Speak the speech, I pray you, as I pronounced it to you, trippingly on the tongue. Be not too tame neither, but let your own discretion be your tutor; suit the action to the word, the word to the action; with this special observance, that you o'erstep not the modesty of nature.”HAMLET TO THE PLAYERS.

"Eloquence, in this empire, is power. Give a man nerve, a presence, sway over languages, and, above all, enthusiasm, or the skill to simulate it; start him in the public arena with these requisites, and ere many years, perhaps many months, have passed, you will either see him in high station, or in a fair way of rising to it. Unless you have the art of clothing your ideas in clear and captivating diction, of identifying yourself with the feelings of your hearers, and uttering them in languages more forcible, or terse, or brilliant, than they can themselves command; or unless you have the power-still more rare-of originating, of commanding their intellects, their hearts, of drawing them in your train by the irresistible magic of sympathy-of making their thoughts your thoughts, or your thoughts theirs, never hope to rule your fellow-men in

these modern days.”—G. H. FRANCIS IN "ORATORS OF THE AGE."

"To be a great orator does not require the highest faculties of the human mind, but it requires the highest exertion of the common faculties of our nature. He has no occasion to dive into the depths of science, or to soar aloft on angels' wings. He keeps upon the surface, he stands firm upon the ground, but his form is majestic, and his eye sees far and near; he moves among his fellows, but he moves among them as a giant among common men. He has no need to read the heavens, to unfold the system of the universe, or create new worlds for the delighted fancy to dwell in; it is enough that he sees things as they are; that he knows and feels and remembers the common circumstances and daily transactions that are passing in the world around him. He is not raised above others by being superior to the common interests, prejudices, and passions of mankind, but by feeling them in a more intense degree than they do."-WILLIAM HAZLITT.