded against Hortensius in the Accusation of Verres, and his Ambition carried him beyond his Capacity: Consider on't( said he to him) and weigh the thing well; for in my Opinion you are in great Danger, not only to be baffled by his Words and his Pronunciation, but to have your Eyes dazzled too by his Gesture and the Motions of his Body; lest he should disorder all your Thoughts, amuse you and make you forget whatever you had to say. And when Cicero again represents the matter in his Books of the Orator, how Crassus baffled and fooled Brutus once at the bar, when he was a pleading against him; he says, that he pronounced his Words after such a manner that they put him quiter out of Countenance; with an Eye so steadfastly fixed upon him; making-up all his Gesture against him, and confronting him at every turn, as if he would have swallowed him up at a Look, or in a Breath. But that this silent Language of your Face and your Hands may be well understood and move the Affections of those that see and hear you; it must be well adjusted to the Thing you speak of as well as agreeable to your Thought and Design: besides that it is always to resemble the Passion you have a Mind either to express or to excite. For if you should speak of sad things with a brisk Look and pronounce sorrow with a gay Countenance; or if you should affirm any thing with the Gesture of a Man that were denying it, 'twould take away all Authority and Credit from your Words: No Body would believe or admire you. You must also have a care there be nothing affencted in your Gesture; for, generally speaking, all Affectation is odious: but it must appear purely Natural, as the very Birth and Result both of the things you express and of the Affection that moves you to speak them. In fine, the Orator must manage his Gesture so nicely, that there may be nothing, if possible, in all the Dispositions and Motions of his Body, which may offend the Eyes of the Spectators; as well as take care that his Pronunciation have nothing in it, which may grace and disoblige the Ears of the Hearers: Otherwise, his Presence will be less agreeable to his Audience, and his Speech itself will not have all that Grace, Virtue and Influence which it ought to have.  
But the Business of Gesture is far more difficult to observe than that of Pronunciation; for a Man may hear his own voice well enough when he cannot see his Face at all: and as for the other Parts of his Body, he can but see them imperfectly, how they move and keep-up to the Rules of good Action. This made Demosthenes betake himself to speak his Harangues and his Pleadings before a great Looking-Glass, that he might observe his Gestures the better, and be able to distinguish betwixt Right and wrong, decent and indecent Actions. This method, I think, might be practised to purpose. There's only this disadvantage in the Glass, that it always represents on the left what is on the right, and on the right what's on the left; so that when you make a motion with the right Hand, you have the reflection of it as if it were made with the left; which confounds the Gesture and appears a little untoward: So that if to adjust yourself to the Glass, you make a motion with the left, 'tis true, it reflects the Gestu●e as if it were made with the right; but then you may chance to get an ill Habit by so doing, which of all things you ought to avoid. However, this inconvenience is abundantly made up to you in the advantage it gives you of seeing not only your Face in all its Countenances, but the state of your whole Body too in all its Postures and Motions: so that you may easily discover by it any thing that is unhandsome and disagreeable, either in your Habit or your Gesture; and any Action again, on the contrary, that adds grace to your Person and force to your Discourse. But for want of a Looking-Glass, you should get some of your Friends to do you this good Office; such an one, I mean, as is capable of judging whether your Gesture be good or not, upon trial and frequent practise. But the most effectual way in the World for a Gentleman to make himself Master of this A●t, is to have some excellent Pattern or other of it always if possible, before his Eyes; as Hortensius was for Example. He excelled so much in this mute Eloquence, that two of the famousest Comedians in his time, Esopus and Roscius, always made it their Business to find him out where he Pleaded, and never failed of attending upon his Harangues, on purpose to improve themselves; to carry away his fine Gestures with them, and to practise afterwards upon the Stage what they had learned of him at the Barr.   

