distinction between the two kinds of excellence, are we able to arrive
at an approach to a pure oratorical lesson; and, for a long time, we
shall fail to make the desired isolation. We have to learn not to expect
too much from any one speech: to pass over in Macaulay, what is more
conspicuously shown, say in Fox, or in Erskine. If our political and
historical education has made some progress, the mere thoughts and facts
do not detain us; their employment for the end of persuasion is what we
have to take account of.

[COMPREHENSIVE PRINCIPLE OF ORATORY.]

It is impossible here to indicate, except in a very general way, the
successive steps of the operation. The one summary consideration in the
Rhetoric of Oratory, from which flows the entire array of details, is
the regard to the dispositions and state of mind of the audience; the
presenting of topics and considerations that chime in with these
dispositions, and the avoiding of everything that would conflict with
them. To grasp this comprehensive view, and to follow it out in some of
the chief circumstantials of persuasive address--the leading forms of
argument, and the appeals to the more prominent feelings,--would soon
provide a touchstone to a great oration, and lead us to distinguish the
materials of oratory from the use made of them.

Take the circumstance of _negative tact_; by which is meant the careful
avoidance of whatever might grate on the minds of those addressed.
Forensic oratory in general, and the oratory of Parliamentary leaders in
particular, will show this in perfection; and, for a first study of it,
there is probably nothing to surpass the Erskine Speeches above cited.
It could, however, be found in Macaulay; although in a different
proportion to the other merits.

The Macaulay Speeches have the abundance of matter, and the powers of
style, that minister to oratory, although not constituting its
distinctive feature. In these speeches, we may note how he guages the
minds of the men of rank and property, in and out of Parliament, who
constituted the opposition to Reform; how tenderly he deals with their
prejudices and class interests; how he shapes and adduces his arguments
so as to gain those very feelings to the side he advocates; how he
brings his accumulated store of historical illustrations to his aid,
under the guidance of both the positive and the negative tact of the
orator; saying everything to gain, and nothing to alienate the
dispositions