Let us apply this now to the particular object of this letter;I mean,speaking in,and influencing public assemblies.The nature of our constitution makes eloquence more useful,and more necessary,in this country than in any other in Europe.A certain degree of good sense and knowledge is requisite for that,as well as for everything else;but beyond that,the purity of diction,the elegance of style,the harmony of periods,a pleasing elocution,and a graceful action,are the things which a public speaker should attend to the most;because his audience certainly does,and understands them the best;or rather indeed understands little else.The late Lord Chancellor Cowper's strength as an orator lay by no means in his reasonings,for he often hazarded very weak ones.But such was the purity and elegance of his style,such the propriety and charms of his elocution,and such the gracefulness of his action,that he never spoke without universal applause;the ears and the eyes gave him up the hearts and the understandings of the audience.On the contrary,the late Lord Townshend always spoke materially,with argument and knowledge,but never pleased.Why?His diction was not only inelegant,but frequently ungrammatical,always vulgar;his cadences false,his voice unharmonious,and his action ungraceful.Nobody heard him with patience;and the young fellows used to joke upon him,and repeat his inaccuracies.The late Duke of Argyle,though the weakest reasoner,was the most pleasing speaker I ever knew in my life.He charmed,he warmed,he forcibly ravished the audience;not by his matter certainly,but by his manner of delivering it.A most genteel figure,a graceful,noble air,an harmonious voice,an elegance of style,and a strength of emphasis,conspired to make him the most affecting,persuasive,and applauded speaker I ever saw.I was captivated like others;but when I came home,and coolly considered what he had said,stripped of all those ornaments in which he had dressed it,I often found the matter flimsy,the arguments weak,and I was convinced of the power of those adventitious concurring circumstances,which ignorance of mankind only calls trifling ones.Cicero,in his book 'De Oratore',in order to raise the dignity of that profession which he well knew himself to be at the head of,asserts that a complete orator must be a complete everything,lawyer,philosopher,divine,etc.That would be extremely well,if it were possible:but man's life is not long enough;and I hold him to be the completest orator,who speaks the best upon that subject which occurs;whose happy choice of words,whose lively imagination,whose elocution and action adorn and grace his matter,at the same time that they excite the attention and engage the passions of his audience.
You will be of the House of Commons as soon as you are of age;and you must first make a figure there,if you would make a figure,or a fortune,in your country.This you can never do without that correctness and elegance in your own language,which you now seem to neglect,and which you have entirely to learn.Fortunately for you,it is to be learned.
Care and observation will do it;but do not flatter yourself,that all the knowledge,sense,and reasoning in the world will ever make you a popular and applauded speaker,without the ornaments and the graces of style,elocution,and action.Sense and argument,though coarsely delivered,will have their weight in a private conversation,with two or three people of sense;but in a public assembly they will have none,if naked and destitute of the advantages I have mentioned.Cardinal de Retz observes,very justly,that every numerous assembly is a mob,influenced by their passions,humors,and affections,which nothing but eloquence ever did or ever can engage.This is so important a consideration for everybody in this country,and more particularly for you,that Iearnestly recommend it to your most serious care and attention.Mind your diction,in whatever language you either write or speak;contract a habit of correctness and elegance.Consider your style,even in the freest conversation and most familiar letters.After,at least,if not before,you have said a thing,reflect if you could not have said it better.Where you doubt of the propriety or elegance of a word or a phrase,consult some good dead or living authority in that language.Use yourself to translate,from various languages into English;correct those translations till they satisfy your ear,as well as your understanding.
And be convinced of this truth,that the best sense and reason in the world will be as unwelcome in a public assembly,without these ornaments,as they will in public companies,without the assistance of manners and politeness.If you will please people,you must please them in their own way;and,as you cannot make them what they should be,you must take them as they are.I repeat it again,they are only to be taken by 'agremens',and by what flatters their senses and their hearts.Rabelais first wrote a most excellent book,which nobody liked;then,determined to conform to the public taste,he wrote Gargantua and Pantagruel,which everybody liked,extravagant as it was.Adieu.