1&1. r 1Q! mvryu. 81

anecdotes of mesmerisni. Each auditor puts a final stroke to the discourse by exelaiming, “Can he

s

mesmerize me .9 So each man inquires if any orator can change 712's convictions.

But does any one suppose himself to be quite impregn-able‘? Does he think that not possibly a man may come to him who slrall persuade him out of his most settled dctcrlniiiationl’ —for example good sedate citizen as he is, to make a fanatic of him, — or, if he is penurious. to squander money for some purpose he now least thinks of, —— or, if he is a prudent, industrious person, to forsake his work, and give days and wieeks to a new interest? No, he defies any one, every one. Ah! he is thinking of resistance, and of a different turn from his own. But what if one should come of the same turn of mind as his own, and who sees much farther on his own way than he? A man who has tastes like mine, but in greater power, will rule me any day, and make me love my ruler.

Thus it is not powers of speech that we prim-arily consider under this word cloquc/zcc, but the power that being present, gives them their perfection, and being absent, leaves them a merely superficial value. Eloquence is the appropriate organ of the highest personal energy. Personal aseendency may exist with or without adequate talent for its expres-

sion. It is as surely felt as a mountain or a planet; VQL- VII. G