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OF THE PRINCIPLES OF

LOBR BY
183

RHETORICAL DELIVERY

AS APPLIED TO

READING AND SPEAKING.

BY EBENEZER PORTER, D.D.

PRESIDENT OF THE THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY, ANDOVER.

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FOR SALE BY THEM, AND BY HILLIARD, GRAY AND CO., AND CROCKER
AND BREWSTER, BOSTON. J. S. AND C. ADAMS AND CO. AMHERST,
MASS. JOHN GREGG, PHILADELPHIA. AND CUSHING AND JEWITT,

BALTIMORE.

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DISTRICT OF MASSACHUSETTS, to wit:
District Clerk's Office."

Be it remembered, that on the 7th day of April, A. D. 1830, in the fifty-fourth year of the Independence of the United States of America, Flagg & Gould of the said district, have deposited in this Office the title of a book, the right whereof they claim as Proprietors, in the words following, to wit: "Analysis of the Principles of Rhetorical Delivery as applied to Reading and Speaking. By Ebenezer Porter, D. D. Prest. of Theol. Sem. Andover. 3d edit." In conformity to the Act of the Congress of the United States, entitled, "An Act for the encouragement of Learning, by securing the copies of maps, charts, and books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies, during the times therein mentioned:" and also to an act entitled, "An act supplementary to an act, entitled, An act for the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of maps, charts and books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies during the times therein mentioned; and extending the benefits thereof to the arts of designing, engraving and etching historical and other prints."

JOHN W. DAVIS, Clerk of the District
of Massachusetts.

ADVERTISEMENT

TO THE THIRD EDITION.

THE author of this work originally considered it as an experiment on public opinion, respecting a department of instruction, in which diversities of taste have had more scope for exercise than in almost any other. His best hopes therefore have been far exceeded by the speedy demand for a second, and now again for a third edition, and by other unequivocal marks of favor with which the publication has been generally received. Very few changes have been made in this edition, as the author's state of health and absence from home rendered this impossible. This edition is reprinted, page for page from the second, with only the correction of typographical and other small errors, which were occasioned. by mistake. The peculiar character of the book is such, that breaking up its identity, as to order of references, would render it impossible for all the editions to be advantageously used, by the same class. Should another edition be called for, and should it ever be in the power of the author to make any substantial improvement in the same, it may then become necessary to change the method of printing.

The author will only add, that he has not still relinquished the hope of preparing, in compliance with various solicitations which he has received, a smaller work, on the same general principles, for the use of academies and the higher schools.

Theological Seminary,
Andover, April 1830.

4005

732 (RECAP)

240607

PREFACE.

DELIVERY is but a part of rhetoric; and rhetoric, in the common acceptation of the term, is but a part of the business in which I am called to give instruction. The great purpose of my office is, to teach young men, who are preparing for the sacred ministry, how to preach the gospel. In pursuance of this purpose, it became my duty to give a course of lectures on eloquence generally, and more particularly on style; and another course on preaching, including the history of the pulpit, and the structure and chief characteristics of sermons, and the personal qualities requisite in the Christian preacher. Besides the study demanded in traversing a field so important, and so unfrequented, at least in this country; the necessity of combining individual with classical instruction in this department, makes its labors more than sufficient to engross the time of

one man.

In these circumstances, it may seem strange that I should turn aside from higher duties, to publish a book, more adapted to the earlier stages of education than to that which is directly preparatory to the ministry. The truth is, that I have been gradually and almost unavoidably drawn into this

measure.

As an instructer of theological students, my attention was, many years ago, called to some prevalent defects in delivery. These I ascribed chiefly to early habits, contracted in the schools; and to the want of adequate precepts in books on reading and speaking. The worst faults in elocution, originate in want of feeling. But when these faults become confirmed, no degree of feeling will fully counteract their influence, without the aid of analysis, and patient effort to understand and correct them. Still, in this process of correction, there is danger of running into formality of manner, by withdrawing the attention from that in which the soul of eloquence consists,-emotion. For the purpose of guarding against this tendency, and at the same time of accomplishing the ends at which Walker aims, in his Ele

ments of Elocution, I have much desired to see a manual for students, free both from the obscurity and the extreme particularity of his system.

In the winter of 1821, during a necessary absence from the Theological Seminary, on account of health, I addressed to the students a number of letters on elocution. The plan of these letters* required them to embrace all the subjects included in this publication, and besides these, the following the importance to a preacher of a good delivery; necessity of earnestness in his manner; causes which influence his intellectual and moral habits; the influence of personal piety on the preacher's eloquence; circumstances of the age, which are unfavourable, and those which are favourable to the cultivation of eloquence; the utility of preparatory exercises, with hints of advice relative to these; preservation of lungs, and the mistakes that are often fatal to this organ in public speakers; pronunciation as restricted. to single words; and management of voice in public prayer.

One of these papers, that on inflections, was since committed to the press; and, though not intended to be published, yet having been circulated to a considerable extent, some respectable individuals requested that I would enlarge and reprint this pamphlet; and others, that I would publish a book, for the use of Colleges, and of students generally who are forming their habits of elocution. In this wish the Rhetorical Society in the Theological Seminary united; and their committee addressed letters to several of the Presidents of Colleges, and to other gentlemen, to ascertain whether such a publication was deemed necessary, by those who are most interested in the subject. In reply to this inquiry, a concurrent opinion was expressed, that our Seminaries of learning greatly need a work on Elocution, different in many respects from any thing hitherto published; and a concurrent wish that I should proceed in the preparation of such a work, was also expressed, though with different degrees of interest by different gentlemen.

I have been the more ready to engage in this undertaking, from the conviction that, whatever aid it may render to Instructers of our Academical Seminaries, and whatever use

* Some of them I have since thrown into Lectures, with enlargement.

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