THE TABLE T.—No. LI.
To the AUTHOR of the TABLET,
SIR.
If theenclofedobfervationsarenot novel, they
are at leall founded on expc ricnce :—lf you think
they may be ufeful, allow them a place in your
miscellany, and oblige C.
'' Ufefid and important acquisitions in learning arc more to be
prized t than thofc that are specious, and may nevet turn to any
iolid account."
ALTHO an easy elocution, and graceful
manlier of speaking are acquirements of acknow
ledged utility, yet improvements in oratory do
not appear to have kept pace wiih many other
branches of the bell e lettres. Some have fnppofed
that there are certain obltacles in the way, which
will forever, pyevent the moderns from rivalling
or even equalling the ancients in this particular
attainment. It is said, that the refinements of ci
vilization counteract, and check those animated
exertions of the human faculties, from which the
imprelfive eloquence of the ancients derives its su
perior reputation. However true this may be,
it mull" be allowed that 110 one accompliihmentis
more admired, or is found of greater advantage
to the pofleflor, even in modern times, than
an easy, graceful mode of speaking : And it is
presumed the observation is founded on experi
ence, that in all free governments the perfualive
powers of eloquence are paramount to every dif
ficulty in the road to fame and fortune. America
furnilhes many striking examples in point. In
Britain they are numberless : Her Pulteneys,
her Pitts, her Burkes, have not only aftoniih
ed the world by the thunders of their declama
tions ; but have roused the sleeping genius of
their country and turned the crisis of its fate,
when 011 the verge of deftrudtion. Honours and
emoluments have rewarded their eloquence and
patriotism.
The old observation, that "Poets are born, but
" orators are made," is fofarjuft, that every
man may be encouraged to exej-tion, from a con
fidence that he will be rewarded, at lealt so far,
as amply to recompence his labor. Perhaps it is
. hardly ever too late to aim at some improvement.
Within a few years public speaking has become
an objeift of attention in schools, academies, and
colleges. It is a queition of some importance, how
far the present practice of attempting to teach
young children oratory, will conduce eventually
to encreafing the number of good public speakers ?
It mult be acknowledged that there are not a great
many able in (trustors in this branch of learning;
and for children to commence upon bad or indif
ferent models, is worse than having none. Na
ture is spoiled under such tuition. An indiscri
minate and injudicious aflignment of the partsto
be performed, which is always the cafe when the
pupils are too young to feel the sentiment, is pro
ductive of the worst conlequences : Grimace and
inhnickry must be substituted ; the child acquires
a disgusting confidence, to the deftrudtion of that
modelty which is the belt medium of true wisdom
to the mind. I have seen children afl'ume a daunt
less front in speaking before a numerous audience,
while they were deficient in every article of solid
and ufeful improvement. I have known others ca
relled and applauded at seven or eight years of
age, who when they became men, entirely disap
pointed every plealing anticipation that their pa
rents had formed. The reason is obvious, Chil
dren have memories which receive, and retain
fi»r a time, the llighteft imprefliotis—they are as
imitative as monkeys: Injudicious applaulb poi foils
their imaginations and inflates their vanity.
Tliefe combined causes allure them into the
love of a praCticefrom which they derive the
grateful incense of praise, to the liegleft of more
important objects. Their improvement in speak
ing, not being founded in principle, and fenti
rtient, turns out in the end, worse than nothing ;
for it appears that their time has been facrificed
in pursuit of a tifelefi acquilition.
However desirable a manly confidence in chil
dren may be, it is much to be feared that when
inspired at too early a period, it lays the founda
tion of conceit, arrogance and ignorance. And
if it were other wife, experience deirtonftrates
that an infeniible, unfeeling orator never
pleases. Perhaps no univerfol rule can be de
termined on. Observation and experience will
afford the belt guide. In general it may be ob
served, that the memories of children often be
come the repository of many things, before they
begin to reason, or accurately compare ideas; that
as this faculty is thus ealily susceptible of im
prcfiious, their senses are equally affected by ex
ternal objects, so as to induce an irrefutable imi
tation of every species of adtion that comes in
contact with them. Hence we are apt to be de
ceived, by mistaking tliefe appearances for real
improvements. The molt that can be derived
from tliefe sources, before realon begins to
alliime its Iway, si to form, and fix certain rules
in the memory, and to give those rules a lading
influence, by the force of habit. When the judg
ment begins to ripen, tliefe rules may be applied ;
and then, but not before, the business of public
declamation may be commenced. Itis generally
found that lads make but indifferent progress in
tliofe parts of education whici require much re
flection, before they are eleven or twelve year s
old. Perhaps this will apply with as great iorce
to the fubjetft under consideration, as to any what
ever. It is of much greater importance to teach
children to read well, than to teach them to de
claim early.— The former is an introduction to
the latter, and depends merely 011 rules ; the el
fentials of the latter are abftra<ft in their nature,
and entirely above the comprehension of children.