CHAP. XIII. Particular Rules for Gesture.  
TO give the World some particular Rules of Gesture, I shall in the first place speak of the Government, the Order and balance that the whole Body ought to be kept-up to; and in the next, how the Head, the Eyes, the Eye-brows and all the Face must be moved and managed; and at last I shall come to the Action of the Hands; of which there is more to be said, then of all the other Parts of the Body put together.  
As for the whole Body, it ought neither to change Place nor Posture every moment. This fickle Agitation would be as indecent as the Gesture of Curion, whom Junius compared to a Man at Sea in a Cock-boat, for tossing his Body about continually, sometimes to the right and sometimes to the left, with the greatest inconstancy imaginable: But then, on the other hand, it must neither stand like a Stock, nor be as immovable as a May-pole; for over and above that this is not Natural; God Almighty having made the Body of such a movable mien and of such Members as dispose it for Motion, that it ought to move sometimes, either as the Soul directs or as the Body itself requires; It is also disagreeable and ungenteel for want of Variety; which becomes it so well upon every occasion or change of Discourse, and sets every thing-off to admiration.  
As to the Head, 'tis needless to tell you here what Gestures and Signs, what intimations and hints it is capable of making; as of refusing, granting, confirming, admiring, of being angry, &c. because every Body knows this well enough already: So that I shall only advance two things upon the whole. The one is, that the Head ought not to be held-up too high and stretched-out extravagantly, which would be a mark of A●rogancy or Haughtiness; nor to be cast down and hang upon the Breast, which would prejudice the voice mightily and make it less clear, distinct and intelligible; nor to lean always towards the Shoulders, which would argue an ind●fferency, a languor and a faint inclination: But it is always to be kept modestly upright to it's Natural State and Position, which is best. The other observation I make on't, is this; that it is not handsome for the Head to continue always as immovable as that of a Statue or a Gentl●man in Tapestry: and yet, on the other hand, it must not be moving continually neither, nor throwing itself about at every turn of Expression, when the Orator advances up to the height of a Discourse; which is too common an Error. But to avoid both those awkward Extraemes, it must turn softly upon the Neck, when there's occasion for't; as the Nature of the thing requires: not only to look upon those that are directly before your Eyes in the middle of an Assembly, but also to cast a Countenance now and then as well upon those that are on each Hand of you; sometimes on one side, and sometimes on the other: And after that, to hold it again in such a decent Posture as your voice may be most easily heard by the greatest Part of your Auditors; that is to say, looking streight forward to the middle of the Auditory. To this I must add that the Head ought always to be turned on the same side with the other Actions of the Body, save only when they are exerted upon things we refuse: As for instance, when the Poet says; I think myself not worthy of such Praise. Or, upon things we detest and abhor; as when he says again; Good Gods! divert from Us so great a Plague. For these things we must reject with an Action of the right Hand and turn the Head away at the same time to the left. But of all the Parts of the Head, 'tis the Face that gives the greatest Life and the best grace to Action. This was the reason, why the Ancients, as Crassus observes in Cicero, did not commend Roscius when he spake with a Mask-on; because they did not see his Face then, nor it's Motions, it's Charms and it's Attractions. So that you must take the greatest care imaginable of your Countenance, that nothing may appear disagreeable in it; for 'tis the Part most exposed and in view, and your Auditors have their Eyes, if possible, continually fixed upon't. But as it mightily concerns you whenever you are actually a● speaking, you must likewise make it your business before you come to Speak. There's not the least Imperfection, Irregularity or Error in it, be it never so little; but 'tis immediately taken notice of at first sight by every Body there save yourself; for you do not see your own Face when every Body else does. And there is nothing can prevent this but the Looking-Glass or a Friend that will carefully observe your Countenance and frankly tell you what Face soever he finds offensive or disagreeable to the Eye: So that you may easily correct it afterwards either of yourself, or upon his Advice and Assistance. But you ought still to adjust all it's Movements and Countenances, upon the Address, to the Subjects you treat of, the Passion you entertain in your own Bosom or would raise in other People's Breasts, and the Quality of the Persons to whom you speak; so as to show a Gaiety upon things agreeable and upon Affections of Love and Joy; a sadness upon Melancholy Affairs and Passions of Hatred and Grief; a Mildness upon Consolation, and a Severity upon Censure and Reprehension; a Gravity and an Authority in speaking to little People or your Inferiors; but Submission, Humility and Respect to your Betters.  
As for your Eyes, you must always be casting them upon some or other of your Auditors and rolling them gently about from this side to that, with an Air of Regard sometimes upon one Person and sometimes upon another; and not fix 'em like Darts that are once shot, still upon one Place of your Auditory, as many People do to their great Disadvantage: For it is so very disagreeable and dull, that it affects the Persons before whom we speak, much less then when we look them decently in the Face, as we use to do in familiar and common Conversation. Theophrastus had good Reason upon this account, for blaming an Actor called Tamarisque, that used to turn his Eyes away from his Auditors, whenever he spake in the Scene, and kept them fixed all the while upon one single and insensible Object. Your Aspect must always be Pleasant, and your Looks Direct; neither severe nor a-skew; unless perhaps the Passion you would either express or move, require the contrary. Nature itself teaches you as much, and produces this effect, whensoever you are sensibly smitten with such Passions: For Example, when a Man speaks in Anger his Imagination is inflamed and kindles a certain Fire in his Eyes, that makes 'em sparkle like Stars out of his Eye-lids; so that a mere Stranger that understood nothing of his Language, or a Deaf Man that could hear nothing of his voice, would not fail yet of perceiving his Indignation and Fury: And this Fire of your Eyes easily strikes those of your Auditors, who have theirs constantly fixed upon yours; and it must needs set them a-blaze too upon the same Resentment and Passion. There's the same Power in all other Passions. For if you are afflicted with a violent Grief for your own Misfortunes, or touched with a great Compassion of another Man's Misery, 'twill draw Tears from your Eyes. This made the Ancient Actors apply themselves with so much Care and Concern to the acquiring a faculty of moving their Imagination to a Power of Weeping and shedding Tears in abundance upon occasion: And they succeeded so admirably well in't, wrought the Counterfeit up to such a degree, that their Faces used to be all over blurred with Crying after they came off the Stage. They brought this point of a Passionate Tenderness to perfection several ways; but the most effectual was this. They kept their Imagination still at work upon real Subjects and private Afflictions of their own, which they lay very much to Hear●; and not upon the Fables or F●ctions of the Play they acted, which did not touch them at all in effect. We have two notable Instance; of this in Story. The one, of that great Comedian Polus. He had not been upon the Stage, it seems for some time; upon the Death of one of his Sons that he loved dearly; which troubled him so much; that what with the Melancholy of his Temper upon the Disappointment of his Affection and the Loss of his Darling, he could hardly ever reconcile himself again to Diversion or the Theatre: But he appeared there at last however, upon Acting the Electra of Sophocles, and his Part was the Person of Electra her self, carrying the Urn and the Bones of her poor Brother Orestes in the Play. To do this more effectually to the Life, away he goes to his own Child's Grave; takes up his Urn and his Ashes, and brings them in his Arms upon the Stage instead of ORESTES's Counterfeit. Upon this, his Imagination was so moved and his Heart so melted into Compassion and Tenderness at the sight of a real Object of Sorrow, that he broke out into loud Exclamations and unfeigned Tears in the Tragedy, upon the Fiction and Fate of Orestes, and filled the whole Theatre with Affliction, Lamentation and Weeping. The other Example is of that excellent Actor ESOPUS; who having a mighty Affection and Zeal for Cicero; and being extremely concerned at his Banishment, the Troubles of his Family, and other Disgraces that he lay under, he did him a signal favour once and a singular piece of good Service by the power of this tender Passion. For when he saw all the Friends of that great Man at work upon the People of Rome with their utmost Intercessions to get him recalled, he resolved to engage himself in it; to give it a lift on his part, and to strike a considerable Blow in the Affair. Upon this, he acts a Tragedy of Accius, on a public Occasion, which contained the fine Verses upon Telamon's Exile, and the horrible Calamities of Priam and his Family, which are related in Tully's Tusculan Questions and in his Oration for Sextius: But in those Verses you must think, his Imagination was not half so much struck with the false Misfortunes of the Persons in the old Fable, as with the Miseries that were too true and the real sufferings of his Friend. Insomuch that the Acting of them transported him to so great a Passion and Grief, that he spake them upon the Stage, not only with a very mournful voice, but with Eyes also bathed in Tears, which set all indifferent Persons that were present there a-weeping bitterly, and even made his Enemies blushy with Tears in their Eyes at his Affliction. And this went a great way towards the melting of the Hearts of People and the reconciling of their Affections; towards the bringing of him Home again and the reinstating of him in his former Dignity, Reputation and Character; as Cicero himself tells us with the thankfullest acknowledgements of the good Office, which that famous Actor, his Great and his Cordial Friend, had done him upon this occasion.  
