The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1850-04-18

tended by respectable number Of auditors,
to hear the lecture by Mr.. Emerson, on
eloquence. He commenced by saying that elo-
quence Is the gift of climate. New Englanders
speak between their teeth. In Southern Europe,
at cafe, takers hiss, spit, splutter, screach, and
show great animal vigor, the source of their elo-
Quenee. Eloquence is fascination. Properly con-
sidered, in its most superficial form, discourse has
fascination in i. Sugar niingles with fact. The
Arabian Nights Entertainments are eloquent
They saved the life Of the narrator; and all the
world SO enjoys these tales that the fable is proba
bly, fact. The story tellers of Ispahan keep PEG.
pie from eating their meals. A Brahmin visited
the god Seva, to obtain assistance in marrying, his
daughter TO one Of three princes. He listened TO
the music, and was finally told that while he had
been listening the princes and his daughter had
grown old The exaggeratons OF Orpheus and
Arion are realities. What is the Odyssey A
history Of an orator in the largest STYLE Helen
asks Antenor :" who the shorter but broader man
was, before her % He replied, /" Menelaus, who
moved his arms when he spoke" Ulysses had no
gesture, appeared simple fool lie il was that
was the orator. Warren Hastings said he felt
guilty for half an hour, while Burke was speaking
This fascination is all juggle, after all. band
of music in the street will make you listen till It
turns the next corner. An oiled. tongue will lick
the sun and moon into shape. The GLIB tongue OF
statesmen imposes on housekeepers, male and fc-
male. The fiuency of the village lawyer is his
facility of expression, always the same on all sub
jects The editor of the village newspaper is very
impressive, and he is lesson ahead of the
schoolmaster. Members of Congress are auction
on large scale. II is all jawing, and all bad
business for true eloquence
That which constitutes eloquence is personal as
tendency An orator must be a match for events.
lie must give you odds and win the game. lie
must be resstent in the village, in a storm on the
Atlantic among foreigners, and thieves, and cannl,
bals He must coax and coniound. Every good
orator is a swindler; swinders are always good
orators. Sir VIM. Pepperell, OF the Massachusetts,
colony, willed thing and had it /; he had an
overpowering personality. such men, Itte or
mountain or planet is felt! Personal force is proof
of honesty. Personality of orator makes balance
between speaker and his hearers. He is the true
orator who has the fact, and knows how to tell it
no matter if he shutters or screams He is the
guide up the mountain; piece of well known hui
man life. He is the truer orator who states the
law of the fact. Lord Mansfield laughed at as his
decisions are, was great in common sense. His
sentences were finished, not to the eye, but to the
mind.
Method of arrangement, such as Burke possess
ed, makes good eloquence. lie had the power OF
presenting facts. He could roll argument and fact
into ball for you TO carry away in your pocket.
An eloquent man is a sane man, with power to
communicate his sanity. He would not let the
horses take the bits-he would drive himself and
not be run away with True, the summit of perso-
nal power must be reinforced by events. In trans
cendental eloquence, events are necessary An
thracite burning Goals are wanted underneath
whole-an infiamed whole. Eloquence is mosaic
pavement of fact. The orator keeps the fact; he is
fact speaker; he touches people Everything
You cannot lift me up unless you are on high
ground. Eloquence is dying out in high places it
is found in corners. Fanaticism makes orators.
The country supplies cities. John the Baptlsts,
sturdy fellows, come out of the wilderness. Orators
who can mob the mob, welcome eggs. Who have
wit and can bully in turn, knoY snow-banks and
fogs; have the documents in then pockets and eter-
nal reason in their heads. Agitation makes orators;
peace, kant-slavery-all these make orators. Op-
position is opportunity, and makes fiery apostles.
The moral element, after all, is the foundation Of
true eloquence. O'Connel was no saint, but with
tens of thousands around him became preacher.
In fact eloquence is not what lsocrates declared il
to be, to make the great feel small and the small
great, but TO make the great feel great, and the
small feel small 4. G., to leave matters they
were. The lecturer rather abruptly closed his per-
Torrance, when young gentleman with his collar
turned down, and with long hair, d Ia Carlyle, APP
plauded so to awake some of his neighbors, when
the audience silently arose and dissolved into fresh
air.
ON BOOKS.
On another OCCASION the above gentleman read
lecture on books at the Hope Chapel, Broadway.
lie sad we owe to books the perception of immor-
tally. Philosophy is hero's castle, the imagna-
tion only is poetry; 1t inspires poetry College edu-
cation is reading Certain books represent science
you entitled to give opinion otherwise, not.
lfyou have read Plato on Morals, you entitled
10 give opinion if not, you have no right.
Let him go there, there ~ a sweetness OF reading
of which suction is emblem il counterbalances
the seductions of animal life il is like gustaton
on a higher plane healthy life is as sweet as nj
trous oxygen learn to MAKE many deduc-
tons from our authors books, like drugs must not
be Unfortunately applied. Bruce and Belzoni
suit some, others suit others. Books are trans
formed people some are ra,nbows Two hundred
printed and Sold Books grow, like grass, in every
soil colleges supply books, but there is profess
sor of books. IL is always the lingo of books that
they will not speak, unless they spoken to in
library il is a lottery, there a hundred blanks
10 a prize he would be a charitable soul TO put
on the right track. In the Kings library, at Paris,
there are 6Oo,0o0 printed books If we calculate
the number Of pages man could read in day, it
would take him, TO read from morning TO night, for
60 years, before he could read the half an author
has said, read one book. To be learned, the best
rule is each to read according TO his pursuit, and
not waste the memory on a crowd. Each nation
has its book, or bible-the Persians, Iiniil the
Spaniards Cervantes-nature Is always clarifying
her and wine. book reprinted after a GEN.
fury, IL as if Minos and Rhadamanthus had en-
dorsed il. BE sure and read no mean books, don't
read what you may learn by asking in the streets
never read any books not year old. There are
Homer I; il is a history which nothing supply
poetry is the best history still the English history
Is best known from the poetry Of shakspeare;; The
Cd is lIerodotus. The 3D. is Eschylus. The 4th
i Plato. The 9th is Plutarch.
The lecturer here entered upon crtique in ge-
neral upon the merits and beauties Of these writers,
the latter especially. lie said Taylors TRANSACTIONS
were the best; Pythagorus was a practical man.
caiss of this day have taken him for their tutelar
saint. Taylor was the last worshpcr OF Jupiter
Caritolinus. The Italians say :" Hradscfori tradu-
tori" Translators are traitors. j would as soon
swim over the North River, If wanted TO 60 to
New Jersey, instead Of using the feuyboat, as use
the originals instead Of using the feuyboats Of
translaiors. Livy should be read-a short epitome
would do; also Gibbon, Halam, the life of Charles
" modern English history, Shakespeare, Spenser,
Milton, Harvey, Bacon, Ben Johnson, Lord Her
bert; obiographers-especially Rousseaus Con-
fessions. Gibbons Themes, and frankhn's Auto
bicrmphies. Montague, Boswell's Life Of Johnson.
Concentrations Of Goethe, lIazett's Table Talk,
Cervantes, Sully's Memoirs, Racelais, Sir Thomas
Brown. Horace Walpole, Sterne, &c. The mem
ton of these various authors recommended, afford.
ed the lecturer occasion for occasional scattered
remarks. and scintillatng expressions upon their
various characters and merits. description OF a
hook auction IN England, when Earl Spenser CAV,
poo guincas for a Bocaccio, was then given with
thrilling effect by the lecturer; the motion of the
IVORY hammer in the hand Of The auclloneer The