cents for generations past, and will be, no doubt, for many yet to come.

Mrs. G.-O Dr. Abbot! You would not deprive our little pets of all the gratifications clustering about the yearly visit of that dear old Santa Claus !

Dr. A.-Yes I would, Madam, so far as the fable is concerned; and every other example of deception and lying-yes, that is the proper name for it-and would deal towards our children ever in simplicity and truth: half of the nursery tales should go by the board too; all bugbears, and every thing in the least tending to

romance.

Mr. G.-I like your views, Sir, on this subject. They are right and I wonder the same ideas had not occurred to ourselves. [Dr. Abbot rises to go.] Must you go? Sir, this has been to us a very pleasant visit, and I hope it will not be long before we have it repeated.

Mrs. G. And I must reserve my defence of Santa Claus and Mother Goose for another occasion.

I do not

for that

Dr. A.-I hope you will not mistake me. make war upon all stories of imagination would be to deny these pets, as you call them, a great source of instruction, and innocent amusement: I object only to such as really deceive them; and they find out afterwards to be impositions, as in the case of Master Charles.

ance.

Mrs. A.—I think the Doctor improves upon acquaintHis visit has certainly been very agreeable, and very instructive. It is no wonder our children are so taken with him.

Master Wm.-He is always agreeable, Mother, just

1

as you see him; always courteous. I never saw him show anger, nor impatience; nor did I ever see him sneer at a pupil for real dullness, nor call him stupid ;—and this I could not say of ǎll I have been to school tó.

Mr. G.-I feel thankful, my son, we have found a man, at last, in whose faithfulness and ability, we can repose full confidence.

He

Master Wm.-You cannot feel it more, I think, than we do. It seems like a change from slavery to freedom. All, who have the privilege to be with him, feel themselves at ease; and yet, there is perfect order. inspires you with confidence in yourself: you are always ready to do your best--and you can do a great deal better when you are not all the time afraid—and if you fail, you are sure, that, under him, your very mistakes will act as means to facilitate your improvement.

Mr. G.-Under such advantages, none can fail, I think, to go on rapidly in their education: if they do not, one thing is certain: it will not be from the want of judicious and faithful instruction; but the want of capacity, or desire to learn.

LESSON XX.

ACTION-I.

ACTION in discourse, comprehends all significant movements addressed to the eye, as the natural and sponta

When these are

neous accompaniments of speech. appropriate, easy and graceful, they form the crowning finish to elocution.

But the attempt to render them so by means of training, with the hope to change awkward habits to those of manly dignity, is often met by the objection, that for any one to be appropriate, easy and graceful, in expression, attitude and gesture, he must be entirely free; and to be so, he must be left entirely to nature of course unfettered by rules of discipline, the direct tendency of which is to produce affectation and constraint; and even to defeat the very object aimed to be secured by it. So, if any happen, unfortunately, not to be easy and graceful in manner, they must continue so there is no help for them: training will only make the matter worse since the most offensive peculiarities that nature gives, are much more easy to be endured than affectation and formality. Such is the amount of the argument, if argument it can be called; which, in truth, is opposed as much to every other part of elocution, and even to grammar and rhetoric, as to this.

The fact is, those public speakers, who, in action and utterance, appear to us the most natural, and, at the same time, faultless, have been rendered so by careful training. Perfection in this, as in every other accomplishment, is the price of labor.

"Orator fit" (one makes himself an orator) is as true now as it was in the time of Cicero. He is said to have been indefatigable in his early training; and when he had become distinguished as the prince of Roman orators, he confessed he often spent whole nights upon the

speeches he had carefully composed, before he ventured to speak them in public.

Those orations of Demosthenes in which he failed so completely before the people, were, it is thought, as eloquent in style as any he afterwards delivered with the most decided applause. He himself seems to have been entirely unconscious where the difficulty lay, till it was very kindly, and very courteously shown to him by his friend Sátyrus. On one occasion, says Plutarch, when his speeches had been ill received, and he was going home with his head covered, and in the greatest distress, Satyrus followed on, and went in with him. And when he complained that others—of but little industry and learning-were heard and kept the rostrum, while he, the most laborious of all the orators, could gain no favor with the people, and was entirely disregarded: the answer was, "You say the truth; but I will soon provide a remedy, if you will repeat some speeches from Euripides or Sophocles." When Demosthenes had done, Satyrus pronounced the same; and he did it with such propriety of action, and so much in character, that it appeared to the orator quite a different passage. He now understood so well, how much grace and dignity action adds to the best oration, that he thought it a small matter to premeditate and compose, though with the utmost care, if the pronunciation and gesture were not attended to. Upon this, he looked solely to his delivery. He bent his attention to overcome all the obstacles in his way even those interposed by nature: for he is said to have had weak lungs, the habit of stammering, and a stoop in his shoulders. It is truly astonishing to think of the expe

dients he devised; in what varied modes of discipline he persevered, till all the embarrassing obstacles disappeared; and he became, from these zealous and unwearied efforts, perfect in his voice and action, and the first orator in the world.

These examples and remarks are given here as a guard against the too general notion that all instruction on this subject is but of little use; and as encouragement to self-discipline and self-reliance. No matter under what favoring circumstances the student may be placed; he may attend the best schools, the best lectures, and have the aid of the best teachers; yet his real improvement is never effected, and never can be, unless he do the work himself: and he never can become a finished speaker, unless he feel an interest that shall induce him to exercise himself in a faithful course of practice in private, and to cultivate his taste and judgment by careful study and critical observation.

Where children can have the right instruction, the earlier they begin to declaim, the better. Had Demosthenes been early tutored in his elocution, no doubt he would have succeeded in his public effort the first time. And what an amount of mortification and trouble would have been avoided! But who is expected to show the courage, self-denial and perseverance he practised, to repair early neglects, correct bad habits, and triumph over the defects of nature ? No one indeed can appreciate, sufficiently, the value of good habits-especially those pertaining to the arts of address-formed in early youth nor estimate the disadvantages of bad ones; nor the immense difficulty of subduing them, when strength