felt in silence. It has been supposed, that ignorance is extremely
susceptible of the pleasures of wonder: but wonder and admiration are
different feelings: the admiration which a cultivated mind feels for
excellence, of which it can fully judge, is surely a higher species of
pleasure, than the brute wonder expressed by "a foolish face of
praise." Madame Roland tells us, that once, at a sermon preached by a
celebrated Frenchman, she was struck with the earnest attention
painted in the countenance of a young woman who was looking up at the
preacher. At length the fair enthusiast exclaimed, "My God, how he
perspires!" A different sort of admiration was felt by Caesar, when the
scroll dropped from his hand whilst he listened to an oration of
Cicero's.

There are an infinite variety of associations, by which the orator has
power to rouse the imagination of a person of cultivated
understanding; there are comparatively few, by which he can amuse the
fancy of illiterate auditors. It is not that they have less
imagination than others; they have equally the power of raising vivid
images; but there are few images which can be recalled to them: the
combinations of their ideas are confined to a small number, and words
have no poetic or literary associations in their minds: even amongst
children, this difference between the power we have over the
cultivated and uncultivated mind, early appears. A laurel leaf is to
the eye of an illiterate boy nothing more than a shrub with a shining,
pale-green, pointed leaf: recall the idea of that shrub by the most
exact description, it will affect him with no peculiar pleasure: but
associate early in a boy's mind the ideas of glory, of poetry, of
olympic crowns, of Daphne and Apollo; by some of these latent
associations the orator may afterwards raise his enthusiasm. We shall
not here repeat what has been said[71] upon the choice of literature
for young people, but shall once more warn parents to let their pupils
read only the best authors, if they wish them to have a fine
imagination, or a delicate taste. When their minds are awake and warm,
show them excellence; let them hear oratory only when they can feel
it; if the impression be vivid, no matter how transient the touch.
Ideas which have once struck the imagination, can be recalled by the
magic of a word, with all their original, all their associated force.
Do not fatigue the eye and ear of your vivacious pupil with the
monotonous sounds and