THE POWER AND CULTIVATION OF ELOQUENCE. a day passes in which it is not in the power of a persuasive tongue to exert some influence for good over the will and judgment of our fellow beings. Why then for an instant should we entertain the thought that eloquence is useless? The field for a pulpit orator is beyond limits. "The pulpit must stand acknowledged while the world shall stand, the most important and effective guard, support, and ornament of virtue's cause.' The reason why so many preachers are unsuccessful is because they do not feel what they preach. Garrick once was asked by a minister "how is it that the stage produces a deeper impression than the pulpit ?" "We preach fiction as if it were truth, you preach truth as if it were fiction," was the reply. The power of true eloquence, touching, grand, sublime, and awful as it sometimes has been is seen only when the speaker stands before you clothed with the simple majesty of truth, and overpowered by the weight of his conviction, forgetting himself and everything but the truth he utters. The fire which he would kindle in others must burn in his own heart, for "the spring and fountain of all eloquence. There is no doubt that many a sermon has been prepared with burning tears in the study, which, when delivered, falls upon the ears of the congregation cold and lifeless. Henry Ward Beecher has truly said: "We have demonstrations enough fortunately, to show that truth alone is not sufficient, for truth is the arrow, but man is the bow that sends it home. There be many men who are the light of the pulpit, whose thought is profound, whose learning is universal, but whose offices are unspeakably dull. They do make known the truth, but without fervor, without grace, without beauty, without inspiration, and discourse upon discourse would 231 fitly be called the funeral of important subjects." As the best music badly played, makes wretched melody, so false and spiritless elocution degrades the finest composition to a level with the worst. But on the other hand mediocrity may be gilded by an eloquent speaker, and common place be made to appear as if inspired by the touch of beauty. Eloquence originates in man's emotional nature, aided by reason, and fixed by the imagination of a mind that feels deeply and conceives vividly. And, when with proper training, those faculties are brought under the control of the will, the speaker will never fail to captivate, arouse, and to carry his audience with him. We should therefore cultivate it as an art. The eloquence of the uncultivated is elicited on occasions and by emergencies. It is not at command. The speaker does not master his own powers, but is mastered by them. Eloquence is a physical as well as an intellectual product. It has to do with the body as well as with the mind. It demands a cultivated, penetrating voice, in which all the emotions of the heart, and operations of the mind should find a ready interpretation. The orator must have a strong and powerful physique, for it is evident that his calling is one that rapidly wears the nerves and exhausts the vital energy. Too much cannot be said upon the necessity of being trained. for the work. How absurd it is to see one arise to address an audience, and use his voice, without having given one moment of thought to the manner in which he uses it. If he were to play upon a violin, flute or piano, what hours, months, and years would he not spend in giving facility to his fingers that he might produce its various combinations of harmo nious sounds, and by his execution bring forth all the richness and delicacy of expression, before he appears in public. How unworthy it is then of one who will appear on the rostrum or pulpit week after week without training, and play upon the grand est of all instruments fashioned by the Creator. An eminent writer has justly said that "an orator, one who has perfectly grasped the art of bodying forth to the eye and ear all there is in him, and who utters accordingly, great thoughts and great feelings, is a most rare and magnificent creation of the Almighty." The study of the art will add immeasurably to our enjoyment, and also to our power of promoting the happiness of others. Since eloquence gives one so much power, and its influence is so great upon mankind, we should with incessant care cultivate the divine gift. CHAPTERS IN WELSH HISTORY. THE PERIOD OF CONQUEST: 43 A. D. as While occupied in Mona, news reached Suetonius that the tribes of the south-east of Britain were in revolt. This was headed by Boadicea, the widow queen' of the Iceni. Her husband Prasutagos, being very wealthy and anxious for the safety and welfare of his family, had thought it prudent to make the emperor by his will joint heir with his daughters. The Roman officials, however, made it a pretext for