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rion on the subject ; and , if it be neglected , our judgmettt must be arbitrary . Now those sermons seem most ^ likely to produce the effects above-mentioned , which are best calculated to excite and keep up the attention of the hearers—to give the clearest , corrcctest , and completest view of the subject of the discourse- —and most to affect their hearts and influence their conduct . ( I ) The attention of the congregation seems more likely to be excited and kept up by speaking than by reading . The eyes of the speaker being directed towards his hearers , he is more likely to obtain attention than if they were directed to his book .
The tone of voice and the emphasis in speaking are generally more animated and more varied , according to the different parts of the subject , and , on the whole , more natural than in reading . A great difference is , Indeed , observable amongst readers * Some are less monotonous , and adapt their voice better to the expression of the different ideas and emotions of the mind than
others . Reading , however , is but an imitation of speaking , and its highest excellence consists in adopting those emphases and tones which are natural to us in speaking . It is an art very rarely attained in any tolerable degree of perfection . Correct ideas of the true object to be imitated are seldom formed .
Instead of those various emphases and tones by which the ideas and emotions of the mind should be naturally expressed , a false potion of dignity or solemnity leads men to adopt some peculiar tone ill suited to the various parts of their subject . Hence has arisen the whining cant of some , and the theatrical tone of others . It is admitted that he who delivers a discourse composed by himself is more likely to read it justly , than he who reads the composition of another . Still , however , he is not likely to
come up to the speaker . To do this , he must recal the emotions which he felt while he was composing his discourse , and It is not likely that he will feel them as strongly on their recal , as the speaker will do when they are fresh , and consequently
it is not likely that he will express them as well . . On the other hand , it is admitted that many speakers adopt a bad mode of delivery ( which may be attributed to a false taste ) ; but had they read their sermons , they would probably have adopted the
same , and have been influenced by it in a still greater degree ; since , feeling less of their subject , there would have been less force to overcome it .
The style of a discourse spoken , also , seems more likely to attract attention than that of a written one : yet the writer , it is confessed , can scarcely fail to attain a more correct and elcjjunt style than the speaker ; he certainly has the advantage in
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522 Essay on the Delivery of a Sermon .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Oct. 2, 1806, page 522, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1729/page/18/
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