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"I impeach him in the name, and by virtue, of those eternal laws of justice which he has violated.

"I impeach him in the name of human nature itself, which he has cruelly outraged, injured, and oppressed in both sexes, in every age, rank, situation, and condition of life."

This is the peroration of the address of Henry Grattan in moving the Declaration of Right in the Irish House of Commons.

In sublimity and pathos it has no superior, and in intensity of thought and metaphorical description it will take rank with the finest passages in Milton or Shakespeare.

"Hereafter, when these things shall be history-your age of thralldom, your sudden resurrection, commercial redress and miraculous armament-shall the historian stop at liberty and observe that here the principal men among us were found wanting, were awed by a weak ministry, bribed by an empty treasury, and when liberty was within their grasp, and her temple opened its folding doors, fell down, and were prostrated at the threshold?

"I might as a constituent come to your bar and demand liberty. I do call upon you by the laws of the land, and their violation; by the instructions of eighteen centuries; by the arms, inspiration and providence of the present movement-tell us the rule by which we shall go; assert the law of Ireland; declaim the liberty of the land! I will not be answered by a public lie, in the shape of an amendment; nor, speaking for the subject's freedom, am I to hear of faction. I wish for nothing but

to breathe in this, our island, in common with my fellowsubjects, the air of liberty. I have no ambition unless it be to break your chain and contemplate your glory. I never will be satisfied so long as the meanest cottager in Ireland has a link of the British chain clanking to his rags. He may be naked; he shall not be in irons. And I do see the time at hand; the spirit is gone forth; the declaration of right is planted; and though great men should fall off, yet the cause shall live; and though he who utters this should die, yet the immortal fire shall outlast the humble organ who conveys it, and the breath of liberty, like the word of the holy man, will not die with the prophet, but survive him."

The closing passage in the speech of General E. D. Baker, at a meeting in New York City, during the American Civil War, is very touching and beautiful. It is as follows:

"And if, from the far Pacific, a voice feebler than the feeblest murmur upon its shore may be heard to give you courage and hope in the contest, that voice is yours to-day. And if a man whose hair is gray, who is wellnigh worn out in the battle and trial of life, may pledge himself on such an occasion, and in such an audience, let me say as my last word, that when, amid sheeted fire and flame, I saw and led the hosts of New York as they charged in contest upon a foreign soil for the honor of your flag; so again, if providence shall will it, this feeble hand shall draw a sword never yet dishonored-not to fight for distant honor, in a foreign land, but to fight for country, for home, for law, for government, for constitution, for right, for freedom, for humanity, and in the

hope that the honor of my country may advance, and wherever that banner waves, there glory may pursue and freedom be established."

These illustrations show considerable degree of elaboration and finish, and as such are entitled to just praise and admiration. Yet it not unfrequently happens that a simple, unaffected, yet forcible termination to a speech will be as effective and appropriate as one that is more diffuse and ornate.

If the matter of discussion has been kept well in hand and has not been spread over too broad a field, if the rein has been held tightly on the imagination, then a simple and graceful ending will be as service- ..able as one that abounds in lofty sentiments and ornate and polished diction. This was the style of peroration adopted by Demosthenes in his reply to Æschines. He simply implored the gods to give his enemies a better spirit toward him or hurl them to speedy destruction on sea and land if they remained obdurate.

CHAPTER IX.

ACTION, VOICE AND GESTURE.

AN orator may possess all the requirements mentioned in the preceding chapters in the highest perfection, but if he be deficient in proper action, in a flexible voice and appropriate gesture, his most elaborate efforts will fall lifeless and awaken no responsive thrill in the hearts of his hearers. While his knowledge, his preparation, his training, may be all and even more than we have indicated, he himself must be the conductor to transmit the combined result of all these to his audience. The remarks of Cicero ("De Oratore") on the question of suitable action are so forcible and eloquent that we cannot do better than give them verbatim:—

"But the effect of all these particulars depends upon the action. Action is the predominant power in eloquence. Without it the best speaker can have no name, and with it a middling one may obtain the highest. It is said that Demosthenes, when asked what was the first constituent in eloquence, answered, that action was the first, the second and the third. This makes the story told by schines much better; after he had lost a cause he retired in disgrace from Athens to Rhodes, where, at the request of the Rhodians, he read that fine oration (212)

which he pronounced against Ctesiphon, who was defended by Demosthenes; after he had finished it, he was requested next day to read that which was pronounced by Demosthenes for Ctesiphon, which he did with a charming full voice. When everybody was expressing their applause, 'How would you have applauded,' says he, if you had heard the author himself deliver it?' By this he intimated what a vast influence action had, since the change of the actor could make the same speech appear in quite a different light. Yet, doubtless, in all cases truth has the advantage of imitation, but if in action nature were sufficient for our purpose, we should have no occasion for having recourse to the rules of art. But since the passions of the soul, which are to be chiefly expressed or represented by action, are often so confused as to be quite obscured and almost obliterated, the causes of this obscurity must be dispelled, and advantage must be taken of those that are most unclouded and accessible. For nature has given every passion its peculiar expression in the look, the voice and the gestures, and the whole frame, the look, and the voice of a man are responsive to the passions of the mind, as the strings of a musical instrument are to the fingers that touch them. For as a musical instrument has its different keys, so every voice is sharp, full, quick, slow, loud or low, and each of these keys have different degrees, which beget other strains, such as the smooth and the sharp, the contracted and lengthened, the continued and interrupted, the broken and divided, the tender, the shrill and the swelling; all these require to be managed with art and discretion, and the orator makes use of them as the painter does of his colors, to give variety to his piece.

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