out of fight, and ever out of hearing. Secondly, That the materials, being very transitory, have fuffered much from inclemencies of air, especially in these north-west regions.

Therefore, towards the juft performance of this great work, there remain but three methods, that I can think of; whereof the wifdom of our ancestors being highly fenfible, has, to encourage all afpiring adventurers, thought fit to erect three wooden machines for the use of those orators, who defire to talk much without interruption. These are, the pulpit, the ladder, and the stage-itinerant. For, as to the bar, though it be compounded of the fame matter, and defigned for the fame use, it cannot however be well allowed the honour of a fourth, by reason of its level or inferior fituation expofing it to perpetual interruption from collaterals. Neither can the bench itself, though raised to a proper eminency, put in a better claim, whatever its advocates infift on. For, if they please to look into the original defign of its erection, and the circumftances or adjuncts fubfervient to that defign, they will foon acknowledge the prefent practice, exactly correfpondent to the primitive inftitution, and both to answer the etymology of the name, which in the Phoenician tongue is a word of great fignification, importing, if literally interpreted, the place of fleep; but in common acceptation, a feat well bolstered and cushioned, for the repofe of old and gouty limbs : fenes ut in otia tuta recedant. Fortune being indebted to them this part of retaliation, that, as for

merly

merly they have long talked, while other flept; so now they may fleep as long, while others talk.

But if no other argument could occur, to exclude the bench and the bar from the lift of oratorial machines, it were fufficient, that the admiffion of them would overthrow a number, which I was refolved to establish, whatever argument it might coft me; in imitation of that prudent method obferved by many other philofophers, and great clerks, whose chief art in divifion, has been to grow fond of fome proper myftical number, which their imaginations have rendered facred, to a degree, that they force common reafon to find room for it, in every part of na1 ture; reducing, including, and adjusting every genus and species within that compass, by coupling some against their wills, and banishing others at any rate. Now, among all the reft, the profound number THREE is that, which has most employed my fublimeft fpeculations, nor ever without wonderful delight. There is now in the press, and will be published next term, a panegyrical effay of mine upon this number; wherein I have, by most convincing proofs, not only reduced the fenfes and the elements under its banner, but brought over several deferters from its two great rivals, SEVEN and NINE.

Now, the first of these oratorial machines in place, as well as dignity, is the pulpit. Of pulpits there are in this island several forts; but I efteem only that made of timber from the fylva Caledonia, which agrees very well with our climate. If it be upon

its decay, it is the better both for conveyance of found, and for other reasons to be mentioned by and by. The degree of perfection in shape and fize, I take to consist in being extremely narrow, with little ornament; and beft of all without a cover (for, by ancient rule it ought to be the only uncovered veffel in every affembly, where it is rightfully used) by which means, from its near resemblance to a pillory, it will ever have a mighty influence on human ears.

Of ladders I need fay nothing: it is ob erved by foreigners themselves, to the honour of our country, that we excel all nations in our practice and understanding of this machine. The afcending orators do not only oblige their audience in the agreeable delivery, but the whole world in the early publication of their speeches; which I look upon as the choiceft treasury of our British eloquence, and whereof, I am informed, that worthy citizen and bookfeller, Mr. John Dunton, has made a faithful and painful collection, which he fhortly defigns to publish in twelve volumes in folio, illuftrated with copper-plates. A work highly useful and curious, and altogether worthy of fuch a hand.

The laft engine of orators is the * stage itinerant, erected with much fagacity, fub Jove pluvio, in triviis & quadriviis. It is the great feminary of the two former, and its orators are fometimes preferred to the one, and fometimes to the other, in proportion to

• The mountebank's stage, whofe orators the author determines either to the gallows, or a conventicle.

In the open air, and in ftreets where the greateft refort is.

their defervings; there being a strict and perpetual intercourse between all three.

From this accurate deduction it is manifeft, that for obtaining attention in public, there is of neceffity required a fuperior pofition of place. But, although this point be generally granted, yet the cause is little agreed in; and it seems to me, that very few philofophers have fallen into a true, natural folution of this phænomenon. The deepest account, and the most fairly digested of any I have yet met with, is this; that air being a heavy body, and therefore, according to the system of * Epicurus, continually defcending, must needs be more fo, when loaden and preffed down by words; which are alfo bodies of much weight and gravity, as it is manifest from those deep impreffions they make and leave upon us; and therefore must be delivered from a due altitude, or else they will neither carry a good aim, nor fall down with a fufficienr force.

* Corpoream quoque enim vocem conftare fatendum eft, Et fonitum, quoniam poffunt impellere fenfus. Lucr. Lib. 4.

And I am the readier to favour this conjecture, from a common obfervation, that in the feveral affemblies of thefe orators, nature itself has inftructed the hearers to stand with their mouths open, and erected parallel to the horizon, fo as they may be interfected by a perpendicular line from the

*Lucret. Lib. 2.

'Tis certain then, that voice that thus can wound,
Is all material; body every found.

zenith,

zenith, to the center of the earth. In which pofition, if the audience be well compact, every one carries home a share, and little or nothing is loft.

I confefs there is fomething yet more refined, in the contrivance and ftructure of our modern theatres. For, first, the pit is funk below the stage, with due regard to the inftitution above-deduced; that whatever weighty matter shall be delivered thence, whether it be lead or gold, may fall plum into the jaws of certain critics, as I think they are called, which stand ready opened to devour them. Then, the boxes are built round, and raised to a level with the scene, in deference to the ladies; because, that large portion of wit, laid out in raifing pruriences and protuberances, is obferved to run much upon a line, and ever in a circle. The whining paffions, and little starved conceits, are gently wafted up by their own extreme levity, to the middle region, and there fix and are frozen by the frigid understandings of the inhabitants. Bombaftry and buffoonry, by nature lofty and light, soar highest of all, and would be loft in the roof, if the prudent architect had not, with much forefight, contrived for them a fourth place, called the twelve-pennygallery, and there planted a fuitable colony, who greedily intercept them in their paffage.

Now this phyfico-logical scheme of oratorial receptacles or machines, contains a great mystery; being a type, a fign, an emblem, a fhadow, a fymbol, bearing analogy to the spacious commonwealth of writers, and to thofe methods, by which they muft exalt themselves to a certain eminency, above