SECTION XVI.

I.

70. ELOQUENCE.

PART FIRST.

ERHAPS it is the lowest of the qualities of an orator, but

PERH

it is, on so many occasions, of chief importance-a certain robust and radiant physical health; or-shall I say?-great volumes of animal heat. When each auditor feels himself to make too large a part of the assembly, and shudders with cold at the thinness of the morning audience, and with fear lest all will heavily fail through one bad speech, mere energy and mellownèss are then inestimable, Wisdom and learning would be harsh and unwelcome, compared with a substantial, cordiäl man, made of milk, as we say, who is a house-warmer, with his obvious honesty and good meaning, and a hue-and-cry style of harangue, which inundates the assembly with a flood of animal spirits, and makes all safe and secure, so that any and every sort of good speaking becomes at once practicable. I do not rate this animal eloquence very highly; and yet, as we must be fed and warmed before we can do any work well—even the best-so is this semi-animal exuberance, like a good stove, of the first necéssity in a cold house.

Set a

2. Climate has much to do with it-climate and race. New Englander to describe any accident which happened in his presence. What hesitation and reserve in his narrative! He tells with difficulty some particulars, and gets as fast as he can to the result, and, though he can not describe, hopes to suggest the whole scene. Now listen to a poor Irishwoman recounting some experience of hers. Her speech flows like a river-so unconsidered, so humorous, so pathetic, such justice done to all the parts! It is a true transubstantiation—the fact converted into speech, all warm and colored and alive, as it fell out. Our Southern people are almost all speakers, and have every advantage over the New England people, whose climate is so cold that, 'tis said, they do not like to open their mouths very wide.

2

1 Transubstantiation (tran` sub stan`shi a' shun), a change into an

other substance.

2

Advantage (ad vån′taj).

3. But neither can the Southerner in the United States, nor the Irish, compare with the lively inhabitant of the south of Europe. The traveler in Sicily needs no gayer melodramatic1 exhibition than the table d'hôte2 of his inn will afford him in the conversation of the joyous guests. They mimic the voice and manner of the person they describe; they crow, squeal, hiss, cackle, bark, and scream like mad, and, were it only by the physical strength exerted in telling the story, keep the table in unbounded excitement. But in every constitution some large degree of animal vigor is necessary as material foundation for the higher qualities of the art.

4. But eloquence must be attractive, or it is none. The virtue of books is, to be readable, and of ŏrators, to be interesting; and this is a gift of nature; as Demosthenes, the most laborious student in that kind, signified his sense of this necessity when he wrote "Good Fortune," as his motto on his shield. As we know, the power of discourse' of certain individuals amounts to fascination, though it may have no lasting effect. Some pōrtion of this sugar must intermingle. The right eloquence needs no bell to call the people together, and no constable to keep them. It draws the children from their play, the old from their arm'chairs, the invalid from his warm chamber: it holds the hearer fast; steals away his feet, that he shall not depart-his memory, that he shall not remember the most pressing affairs—his belief, that he shall not admit any opposing considerations.

5. But the power of detaining the ear by pleasing speech, and addressing the fancy and imagination, often exists without higher merits. Thus separated, as this fascination of discourse aims only at amusement, though it be decisive in its momentary effect, it is yet a juggle, and of no lasting power. It is heard like a band of music passing through the streets, which converts all the passengers into poets, but is forgotten as soon as it has turned the next corner; and unless this oiled tongue could, in Oriental phrase, lick the sun and moon away, it must take its place with

1 Měl`o dra măť' iċ, pertaining to a dramatic performance in which songs are intermixed, and effect is sought by startling, exaggerated, or unnatural sentiment or situation;

coarsely represented; done for effect merely; overstrained.

2 Table-d'hote (tå' bl dōt), a common table for guests at a French hotel; an ordinary.

opium and brandy. I know no remedy against it but cottonwool, or the wax which Ulysses' stuffed into the ears of his sailors to pass the Sirens safely.

2

6. There are all degrees of power, and the least are interesting, but they must not be confounded. There is the glib tongue and cool self-possession of the salesman in a large shop, which, as is well-known, overpower the prudence and resolution of housekeepers of both sexes. There is a petty lawyer's fluency, which is sufficiently impressive to him who is devoid of that talent, though it be, in so many cases, nothing more than a facility of expressing with accuracy and speed what everybody thinks and says more slowly, without new information or precision of thought-but the same thing, neither less nor more. It requires no special insight to edit one of our country newspapers. Yet whoever can say off currently, sentence by sentence, matter neither better nor worse than what is there printed, will be very impressive to our easily pleased population.

