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ceived a part of his education in Italy. He was an elegant writer both in the Greek and the Latin languages; but he displayed his abilities chiefly in translation; a most useful labour when the learned languages were imperfectly understood. He translated parts of Aristotle, Theophrastus, and Hippocrates, into Latin; and the treatise of Cicero on Old Age into Greek. He wrote also a treatise on Grammar in four books, which has been greatly celebrated. Greek learning, and indeed all ancient learning, is greatly indebted to this distinguished reviver of it, Theodore Gaza.

But he also was unfortunate, and adds to the number of those whom Providence has exhibited to prove, that the rewards of virtuous and useful labour do not consist in riches, honours, or any thing else which the rulers of this world are able to bestow. Poor Gaza had dedicated his translation and Commentaries on Aristotle's Book on Animals to Pope Sixtus the Fourth, in hopes of procuring from his patronage a little provision for his old age. The Pope gave him only a purse with a few pieces in it, and accompanied his gift with a manner which induced Gaza to conclude that it was the last favour he should receive. Gaza received it in silence; and as he walked home, all melancholy and indignant, along the banks of the Tiber, he threw the purse into the stream; and soon after died of vexation and disappointment.

I have introduced these examples with a view to animate the student to industry; and at the same time, to teach him to seek his reward in his own

heart, in the approbation of Heaven, in the private satisfactions of study; and not to depend too much on princes, pontiffs, or even popular favour.

NO. CXXXIII.

ON THE INEFFICACY OF THAT STYLE

OF SPEAKING AND WRITING WHICH MAY BE CALLED THE FROTHY.

ON the decline of ancient learning and Augus tan taste, there arose a number of sophists and declaimers, who, in pursuit of an excellence in style superior to the natural graces of a better age, deviated into a most contemptible affectation. Quaint, awkward, and frivolous, as were their embellishments, they paid their principal attention to them, and totally neglected solidity and substance. This style of writing characterizes the decline of a genuine and manly eloquence. It is, indeed, like the hectic efflorescence on the countenance of an invalid far advanced in a consumption.

In several departments of modern literature, and even in our own country, a style of writing has appeared which very much resembles the sophistical and declamatory. But I know not that it has been so conspicuous in any one of our publications, as in the popular addresses from the pulpit. Several of the favourite preachers in the capital, who seldom fail to fill every church in which they harangue, and to raise the largest contributions to charity schools, have presented the public with their ser mons, in order to make the experiment, whether that oratory which delights the lower orders in the pulpit, would be equally well received in the closet. E

VOL. III.

It was an unhappy experiment for the reputation of the orators; for there hardly ever appeared more remarkable specimens of florid, frothy, and meretricious eloquence. Sounding brass, and tinkling cymbals, are descriptions of it truly emblematical. If it has any sweetness, it is a sweetness which cloys, and makes you sick; if there is any brightness, it is a brightness which dazzles and gives you pain; if there is any gold, it is not like the bullion, but like the leaf, expanded to a superficies almost impalpable, under the operation of the goldbeater. Indeed, this species of style is very well described by the common epithet of the frothy; but, as a means of supplying aliment, or as a constant diet, what is a syllabub to a sirloin?

Indeed, almost all the popular preachers in London have found it easier to themselves, and more agreeable to an illiterate and unthinking audience, to address the ears, the fancy, and the passions, than the faculties of reason and judgment. If their discourses were found to produce any better effect on their hearers, than that of furnishing an amusement for a leisure half-hour, it would be wrong to censure them, merely because they are offensive to a delicate and refined taste. But the truth is, that they excite only transient emotions, which, though they may last long enough to draw from the hearer a shilling for the churchwarden's plate at the church door, will seldom go home with him, or produce an uniform influence on his personal and social conduct. He goes to hear a fine preacher as he goes to a play, to be entertained when he has nothing else to do; he pays for his entertainment at the door, and gives

himself no farther concern on such subjects, but to look out for a similar pastime, when his shop or warehouse, or counting-house, are shut up, through the necessity of complying with the laws and customs of the country.

It may be said, that though a taste, formed by the pure models of Greece and Rome, may reprobate the frothy style, yet, since it is found to entertain the vulgar of a great capital, sometimes usefully, and always innocently, it ought not to be exploded. But perhaps it cannot be granted, that it does entertain them either usefully or innocently. It cer tainly gives them wrong ideas of religion, and teaches them to neglect and despise the passionate suggestions of reason. But it is one of the principal objections to this popular or frothy preaching, that it allures men from their own parish churches, and induces them to desert the pulpit of a modest and regularly educated clergyman, for some noisy and bold, some ignorant and hypocritical pretender. It leads them from the light of the sun to those meteors and vapours, whose dancing and uncertain gleam often conducts them into quagmires. There are few parishes in the metropolis which do not con. tain some thousands of inhabitants; but you shall often find in their respective churches not more than one hundred, and sometimes scarcely half that number. Whither are they gone? Many, indeed, are carousing in the delectable retreats of the rural Hoxton; but many are also gone to the new-built chapels, or the crowded churches, where some silvertongued orator is preaching himself, with all the pathos of a white handkerchief, the splendour of a dia

mond ring, the smartness of a well-dressed head, and the deceitful grimaces of an impostor. Religion, however, must lose much of her venerable air, when, instead of the decent clothing of a chaste and venerable matron, she is represented in the tawdry and flimsy garment, with the painted cheeks, the glass ear-rings, the false brilliants of the faithless cour.

tezan.

I think I may confidently affirm, that the frothy style would not be tolerated at the bar or in the senate. It would be thought too trifling for the important subjects of property and politics. It would be an object of ridicule. And shall that oratory which is hooted from the forum, not only take refuge, but lift up her head in triumph in the pulpit? It is not surprising, that men of sense pass by wagging their heads when they find an orator haranguing in a church with all the affected language and sentiments of a fashionable auctioneer. The eloquence which has distinguished many of the most favourite preachers, and writers of pulpit harangues, is not that of St. Paul, of Demosthenes, of Cicero; but of those great masters of florid description, the orators of the hammer.

I believe it will appear consistent with reason, that a peculiar degree of gravity and solidity, far exceeding that of the senate or bar, is required to produce the due effect of pulpit oratory. Practical divinity is the gravest species of moral philosophy, deriving additional dignity and force from revelation. The appearance of truth and simplicity is its most becoming ornament. To apply to it the little arts of rhetoric, and the petty graces of affectation,

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