Now if this Tenderness of the Eyes or the faculty of weeping at discretion, be of such influence and advantage in the Theatre, where People go only for Diversion and Spectacle; how much more in the Church then, where the Glory of God and the Salvation of Souls, two things of the greatest importance and moment in the world, are your main business, and ought to touch Men in the most sensible part? And what Power think ye the Tears of St. Paul, wept upon his Exhortations to the Ephesians, might have over the Congregation? Which he  told their Pastors of, in words to this Effect, as you'll find in the Acts of the Holy Apostles: Remember that for the space of three years, I have not ceased to warn every one of you night and day with my Tears: Remember the many Exhortations I have made you, and the many Tears I have  shed for you. The Orator therefore ought first of all to form in himself a strong Idea of the Subject of his Passion; and the Passion itself will then certainly follow in course; ferment immediately into the Eyes, and affect both the Sense and the Understanding of his Spectators with the same Tenderness. Passions are wonderfully conveyed from one person's Eyes to another's; the Tears of the one melting the Heart of the other, and making a visible sympathy between their Imaginations and Aspects. For the purpose; if we do but look at a Man that has Sore Eyes, we very often feel something of it in our own; if the same soreness be not catching too. And this puts me in mind of one of the famousest Preachers of the Age he lived in: As he was declaiming one day in a Great Congregation against the growing vices of his Parish, and showing the people all the miseries which God would sand among them upon the account of their Iniquities, he made this Inference once for all; And, in fine, God will forsake us. Upon this, he fell a weeping bitterly; and broke out into this following Expostulation, with a most Feeling and pitiful voice: And if thou forsake us, Good God! what will become of Us? Which Passionate Rapture overcame all his Hearers to the same Christian Tenderness and Tears, if not also to a better sense of their Duty; so mightily were they moved with the Tone and the Gesture that accompanied those Languishing Expressions.  
As to the lifting-up or casting-down of your Eyes, 'tis plain you must do't according to the Nature of the things you speak of: For if you speak of Heaven and celestial Powers, you ought without doubt to lift up your Eyes towards Heaven; but if you speak of the Earth and Terrestrial things, you must cast 'em down upon the Ground. To do otherwise would be a gross fanaticism( as one may say) of the Eyes; and such an Absurdity as that ancient Sophister was guilty of; who, Philostratus tells us, when he said, O Jupiter! cast-down his Eyes to the Ground; and when he said, O Earth! lift-up his Eyes towards Heaven. You must also govern your Eyes according to the Passions, so as to cast 'em down upon things of Disgrace, which you are ashamed of; and to raise 'em again upon things of Honour, which you can glory in with Confidence and Credit. But it is more particularly necessary in Swearing, to turn up your Eyes towards that by which you Swear, and to lift the Hand up in the same Action.  
Your Eye-brows must neither be altogether immovable, on the one hand, nor fickle or too full of Motion, on the other: And you must not raise them both up at every turn, as many People do upon any thing they speak with eagerness and contention; nor lift-up the one and cast down the other, as Piso did, whom Cicero reproved for raising one of his Eye-brows up as high as his Forehead, and hanging the other down to his Chin. But for the most part they ought to remain in the same Posture and Equality that Nature has given them. However, they are allowed yet to move sometimes; and 'tis fit they should, when the Passions require it: That is to say; to contract themselves and frown in Sorrow; to dilate again and smooth themselves in Joy; and to hang-down whenever the Orator shows his Humility and Modesty upon a matter of Discourse.  
As for the Mouth, you must never wry it at all; for that's very disagreeable. And therefore it was said once to Sestius Pinarius formerly in Rallery and Banter, who used to wry his Chin always in speaking, as if he had got a walnut in his Mouth to crack; Crack that walnut first, and then say what you have a mind to say.  
As for your Lips, you must take care not to bite 'em, nor to lick 'em with your Tongue; as I have seen some People do sometimes: Which is very Ungenteel and Unmannerly in an Orator.  
As to the Shoulders, there are some that shrug 'em up at every Expression; as those grecian Witnesses, Cicero derided in his Oration for Rabirius Posthumus, who made all their Gestures with the Shoulders. 'tis a very unbecoming 'vice, and you ought to shun it as a Disgrace. Demosthenes was at first addicted to it: But he soon corrected it by exercicing himself to declaim in a straight Place, with a piece of a Dart or a Dagger hung up just over his Shoulders; so that as often as he shrugg'd them up( as it was difficult for him not to do't sometimes, having gotten an ill Habit on't) the Point pricked him, and put him in mind of his Error: Upon which, at last, he mastered the Imperfection.  
There are others, that in speaking, thrust out the Belly, and throw back the Head; which the ancients had good reason to condemn for an ind●cency and an ill Gesture. Others again lean the Elbow upon the Pulpit, and make what Gestures they think fit with the Hand, restend in this manner, and raised upon the Elbow; which is neither commendable nor decent.  
As to the Hands now, they are the chief Instruments of Action, and they can vary it as many ways too as there are Things, which they are capable of signifying. For we make use of them in Accusing, Acquitting, Promising, Threatening, entreating, Admiring or Swearing; and in representing almost all the things we speak of in the World; which require so many different Actions of the Hands: So that Quintilian says very well, the other Parts of the Body help him mightily that speaks; but the Hands, as it were, speak themselves. And marshal, instead of saying Tout le Geste, every Gesture, says Toute le Main, every Hand; as if Gesture were nothing else but the Movement and Action of the Hands. But the main thing however is to move them well, and with a good Grace. These following Rules will be of some service to that purpose.  
First, You must make use of no Action at all in the beginning of a Discourse, or at least show no considerable Gesture, as soon as ever your Mouth is open; unless it be upon an Exordium, EXABRUPTO, as they call it; An Abrupt starting of a Discourse, as in that Harangue of Ajax against Ulysses upon the Subject of Achilles's armor.  
With wrath impatient his stern Eyes survey  
Sigaeum, and the Navy which there lay:  
Then holding up his Hands, O Jove! he said;  
Before the Fleet must We our Title pled?  
And is Ulysses my Competitor?  
Whose flightful Fear did Hector's Flames abhor.  
Those I sustaind'd; from those this Navy freeed.  Sandys. 
