, whose habits have been formed in the
study, are often defective even in common conversation, and utterly
unable to undertake with success the task of public extemporaneous
speaking. From this cause it is, that some of our ablest men, and our
greatest scholars, are necessitated to read that which they dare not
trust themselves to speak; while others, by a different practice, and
perhaps with fewer real attainments, feel no difficulty in arranging
their ideas, and delivering them at the same time with ease and fluency.
Hence it is also, that travelling, frequent intercourse with strangers,
debating societies, and above all, forensic pleadings, sharpen the
faculties, and give an ease and accuracy in thinking and speaking, which
are but rarely acquired in the same degree in any other way.

There is one particular feature in this department of Nature's teaching,
which is of so much importance both to the young and to adults, that it
ought not to be passed over without notice. It is the important fact,
that the highest attainments in this valuable accomplishment are within
the reach of almost every individual pupil, by a very moderate diligence
in the use of the proper means. The counterpart of this is equally true;
for without culture, either regular or accidental, no portion of it can
ever be acquired. This is abundantly proved both by experience and
analogy. Experience has shewn, that in every case, perseverance alone,
often without system, has made great and powerful speakers; and the
analogy between the expression of our feelings by _words_ and by
_music_, shews what proper training may do in both cases. Every one will
admit that it is easier to give expression to our feelings by the
natural organs of speech, than by the mechanical use of a musical
instrument; and if by making use of the proper means, and with a
moderate degree of diligence and perseverance, every man can be trained
to play dexterously on the violin, or the organ, and at the same moment
maintain a perfect command over the operations of his mind,--we may
reasonably conclude, from analogy, that with an equal, or even a smaller
degree of diligence, when the means have been equally systematized, the
most humble individual may be trained to manage the operations of his
mind, while he is otherwise making use of his _tongue_, as the other is
of his _fingers_.

But the opposite of this, as we have stated above, is equally true. For,
although a man may, by dil