N. B. 11l Tab let No. L. third line. Kill paragraph, for oieycd
read dii'obeycd.
extract from an oration,
Pronounccd at Marietta on the 4th of July, 1789, by Return J.
M eics, Esq. Attorney at Law. v
ENOUGH of tributary praise is paid,
To virtue living, or to merit dead.
To happier themes, the rUral Muse invites,
To calmcft pleasures, and serene delights ;
To us, glad fancy, biighteft profpe£ls (hows,
Rcjoicing nature, all around you glows;
Here late the Savage hW in ambu(h lay,
Or roam'd the uncultur'd vallies lor his prey ;
Here frown'd the sorest with terrific shade,
No cultur'd fields exgos'd the opening glade ;
How chang'd the scene! See nature cloth'd in fmilei
With jby repays the lab'ror for l his toils.
Hct hardy gifts, rough industry extends,
The groves bow down, the lofty sorest bends ;
On every fide, the cleaving axes found,
The oak, and tall beach thunder to the ground.
And fee the spires of Marietta rife,
And domes, and temples swell into the (kies :
Ylere Justice reign, and foul diffention cease,
Her walks be pleasant—and her paths be peace.
Here fwift Mufkingum rolls his rapid waves ;
There furmenous vallies, fair Ohio laves ;
On its smooth furface, gentle zephyrs play,
The fun beams tremble with a placid ray;
What future harvests on his bosom glide,
And loads of Commerce swell the 44 downward tide,'*
Where Miflifippi joins in length'ning sweep,
And rolls majestic to the atlantic deep.
Along our banks, fee distant villas spread—
Here waves the corn—and there extends the mead —
Here found the murmurs of the gurgling rills ;
There bleat the flocks upon a thousand rills.
Fair opes the lawn—the fertile fields extend,
The kindly (howcr-from smiling Heavendefcends,
The {kies drop fatnefs, on the blooming vale,
From spicy (hrubs ambrosial sweets exhale,
Frefti fragrance rises from the fiowrets bloom,
And ripening vineyards breathe a 44 glad perfume."
Here fwtlls the music of the warbling grove,
And all around is melody and love.
Here may religion fix her blest abode—
Blight emanation of creative God ;
Here Charity extend her liberal hand,
And mild benevolence o'er-fpread the land,
In harmony the social virtues blend—
J rt y. without measure—rapture, without end.
B 10G RAP HICAL.
DIED in Petty France, London, aged 80, John
Cleland, Esq. He was the foil of Col. C. that cele
brated fuftitious member of the Spe<slator's Club,
whom Steele describes under the name of Will
Honeycomb. A portrait of him hung up in the
foil's library till his death, which indicates all
the manners and d' abord of the fafhionable town
rake in the beginning of this century. The son,
with the scatterings of the father's fortune, and
some share of his diflipations, after parting through
the forms of a good education in Westminster
College, where he was admitted in 1 7Z2, at the
age of 13, and was contemporary with Lord Mans
field, went as Consul to Smyrna, where perhaps,
he firft imbibed tliofe loose principles which, in
a subsequent publication, too infamous to be par
ticularized, tarnifliedhis reputation as an author.
On his return from Smyrna he went to the East
Indies ; but quarrelling with some of the Mem
bers of the Presidency of Bombay he made a pre
cipitate retreat from the East, with little or no
benefit to his fortune. Being without profeffion,
or any fettled means of fubfiftance, he soon fell
into difficulty ; a prison, and its miseries, were
the consequences. In this situation one of tliofe
booksellers who disgrace the profeffion offered
him a temporary relief for writing the work above
alluded to, * which brought a stigma on his name
which time has not obliterated, and which will
be consigned to his memory whilst its poisonous
contents are 111 circulation. For this publication
he was called before the Privy Council, and the
circumftancesof his distress being known, as well
as his being a man of some parts, Jolin Ear]
Granville, the then President, nobly ref'cued him
from the like temptation, by getting him a pen
flon of tool, per year, which he enjoyed to his
death, and which had so much the dcfired t.Tedt
that,that except " TlieMemoirs ofaCoxcomb"
which has lomefmack of diflipated manners and
" The Man of Honor," written as an amende htm
orable for his former exceptionable book, Mr. C
mostly dedicated his time to political and philo
logical publications, and was the author of the
long letters given in the public prints, from time
to time, signed A Briton, Modejlus, &c.&c. and of
some curious tra<fts on the Celtic language. He
lived within the income of his pension for many
years, in a retired lituation in Petty France, sur
rounded by a good library, and the occasional
visits of some literary friends, to whom he was a
very agreeable companion,and died at the advanc
ed age of 80. In converlation he was very plea
sant and anecdotical, underltanding 1110 ft of the
living languages, and speaking them all very
fluently. As a writer, he shewed himfelf best in
novels, long-writing, and the lighter species of
authorship ; but when he touched politicks he
touched it like a torpedo, he was cold, benumb
ing, and foporifick.