This extension of the Hands there, toward the Port, was without doubt very proper and pertinent as well as necessary: but it had been a vicious and impertinent stretch, without such an abrupt Exclamation. For, as we said before upon the Subject of Pronunciation, common Exordium's ought to be spoken mildly and without any Motion. 2dly, You must never clap your Hands, nor thump the Pulpit, nor beat your Breast; for that smells of the Juggler and the Mountebank, and 'tis good for nothing. 3dly, You must make all your Gestures with the right Hand; and if you ever use the left, let it only be to accompany the other, and never lift it up so high as the right. But to use an Action with the left Hand alone, is a thing you must avoid for its indecency. The only exception to this Rule will be in Places, where you speak of the right Hand and the left by Name; as if you chance to discourse of the separation, which the Sovereign Judge of the World will make between the good and the bad in the last Day of Judgement, placing the Just on his right Hand and the Wicked on his left: There 'tis not only allowable, but necessary to adjust your Gestures according to that Distinction; making one of them with the right Hand alone, and the other with the left alone. And so when Jesus Christ commands the faithful Servant to cut-off his right Hand, if it offend him; I would represent that Action, if 'twere my Business, with the Gesture of the left, because there's no other to do't; for the right Hand cannot cut-off itself. 4thly, The right Hand applies itself very pertinently to the Breast, when the Orator speaks of himself, and declares his own Faculties and Passions; his Heart, his Soul, or his Conscience: I say barely, applies itself; for it must be done only by laying the Hand gently upon it, and not by beating on't, as some People do. You must every where avoid making use of the left Hand alone. But there are some Men naturally left-Handed, and 'tis impossible for them to forbear using the left Hand sometimes, because they have been accustomend to it from their Infancy. In this case, I cannot advice 'em better, towards the covering of the Imperfection, if they cannot break off the Habit, than to make all their Action with both Hands together; for then they'll not offend the Eyes of the Spectators with the left Hand alone; which can make no motion of itself, but what is unhandsome and disagreeable. 5thly, Your Gesture must pass from the left to the right, and end at the right too; not as it were in striking with the the Hand, upon a stretch of Violence; but in laying of it handsomely down with Gentleness and Moderation. 6thly, You must begin your Action with your Speech, and end it with it again; for it would be ridiculous either to begin your Gestures, before you had opened your Mouth, or to continue them after you had done Speaking. 7thly, The Movement of your Hands must always answer the Nature of the things you speak of; For to say, Attirer to come in, stretching-out the Hand; Repousser to go back, pulling your Hand at you; Separer to separate, joining your Hands together; Joyndre to join, separating them; Serrer to close, opening them; Ouvrir to open, closing them; Hausser to raise, hanging them down; Baisser to cast down, holding them up; would be against the Nature of things and against Reason, and would expose you to the Laughter and Derision of your Hearers. 8thly, Upon all great Great Motions, the Action of the Hands is particularly necessary, to answer the Heat and Passion of the Figures that are made use of in a Discourse. For Example, in this Apostrophe which a famous Lawyer made when he was Pleading to the Princes of the Blood of France: You Noble and Generous Princes, Children of such a Father! how comes it that you do not strangle those Impostors with your own Hands, who would fix upon your Foreheads the most Ugly and Infamous Blot that can be imagined in the World? And who does not see here what Action of the Hands ought to accompany the Pronunciation of these Words, that you do not strangle with your own Hands, to give the Figure all the force, vigour and efficacy that it ought to have? 9thly, If you lift-up the Hand, it ought not to be higher than the Eyes, and but very little lower: Whereas there are some that raise it extravagantly up to the Sky, as if they threatened the Stars. The same Proportion ought to be observed in holding the Hand down; and you must have a care also of doing as some People do, when they are Preaching in a Pulpit; who hang down their right Hand now and then as if it were Dead; which is extremely disagreeable to the Eye and dispassionate to the Fancy. 10thly, In fine, your Eyes must always have your Hands within view: They must always be within compass of your Head, and lash-out as little as possible, either over or under, higher or lower than the Eyes: So that they whom you speak to upon an Address, may see your Mouth, your Eyes and your Hands concurring all together, every one in its own way, to signify the same thing; which will make a deeper and more agreeable impression both upon their Senses and their Understandings. 11thly, You ought not to stretch-out your Arms, sideways, farther than half a Foot at most from the Trunk of your Body: Or, else you will throw-your Gesture quiter out of sight, unless you turn your Head aside to see it; which would be very ridiculous. 12thly, You must raise your Hand in Swearing; and God himself, when he speaks to Men with an Oath, whether in his Promises or his Menaces, says in several Places of his Speech, that he lifts up his Hand: That is to say; he Swears, that he will either bless them in his Mercy or punish them in his Anger. The same thing is to be done upon an Exclamation; so that the Gesture may answer the Pronunciation, and both of 'em may be adjusted to the Nature of the Thing. 13thly, You must not make use of Action every where. For as the Hands ought not to be idle, on one side; so 'tis impertinent on the other, to keep them in perpetual motion. This would run you foul upon that 'vice which the ancients have called the babbling of the Hands: And it would be below the Gravity, Character and Quality of an Orator, to turn mimic in an Audience, or to do as those old PANTOMIMES of the grecians and the Romans did, who signified every thing by their antic Gesti●ulations and Apish Gestures without ever speaking a Word. 14thly, There are some Actions which you must never attempt to represent with your Hands, nor put yourself in the Posture of those that make use of 'em; as of Fencing, of bending a Bow, of presenting a musket, of playing upon an Instrument of music, as if you had the Spinette or Virginals under your Fingers, or a Harp in your Hands. 15thly, You must take great care to avoid imitating those Actions which are Base, Filthy and Dishonest, by any Gesture of the Hands or Movement of the Body; as in making a Description of the Debaucheries and Impurities of a Mark Antony, a Verres, or any other lewd Person. 16thly, As for other Actions which you can represent with Decency and good Manners, your Gesture ought to be very moderate and modest; not bold, vast and extensive, nor indeed too frequent neither, which would make such a violent Agitation of the Arms and the Hands as would not become an Orator, and as if he were chasing away Flies. This was Curion's fault, who being mightily agitated once in his Discourse, as Quintilian relates, with his Collegue● Octavius at his Elbow, all plastered over with Medicaments, and bound-up because of his Gouts and his Sores: Sicinius jeered him for his Gesticulations, saying thus in rallery to Octavius. You can never sufficiently aclowledge the Obligation you lay under to your colleague Curion; for if he had not been here, the Flies would have eaten you up now upon the spot. 17thly, When you make use of a Prosopopoeia, and a Person is brought in a speaking, you must take care of making use of any Gestures that would not be proper for Him to use, and agreeable to the State and Condition, in which you represent Him a speaking: as if you were to represent Jesus Christ upon the across, with his Hands nailed to't, a-crying; My God, my God! why hast thou forsaken me? or, Father! forgive them, for they know not what they do. You must not clap your Hands together upon the Exclamation, nor lift them up towards Heaven: Or, in reciting those words which he spake to his blessed Mother at that time, Woman! behold thy Son; you are not to make him pronounce them, as if he pointed at St. John with his Finger. One would think that common Sense might teach every Man this Faculty well enough, without ever having an occasion to be  told on't, or advised about it. But I thought 'twould not be labour lost however, to say something of it, because you are so apt, I know, in speaking of praying to God, to clap your Hands together: or, in showing a Person, to point at him with your Finger: And there was some danger lest you might have done it also upon this occasion as well as another, without ever thinking how improper it is, if you had not been expressly praecautioned against it here by the posture of the Crucifixion.  
As to the parts of the Hand; and whether it be convenient or proper to reckon the several Members of a Division upon the Fingers, all Men are not of the same opinion. It was an Action very familiar to Hortensius, and Cicero seems to rally it in some Places. For my own part, as I do not think it very necessary on the one Hand, so I find nothing discommendable or unbecoming in it on the other. I say nothing here of that Gesture of the Hands, which was so common among the ancients upon a great Affliction or Grief; as, beating sometimes the Head, sometimes the Brow, sometimes the Breast, and sometimes the Thigh, because 'tis a thing quiter out of Use and Fashion in this Age. I do not touch upon those precepts neither, which they have advanced upon the Motions of the Feet, and the Knees, or about the Orator's Gate; because they harangu'd then upon a Tribune, a Place built on purpose for making their Speeches upon; where there was room enough to walk up and down several Paces, as they often did: Insomuch that Flavius Virginius asked a Declamer once in a Banter, whom he went to hear, and who had walked much in his Discourse, how many Miles he had Declam'd? But the Speaker at this day, whether in the Pulpit or at the bar, stands still in the same Place. And I have contented myself here with Observations and Rules of Gesture fitted only to the present practise and Humour of the Age we live in; where I may have omitted many things perhaps, which others have more copiously remarked; but I think I have taken notice of the most principal, useful and necessary ACTIONS.   

