they confirm themselves in the practice of a vicious habit. Hence, it is not thought preposterous, or unworthy of a gentleman, to learn to walk, or at least to improve his personal carriage, under the directions of a drill-serjeant and a fencing master; and to acquire by art and exercise the bearing and manly step which distinguish the gentleman from the uncultivated hind. Thus, it is clear, that it is not always enough to leave nature to herself: when so left, she frequently degenerates and becomes vitiated; and we are obliged to go back to certain principles, drawn even from herself, to restore her to her perfect form, complexion, and condition.

"Lastly," says the right reverend Doctor, "if a person could learn thus to read and speak, as it were by note, with the same fluency and accuracy as are attainable in the case of singing, still the desired object of a perfectly natural as well as correct elocution, would never be in this way attained. The reader's attention being fixed on his own voice, the inevitable consequence would be, that he would betray more or less his studied and artificial delivery; and would, in the same degree, manifest an offensive affectation.”

Now, the very object of a system of Elocution, such as the right reverend Doctor so strenuously condemns, is to give, by practice on just principles, an habitual power of vocal intonation, inflection, and expression, suited to every condition of sense, every style of composition, every variety of feeling, every vicissitude of passion: and the Elocutionist who is thoroughly master of his art, no more fixes his at

tention, while speaking, on his own voice, or on the rules by which he is producing his effects, than the Rhetorician, in the course of a composition or an oration, is thinking minutely of every rule of grammar, logic or rhetoric, by which to construct his sentences, to round his periods, to divide his discourse, or to conduct his argument. The skilful fencer, whom practice has made master of his weapon, uses it rapidly and with effect, without thinking of the names of the guards or parades that he is executing.

"When one is learning a language, he attends to the sounds; but when he is master of it, he attends only to the sense of what he would express."-(Reid on the Mind.)

So, in pursuing a system of Elocution, the pupil acquires an easy habit, or style of delivery, by exercising himself, on rule, in giving voice and expression to the language of others, or to his own premeditated and pre-written effusions,— till, from practice, what he has done continually, by rule and art, in set and studied speech, he comes at last to execute easily and naturally, and without thought of the means, in spontaneous and original effusions.

I shall conclude my answer to Dr. Whately's objections by an extract from his preface to his own Elements of LOGIC: the remarks in which, in defence of a System of Logic, are, mutatis mutandis, exactly applicable to his own objections to a System of Elocution; so that I am happy to have it in my power to be able to bring against him a much higher authority than myself-his own; and to let the just reasoning contained in his "Elements of Logic," refute the

false positions put forth in his " Elements of Rhetoric." He thus ably and happily maintains the utility of Logic, and shows the importance and necessity of a system for its attainment:

"One preliminary observation it may be worth while to offer in this place. If it were inquired, what is to be regarded as the most appropriate intellectual occupation of man, as man, what would be the answer? The statesman is engaged with political affairs; the soldier, with military; the mathematician, with the properties of numbers and magnitudes; the merchant, with commercial concerns, &c.; but in what are all and each of these employed?—employed, I mean, as men. Evidently, in reasoning. They are all occupied in deducing, well or ill, conclusions from premises; each concerning the subject of his own particular business. If, therefore, it be found that the process going on daily, in each of so many different minds, is, in any respect, the same, and if the principles on which it is conducted can be reduced to a regular system, and if rules can be deduced from that system, for the better conducting of the process, then, it can hardly be denied, that such a system and such rules must be especially worthy the attention, not of the members of this or that profession merely, but-of every one who is desirous of possessing a cultivated mind. To understand the theory of that which is the appropriate intellectual occupation of Man in general, and to learn to do that well, which every one will and must do, whether well or ill, may surely

be considered as an essential part of a liberal education."

This is most true, apt, clear, and conclusive; and it is as applicable to Elocution as to Logic. Speech, as much as reason, distinguishes man from the brute; all men must use it, whether well or ill, in the daily concerns of their lives, or in more public affairs, and in a more extensive arena : and the advantages of a system for doing it well are equally apparent.

The following passage from the same preface is a direct answer to the right reverend Doctor's own objections to an artificial system of Elocution:

"It has usually been assumed, however, in the case of the present subject, that a theory which does not tend to the improvement of practice is utterly unworthy of regard; and then, it is contended that Logic (Elocution) has no such tendency, on the plea that men may and do reason (speak) correctly without it: an objection which would equally apply in the case of Grammar, Music, Chemistry, Mechanics, &c., in all of which systems the practice must have existed previously to the theory."

How alive the right reverend Doctor is to the weakness of the argument against a system for his favorite science, and yet with what triumph he uses the same defeated argument against my art,-exclaiming, "Then why not leave nature, or custom, which is second nature, to do her own work ?"

He proceeds, and I go with him heartily:

"But many who allow the use of systematic principles in other things, are accustomed to cry up common sense as the sufficient and only safe guide in reasoning." (This is exactly what the reverend Doctor himself does in the case of Elocution, and therefore let him give the coup de grace to his own position.)

"Now, by common sense is meant, I apprehend, (when the term is used with any distinct meaning,) an exercise of the judgment unaided by any art or system of rules; such an exercise as we must necessarily employ in numberless cases of daily occurrence; in which, having no established principles to guide us, no line of procedure, as it were, distinctly chalked out,—we must needs act on the best extemporaneous conjectures we can form. But that common sense is only our second best guide,—that the rules of art, if judiciously framed, are always desirable when they can be had, is an assertion for the truth of which I may appeal to the testimony of mankind in general; which is so much the more valuable, inasmuch as it may be accounted the testimony of adversaries. For the generality have a strong predilection in favor of common sense, except in those points in which they, respectively, possess the knowledge of a system of rules; but, in these points, they deride any one who trusts to unaided common sense. A sailor, e. g., will perhaps despise the pretensions of medical men, and prefer treating a disease by common sense; but he would