The Standard Speaker

Browning; and nearly all from Knowles, Croly, Horace Smith, and others, together with the comic dialogues from Morton, Mathews, and Coyne, having been selected or adapted for this collection.

It will be seen that the oratory of the ancients has supplied an unusual number of exercises. A certain novelty has, however, in many instances. been imparted here, by original translations. We have had little, in modern times, to surpass the Philippics of Demosthenes or the fiery invective of Æschines. The putative speeches from Livy, Tacitus, and Sallust, have been newly translated or adapted. In two or three instances, the translation has been so liberal that a nearer relationship to the original than that of a paraphrase has not been claimed. The speeches of Brutus, Caius Marius, Canuleius, Virginius, and others, have been expanded or abridged, to serve the purpose of declamation. The two speeches of Spartacus, that of Regulus, with several others, are now, for the first time, published. The extracts from that strangely depreciated work, Cowper's Homer, have the vivid simplicity and force of the original, and are among the most appropriate exercises for elocution in the whole scope of English blank verse.

Throughout the present volume, in deciding upon the insertion of a piece, the question has been, not "Who wrote it?” or, “What country produced it?" but, "Is it good for the purpose?" Like other arts, that of eloquence is unhedged by geographical lines; and it is as inconsistent with true culture, to confine pupils to American models in this art, as it would be in sculpture or painting. While exercising great freedom of range in selection, however, it has been the editor's study to meet all the demands of a liberal patriotism; to do justice to all the noblest masters of eloquence, and to all schools and styles, from which a grace may be borrowed; and, above all, to admit nothing that could reasonably offend the ear of piety and good taste.

The Introductory Treatise embodies the views, not only of the editor, but of many of our most experienced and distinguished teachers, in regard to the unprofitable character of those "systems" which profess to teach reading and speaking by the rule and plummet of sentential analysis or rhetorical notation. Of these attempts the pupil may well exclaim, in the words of Cowper, —

"Defend me, therefore, common sense, say I,
From reveries so airy, - from the toil

Of dropping buckets into empty wells,
And growing old in drawing nothing up!"

The preceptive portion of the Treatise presents no particular claim to originality; the object being merely to give a summary of all the discoveries and hints that can be serviceable to the student, in the development of his vocal and elocutionary powers.

Truth,

2. Immortality,

3. Utility of the Beautiful,

Frayssinous, 37 40. Death is Compensation,
Massillon, 3841. Fate of Charles XII.,
Ruskin, 3942. Our Duties,

22. Affectation in the Pulpit,.

23. Utility of History,

24. False Coloring Lent to War,

25. Death's Final Conquest,

Akenside, 40 43. Love of Country,

Talfourd, 4144. Nature a Hard Creditor,

Kennedy, 41 45. Time's Midnight Voice, . . Young, 4

Withington, 4246. The Common Lot, . Montgomery, 75

England, 4347. True Source of Reform,

8. Duellist's Honor,.

9. Day Conceals what Night Reveals, 48. The Beacon Light,

Nichol, 4449. Cleon and I, .

9. Sonnet,

10. Man's Material Triumphs, .

11. Fortitude,

White, 45 50. Problem for the U. States,

Fayet, 45 51. American Experiment,

Anonymous, 46 52. The Ship of State,

12. The United States of Europe,. Hugo, 46 52. Lines,.

13. The Peace Congress of the Union, 53. Art,.

Everett, 48 54. The Pilot,

14. The Spirit of the Age,... Beckwith, 49 55. Death Typified by Winter,

15. Moses in Sight of the Promised Land, 56. Religious Inducements,

Peabody, 50 57. Never Despair,

Hooker, 50 58. Charity,

Carlyle, 59. The Battle-field,

Cotton, 52 60. Dizzy Activities,

Webster, 53 61. The Good Great Man,

62. Taxes,

63. The Press,

16. Necessity of Law,.

17. Justice,

18. To-morrow,

19. Eloquence of Action,

20. Sincerity the Soul of Eloquence, Goethe, 53

21. The Christian Orator,

Villemain, 54

Cowper, 55 64. Defence of Poetry,

. De Ségur, 56 65. Great Ideas,

Chalmers, 57 66. England,

Shirley, 58 67. Hallowed Ground,

27. The Saviour's Reply,

28. Nobility of Labor,

29. Labor is Worship,

30. Moral and Physical Science,

35. What Makes a Hero,

36. The Last Hours of Socrates,

37. To a Child,.

88. America's Contributions,

39. The True King,.

31. The Order of Nature,

32. Future Empire of our

33. Compensations of the

34. The Great Distinction of a Nation,

Lamartine, 58 68. Nature Proclaims a Deity, Chateau-

. Dewey, 6069. What we owe the Sword,..

Osgood, 61 70. Abou Ben Adhem,.

Chopin, 62 71. Polonius to Laertes,

Pope, 63 72. Where is he,

77. Science Religious,

Hitchcock, 98

Channing, 65 78. Triumphs of the English Language,

Taylor, 66

73. International Sympathies,

74. Worth of Fame,.

75. Frivolous Pleasures,

76. Forgive,

66 79. The Water Drinker,

Yankee, 67 80. The Days that are Gone,

Verplanck, 68 81. The Work-shop and Camp,

Hunt, 6982. The Wise Man's Prayer,

10. Telemachus to the Chiefs,

. Livy, 10312. Caius Marius,

Id., 104 13. Caius Gracchus,

Page

1. Scipio to his Army,.

2. Hannibal to his Army,

3. Regulus to the Roman Senate, Orig', 105 14. Galgacus,

4. Leonidas to his Three Hundred, Pichat, 107 15. Icilius on Virginia's Seizure,

5. Brutus over the dead Lucretia, Orig'l

and compiled, 107
Id., 119

Cowper's Homer, 108

Collins, 120

Id., 109 19. Virginius' Refusal to Claudius, Livy, 120

Id., 110 20. Canuleius against Patrician Arrogance,

Id., 111
Id., 121

Fenelon, 113 21. Catiline to his Army, . . . Jonson, 122

Livy, 11422. Spartacus to the Gladiators, Kellogg, 123

16. The Spartans' March,

17. The Greeks' Return,

28. Belial's Address,.

23. Spartacus to the Roman Envoys, Orig., 124

24. Marullus to the Romans, Shakspeare, 126

25. Brutus on Cæsar's Death, . Id., 126

26. Mark Antony,

Id., 127

27. Moloch's Address,

ANCIENT.

29. The Death of Leonidas,.
30. Catiline to the Gallic Conspirators,
31. Catiline's Last Harangue,
32. The Bard's Summons,
33. Caradoc to Cymrians,
34. Alfred to his Men,
35. Rienzi to the Romans,
36. The Patriot's Pass-word,
37. Richard to the Princes,
38. Richmond to his Men,
39. Henry V. to his Men,

9. Catiline Denounced,.

10. Catiline Expelled,.
11. Verres Denounced,

...

17. Eulogium on Franklin,

18. Church and State,