CHAP. XIV. Instructions for putting all the above-mentioned precepts in practise.  
THere are several other things to be observed yet, either upon the different Modulations and Inflexions of the voice, or upon the Formation of Gestures and Motions of the Body; and those relating to the Face and Eyes especially, which 'tis wonderfully difficult, not to say impossible, to describe or to represent in Writing. You must learn those things by practise in the Presence of a Friend; in hearing a good Master, and speaking often before him; so that he may set you right, whenever you are out, either in your Pronunciation or Gesture. And therefore St. Augustin, in one of his Letters to give Paulinus his Friend to understand the true Sense of a Passage of St. Paul, by the manner of pronouncing it; excuses himself for doing it in Writing, or any otherwise than Vivâ voice. Which may very well serve us also for an Apology, that we do not undertake to explain things of that Nature more particularly in this Treatise. What I have said here, being well practised, will be sufficient in my opinion, to acquire a good Gesture and a laudable Pronunciation. But before I finish this little Tract, I have some general Hints to give the Reader for a conclusion; which will be of no little Use and Advantage perhaps to an Orator.  
First, I am to tell you, that the Rules of this Art, to use Cicero's own Words for't, are far more magnificent in practise than in precept. For when we teach them only, they seem flat, low and of little importance; but being well and exactly observed, they give a wonderful Lustre and Grace to a Discourse. And this practise very often renders an indifferent Speech more handsome, persuasive and charming, than another that is abundantly fuller of Perfection in itself, but wants all the external advantages of Action. You must not therefore despise these precepts, although some of them seem to be light and childish, or scarce worth a sober consideration. But I must add this, that when I say the Orator ought to observe them, I do not mean, that either the Lawyer should be poring upon it, when he Pleads his Cause; or the Divine, when he Preaches his Sermon. For he ought to think of nothing at that time but the matter in hand; and he must not be studying any other Motions or Passions then, but use those only which arise naturally from the Subject of his Discourse, from the Place where he speaks and the Presence of the Person, to whom he addresses himself: For the very thought of Rules and the care of observing them would mightily distracted and amuse him upon that Conjuncture. Besides that it would take off the Warmth and Spirit of his Discourse, perplex his Head, and disturb his Memory. For as St. Austin says in his Books of Christian Doctrine. 'tis not possible for a Man to speak well, and at the same time to be thinking of the precepts that are laid down upon the Art of Speaking well; and he must have great care whoever takes so much pains to speak according to Rules, lest the things which he must necessary speak of, slip out of his Memory.  
I do not mean neither, that as often as you have occasion to speak in public, you ought to study all the Actions which you must make use of, beforehand, in your Closet; whether they be for the Pulpit or the bar; as Roscius used to do, who the ancients say, never exercised any Gesture before People but what he had studied in Private. For that were impossible both for a Divine that has a number of Sermons to make, and for a Lawyer that has a great many Causes to pled: And yet if they had time for't; it would be but ill spent upon the Study of so trivial a Business as Action is in comparison; instead of giving themselves up entirely to meditate upon the grave things they have to say and the important Affairs they have to manage. Their time would be mightily misemployed upon Niceties; and the very Persons they should speak to, would neither desire it, nor expect it from them. For, as Antony has very well observed, in Cicero, the Auditors do not require the same exactness and care from an Orator, in this point, which they do from an Actor; because when they hear an Actor in the Theatre, they do not so much mind the things that are represented there, which they know to be False and Fabulous; but are wholly taken up with the fine way of Acting; that is to say, either with the Elegancy and Air of his Elocution, or with the Grace of his Pronunciation and Gesture: And if he do not please their Senses, they are disgusted at him. But when they hear an Orator, they attend chiefly to serious things, and to the important points of his Discourse; and as for his Action they are well enough satisfied, if it be but reasonable and agreeable, and do not offend either their Ears or their Eyes.  
In short, all I would have a Man do that proposes to accomplish this Art of Speaking well in public, is only to understand these precepts of Action before he ventures upon't; to try them upon his own Pe●son and practise them in Private, and to endeavour to get a good Habit and the Knack of Speaking by care and continual exercise. For example, to acquire as long a Breath as possible, he must practise upon this Period of Cicero's in his Oration for the Manilian Law. What a shane 'tis, Gentlemen, that he who murdered so many of our Citizens in one Day, over all Asia, in so many several Places there, with a Word of his Mouth, and by one single Dispatch; has not yet suffered Punishment for so foul a Crime, but reigned these three and twenty years since that horrid Massacre; and reigned with so much Impudence too, that he never absconds for it, either in the Kingdom of Pontus, or in the Obscurity of Cappadocia; but braves it in the Estate of his Ancestors, and huffs you in your own Revenues, in the greatest Light of all Asia. Now it would be strangely difficult for a Man at first, to pronounce this whole Sentence all at a Breath, and I think indeed absolutely impossible too. But he may learn to speak it easily however, at three Breathings; the first ending at, one single Dispatch; the second at, three and twenty years since that Massacre; and the third at, the greatest Light of all Asia. And when he can do't thus with facility, let him try again to pronounce it at two Breathings only; the one ending at since that Massacre, and the other at the end of the Period. If he cannot do't yet with Ease, let him take his Breath sometimes softly, without any Bodies perceiving it, to carry him through the whole Sentence, and especially to keep-up his voice to the last. But if that be too hard for him also, to take Breath enough without discovery to answer the length of the Expression, let him con this Period of the same Oration by Heart. Pleasure does not tempt him out of his way, to seek after sensual Delights; nor Avarice to make any rich Booty; nor the Beauty of a Place to divert himself there; nor the famed of a City to take notice on't; nor the labour and lassitude of a long journey, to refresh himself with agreeable satisfactions upon the Fatigue. And then let him endeavour to repeat it all at a Breath, over and over, till he has gained his point; for this exercise, as far as I can judge of it by the extent of my own Breath, will render it easy to him and make him long-winded without any great danger or difficulty.  
The same practise will teach us the variation of the voice too, as well as all other Things, which we have said ought to be observed towards the accomplishing of an agreeable Pronunciation: And to this purpose, I would have the young Gentleman first red and get without Book some fine Passages or other of the most excellent Orators, whether ancient or Modern; and after that, to be repeating a Sentence sometimes over and over to himself, till he knows how to pronounce it according to Art. He must be exercicing himself upon it every day, and frequently show it also in his common Conversation; for he'll never learn to speak well without practise as well as Theory. I said expressly, some fine Passages or other; because they will be less troublesone to get by Heart and to Repeat. The Repetition otherwise would be tedious without Delicacy. This will have another good effect too: Those illustrious Passages, with which he may stock his Memory, will serve him for so many excellent Models, in making his own Periods and polishing his Expressions. And the more Graces and Beauties he finds in them, so much the higher they'll raise his Imitation, and the more they'll improve his Fancy.  
I would advice him also to observe these Rules of Pronunciation and Gesture in his ordinary Discourses; as far at least as the things he speaks of will permit, until he has got an absolute Habit on't, and it may be said that his Action is become Natural. But if he cannot acquire that of himself, without help; he must take a Master, who both understands and teaches this Art well; exercise and accomplish himself under his Discipline; and take delight too in his Corrections, with submission, as often as he finds himself commit an Error against the Rules of Action, whether it be in Pronunciation or in Gesture. Besides that he ought to be careful and curious whenever he has an opportunity of hearing either any famous Advocates or any great Preachers, to observe with the utmost attention what conformity their Action keeps to these Rules, and what makes them merit the Applause of their Auditors, upon their Harangues. He ought to put himself afterwards upon imitating them at home, and to make their Graces his own at last in public. For as St. Augustin says, Eloquence imprints itself far more easily upon the Minds of those that hear eloquent Men, than the Minds of those that only follow precepts and red Books. And the lively Examples or Patterns of public Action are of far more benefit and advantage to young Students, than all the Doctrines of the Schools. But when he has once acquired a good Habit of Speaking by such assistances as these, he need not put himself any more in pain for his Pronunciation and Gesture, nor will ever have occasion to make any more tedious reflections upon this Art, either in Preaching or in Pleading, or in preparing himself for the one or the other. Only he would do well, for the first year of his Speaking in public, to get some of his Confidents to observe the Inflexions of his voice and the Motions of his Body in his public Performances, so that if they discover any notorious 'vice in his Pronunciation or palpable irregularity in his Gesture, they may tell him his faults, and he may make it his Business to correct them upon their advice. But if he meet with any other Persons yet, Strangers to him, who have something to say perhaps against his Action, with good reason, he must endeavour still to improve himself for the best, hear all Peoples opinions, and neglect nothing that may render him more accomplished and agreeable to his AUDITORS.   
FINIS.   

