on Hooker, Sir Thomas Brown, and the author of the Decay of Piety—an admirable writer, who deserves to be much more studied than he is, on account of the energy of his style, and the very lively imagery in which he everywhere abounds, both in the work already mentioned and the Government of the Tongue. There is a little too much of cant in his works, and somewhat too gloomy and austere an enforcement of religious doctrines. Had he written on any other subject than religion, he would have been, I believe, a very popular author.
Mr. Hamilton, the gentleman above-mentioned, is master of an admirable style, and very happy in short characteristick expressions. Being asked what he thought of the two most distinguished orators of the present day, Mr. C. Fox and young Mr. Pitt, he said the oratory of the latter appeared to him only “languid elegance;” that of Mr. Fox, “spirited vulgarity.”
It is a striking circumstance and presumptive proof that Mr. Fox[1] is little better than a popular declaimer, and ready and dexterous parliamentary disputant (which he is universally allowed to be), but with no pretensions to the character of a real orator; that no marked or singularly happy expression of his has ever been quoted after any debate in a period of ten years. This was not the case with Lord Chatham, Mr. Charles Townshend, Mr. Flood, and
- ↑ When I wrote this, I had not often heard Mr. Fox. I have since, and now think him, if not a consummate orator, a most able, vigorous, and impressive speaker. He is always logical, acute, various, rapid, copious, and energetick, and perfectly exhausts, though he seldom adorns his subject. He is also uncommonly dexterous and able in displaying the weak parts of his adversary’s arguments.—Mal.
