will be conscious of a distinct improvement in your own command of
persuasive speech.


_W. J. Fox_

The following is a specimen of masterly oratorical style, from a sermon
preached in London, England, by W. J. Fox:

"From the dawn of intellect and freedom Greece has been a watchword on
the earth. There rose the social spirit to soften and refine her chosen
race, and shelter as in a nest her gentleness from the rushing storm of
barbarism; there liberty first built her mountain throne, first called
the waves her own, and shouted across them a proud defiance to
despotism's banded myriads, there the arts and graces danced around
humanity, and stored man's home with comforts, and strewed his path
with roses, and bound his brows with myrtle, and fashioned for him the
breathing statue, and summoned him to temples of snowy marble, and
charmed his senses with all forms of eloquence, and threw over his final
sleep their veil of loveliness; there sprung poetry, like their own
fabled goddess, mature at once from the teeming intellect, gilt with
arts and armour that defy the assaults of time and subdue the heart of
man; there matchless orators gave the world a model of perfect
eloquence, the soul the instrument on which they played, and every
passion of our nature but a tone which the master's touch called forth
at will; there lived and taught the philosophers of bower and porch, of
pride and pleasure, of deep speculation, and of useful action, who
developed all the acuteness and refinement, and excursiveness, and
energy of mind, and were the glory of their country when their country
was the glory of the earth."