Captain Anthony Fool relates, that his ship, being one of a fleet, in 1761, whereof there was a ship laden with oil, which escaped through the seams of the casks containing it, and mixing with the water in the hold, both were pumped up together, while it was remarked that the ship's wake was as smooth as a mirror : The longer the pumping continued, the more was the wake enlarged, and, notwithstanding the agitation of the sea continued, the waves did not break '

In the year 1755, Captain May, an experienced navigator of the Low Countries, while lieutenant of the Phoenix ship of war, had two Neapolitan barks laden with oil under convoy in the Mediterranean. The cargo having been a year on board, the vessels containing it were damaged, the oil escaped, and was pumped up with the bilge-water from the hold. A perfect calm, too conspicuous to elude notice, was constantly produced on the surface of the sea all around both the vessels, while those at a distance sailed in troubled waters. The Phoenix was at this time one of a fleet of 79 vessels, and, after cruizing from Carthagena to Malta, and elsewhere, with five or six weeks of bad weather, she experienced a frightful storm, in the latitude of Lisbon. It was scarce possible for the fleet to shew any sail and during the whole interval, the two oil vessels were regularly pumped twice a-day, at seven in the morning, and again at sun-set, when part of the cargo was always discharged. Notwithstanding the turbulence of the sea, the oil extended to a great distance, separating and diffusing itself widely around the vessels, and arresting the progress of the waves, by which means they, and others in their immediate vicinity, were in a calm, as perfect as one that followed the storm. Though the billows continued to flow in lofty undulation, their surfaces were smoothed; the smaller waves rolling over them were in general dispersed, nor were breakers visible.'

In regard to the method of employing oil, if only designed to smooth the surface of the sea, so as to expose the view of what is below, it is said to be enough to dip a feather in it, which is drawn through the water. If a more important purpose be designed in averting the presence of danger, a quantity must be allowed to escape slowly through a tube, the size of a goose quill, which will be sufficient to quell the turbulence of the waves; and as the effect is gradually lost, the effusion must be repeated.'

We must not suppose, however, in here describing the properties of oil, that a calm and level plain is produced by its effusion on the sea, that the billows cease to rise, and the surface is void of undulation. On the contrary, the swell remains unabated; but a vessel will safely mount the waves, and lie in the yallies between them, for the breakers, which are most of all to be dreaded, disappear. The lofty precipices, which would otherwise overhang the stern, threatening destruction in their fall, gradually decline when under the influence of the repelling fluid, and instead of washing the decks of the vessel from above, elevate the hull on their successive summits,'

As in this compilation the narratives are frequently copied almost literally from the original accounts, the style varies greatly; some of the tales of disaster being well related, while others are encumbered with circumlocution, and rendered heavy by injudicious arrangement. In the concluding sketch, on the subject of preserving lives in shipwreck, (the only part which has pretension to originality,) the reader will discover much useful information. An index is added: but it is confined within too scanty limits for a book which contains such a miscellaneous mass of particulars.

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ART. VII. The Art of Extempore Public Speaking, including a Course of Discipline for obtaining the Faculties of Discrimination, Arrangement, and oral Discussion; designed for the Use of Schools and Self-Instruction. By John Rippingham, Author of "Rules for English Composition," &c. 12mo. pp. 264. 6s. Boards. Longman and Co. 1813.

OF

F this work the title is faulty: ex-tempore is not an adjective, nor is it an anglicism; and the book treats of orthoepy, and of recitation, not less extensively than of speechmaking. An introduction to elocution and rhetoric, however, is not superfluous. The critical taste of the author may be appreciated by his assertion, in the dedication, that Lord Grenville is the greatest orator of the age,

The first rule offers very humble and trivial instructions for the articulation of trisyllables; and an arbitrary list of words is given, which are to be pronounced clearly and distinctly, with an interval of silence after each. No more than one word is to be uttered with the same breath; nor is a humming sound, or a drawling tone, to be carried on from one word to another. A column follows of words divided (as in spelling-books) syllabically by hyphens, in this manner: Ac-quiesce, Ap-pre-hend, Car-a-van, Cav-al-cade, Cor-re-spond. This section is below the dignity of the subject.-The second rule inveighs against pronouncing v for w, or w for v; and a well-chosen list of words is given, in which this error would be fatal to intelligibility: viz. Vail, Wail; Vane, Wane; Vary, Wary; Weal, Veal. The third rule cautions against vicious aspiration, and places in opposition such words as Aft, Haft; Ail, Hail; Air, Hair; Ale, Hale; Yew, Hew. Among these words, we are here directed to distinguish Our and Hour; and such distinction may be desirable, but the usage of the language is to pronounce them alike. Mr. Rippingham also advises us to distinguish in pronunciation, as the practice is in the north of England, the words Wale, Whale; Weal, Wheel; Wert,

Were, Where; Wet, Whet; Wine, Whine.—The fourth rule treats of accent; the fifth, of emphasis; the sixth, of pause; and under each canon are given quotations which supply convenient exercises.

At length, the author reaches his proper subject; which is to teach the attentions that are peculiarly requisite in public speaking. Here we will extract a page or two, and subjoin

our comments:

• THE VOICE.

Rule 7.- Begin gently. Let the tone of your voice, in reading and speaking, be natural and easy.

Rule 8.- Increase the force of your voice, so that you may be heard by the most distant person in the room. But do not bawl: a clear articulation and moderate force of voice will be sufficient.

• Rule 9.-If the voice should have imperceptibly become too loud, begin the next sentence with a much lower tone.

Rule 10.- Vary your voice according to the nature of the sub ject; the solemn, the serious, the vehement, the familiar, the gay, the humorous, or the ironical.

