fair conclusion that whenever an orator wishes to know what effect he has wrought on his audience, he should coolly and conscientiously propound to himself this question....have I, myself, throughout my oration, felt those clear and cogent convictions of judgment, and that pure and exalted fire of the soul, with which I wished to inspire others? For, he may rely on it, that he can no more impart (or to use Bacon's word, transmit) convictions and sensations which he himself has not, at the time, sincerely felt, than he can convey a clear title to property, in which he himself has no title.

This leads me to remark a defect which I have noticed more than once in this country. Fol lowing up too closely the cold conceit of the Roman division of an oration, the speakers set aside a particular part of their discourse, usually the peroration, in which, they take it into their heads that they will be pathetic. Accordingly when they reach this part, whether it be prompted by the feelings or not, a mighty bustle commences. The speaker pricks up his cars, erects his chest, tosses his arms with hysterical vehemence and says every thing which he supposes ought to affect his hearers; but it is all in vain for it is ob vious that every thing he says is prompted by the head; and, however, it may display his ingenuity and fertility.. .however it may appeal to the admiration of his hearers, it will never strike deeper. The hearts of the audience will refuse. all commerce except with the heart of the speak er ; nor, in this commerce, is it possible, by any disguise, however artful, to impose false ware on

them. However the speaker may labor to seem to feel, however near he may approach to the appearance of the reality, the heart, nevertheless, possesses a keen, unerring sense, which never fails to detect the imposture. It would seem as if the heart of man stamps a secret mark on all its effusions, which alone can give them currency, and which no ingenuity, however adroit, can successfully imitate. I have been not a little diverted, here, in listening to some fine orators, who deal almost entirely in this pathos of the head. They practice the start, the pause....make an immense parade of attitudes, and gestures, and seem to imagine themselves piercing the heart with a thousand wounds. The heart all the time, developing every trick that is played to cajole her, and sitting serene and composed, looks on and smiles at the ridiculous pageant as it passes. Nothing can, in my opinion, be more illy judged in an orator, than to indulge himself in this idle, artificial parade. It is particularly unfortunate in an exordium. It is as much as to say, caveat auditor; and for my own part, the moment I see an orator rise with this menacing majesty.....assume a look of solemn wisdom..... stretch forth his right arm, like the rubens dexter of Jove....and hear him open his throat in deep and tragic tone, I feel my self involuntarily braced and in an attitude of defence, as if I were going to take a boat with Mendoza.....The Virgi nians boast of an orator of nature, whose manner was the reverse of all this; and he is the only orator of whom they do boast, with much emphasis. I mean the celebrated Patrick Henry, whom,

I regret, that I came to this country too late to see. I cannot, indeed, easily forgive him, even in the grave, his personal instrumentality in separating these fair colonies from Great-Britain. Yet I dare not withhold from the memory of his talents, the tribute of respect to which they are so justly entitled. I am told that his general appearance and manners were those of a plain farmer or planter of the back country; that, in this character, he always entered on the exordium of an oration....disqualifying himself, with looks and expressions of humility so lowly and unassuming, as threw every heart off its guard and induced his audience to listen to him, with the same easy openness with which they would converse with an honest neighbor:....but, by and bye....when it was little expected, he would take a flight so high, and blaze, with a splendor so heavenly, as filled them with a kind of religious awe, and gave him the force and authority of a prophet. You remember this was the manner of Ulysses; commencing with the look depressed, and hesitating voice. Yet I dare say Mr. Henry was directed to it, not by the example of Ulysses, of which it is very probable, that, at the commencement of his career, at least, he was entirely ignorant: but either that it was the genuine, trembling diffidence, without which, if Tully may be believed, a great orator never rises; or else that he was prompted to it by his own sound judgment and his intimate knowledge of the human heart. Ihave seen the skeletons of some of his orations. The periods and their members are short, quick, eager, palpitating, and are manifestly the extemporane

ous effusions of a mind deeply convinced, and a heart inflamed with zeal for the propagation of those convictions. They afford, however, a very inadequate sample of his talents; the stenographer having never attempted to follow him, when he arose in the strength and awful majesty of his genius.

I am not a little surprised to find eloquence of this high order so negligently cultivated in the United States. Considering what a very powerful engine it is in a republic, and how peculiarly favorable to its culture, the climate of republics has been always found, I expected to have seen in America, more votaries to Mercury than even to Plutus. Indeed it would be so sure a road both to wealth and honors, that if I coveted either, and were an American, I would bend all my powers to its acquirement, and try whether I could not succeed as well as Demosthenes in vanquishing natural imperfections. Ah! my dear S......., were you a citizen of this country!.... You, under the influence of whose voice a parliament of Great-Britain has trembled and shuddered, while her refined and enlightened galleries have wept and fainted in the excess of feeling!....what might you not accomplish !.... But, for the honor of my country, I am much better pleased that you are a Briton. On the subject of Virginian eloquence, you shall hear farther from me. In the mean time, adieu, my S......., my friend, my father.

SIR

MR PLEASANTS,

AS the theory of the earth derives impor tance from its dignity, if not from, its utility, and has of late years given birth to many ingenious speculations, I shall offer no apology for troubling you with the following remarks, which were suggested by an essay, in last Wednesday's Argus, entitled "The British Spy."

Sea shells and other marine productions differing in no respect from those which now exist in their native element, have been found in every explored part of the globe. They are found, too,. in the highest as well as in the lowest situations... on the loftiest mountains of Europe, and the still loftier Andes of South America. To go no farther from home, our own Alleghany abounds with them. How were these substances separat ed from their parent ocean? Do they still remain in their primitive beds, and has the water deserted them, or have they deserted the water? These questions, differently answered, give rise to different theories.

Among these theories, that of the Count de Buffon stands conspicuous. Adorned with all the graces of style, and borrowing a lustre from his other splendid productions, it has long had its full share of admirers.... After exhibiting newproofs of a former submersion, in which he discovers great ingenuity, and is certainly entitled to great praise, he proceeds to account for the earth in its present form, by a natural operation of the ocean which covered it. This hypothesis, which the British Spy has partially adopted, is li