Ancient Eloquence [pp. 703-706]

Ancient Eloquence.
fascinate, by their beauty and their power, the admirers of genius, and taste, are sufficient to warrant the conviction, that this noble quality, this
emanation from Divinity itself, has wielded a resistless sceptre over fallen humanity in every grade
of society, and in every period of its existence,
although the consecrated spirits of Greece and
Rome,-those mighty masters of ancient eloquence,
are the sole survivors.
That a far greater number, indeed, than those,
whose names have been crowned with a chaplet of
immortal fame, were imbued with the real spirit of
eloquence, and uttered, in startling tones of thunder, its fervid and exciting appeals, is unquestionably true, although their memories have, for centuries gone-by, been shrouded in oblivion. This has
assuredly been the case wherever liberty has exerted its peaceful influence, or wherever an illustrious opportunity has occurred; for eloquence has,
in every age, been the first born of freedom, and
its most powerful exhibitions have always been the
offspring of great occasions. Nor have the dark
waters of Lethe ceased to flow; on t he c ontrary
many, who held a preeminent rank among the
orators of modern days, who now are greeted with
the loudest and the longest huzzas of popular applause, will, doubtless, sink, like lead, in the same
depths where lie buried, in eternal night, such
countless multitudes of their luckless predecessors.
But the inquiry is replete with interest, why so
inquiry. But that catalogue even, has been wholly
wasted by the ravages of decay.
In common life, the most unrivalled bursts of
eloquence and passion, which bear down every
thing before their irresistible power, are not unfrequently witnessed, and that, too, on subjects of
merely passing interest, and, therefore not suitable
for preservation. Nature it is, which inspires those
rapturous enthusiasms, those thrilling and subduing
bursts of feeling and of passion. Numerous instances might easily be presented evincring the
commanding influence, which the se extemporal effusions oftentirmes produce. It will be in po int to
mention o ne as illustrative of this statement. The
circumstance, in question, is said to have occurred,
a few years since, at a' Parish Meeting,' convened
in a dis tant state, fo r the purpose of taking into
considerat ion the e xpe dienc y of incre as ing the salary of their Minister. The meeting had continued
for a considerable time, and it see med to be the
prevailing opinion, that it would be utterly i mp os -
sible to raise a larger sum. At length a man arose,
at a remote corne r of the house, and began as follows; "Mr. Chairman;- They call me an odd f ellow,
and so I am; they call me a tavern haunter, and so
I am; they call me a drunkard, and so I am; they
call me a profane swearer, and so I be; a nd I'm
ashamed of it. But I'm not h alf so much ashamed
of th at as I am that the people of S ca nt affor d their'Godly Min ister a ho use to live i n.'"
The effect of the se r emarks w as astonishing, and
the peo ple of S immediately added to the salary, and gave the ir' Godly Minister' a house to
live in. Other pertinent examples might r eadily
be adduce d, which woul d f urther corrobora te the
correctness of all the reasons, which have been
assigned, for the extreme paucity of instances of
ancient e loquence, but enough has be en presented
already to render unne cessary a more exte nded detail of particulars.
After these preliminary observations in regard
to the signification of eloquence, its existence, and
the reasons why the monuments, of so mary of its
genuine offspring, are buried in the rubbish or antiquity, combined with its majestic and wonderful
effects, it may not be uninstructive or uninteresting
to glance, for awhile, at the earliest periods of its
history, and contemplate, in imagination, a few of
those illustrious worthies, whom timne has preserved from the grave of forgetfulness. For' it is to
the careful study of these men of glorious and undying fame, that most of our own speakers are
indebted for their unparalleled celebrity. They
have drank copious draughts from these fountains,
and found them the sparkling wlaters of inspiration.
Fo~r the most splendid triumphs of secular eloquence, the mental vision must be directed to
Athens, which was, truly, the first great theatre of
genuline oratory. In this favored city it cormenel
few specimens of the oratory of antiquity have
survived the lapse of centuries; and why the productions, and the very names of thousands, who. it
may be, elec trified the world by thei r eloquence,
have perished amid the wrecks of the past. Among
a multiplicity of reasons, that might be assigned,
as explanatory of this striking fact, the most conspicuous are-that many, and, indeed, at certain
periods in their history, most nations were entirely
ignorant of the art of Alphabetic writing; that the
contemporaries, of distinguished orators, neglected
the preservation of their speeches; and that the elo
quence, of some eminent speakers, was of such a
character as to preclude the possibility of treasuring adequate memorials of it, owing to the impotency of language to exhibit, in all their energy
and effect, the circumstances and manner of deliv er y, which imp art ed to their effusions such tremendous effect. Hortensius, a distinguished Roman orator, is cited by Cicero as an example of
this description, his recorded efforts being surprisingly deficient in that power, for which he was so
highly celebrated. And so, were it possible, we
might go from name to name in the catalogue of
that host of the mighty dead, who are sleeping in
the arms of oblivion, and one or another, of the
reasons specified above, would be sufficient to dissipate every cloud of mystery, that might seem, at
a prima facie view, to involve the answer to our
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