Authors and other great Persons, quoted in this Treatise of ACTION.  


ST. Augustin  
Antoninus, the Emperor  
Aristotle  
Archippus, the comedian  
Alcibiades  
Alexander the Great  
Augustus Caesar  
Apollonius  
Adrian the Phenician.  
Attalus, King Andronicus.   

St. Bernard  
Brissonle President   

St. Chrysostom  
Cicero  
Cornificius  
Cotta  
Crassus.   

Demosthenes.   

Eunomus  
Euripides  
Esopus the great Actor   

Flavius Virginius   

St. Gregory Nazianzen  
Geminus Varus   

Hortensius  
Haterius   

St. John  
St. James  
St. Jerome  
Judges of the Areopagus.  
Isocrates.   

Leonidas  
Lucilius   

Martianus Capella  
Maillard, Oliver  
Mucius  
Malherbe, Monsieur   

Ovid.   

St. Paul  
Philostratus.  
Philiscus  
Plutarch  
Pliny Junior  
Photius  
Plato  
Paulinus.  
Pericles.  
Pausanias  
Phavorinus the Sophist  
Polus the famous comedian   

Quintilian   

Roscius  
Rutilius   

Socrates  
Seneca  
Sylla  
Sophocles  
Satyrus  
Serapion   

thucydides  
Trachallus  
Tacitus.  
Theophrastus.   

Vinicius du Vair, Monsieur   

Zozimus the Freeman of Pliny Junior.     

A Table of the most remarkable Passages contained in this Book.  

A.  

ACtion is one of the most important Points of Oratory p. 2  
The other parts of this Art would want Life without it. 3  
It makes a Discourse agreeable to the last degree of Perfection. ibid.  
People ought not to Publish their Speeches or Harangues, which have nothing considerable in them, besides the Grace of Action. p. 6. 7.  
Action is called the Eloquence of the Body p. 8 

Quintilian has treated of it more largely and exactly than any of the ancients p. 9.    
The Study of Action is not below a Preacher p. 12 

An Answer to those who do not like the Author's Design. p. 13  
Preachers ought not to make the Grace of Action their principal Study p. 17    
The Apostles and Disciples of JESUS CHRIST made use of the Rules of Action. p. 20  
The Grace of Action is not to be despised. p. 25  
The Power and Force of Action becomes either an Advocate or a Lawyer. p. 26, 27, 28  
The best Cause in the World may be lost without the Grace of Action p. 28 

Genteel Action and a good Pronunciation make the Judges more attentive, and instruct them better in the matter of Fact. p. 27. 30  
They convince them also that the Orator speaks truly and sincerely p. 30    
Those Persons that want these Qualifications seem not to be persuaded themselves of the truth of what they say, p. 30  
The Lawyers design, when he studies to speak to the Judges with an Air and an agreeable Tone p 31  
If one Lawyer should not make use of these Instruments of persuasion, in a good Cause; the other would use them, in a bad one. p. 32  
A fine Thought of St. Augustin's upon this Subject. p. 33 

