A. The part in which the speaker, after appealing to the passions and feelings of his audience, sums up all that has been said, and brings his oration to a conclusion. Q. Are all these parts kept perfectly distinct? A. Not exactly so; for the one is often less or more blended with the other. Q. What, besides talents, is necessary to make a great orator? A. Long and unremitted application to study, and a mind thoroughly imbued with the principles of virtue, and actuated by the noble principle of independence. Q. Is eloquence as much cultivated now as it once was? A. Far from it; the period when eloquence chiefly flourished was in the days when Greece and Rome were in all their splendour, and in the full enjoyment of liberty. Q. Who were the most distinguished of ancient orators? A. Demosthenes among the Athenians, and Cicero among the Romans; the former considered as the greatest that the world has ever seen. CHAPTER XXXIX. Of Novels. Q. What do you understand by the term Novel? A. Novel, in its literal signification, means something new; but, as denoting a branch of literature, it is generally used as the name given to all fictitious compositions in prose. Q. What may this term, in its widest sense, be made to include? A. Allegories, fables, and stories of all kinds, whether invented for the purpose of instruction or amusement. Q. Where had this species of composition its origin? A. It is commonly thought to have originated among the people of Asia, and from them to have found its way into Greece and Rome, and thence into the nations of Europe. Q. What are the best known of eastern fictions? A. The Arabian Nights' Entertainments; though all the writings of the Eastern nations possess more or less of a fictitious character. Q. Who introduced or revived the writing of novels in more modern times? A. A set of strolling bards or story-tellers in France, called Troubadours, who went about proclaiming the deeds of imaginary heroes, in order to prompt to acts of chivalry. Q. In what language did they compose? A. In a sort of Roman-French, called Romanshe, from which is derived our word ro mance. Q. What is the difference between a novel and a romance? ed A. A novel is a fictitious work, either foundupon the events of real life, or at least bearing some resemblance to them; while a romance is a work of a similar kind, having something wild and unnatural in it; and, if rot purely imaginary, resting upon some extravagant tradition, and extending far beyond the limits of probability. Q. When did novel-writing find its way into this country? A. It was introduced into England during the reign of Queen Elizabeth; and since that time it has gradually extended, till now more novels issue from the press than works of almost any other description. Q. Are novels an important branch of literature? A. On this point there is great diversity of opinion; some extolling them as the best teachers of morals; and others condemning them as the polluters of principle, and the contaminators of the mind. Q. What is the character of a good novel? A. A perfect freedom from every species of immoral tendency, together with the power of deeply interesting the feelings of the reader. Q. What is the consequence of too great a love of novels? A. It tends to distract the mind, and disqualify it for solid thinking, and the pursuit of useful knowledge. Q. Is there any peculiar style adapted to novels? A. They admit of every variety of style, according to the nature of the subject and characters; but that must always be the best, which is most natural and animated. CHAPTER XL. Of Blank Verse and Rhyme. Q. What do you understand by Blank Verse? A. That poetry which depends upon measure alone, without any correspondence of sound in the terminating syllables of different lines. Q. Can you give an example? A. "These, as they change, Almighty Father, these Q. What do you mean by Rhyme? A. Poetry in which, besides the measured arrangement of the words, there is a recur |