treating them spoils of war. Boadicea, stung by their insults and outrages, organized a revolt in which she was joined by other tribes. The enraged Britons. attacked the Romans with their allies at Camulodunum (Colchester) and at Verulam, defeating them with the slaughter of about 70,000. When Suetonius returned with his legions, the Britons were again subdued in a fierce battle in which, it is said, about 80,000 were slain. This defeat was followed by the final subjugation of all the British tribes between the Severn and the Humber. Suetonius Paulinus was recalled from Britain in 62 A. D., and though followed by other generals, such as Petronius Turpilianus, Trebellius Maximus, and Victius Bolanus, nothing further was done to extend the -85 A. D. Roman conquest until the accession of Vespasian as emperor in 69. At this time Petilius Cerealis came to Britain, and in the years 69 and 70 he reduced the Brigantes under Roman rule, after many battles and great slaughter. They were reputed to be the most populous tribe in the island, with their territory extending from the Irish Sea to the German Ocean. After him came Julius Frontinus who was engaged chiefly in repressing a revolt of the Silures. lius Agricola who was "in every reHe was followed in 78 A. D. by Juspect the greatest of the Roman go vernors of Britain. His first work was to subdue the Ordovices in the central part of Wales and the borders. This he accomplished in a pitched battle in which the Britons ing on to Mona, he completely subwere severely defeated. And marchdued the tribes in the north-west. Thus reducing Wales entirely under Roman rule. "Agricola now turned his attention to suppressing the abuses which made Roman rule so unbearable to the Britons, a policy attended with such success that the natives began to adopt Roman habits and customs, CHAPTERS IN WELSH HISTORY. and eventually set themselves to learn Latin." The summer of 79 A. D. was spent in securing the pacification of those parts of Britain which were already conquered, and in arrangements for the maintenance of peace by the settlement of a Roman camp at Chester for North Wales, and at Caerleon for South Wales. After this in 80 A. D. Agricola undertook to extend his conquests by subduing the Brigantian tribes towards the north. "It is probable that the army marched against them in two divisions; one division making Lindum (Lincoln), and the other Deva (Chester) its base of operations. The territory of the Brigantes, including the smaller tribe of the Parisii, reached from sea to sea. The country on either side was difficult; but he gave the enemy no rest, and soon brought them to submission, so that they suffered garrisons to be placed among them to hold the country in safety. From these events we may probably date the rise of York (Eburacum) on the river Ouse, which afterwards grew into great importance." At the end of this campaign, the Roman conquest extended probably as far as the present boundaries of England, or to a line drawn from Solway Firth to the mouth of the Tyne. After forming a line of forts between the above points across the island, Agricola in the third year of his rule resolved upon subjugating a further part of the island. "He seems to have marched his army in two divisions, proceeding on the eastern side through Roxburghshire, and on the western through Annandale, until he took possession of the isthmus between Edinburgh and Dunbarton. Agricola spent his fourth summer in securing the country he had acquired. The neck of land between the Frith of Clyde and the Forth is only 233 thirty miles across. And during the winter of 80-81, he laid his plans for a line of forts across this isthmus." In subsequent times these forts which he constructed were connected by a continuous wall or intrenchment, called the Wall of Antonine. This formed the province of Valentia, in the same manner as the kingdom of the Brigantes, when subjugated, became the province of Maxima Cae sariensis." "In his fifth campaign Agricola directed his operations to parts opposite Ireland, whereby Galloway is possibly meant. His sixth campaign, the year after, was directed against the tribes beyond the Forth, and the fleet sent out to explore the harbors of the north, acting in concert with the army, is said to have struck fear into the northern populations lest they should now be cut off from the last refuge of the vanquished, the secret retreats of the sea. The Caledonians, however, far from being cowed, determined, by sinking their mutual jealousies, to oppose a united front to the invader the summer following, that is, in 85. Agricola sent his fleet to create fear and alarm along the coast, and marched his army so far as the Tay, at the meeting of which with the Isla, he is supposed to have found the Caledonians encamped to the number