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MISCELLANEOUS PIECES,

Selected from the best ENGLISH WRITERS, and
disposed under proper Heads, with a view to
facilitate the improvement of YOUTH,

IN READING AND SPEAKING.

TO WICH IS PREFIXED AN ESSAY ON ELOCUTION

and

DIRECTIONS FOR READING.

By W. ENFIELD, LL. D.

-Oculos, paulum tellure moratos,

Sustulit ad proceres; expectatoque resolvit
Ora sono ; nec abest facundis gratia dictis.

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Sold by F. LOUIS, Savoye-Street, N. 12.

1804.

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JOHN CARILL WORSLEY, Esq..

LATE PRESIDENT OF THE ACADEMY IN
WARRINGTON.

SIR,

THIS work having been undertaken principally with the design of assisting the Students at WARRINGTON, in acquiring a just and graceful Elocution, I feel a peculiar propriety in addressing it to you, as a public acknowledgment of the steady support which you have given to this Institution, and the important services which you have rendered it.

IN this Seminary, which was as first established, and has been uniformly conducted, on the extensive plan of providing a proper course of Instruction for young men in the most useful branches of Science and Literature, you have seen many respectable characters formed, who are now filling up their stations in society, with reputation to themselves and advantage to the Public. And, while the same great object continues to be pursued, by faithful endeavours to cultivate the understandings of youth, and by a steady attention to disci

pline, it is hoped, that you will have the satisfaction to observe the same effects produced, and that the scene will be realized, which OUR POETESS has so beautifully described-

When this, this little group their country calls
From academic shades and learned halls,
To fix her laws, her spirit to sustain,

And light up glory thro' her wide domain;
Their various tastes in different arts display'd,
Like temper'd harmony of light and shade,
With friendly union in one mass shall blend,
And this adorn the state, and that defend.

I am,

With sincere Respect and Gratitude;

DEAR SIR,

Your much obliged,

and most obedient Servant,

IV. ENFIELD

A N

ESSAY

Ο Ν

ELOCUTION.

MUCH UCH declamation has been employed to convince the world of a very plain truth, that to be able to speak well is an ornamental and useful accomplishment. Without the laboured panegyrics of ancient or modern orators, the importance of a good elocution is sufficiently obvious. Every one will acknowledge it to be of some consequence, that what a man has hourly occasion to do, should be done well. Every private company, and almost every public assem→ bly affords opportunities of remarking the difference between a just and graceful, and a faulty and unnatural elocution; and there are few persons who do not daily experience the advantages of the former, and the inconveniences of the latter. The great difficulty is, not to prove that it is a desirable thing to be able to read and speak with propriety, but to point out a practicable and easy method by which this accomplishment may be acquired.

Follow Nature, is certainly the fundamental law of Oratory, without a regard to which, all other rules will only produce affected declamation, not just elocution. And some accurate observers, judging, perhaps, from a few unlucky specimens of modern eloquence, have concluded

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