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first to one ' s mind in such a speculation , and there are some particulars in which he would have the advantage . There has always been a purity in his style , of which Channing has sometimes failed , particularly in his review of Milton , whicn mride some distressing approaches to tne verbose and tinselly . Nor has the American orator , so far as we know , ever rivalled those mighty , sustained , accumulating , and at last overpowering , appeals to the passions of an auditory , of which the finest specimen that our language can boast is to be found in the celebrated peroration of the discourse on " the Sentiments proper to the Present Crisis , " preached in 1803 , when the
land was ringing with the cry "to arms" to repel invasion . The gradual and yet rapid process by which the orator works up his own and his hearers minds , till they behold the spirits of the illustrious dead bending from their thrones in glory to witness the contest , and incapable of enjoying their eternal repose till it be brought to a favourable issue ; the daring rebuke to their anxiety , " Enjoy that repose , illustrious immortals ! " and the solemn final appeal to the God of battles , form a climax which will Jong be found unapproachable . But then , on the other hand , the creations of Channing's imagination , while they seem glorified personifications of all that is bright ,
and beautiful , and grand , never " o ' erstep the modesty of nature , " nor trespass beyond the sublime into the extravagant and grotesque . He has none of the startling hyperbole , the headlong incongruity , by which Hall sometimes disfigures his most pure arid classical pages . He peoples the world of
thought with beings of most desirable and surpassing form and comeliness ; iiot with " gdrgons and hydras , and chimaeras dire . " And if he feels compelled to dwell on the contemplation of scenes of crirriiption , vice , and misery , his relief is to brood over them , like the Divine Spirit over chaos , till they become instinct with light , and life , and love ; not to accumulate them in a central den of infamy , over which we tread with trembling horror , knowing that " the steam from that infernal pit will issue through the crevices until they £ lre filled up with the ruins of all human establishments . *' Then , again , Charming is the best logician ; and there is no real eloquence without at least the semblance of s'bund logic . He who means to persuade
must geem to ' convince . To enlightened hearers , the most moving appeal will always be , in reality , the most conclusive proof . Some of Hall ' s best
reasoned . sermons not only will not bear closet criticism , but their arguments would scarcel y pass muster , in the hearing , with congregations rather above the average for intelligence and quickness of apprehension . Dr . Chanjning's arguments always preach well to the eye . There is a breadth ' and distinctness about them which tells powerfully alike from the press and the pulpit . We don't say as we read , " This might do , if Well delivered ;" and we feel very sure that , if we had been hearers , we should never have said to ourselves , " This won ' t do in print . " He deals chiefly in the direct application of general principles . Simplieitv and power are the
characteristics of his logic . The facility with which its deductions are admitted by the mind allows them to pass directly into the heart . There is no disjunction of the effort to convince and of t , hat to excite . The same process accomplishes both ; and before we are made aware of what is going on , by any oratorical effort , we feel the glowing warmth of the rays , in whose Splendour we had been rejoicing , without the consciousness that heat as well as light was among their essential qualities . And this reminds us of the last superiority of Channing over Hall which we can now stop to mention . He endeavours , and succeeds in the endeavour , rather to interest the feelings deeply than to excite the passions violently . He does not vituperate . He has no hatred
Untitled Article
658 Channing ' s Design of Christianity .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Oct. 2, 1828, page 658, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2565/page/2/
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