Q. How do you know this?

A. By the circumstance that, in the hands of some writers, every subject acquires interest; while, in those of others, every subject becomes dull and insipid.

Q. Have we many good historians?

A. Many excellent writers of national history; as, Robertson, Gibbon, Hume, &c., but few good writers of biography.

Q. What are the most common faults in biography?

A. It generally either displays a minuteness which renders it tedious, or a partiality which excites disgust.

CHAPTER XXXVII.

Of Essays and Philosophy.

Q. What sort of writing do you include under the term Essays?

A. Essays are a species of writing confined to no particular description of subjects, though

generally understood as denoting short dissertations upon topics connected with life and

manners.

Q. What does the term essay properly mean?

A. Merely a trial, or an attempt at something; and is a term often modestly applied to denote treatises of the greatest profundity.

Q. What is meant by the British Essayists? A. The Tatler, Spectator, Guardian, Rambler, Idler, Adventurer, Observer, Mirror, Lounger, &c. &c., all consisting of short dissertations upon various subjects, and exhibiting some of the choicest specimens of English composition.

Q. Is there any particular style by which essays are characterized?

A. Their style depends altogether upon the subject; and they may contain every species, according to the topic discussed, from the simplest to the most sublime.

Q. What do you understand by philosophical writing?

A. All compositions on the subjects of art

and science, or the investigation of moral and physical truth.

Q. What should be the character of compositions of this kind?

A. Plainness and perspicuity of style, and clear and accurate arrangement, are the chief requisites.

CHAPTER XXXVIII.

Of Orations.

Q. What do you understand by Orations? A. All those displays of public speaking denominated oratory or eloquence.

Q. Into how many species may eloquence be divided?

A. Into three: the eloquence of popular assemblies; the eloquence of the bar; and the eloquence of the pulpit; the last a species entirely unknown to the ancients.

Q. What other names do these sometimes receive?

A. The first is called the eloquence of the senate; the second, the eloquence of the forum; and the last, appropriated to sacred subjects, is generally styled sermons.

Q. What is the object of all public speaking? A. To instruct and to persuade.

Q. What is the first requisite in the art of persuading?

A. Extensive knowledge, sound sense, and solid judgment, together with great command of language, and a correct and graceful elocution.

Q. What do you deem the next requisite?

A. That we be ourselves perfectly in earnest, and fully persuaded of that to which we demand the assent of others.

Q. What are the principal parts of a regular oration or discourse?

A. The Exordium, the Division, the Narration, the Confirmation, the Refutation, and the Peroration.

Q. What do you understand by the Exordium?

A. The beginning or introduction in which the speaker states the object he has in view, and bespeaks the favour and attention of his audience.

Q. What do you mean by the Division?

A. The part in which the speaker mentions the nature of the question at issue, and lays down the plan which he means to pursue in discussing it.

Q. What do you understand by the Narration?

A. That part in which the speaker takes a view of his whole subject, and states the facts connected with the case.

Q. And what is the Confirmation?

A. The part in which the orator gives his own opinions, and brings forward all the proofs and arguments on which they are founded. Q. And what is the Refutation?

A. The part in which the speaker answers the various objections and arguments that may be brought against his opinions by an oppo

nent.

Q. What is then the Peroration?