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THE COUNTRYMAN.
My (3r&&dH?aiier’8 (Iluiir.
“De omnibus rebus, et quibusdam aliis.'"
BY W. W. TURNER.
Vol. 1. NOVEMBER 10, 1862. No. 2.
Oratory.
“ ’ Twas like a torch race—such as they
Of Greece performed in ages.gone,
When the fleet youths, in long array,
Passed the bright torch triumphant on.
* * * * * *
I saw from ready hand to hand
The clear though struggling glory burn.”
On witnessing a contest in declamation
among a number of young gentlemen, and.
the subsequent delivery of a prize to liim
who had excelled his companions, I Was led
into a good many reflections, such as natu
rally suggest themselves, on occasions of
this sort. Well did the youthful orators
acquit themselves ; manfully did they strug
gle with each other ; nobly did they run
the Tace. Long time it was doubtful on
whose brow would rest the laurel wreath.
Victory appeared to be first with one and
then another, and seemed, as it thus veered
about, like a bright light transferred from
hand to hand, and finally it remained, steady
and lustrous, with one favored speaker.
The task of presenting the prize to the
victor was a pleasing one. It ever delights
a man of proper feeling to be the instrument
of affording pleasure to others; a peculiar
joy thrills him whenever ho can make glad
the heart of youth ; most of all does he re
joice when he knows that he is recognizing
and distinguishing superior talent. What
can be more gratifying to him, than to as
sist in encouraging boys to noble effort to
ward making intellectual progress 1 Who
would not be proud to join in fostering a
noble emulation ; a pme and exalted am
bition ? Where is the man whose heart is
so insensible that it does not warm with
genuine enthusiasm, as he views a' contest
for intellectual eminence among a number
of brave youths, and who does not give ut
terance to a mental huzza, as the winner in
the fairly-run race, nears the goal of his am
bition ?
After I left the scene of the declamation,
I continued thinking of the noble art of or
atory ; its high end and aim ; its boundless
scope; its incalculable power. A philosoph
ical analysis of the thing we call eloquence
could not be contained within the.limits of a
paper like this, nor could less than a vol
ume do the subject justice ; but a brief con
sideration of the pleasure to be afforded ;
the influence to be acquired ; the glory to
be won ; the good to be accomplished, by a
proper use of this mighty agency, may
arouse some to a sense of its importance,
and induce them -to bestow on the art of
speaking the attention and study that it de
serves.
To bring before our imaginations, at a
single view, the all-pervading influence
which oratory has exerted in every period
of the world’s progress, from the most re
mote ages', dow'n to the present day, we
have but to glance back at history. Prom
inent in the picture that rises to the mind’s
eye, appear the great orators of antiquity.
Foremost in the senate, and the forum, on
the public squares, and in the courts of mon-
archs, stand these majestic figures, and we
hear their voices in fiery harangues, or calm
debate ; angry philippics, or well-consider
ed argument ; fierce denunciation, or har
monious and stately periods. We recollect
how they swayed multitudes, or control
led senates and kings ; how they pleased
the rude mob, or charmed the senses of
scholars and poets.
Monarchs trembled at their rebuke. Sen
ates yielded to their persuasive eloquence.
And so all along down to this the
19tli century, the orator has “ ruled the
court, the camp, the grove.” Who can
measure his wonderful control over the soul
of man ? Who will venture to set bounds
to his power 1 He is acquainted with all
the nicely attuned chords of the human
heart, and he touches them with the skill
of an accomplished musician. He knows
when and how to breathe a gentle melody,
like that of the “ lute touched softly,” and
when to say as of the lofty harp,
“ But bid the strains be wild and deep,
Nor let thy notes of joy be first.”
At one time, he does his “spiriting gent
ly,’’and the quivering lip and silent, stream
ing tear attest how deep and genuine is the
pathos. Again he lashes the waves of hu
man passion, till they heave and surge like
old ocean’s foaming billows. He stretches
over his audience a magic wand, and by its
potent influence, raises the tempest and di
rects or subdues it. As he recites a tale of
wrong, of rights trampled under loot by
some proud oppressor-, or vindictive foe, the
strained eye, the rigidly compressed lip,
and upraised arm proclaim his master pow
er. The low mutterings and lialf-breathed
imprecations are the first articulations of
the rising tempest. Slow the deep feeling
moves, and still—“ still as the breeze but
dreadful as the storm.” The lightning of
anger flashes, and ere long the loosing of all
man’s fierce passions ends in wild and fear
ful tumult.
“ Who shall calm the angry storm
Who the mighty task perform
And bid the raging tumult cease ?”
He who raised the storm can control it.
He can pour oil on tTie troubled waters, and
where all is rage and confusion, can issue
the rresistible mandate, '* Peace, be still.”
An art which gives one so much power,
all will admit, is to be desired and sought
after; hut let it be remembered that its ac
quisition is the fruit of only long years of
persevering application. Most people im
agine that “ orator na&cituf, non Jit.” It
is a popular error ; the idea that orators and
poets are born, and do not become such by
patient toil and study. Never was there a
greater mistake. In illustration of this
fact, the following anecdote is related, of
Hon. John Philpot Curran, who seemed
to breathe the natural language of elo
quence, on all occasions.
“ One day, after dinner,’an acquaintance,
in speaking of his, eloquence, happened to
observe that it must have been born with
him. ‘ Indeed, my dear sir,’ replied Mr.
Curran, ‘ it was not; it was born three and
twenty years after me.’ He then went on
to tell of his first effort as a public speaker,
and said : ‘ I stood up, trembling through
every fibre ; but remembering that in this
I was but. imitating Tully, I took courage,
and had actually proceeded as far as ‘ Mr.
Chairman,’when, to my astonishment, I per
ceived that every eye . was riveted upon
me. There were only 6 or 7 present * * *
yet was it, to my panic-struck imagination,
as if I were the central object in nature,
and assembled millions were gazing upon
me in breathless expectation. I became
dismayed and dumb * * * My lips, indeed,
went through the pantomine of articulation,
but I was like the unfortunate fiddler at
the fair, who, upon coming to strike up the
solo that was to ravish every ear, discov
ered that an enemy bad maliciously soap
ed his bow. So you see, sir, that it was not
born with me.’ ”
I need but refer to the well-known fact
that nearly all the effective orations of both
ancient and modem times which have been
preserved, even those that appeared most
brilliant, most like the resalt of unpremedi
tated feeling and passion, were prepared
and-elaborated in the closet; and no speech,
of any length, has ever long survived the
occasion that produced it, except such as
wero composed with much care, or were
delivered by men who had subjected them
selves to a long course of training, in order