"SIR,[1]
"I read with great pleasure in the Tatler[2] of Saturday last the conversation upon eloquence; permit me to hint to you one thing the great Roman orator observes upon this subject, Caput enim arbitrabatur oratoris, (he quotes Menedemus[3] an Athenian) ut ipsis apud quos ageret talis qualem ipse optaret videretur, id fieri vitae dignitate.[4] It is the first rule, in oratory, that a man must appear such as he would persuade others to be, and that can be accomplished only by the force of his life. I believe it might be of great service to let our public orators know, that an unnatural gravity, or an unbecoming levity in their behaviour out of the pulpit, will take very much from the force of their eloquence in it. Excuse another scrap of Latin; it is from one of the Fathers: I think it will appear a just observation to all, as it may have authority with some; Qui autem docent tantum, nec faciunt, ipsi praeceptis suis detrahunt pondus; Quis enim obtemperet, cum ipsi praeceptores doceant non obtemperare?[5] I am,
"SIR,
"Your humble servant,
"JONATHAN ROSEHAT.
"P.S. You were complaining in that paper, that the clergy of Great-Britain had not yet learned to speak; a very great defect indeed; and therefore I shall think myself a well-deserver of the church in recommending all the dumb clergy to the famous speaking doctor[6] at Kensington. This ingenious gentleman, out of compassion to those of a bad utterance, has placed his whole study in the new-modelling the organs of voice; which art he has so far advanced, as to be able even to make a good orator of a pair of bellows. He lately exhibited a specimen of his skill in this way, of which I was informed by the worthy gentlemen then present, who were at once delighted and amazed to hear an instrument of so simple an organization use an exact articulation of words, a just cadency in its sentences, and a wonderful pathos in its pronunciation; not that he designs to expatiate in this practice, because he cannot (as he says) apprehend what use it may be of to mankind, whose benefit he aims at in a more particular manner: and for the same reason, he will never more instruct the feathered kind, the parrot having been his last scholar in that way. He has a wonderful faculty in making and mending echoes, and this he will perform at any time for the use of the solitary in the country, being a man born for universal good, and for that reason recommended to your patronage by, Sir, yours,
"PHILALETHES."
[Footnote 1: This letter appears under the heading: "From my own Apartment, September 19." [T.S.]
[Footnote 2: See "The Tatler," No. 66, ante. [T. S,]
[Footnote 3: An Athenian rhetorician who died in Rome about 100 B.C. [T. S.]