of 30,000 men. A terrible battle ensued, in which the historian asserts that the Caledonians lost one third of their number. This battle is known as that of Mons Granpius or Graupius. After this Agricola led his troops to winter quarters, and the Caledonians were molested no further; for the Roman general was now recalled by Domitian, who had been emperor since 81, and was getting jealous of Agricola's reputation." Thus, although the Roman army advanced to the estuary of the Tay and to other parts of Scotland, yet the isthmus between the Forth and the Clyde became practically the limits of Roman Britain. "Most of the country of the Brigantes had now been brought under Roman rule, but not the whole: for there were Brigantes or kindred peoples beyond the two great rivers, though they usually appear under other names, leaving that of Brigantes to be identified chiefly with their kinsmen between the Forth and the Tees, where in a later age they yielded to an Anglian kingdom its name of Bernicia." This northern part of the province of Valentia very soon recovered its independence again. And when Hadrian came to Britain in 120, he found it best to draw a line from the Solway Firth to the mouth of the Tyne, and to defend it with a ditch, a stone wall and an earthen rampart, together with castles and watch-towers. This was called Hadrian's wall. Antoninus who succeeded Hadrian, found it necessary to send to Britain Lollius Urbicus in the year 139 to subdue the Brigantes between Hadrian's wall and the Firth of Forth; he then restored to the province the boundary fixed by Agricola, and made an earthen rampart between the Forth and the Clyde. This was called the wall of Antonine. This province of Valentia by reason of the unsubdued spirit of its people and incursions made by the wild tribes of the Highlands proved the most troublesome to the Romans during the Roman occupation, and was the first to be given up by the Roman power. Thus in 85 A. D., forty-two years after its invasion under Claudius, Britain up to the Forth and Clyde has been reduced under Roman rule, which is to impress itself henceforth upon the country and its people for all generations. THE "HWYL" AND ITS EFFECTS. Scotchmen, who are proud of their country and of the large proportion of able men whom they have produced during the historic period, frequently taunt the people of Wales with the fact that they have not produced anything like their proper percentage of eminent men. Wales seems to have devoted her attention during the last three or four hundred years to the art of preaching, and she still retains a curious pre-eminence in the matter of addressing and affecting the emotions of large multitudes of people on religious subjects. As far as can be judged of them by comparison with the highest efforts of the great preachers of other nationalities, Welsh sermons have not been signalized so much by high and original thought, or by breadth of view, as by poetical treatment and conta- Undoubt THE ASCENT OF SNOWDON. ing is becoming more and more tinged by the calm thoughtfulness and carefulness of utterance which distin guish pulpit utterances in England. But still, here and there, among the Baptists, the Methodists, and the Independents, there linger men of the old school who indulge to the full in the music of the hwyl. A congregation listening to such a preacher presents a curious study to the educated observer. The elders who sit in the great seat, or "set fawr," nod their heads from time to time, or move the right arm and hand with expressive gesture, or utter a sound "Amen," or felly ("Just so"), or even rise to the enthusiasm of "gogoniant." The wo men folk indulge freely in tears, and the younger people of both sexes are not unaffected for the moment. But whether this peculiar influence of melodious voice and poetical imagery has any further influence upon their life and daily character it would be difficult to say. A Welsh chapel witnesses all the outward fervor and excitement of an English revival meeting, but without any of the immediate effects of loud conversions or access to the penitential bench. Indeed it is open to question whether the constant recurrence of the hwyl to which these congregations are subjected does not have the effect of entirely hardening the hearers and rendering them more or less callous to the influences which the hwyl was originally intended to exercise upon them. Welshmen are popular in English pulpits, and this is to some extent due to the fact that they treat religious subjects with more poetical fervor and speak their sermons with more intonation than their English compeers. But those who endeavor to transplant the hwyl into the English language have to do their spiriting very gently, or it becomes ridiculous. What will suit the broad sweet 235 |