NOT E.
* The sum given for the copy of this work was 20 guineas.
The sum received for the sale could not be less than io,oool.
RE-PUBLISHED BY PARTICULAR DESIRE.
FROM THE PROVIDENCE GAZETTE.
To BRUTUS*.
IN a paper printed without the Union, and for
that and other reasons very properly called The
United States Chronicle, you have publilhed " Cofi
fiderations on the Order of Cincinnatus," and
dared to attack the character of " a Wajhington."
Think not that lam about to defend it. My pea
cannot add toitslullre, nor your efforts call there
on the Ihadow of a shade.
Proceed in abusing the meritorious officers of
the late American army, and diltinguiih them, if
you please, by every opprobrious epithet that
malice, ingratitude or antifederalifm can suggest;
but permit me to recommend, that you fparethe
President-General. It may be that youwrite for
a name. Erollratus, for perpetuating his name,
or rather his infamy, burnt the celebrated temple
of Diana at Ephefus—and Brutus has attempted
tofullythe virtuesofa Washington ! SENEX.
NOT *.
* A writer against the Cincinnati in the United States Chroni
cle.
CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATtS.
Begun and held at the City of AVu/- York, on Wcdnefday the Fourth
of March, One Thousand Seven Hundred and Eighty-Nioc.
An ACT to suspend part of an Ad, entitled "An AH
to regulate the colleCtien of the Duties ivipojtdh
Law on the Tonnage of Ships or Veflels, ui(»
Goods, Wares, and Merchandizes, mforttiklt
the United Stater," and for other purpofei.
BE/J enabled by the Senate and Hotife ofßtpri
fentatives of tf)e United States of America in Corigrifs
afembled, That so much of the A eft, entitled "An
Act to regulate the collection of the duties im
posed by law, on the tonnage of Ships or Veflels,
and on Goods, Wares, and Merchandizes, import
ed into the United States," as obliges (hips or
veflels bound up the river Potowmac, to come to,
and deposit inanifefts of their cargoes, with the
officers at Saint Mary's and Yeocomico, before
they proceed to their port of delivery, shall be ana
is hereby suspended until the firft day of May next.
Be it further enalled, That all the privileges and
advantages to which ftiips or veflels owned by
citizens ofthe United States, are by law entitled,
shall be, until the fifteenth day of January next,
extended to ships and veflels wholly owned bv
citizens of the States of North-Carolina, an
Rhode-Island, and Providence Plantations.—
vided, That the niafter of every such ship or ve
fel last mentioned, shall produce a regiftet for
the fame, conformable to the laws of the state in
which it shall have been obtained, 'hewingt ®
the said ship or veflel is, and before the nut a ?
of Septemberinftant, was owned as aforefaid, an
make oath or affirmation, before the collector o
the port in which the benefit of this act is c aiw
ed, that the ship or veflel for which such teg l
is produced, is the fame therein nientione , a
that he believes it is ft ill wholly owned y
person or persons named in said register, an t
he or they are citizens of one of the states a o
said. „ , ,f
And be it further naCled, That all rum, WJ
sugar, and chocolate, manufactured or nia
the State of North-Carolina, or Rhode-Man ,
Providence Plantations, and imported or r S
into the United States, ihall be deemed an
to be, fubjedt to the like dt .-' s , as S"° s °,- n2 .
like kinds, imported from an foreign Itate,
dom or country, are made it bjeCtto- .
And be it further enabled, That Rehoboth,«
theftate of MafFachufetts, fhrl! be aport o
and delivery, until the fifteenth day o J _
next, and that a Colletftor >e appoints
FREDERICK AUGUSTUS
Speaker oft' r Houjc of p
JOHN ADAMSi VUfB, ej tk St*
Ar;F OR ('a?. S W ASH INGTO n!
P. Wiflied b, TOHN FENNO, No. 9>
La a' e, near llie tfccroo-Markclj N£ w 0H K *