or the great fquare of the City, where the Affemblies of the people were held, and the Magifirates used to harangue to them from the Roftra, and where all the public pleadings and judicial procedings were ufually tranfacted this therefore was the grand School of business and eloquence; the fccne, on which all the affairs. of the Empire were determined, and where the foundation of their hopes and fortunes were to be laid: * fo that they were introduced into it with much folemnity, attended by all the friends and dependents of the family, and after divine rites performed in the Capitol, were committed to the * fpecial protection of fome eminent Senator, diftinguished for his eloquence or knowledge of the laws, to be inftructed by his advice in the management of civil affairs, and to form themselves by his example for useful members and Magiftrates of the Republic." Sect. I. After enumerating the ftudies of Cicero, Dr. Middleton concludes: "All which accomplishments were but minifterial and fubfervient to that, on which his hopes and ambition were fingly placed, the reputation of an Orator." d. "This practice [the vote, ut viderent confules, ne quid refpublica detrimenti capiat], tho' * in ufe from the earliest times, had always been complained of by the Tribuns, as an infringe-. ment of the conftitution, by giving to the Senate an arbitrary power over the lives of Citizens, which could not legally be taken away without a hearing and judgment of the whole people. But the chief grudge to * it was, from its being a perpetual check to the defigns of the ambitious and popular, who afpired to any power not allowed by the laws: it was not difficult for them to delude the multitude; but the Senate was not fo eafily* managed, who by that fingle vote of committing the Republic to the Confuls, could fruftrate at once all the effects of their popularity, when carried to a point which was dangerous to the State for fince by virtue of it, the Tribuns themselves, whofe perfons were held facred might be taken off. without fentence or trial, when engaged in any traiterous practices,* all attempts of that kind muft neceffarily be hazardous and defperate." Sect. III. * * The following is a part of our author's character of Sylla. "His family was noble and Patrician, which yet, through the indolency of his Ancestors, had *made no figure in the Republic for many generations, and was almost funk into obscurity, till he produced it again into light, by afpiring to the honors of the State. He was a lover and patron of polite letters, having been carefully. * infti, * instituted himself in all the learning of Greece and Rome; but from a peculiar gaiety of temper, and fondness for the company of Mimics and Players, was drawn, when young, * `into a life of luxury and pleasure ; * so that when he was fent Quæftor to MARIUS in the Jugurthine war, MARIUS complained, that in fo rough and desperate a service chance had given him so foft and delicate a Quaftor." Sect. II. I have been more particular in my extracts from Middleton, as this author perhaps affords the most adequate specimen of the style of the period in which he wrote. The majority of writers at that time, who fought the praise of eloquence, appear to have affected this plenitude of diction, the art of overlaying their meaning with the endleffness of their phrases. At first sight therefore we fhould be apt to imagine that they had degenerated from the model of the days of queen Anne. But, upon a nearer infpection, we shall find that they excelled their predeceffors in propriety of conftruction, though they certainly did not excel them in choice of words or neatness of diction. It would be idle however to load thefe pages with examples after the Middletonian mode. Our business is with authors who fought to outstrip the practice of their contemporaries. It must be confidered as an argument of the paucity of genius during this period, that we are obliged to have recourfe to Sherlock, an author whofe character, though unprecedentedly high among his brethren in the church, never rose to the dignity of general fame. The elegance of Sherlock is rather to be found in his ideas; and it is chiefly from a confufion of mind in his readers, that it has been transferred from its proper feat, and afcribed to his compofition. His manner is for the most part close to his fubject, and he difdains every thing impertinent and merely ornamental; but he is ufually hard, fcholaftic and even fomewhat repellent in his language. His famous parallel between Christ and Mahomet, which is perhaps the only truly eloquent paffage in his works, is indeed happily expreffed. He must have been a very curfory observer of ftyle, who does not know, that enthusiasm of sentiment feldom fails to produce a momentary happiness of language. But, as if this were wholly foreign to the writer, no fooner does he close the descriptive part, and attempt to fum up the refult, than his manner becomes comparatively bald and mean. "When Natural Religion," fays the preacher, "has viewed both, afk, Which is the Prophet of God? God? But her Anfwer we have already * had; when the faw Part of this Scene* through the Eyes of the Centurion who attended at the Crofs; by him she spoke and faid, Truly this Man was the Son of God." Vol. I, Difcourse IX. The following paffage from the fame Difcourse, may serve as a fpecimen of this author's ufual manner. "But here the Question is afked, How shall we diftinguish between the Pretences to Revelation, which are fo many and various, * all of which have an equal Right to be heard, * that 'tis endless to look for Religion in fuch a * Croud. of Pretenders to it, and difficult to determine the Merit of the feveral Claims. "So that all Religions [in the HeathenWorld] were esteemed equally good, and * the most any Religion pretended* to was a local Authority, which reached no farther than the Laws of the Country* did: And, unless Men are * for giving more to the pretended Heathen Revelations, than ever they claimed for themselves, or was claimed for them by those who introduced them and lived under them, they cannot be * brought into this Question, fince they have no * Relation to us, any more than the many civil Laws and Conftitutions of the fame Countries* had: And Men |