| [No. 407] | Tuesday, June 17, 1712 | Addison |
—abest facundis Gratia dictis.
Ovid.
Most Foreign Writers who have given any Character of the
English
Nation, whatever Vices they ascribe to it, allow in general, that the People are naturally
Modest
. It proceeds perhaps from this our National Virtue, that our Orators are observed to make use of less Gesture or Action than those of other Countries. Our Preachers stand stock-still in the Pulpit, and will not so much as move a Finger to set off the best Sermons in the World. We meet with the same speaking Statues at our Bars, and in all publick Places of Debate. Our Words flow from us in a smooth continued Stream, without those Strainings of the Voice, Motions of the Body, and Majesty of the Hand, which are so much celebrated in the Orators of
Greece
and
Rome