Page:Reflections upon ancient and modern learning (IA b3032449x).pdf/78

 destitute of such concurrent Circumstances, though every thing else be equal, can possibly produce.

Besides all this, the Humour of the Age which we live in is exceedingly altered: Men apprehend or suspect a Trick in every Thing that is said to move the Passions of the Auditory in Courts of Judicature, or in the Parliament-House: They think themselves affronted when such Methods are used in Speaking, as if the Orator could suppose within himself, that they were to be catched by, such Baits. And therefore, when Men have spoken to the Point, in as few Words as the Matter will bear, it is expected they should hold their Tongues. Even in the Pulpit, the Pomp of Rhetorick is not always commended; and very few meet with Applause, who do not confine themselves to speak with the Severity of a Philosopher, as well as with the Splendour of an Orator; two Things, not always consistent. What a Difference in the Way of Thinking must this needs create in the World? Anciently, Orators made their Employment the Work of their whole Lives; and as such, they followed it: All their Studies, even in other Things, were, by a sort of Alchemy, turned into Eloquence. The Labour which they