Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 2.djvu/318

266 Now, the art of canting, consists in skilfully adapting the voice, to whatever words the spirit delivers, that each may strike the ears of the audience, with its most significant cadence. The force or energy of this eloquence, is not to be found, as among ancient orators, in the disposition of words to a sentence, or the turning of long periods; but, agreeable to the modern refinements in musick, is taken up wholly, in dwelling and dilating upon syllables and letters. Thus, it is frequent for a single vowel, to draw sighs from a multitude; and for a whole assembly of saints, to sob to the musick of one solitary liquid. But these are trifles; when even sounds inarticulate, are observed to produce as forcible effects. A master workman, shall blow his nose so powerfully, as to pierce the hearts of his people, who were disposed to receive the excrements of his brain, with the same reverence as the issue of it. Hawking, spitting, and belching, the defects of other men's rhetorick, are the flowers, and figures, and ornaments of his. For, the spirit being the same in all, it is of no import, through what vehicle it is conveyed.

It is a point of too much difficulty, to draw the principles of this famous art, within the compass of certain adequate rules. However, perhaps I may one day oblige the world, with my critical essay upon the art of canting; philosophically, physically, and musically considered.

But, among all improvements of the spirit, wherein the voice has born a part, there is none to be compared with that of conveying the sound through