xcellence when accompanied by that preparation which I would
every where imply.

"You are accustomed," says Dinouart,[7] "to the careful study and
imitation of nature. You have used yourself to writing and speaking with
care on different subjects, and have well stored your memory by reading.
You thus have provided resources for speaking, which are always at hand.
The best authors and the best thoughts are familiar to you; you can
readily quote the scriptures, you express yourself easily and
gracefully, you have a sound and correct judgment on which you can
depend, method and precision in the arrangement of proofs; you can
readily connect each part by natural transitions, and are able to say
all that belongs, and precisely what belongs to the subject. You may
then take only a day, or only an hour, to reflect on your subject, to
arrange your topics, to consult your memory, to choose and to prepare
your illustrations,--and then, appear in public. I am perfectly willing
that you should. The common expressions which go to make up the body of
the discourse, will present themselves spontaneously. Your periods,
perhaps, will be less harmonious, your transitions less ingenious, an
ill placed word will sometimes escape you; but all this is pardonable.
The animation of your delivery will compensate for these blemishes, and
you will be master of your own feelings, and those of your hearers.
There will, perhaps, be apparent throughout a certain disorder, but it
will not prevent your pleasing and affecting me; your action as well as
your words will appear to me the more natural."

[7] Sur l'Eloquence du Corps, ou L'Action du Predicateur.

CHAPTER II.

Against what has been advanced in the preceding pages, many objections
will be urged, and the evils of the practice I recommend be declared
more than sufficient to counterbalance its advantages. Of these it is
necessary that I should now take notice, and obviate them as well as I
may.

It should be first of all remarked, that the force of the objections
commonly made, lies against the exclusive use of extempore preaching,
and not against its partial and occasional use. It is of consequence
that this should be considered. There can be no doubt, that he would
preach very wretchedly, who should always be haranguing without the
corrective discipline of writing. The habit of writing is essential.
Many of the objections which are currently made to this mode of address,
fall