• GESTURE.

Gesture for Reading.

Rule 11.-Rest the whole weight of the body on the right leg; the other just touching the ground, at the distance at which it would naturally fall, if lifted up to shew that the body does not bear upon it. Let the knees be straight: and the body straight (yet not perpendicular) but inclining to the right.

Rule 12.- Hold the book in the left hand.

Rule 13.-Look at those who are hearing as often as possible: but do not lose the place or forget the words.

Rule 14.- Elevate the right hand when any thing sublime, lofty, or heavenly, is expressed.

Rule 15. Let the right hand (but not any single finger) point downwards, when any thing low or grovelling is expressed.

• Gesture for Speaking.

• Rule 16.-Begin as in reading. Let the whole weight of the body rest on the right leg; the other just touching the ground, at the distance at which it would naturally fall, if lifted up to shew that the body does not bear upon it. Let the knees be straight and firm, and the body straight, yet not perpendicular, but inclining to the right. Let both arms hang in their natural place by the side.

Rule 17.- Immediately after the first word has been spoken, let the right arm be held out, the palm open, the fingers straight and close, the thumb almost as distant from them as possible, and the flat of the hand neither vertical nor horizontal, but between both.

Rule 18.-When one sentence has been pronounced in this posi tion, and during the utterance of the last word, the right hand, as if lifeless, must drop down to the side.

Rule 19. At the beginning of the second sentence; the body, without moving the feet, must poise itself, on the left leg; the left hand must be raised exactly as the right one was before, and continue in this position till the end of the sentence, and then drop as if lifeless.

. Rule 20.- At the third sentence, the body and hands to be as they were during the first and so on alternately during the whole of the speech.

Rule 21.-Take care to end each sentence completely, before the next is begun.

Rule 22.-In vehement, or otherwise impassioned passions, raise the arm which is in action, until it be on a level with the shoulder let the lower part of the arm (that is, from the elbow-joint,) be inclined toward the head, in the same manner as when taking off the hat; and let the arm be suddenly straightened into its first position the very moment the emphatical word is pronounced.

Rule 23.- In every movement of the arm, keep the elbow at a distance from the body.

Rule 24.-Let the eyes be directed to those who are addressed ; excepting when the subject requires them to be raised.

Rule 25.-Endeavour to enter into the sense and spirit of every passage, and feel what is expressed. This is the best guide to emphasis, tone, and gesture.'

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Several of these rules are obviously just, if superfluously minute but several others are exposed to the suspicion of being injudicious and improper. We would instance the 17th rule as containing a direction seldom expedient, and frequently absurd. Suppose the Lord's Prayer to be the subject of recitation; how unmeaning, and without motive, would this quaint gesticulation appear? A speech most naturally opens with some such partomime as a well-dressed man employs to separate a crowd, which he does not care to jostle." Make way for me; I have claims on your deference." This is a sentiment common to him who walks the beau, or who talks the orator. To win an easy way, each would naturally adopt similar action. Now this natural action does not display the palm, but the upper surface of the hand, as when a swimmer pushes back the wave on which he rises.

We would moreover instance the 18th rule as containing a direction frequently unwise. The same purpose, or emotion, usually continues for the first three or four sentences of a discourse; and, in this case, the accompanying descriptive gesture should also continue. An air of gentle intreaty, or of bespeaking attention, is commonly the behaviour which belongs

to an exordium.

The 19th rule is perhaps applicable when the second sentence is a duplicate of the first, and repeated to the other side of the room, or when it is put in parallel opposition to the

first sentence: but it is only in a case of tautology, antithesis, that the first two sentences can properly be executed with identical gestures from alternate sides of the body.

The 20th rule is here given seriously: but, if Martinus Scriblerus had been made to bequeath to us an art of sinking in rhetoric, we much suspect that he too would have enforced this see-saw of the arms,- this right-hand and left, so ingeniously copied from the alternate dangling of kid-gloves which the Spaniard exhibits in his minuet.

The 22 rule indicates a vague though a vehement pantomime, somewhat resembling the action of a slinger, and therefore proper perhaps when a bold sentiment has been hazarded, of which the speaker awaits the impression: but here the action is commanded generally, without specifying the state of feeling with which it is naturally and necessarily associated; as if any gesticulation could be in its place, which is not intimately connected with the drift and purpose of the discourse.

Of all the rules, the concluding one appears to us the best, If a person would acquire a gesticulation at once natural and expressive, let him accustom himself when alone to break loose into pantomime. Let the servants and the neighbours call him crazy, or report that he is going on the stage; he must not regard them, but continue to recite striking passages before his mirror; and to declaim aloud with hurried step, and reddening cheek, and twanging voice. Let anger tingle to his finger-ends; let him clench the fist, and squeeze the lips. It is by accustoming the whole soul to rush with every idea into the appertaining fibre of the frame, that an animability of body is acquired, (if we may coin a word,) -a ductile vivacity of feeling, a susceptibility to various affections, a voluntary glow of emotion, a readiness at exterior passion. When this quickness of pathetic impression is acquired, and it is especially favoured by dramatic exercitation, it will always suffice to let the body obey the soul. The presence of an audience will coerce the madman-like gesticulation of solitude, and subdue the carriage into the forms of grace: but, at first, without a little extravagance and raving and caricature, a youth cannot learn what are the powers of impression and expression which he possesses. Gentlemen seldom excel in gesticulation, because they dare not go beyond the gentleman during their apprenticeship.

A vast portion of this book consists of extracts from various authors, which the pupil is expected to read aloud, or to learn by heart. They are very moral, but not very appro priate. Who would expect, from a teacher of eloquence, se

lect