may collect materials for improvement; but the fervility of imitation will extinguish his genius, and expofe its poverty to his hearers. CONDUCT OF A DISCOURSE IN DIVISION-NARRATION HAVING already confidered what is peculiar to the three great fields of public speaking; popular affemblies, the bar, and the pulpit; we fhall now treat of what is common to them all; and explain the conduct of a discourse, or oration, in general. The parts which compofe a regular formal oration, are these fix; the exordium or introduction; the state and the divifion of the subject; narration or explication; the reasoning or arguments; the pathetic part; the conclufion. It is not neceffary that these must enter into every public discourse, or that they must muft always be admitted in the order which we have mentioned. There are many excellent difcourfes in which fome of these parts are altogether omitted. But as they are the natural and conftituent parts of a regular oration, and as, in every difcourfe, fome of them muft occur, it is agreeable to our prefent purpose, to examine each of them. distinctly. The defign of the introduction is to conciliate the good opinion of the hearers; to excite their attention; and to render them open to perfuafion. When a fpeaker is previously secure of the good will, the attention, and the doci lity of his audience, a formal introduction may, without any impropriety, be omitted. Respect for his hearers will, in that cafe, only require a fhort exordium, to prepare them for the other parts of his difcourfe. The introduction, where it is neceffa ty, is that part of a difcourfe which requires X 4 quires no inferior care. It is always important to begin well; to make a favourable impreffion at firft fetting out, when the minds of the hearers, as yet vacant and free, are more eafily prejudiced in favour of the fpeaker. We muft add also, that a good introduction is frequently found to be extremely difficult. Few parts of a difcourfe give more trouble to the compofer, or require more delicacy in the execution. An introduction fhould be eafy and natural. It fhould always be fuggested by the fubject. The writer fhould not plan it, till after he has meditated in his own mind the fubftance of his difcourfe. By taking an oppofite courfe, and compofing in the first place an introduction, the writer will often find, that he is either led to lay hold of fome commonplace topic, or that, instead of the introduction being accommodated to the difcourfe, he is under the neceffity of of accommodating the whole difcourfe to the introduction which he had previously written. In this part of a difcourfe, correctness of expreffion fhould be carefully ftudied. This is peculiarly requifite on account of the fituation of the hearers. At the beginning, they are more difpofed to criticife than at any other period; they are then unoccupied with the fubject or the arguments; their attention is entirely directed to the fpeaker's ftyle and manCare, therefore, is requifite, to prepoffefs them in his favour; though too much art must be cautiously avoided, fince it will then be more easily de-. tected, and will derogate from that perfuafion which the other parts of the dif course are intended to produce. ner. Modefty is also an indifpenfible characteristic of every judicious introduction. If the fpeaker begin with an air of arrogance and oftentation, the felf |