The Art of Speaking well and making a handsome Gesture is not superfluous. Some fine Comparisons to this purpose. p. 34. 35    
D●mosthenes and Cicero by the Study and practise of the Rules of this Art acquired a wonderful Faculty of Persuading, and became the greatest Orators in the World. p. 38  
Notable Observations upon Action for young Gentlemen, that have a mind to speak well in public. p. 41 

The Author's Advice about practising the precepts contained in this Work. p. 207. 208  
What an Advocate ought to do to convince the Judges. p. 47  
Alcibiades being young, imitated his Father's Faults. p. 45  
Alexander the Great made excessive swift Marches. p. 45    
An Ana●iplosis, how it ought to be spoken. p. 146  
An Anaphora, how it ought to be pronounced. p. 147  
An Antithesis, how it is to be spoken p. 145  
An Apostrophe, how it is to be pronounced. p. 133  
Aposiopesis, how to be spoken p. 143  
Aristotle stammer'd in his Speech. p. 45  
The Art of Oratory, and its principal Parts. p. 1. 2. 3.  
Attalus spake with too much Violence. p. 83    

B  

Brisson the President, had no good Action. p. 46  
Of the Breath. A long Breath may be a acquired by Study and exercise. p. 153 154    

C  

Cicero, by what means he became so Great an Orator. p. 38 

He had too rude and harsh a Voice at first, how he mended it. p. 68  
He was recalled from his Banishment, by an Invention of one of his Friends. p. 187    
Choler, or Anger obliges an Orator to speak with a sharp, impetuous, violent Voice, and by frequent Respirations: an Example of it. p. 100 101  
Compassion, how an Orator ought to speak to move his Auditors to Compassion: An Instance of it. p. 102  
Confirmation, how it ought to be pronounced p. 126  
Caelostomy, or speaking hollow in the Mouth, a 'vice of the Pronunciation p. 64  
Contempt, how an Orator ought to speak when he would show his Contempt of a Person or a Thing. p. 110 111  
Complaint, how an Orator should speak, that would complain of a cruel Injustice done him. p. 115. 116    

D  

Demosthenes, how he became so great an Orator, p. 56. 57 

He had naturally a weak Voice, an impediment in his Speech, and a short Breath. How he remedied these Imperfections p. 54  
How he made himself long winded p. 57  
He used to shrug up his Shoulders at every turn; how he corrected that Habit. p. 193    
The Design of the Author p. 15. 16 &c. 

His Protestation upon the Subject Matter of his precepts p. 16    
A Dialogism, or a discussing a thing with one's self, as if he were talking with another; how it ought to be pronounced. p. 135  
Disciples and Scholars often imitate the Faults of their Masters p. 44  
Disposition is one of the first and principal parts of Oratory. p. 2    

E  

Eloc●tion, is one of the chiefest parts of rhetoric. p. 2  
Eloquence, blamed by some Persons in Preaching p. 12. 13  
Epimone, or Insistance, what it is, and how this Figure ought to be pronounced. p. 137  
Epizeuxis, how it is to be pronounced. p. 150  
Exordium, how it must be pronounced p. 119 120 

Of unexpected Exordiums which are commonly called ex abrupto, and break forth all on a sudden with a vehement Passion; several Examples of them. p. 121    
The Eyes of an Orator in what Posture they are to be held, and what Looks or Glances they are to make. p. 183 

The way to draw Tears both from his own and his Auditors Eyes. p. 185. 186. 187, &c.  
Of lifting-up or casting down his Eyes according to the Nature of the things he speaks of p. 191      

F  

Figures are the Lights and Ornaments of Speech. p. 128 

How they ought to be pronounced, p. 129 130, &c.      

G  

Of Gesture, in General; and how important it is in all Oratory p. 170  
Gesture and Pronunciation joined together exp●●●s a Thought to Perfection. p. 171  
Gesture alone has the advantage above Pronunciation alone p. 171 

It is as it were the common Language of all Mankind. p. 171  
It is the Life of a Speech p. 172  
An agreeable Gesture joined with a suitable Pronunciation upon any subject of Discourse, has a wonderful Influence. p. 172  
To the end that i● may powerfully move the Affections of the Auditors, it must be conformable to the thing a Man speaks of, and agreeable to the Passion one would either express himself or excite in others p. 174  
The way how to govern and compose one's Gesture well for public business. p. 174    
Gesture ought to be natural, and not affencted in any Respect p. 174 

The Orator ought to take heed, that there be nothing disagreeable in all the Disposition and Movements of his Body. The ways and means of knowing how to manage this matter p. 175  
In what Posture the whole Body ought to be kept p. 178. 179  
Of the Head, and what Motion it ought to have p. 179. 180  
Of the Face or Countenance. p. 181. 182    
Gradation, or a Climax, in what manner this Figure is to be pronounced. p. 142    

H  

A Habit of Speaking well is to be acquired above all things p. 40  
Haterius had a great precipitation in his Speech, and spake abundantly too fast p. 86  
Hortensius spake a great deal better than he wrote p. 7 

His Gestures were all perfectly agreeable p. 176    
The Hands are the principal Instruments of Gesture; and vary it as many ways as there are things which they are capable of signifying. p. 194. 195 

Rules, how to move the Hands well, a propos p. 196. 197    
Hearing, is called the Sense of Discipline p. 49    

I  

Imitation. Young People are naturally inclined to Imitation p. 44 

They ought to have a care of imitating their Fathers or Masters, in that which is contrary to Art and Reason, as well as in that which is against Morality. p. 44. 45  
In the Imitation of great Men also, they must be governed by Reason, and not by Example p. 47. 48    
Invention is one of the first and principal Parts of the Art of Oratory. p. 2  
Isocrates was a great Orator, but he had no good Voice for Pronunciation. p. 52. 53  
Jabbering is to be avoided p. 85    

L  

A Looking-Glass is an excellent way to discover the good or bad disposition of the Body, and all faulty Gestures, in order to correct and amend them. p. 175. 176  
Lisping is a 'vice p. 51  
The Lips, how to be managed p. 193    

M  

Of the Mouth and Lips of an Orator; in what state and posture they ought to be kept. p. 192  
Monotony, or an equality of the Voice, is a great 'vice in the Pronunciation p. 71. 72 

From whence this 'vice proceeds p. 73  
How to rectify it. p. 74    
Of music, and its Use in the Church, as well of the Old as the New Testament p. 19    

N  

Of the Narration; how it ought to be pronounced p. 125    

O  

The Orator ought to observe a Mean in his Speech, neither to speak too high nor too low. p. 80. 81 

