de without the charms of persuasive words, nor that law-givers,
without extraordinary talent for speaking, could have forced men to bend
their necks to the yoke of the laws. Even the precepts of moral life,
tho engraved on our hearts by the finger of nature, are more efficacious
to inspire our hearts with love for them when their beauty is displayed
by the ornaments of eloquent speech. Tho the arms of eloquence may harm
and benefit equally, we must not, therefore, look on that as bad which
may be put to a good use. Doubts of this kind may well be entertained by
such as make "the force persuasion the end of eloquence," but we who
constitute it "The science of speaking well," resolved to acknowledge
none but the good man an orator, must naturally judge that its advantage
is very considerable.

Certainly, the gracious Author of all beings and Maker of the world, has
distinguished us from the animals in no respect more than by the gift of
speech. They surpass us in bulk, in strength, in the supporting of
toil, in speed, and stand less in need of outside help. Guided by nature
only, they learn sooner to walk, to seek for their food, and to swim
over rivers. They have on their bodies sufficient covering to guard them
against cold; all of them have their natural weapons of defense; their
food lies, in a manner, on all sides of them; and we, indigent beings!
to what anxieties are we put in securing these things? But God, a
beneficent parent, gave us reason for our portion, a gift which makes us
partakers of a life of immortality. But this reason would be of little
use to us, and we would be greatly perplexed to make it known, unless we
could express by words our thoughts. This is what animals lack, more
than thought and understanding, of which it can not be said they are
entirely destitute. For to make themselves secure and commodious
lodges, to interweave their nests with such art, to rear their young
with such care, to teach them to shift for themselves when grown up, to
hoard provisions for the winter, to produce such inimitable works as wax
and honey, are instances perhaps of a glimmering of reason; but because
destitute of speech, all the extraordinary things they do can not
distinguish them from the brute part of creation. Let us consider dumb
persons: how does the heavenly soul, which takes form in their bodies,
operate in them? We perceive, indeed, that its help is but weak, and its
action but languid.

THE VALUE OF