7. These talkers are of that class who prosper, like the celebrated schoolmaster, by being only one lesson ahead of the pupil. Add a little sarcasm, and prompt allusion to passing occurrences, and you have the mis'chievous member of congress. A spice of malice, a ruffian touch in his rhetoric, will do him no harm with his audience. These accomplishments are of the same kind, and only a degree higher than the coaxing of the auctioneer, or the vituperative style well described in the street-word "jawing." These kinds of public and private speaking have their use and convenience to the practitioners; but we may say of such collectively, that the habit of oratory is apt to disqualify them for eloquence.

8. One of our statesmen said, "The curse of this country is eloquent men." And one can not wonder at the uneasiness sometimes manifested by trained statesmen, with large experience of public affairs, when they observe the disproportionate advantage

1 1 U lys' ses, one of the most distinguished of the Greek leaders at the siege of Troy. The accounts of his death differ.

Si' ren, one of three damselsor, according to some writers, of two-said to dwell near the Island

of Capræa, in the Mediterranean, and to sing with such sweetness that they who sailed by forgot their country, and died in an ecstacy of delight; hence, an enticing, alluring, or dangerous woman; one rendered dangerous by her enticements.

suddenly given to oratory over the most solid and accumulated public service. In a senate or other business committee, the solid result depends on a few men with working-talent. They know how to deal with the facts before them, to put things into a practical shape, and they value men only as they can forward the work. But a new man comes there, who has no capacity for helping them at all, is insignificant, and nobody in the committee, but has a talent for speaking. In the debate with open doors, this precious person makes a speech, which is printed, and read all over the Union, and he at once becomes famous, and takes the lead in the public mind over all these executive men, who, of course, are full of indignation to find one who has no tact or skill, and knows he has none, put over them by means of this talking-power which they despise.

9. Eloquence is attractive as an example of the magic of personal ascendency-a total and resultant power, rare, because it requires a rich coincidence of powers, intellect, will, sympathy, organs, and, over all, good fortune in the cause. We have a half-belief that the person is possible who can counterpoise all other persons. We believe that there may be a man who is a match for events-one who never found his match-against whom other men being dashed are broken-one of inexhaustible personal resources, who can give you any odds and beat you. What we really wish for is a mind equal to any exigency.

10. You are safe in your rural district, or in the city, in broad daylight, amidst the police, and under the eyes of a hundred thousand people. But how is it on the Atlantic, in a storm-do you understand how to infuse your reason into men disabled by terror, and to bring yourself off safe then?-how among thieves, or among an infuriated populace, or among cannibals? Face to face with a highwayman who has every temptation and opportunity for violence and plunder, can you bring yourself off safe by your wit, exercised through speech ?—a problem easy enough to Cæsar' or Napoleon. Whenever a man of that stamp arrives, the highwayman has found a master.

1 Caius Julius Cæsar, Dictator of Rome, was born July 12, 100 B. C., and died by the hands of assassins, in the Senate House, March 15, in

the 65th year of his age. As a warrior, a statesman, and a man of letters, he was one of the most remarkable men of any age.

11. Julius Cæsar said to Metellus, when the tribune interfered to hinder him from entering the Roman treasury, “Young man, it is easier for me to put you to death than to say that I will;" and the youth yielded. In earlier days he was taken by pirates. What then? He threw himself into their ship, established the most extraordinary intimacies, told them stories, declaimed to them; if they did not applaud his speeches, he threatened them with hanging—which he performed afterwards-and, in a short time, was master of all on board.

12. A man this is who can not be disconcerted, and so can never play his last card, but has a reserve of power when he has hit his mark. With a serene face, he subverts a kingdom. What is told of him is miraculous; it affects men so. The confidence of men in him is lavish, and he changes the face of the world, and histories, poems, and new philosophies arise to account for him. A supreme commander over all his passions and affections; but the secret of his ruling is higher than that. It is the power of Nature running without impediment from the brain and will into the hands. Men and women are his game. Where they are, he can not be without resource.

13. It is easy to illustrate this overpowering personality by examples of soldiers and kings; but these are men of the most peaceful way of life, and peaceful principle, who are felt, wherever they go, as sensibly as a July sun or a December frostmen who, if they speak, are heard, though they speak in a whisper-who, when they act, act effectually, and what they do is imitated; and these examples may be found on very humble platforms, as well as on high ones. I know very well, that, among our cool and calculating people, where every man mounts guard over himself, where heats and panics and abandonments are quite out of the system, there is a good deal of scepticism as to extraordinary influence. To talk of an overpowering mind rouses the same jealousy and defiance which one may observe round a table where anybody is recounting the marvelous anecdotes of mesmerism. Each auditor puts a final stroke to the discourse by exclaiming, "Can he mesmerize me?" So each man inquires if any orator can change his convictions.

14. But does any one suppose himself to be quite impregnable? Does he think that not possibly a man may come to