He must also moderate the swiftness of his Voice, and not precipitate it p. 84. 85  
He ought not to speak too slow neither. p. 88  
Of the variety which ought to be used between the highness and lowness; swiftness and slowness; vehemency and softness of the Voice p. 82. 83  
How to vary the Voice, according to the Diversity of Passions p. 90  
How to pronounce the Figures of a Speech p. 130, 131, 132, &c.  
Of pronouncing Words and Sentences. p. 152, 153    
An Oath, how it ought to be pronounced. p. 130    

P  

Parrhesia, or the Liberty of saying any thing; how this Figure ought to be pronounced: divers Examples of it. p. 140  
Of Passions, what a Preacher or an Advocate is to do, towards moving in himself and in his Auditor the Affections of Joy or Sadness, of Fear or Assurance &c. p. 97, 98, 99, &c.  
Pausanias the Sophist contemned and mocked for his vicious Pronunciation p. 165  
Pericles never Published any of his Orations: the reason of it p. 6  
Periods of several sorts, and how they must be pronounced p. 151, 152, 153, &c.  
Periods, which the Rhetoricians call SPIRITUS p. 155 

Of the distinction which must be made between the parts of a Period. p. 158  
After every Period it is proper to make a Pause p. 160  
Whether to begin Periods louder or lower, according to the different Nature of 'em p. 161  
When a Period requires a great contention of the Voice, the Orator must moderate and manage his Voice in the foregoing Periods p. 161. 162    
A Peroration, how it is to be pronounced p. 126  
Plateasm, a 'vice of the Pronunc●ation in an Orator p. 162  
Poles the great Comedian. The way he used to draw Tears from his Eyes, in order to move his Auditors to Compassion. p. 186  
Preachers, what they ought to do to edify and persuade their Hearers p. 98  
Of the Pronunciation. He that proposes to speak in public, ought to have a care to be heard distinctly and without difficulty p. 49 

The Inconveniences that arise, when he that speaks is not heard and understood with Facility. p. 50  
To avoid those Inconveniences, he must have a clear and strong Voice. p. 50  
Advice to those, who have not that gift naturally p. 52. 53    
Advice also to those, that have a weak Voice, an impediment in their Speech, and a short Breath p. 51 

The way to fortify a Mans self against the inconvenience of the noise of Assemblies p. 57  
How a Person that is subject to falter in his Speech may correct that 'vice p. 60. 61  
When a Person cannot pronounce R; what he must do to help that Imperfection p. 61. 62  
Several Faults of the Pronunciation in an Orator p. 62. 63 64  
Two things are required of a Man to make himself be understood without difficulty. p. 64. 65  
A very distinct and articulate Voice is more important and necessary, than a strong and vigorous Pronunciation p. 65. 66  
How a Man must acquire a strong and vigorous Voice p. 65. 66  
He must make it his business to be heard with delight; and for that end, to render his Voice soft, and agreeable p 67  
The various Inflexions and Tones of the Voice give satisfaction to the Ear p. 68  
He must avoid spitting and coughing, while he is a speaking p. 69. 70  
Some Preachers extravagantly affect a Cough p. 70    
Pronunciation ought to imitate Nature and Reason p. 76 

To pronounce what a Man reads, or what he would get by Heart, ALOUD, is very good for the Health; if it be done with Moderation p. 58, 59    
Of a Prosopopaeia, and in what manner it is to be pronounced p. 13●    

R  

Reason. Though all Men reason naturally well in some sort, yet they do not reason in all things as they ought to do: So that they have need of precepts of Morality; of Grammar and of rhetoric. p. 35. 36. 37  
Refutation, how it is to be pronounced  
Reticentia, or a silent concealing of a thing, and in what manner it ought to be pronounced p. 143    

S  

Seneca was vicious in his Pronunciation p. 47  
Serapion shew'd a great rapidity in his Discourse p. 85  
Of a Subjection and how it is to be spoken p. 144  
The Subjects of which an Orator is to speak are of different Qualities, and ought to be pronounced with a different Air. p. 93  
Speaking is like the string of a Lute p. 99  
Of the Shoulders, in what state and posture they ought to be kept p. 193 

'tis a fullsome 'vice to shrug 'em up at every turn, and to make any Gesture with them p. 193 194    
Stammering, a great 'vice p. 61  
Trachallus had a very clear and strong Voice p. 4. 50  
Tears are very powerful in an Orator, towards moving Compassion in his Auditors p.    

V  

Vinicius spake very slow p. 88. 89  
The Voice of an Orator ought to be clear and strong p. 50. 51  
The Measure of the Voice ought to be answerable to the full extent of the Auditory p. 51 

It ought to be distinct and well articulated, to be heard without trouble p. 64  
Soft and agreeable, to be heard with Pleasure and Delight p. 67  
If it is rude, clownish, eager, violent or the like, the way how to remedy it. p. 68  
The softening of the Voice may be acquired by Care and exercise p. 68    
An uniform Voice always in the same Tune, let it be never so fine, offends and disgusts the Auditor p. 71. 72 

It also injures the effect, which the Discourse ought to produce p. 72  
The cause of this Imperfection and the way to cure it p. 73. 74    
The Voice has three principal difference, in all which the Orator ought to observe a Medium p. 80  
The opinion of Martianus Capella confuted, about the manner of forming the Voice, before it comes to the Business of Haranguing p. 82 

To speak with Precipitation is vicious p. 85, 86, 87    
The Volubility of the Tongue mightily prejudices the end, which the Orator ought to propose to himself; that is, of Persuading p. 88 

Other Inconveniences, which it produces. p. 86. 87    
The Voice of an Orator ought to be varied according to the quality of the Subjects of which he treats p. 93. 94. 95 

It must be varied also according to the diversity of the Passions p. 97, 98, 99  
If after a great Emotion a Man comes to moderate himself, he must lower the Tone of his Voice p. 117  
The way to acquire the Faculty of varying his Voice well, upon all sorts of Subjects p. 92    
Of the variation of the Voice according to the different Parts of an Oration p. 119 

How the Voice must be varied according to the Figures p. 128      

w  

Words, how they ought to be pronounced p. 163 

What one must do never to fall into any vicious Pronunciation p. 165. 169  
Emphatical Words ought to be pronounced with Emphasis and a Grace. p. 166  
A Man must speak Aloud upon Words of quantity and universality p. 167  
He must pronounce Words of extenuation and slight, with a very low Voice p. 167, 168  
The Voice must be kept up to the last Word of a Period p. 168. 169      
FINIS.