variety in the profe ftile.-That abfolutely neceffary to make it pleafant.-There must be a variety not only in the words, but of the rhythms and the melody.Little variety at prefent in our English profe.-Milton imitates the antients in this as in other things.-Opinions of certain critics in the days of the Halicarnafian, that Demofthenes did not labour his words fo much as the Halicarnaffian fuppofes.-Anfwer to this objection.The writing of numerous profe, tho' difficult at firft, becomes eafy by practice.— Examples of this from other arts.—The art of fine fpeaking and writing more difficult than the other arts;-requires greater labour to excell in it.-A great memory neceffarily required in an antient orator.-An art of memory among them, unknown in modern times.-The nature of this art.-If the moderns excell or equal the antients in oratory, it must be by fuperiority of genius.-Commendation of the Halicarnaffian's writings.

THA

a

HAT there is a wonderful beauty in the Greek compofition, not only in verse but in profe, and particularly in their orations, every man, who understands their language, and has any natural taste or fenfe of what is beautiful, muft acknowledge; for not only can the people judge of an oration when it is spoken, and can determine very justly upon the merit of different orators whom they hear, but they can judge alfo of an oration when they read it. And I am of the opinion of Cicero, that, in the matter of oratory, there is no difference between the judgment of the learned and of the unlearned; for oratory, and fpeaking or writing upon any subject belonging to common life, is a popular art, which being addreffed to the people, must please them, otherwise it would not be good of the kind. And tho', as the fame author obferves, the people may approve of a very forry orator, not having heard a better, yet when they have an opportunity of hearing a better, and fo making the comVOL. IV.

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parison, they will give the preference to the best *.

Is there then no difference, it will be faid, betwixt the judgment of the learned and the unlearned in this matter? My anfwer is, that there is a very great; for the people, tho' they be pleased, and rightly pleased, cannot give any rational account why they are fo: Whereas, the learned judge can inform them by what skill, and what arts, the orator is able to please them fo mucht. In fhort, he understands the art, while they only perceive the effects of it.

In what this art confifts, no author that I know, has explained fo well as the author I have so often quoted, the Halicarnaffian, in two treatifes that have come down to us, the one of them upon the fubject of the compofition of words, and which we have entire; the other upon the ftile

Cicero De Claris Oratoribus, cap. 52. and 53.

+ Cicero, ibidem, cap. 54.

of Demofthenes; but this is a good deal mutilated and imperfect in many places. In the treatife on compofition, he begins, after the manner of the antients when they treat of any art or science, with the first principles of the art, and examines the nature of the firft elements of speech, I mean the letters; then he proceeds to fyllables, from fyllables to words, and from words to fentences and periods. And indeed it is evident, that the pleasure of the ear, about which he only inquires in this

treatise, muft depend upon all these.

The speaking or writing art confifts, he fays, of two things, the choice of the words, and the compofition; of these, the compofition is by far the moft difficult; and tho' it be laft in practice, he fays, it is firft in dignity and excellence: This he proves, by comparing it with other arts, fuch as architecture, where the preparing and polishing the stones is not near fo great an art as the putting them together in the building, and also by examples from authors, and particularly from Homer, who of

the most common words, has, by the art of compofition, made moft beautiful poetry *.

To make compofition fine, he requires two things, first, Ihat it fhould be pleafant or fweet: And, fecondly, That it should be beautifult, under which he includes the grave and the dignified. That both thefe things must depend upon the five things I have mentioned, viz. the letters, the fyllables, the words, the fentences, and the periods, is evident.

As to the Greek letters, I have already obferved, that the Greek language has in it all the elemental founds, which the human mouth, as far as I know, is able to utter. And, in this refpect, it is different from many other languages I have taken occafion to mention. I have alfo obferved, that it compounds fome of thefe elemental founds, making diphthongs both proper and improper; And the Halicarnaffiau, in

The Ton and the ro xahor, as he expreffes it, Ibid. cap. 10.