John Dunton

The degree of perfection in shape and size I take to consist in being extremely narrow, with little ornament, and best of all without a cover, for, by ancient rule, it ought to be the only uncovered vessel in every assembly where it is rightfully used, by which means, from its near resemblance to a pillory, it will ever have a mighty influence on human ears.

of ladders i need say nothing it is observed by foreigners themselves to the honour of our country that we excel all nations in our practice and understanding of this machine the ascending orators do not only oblige the audience in the agreeable delivery but the whole world in their early publication of their speeches which i look upon as the choicest treasury of our british eloquence whereof i am informed that worthy citizen and bookseller mr john dunton has made a faithful and a painful collection which he shortly designs to publish in twelve volumes in folio illustrated with copper plates a work highly useful and curious and altogether worthy of such a hand The last engine of orators is the stage attenuant, erected with much sagacity, sub jove pluvio in trevis et quadrivis.

It is the great seminary of the two former, and its orators are sometimes preferred to the one and sometimes to the other, in proportion to their deservings, there being a strict perpetual intercourse between all three.

from this accurate deduction it is manifest that for obtaining attention in public there is of necessity required a superior position of place but although this point to be generally granted yet the cause is little agreed in and it seems to me that very few philosophers have fallen into a true natural solution of this phenomenon the deepest account and the most fairly digested of any i have yet met with is this that air being a heavy body and therefore according to the system of epicurus continually descending must needs be more so when laden and pressed down by words which are also bodies of much weight and gravity as is manifest from those deep impressions they make and leave upon us and therefore must be delivered from a due altitude or else they will neither carry a good aim nor fall down with a sufficient force corporeum quoque enim vocem constare fatendum est et and I am the readier to favour this conjecture from a common observation, that in the several assemblies of these orators nature itself has instructed the hearers to stand with their mouths open and erected parallel to the horizon, so as they may be intersected by a perpendicular line from the zenith to the centre of the earth, in which position, if the audience be well compact, everyone carries home a share, and little or nothing is lost.

End of The Death of Pan by Lord Dunsany

Dialogue between the spirits of a poet and a drunkard by John Dunton 1659-1733 this is a librivox recording all librivox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit librivox dot org drunkard well met brother which way is your flight designed poet i have just left the bosom of causes to take a prospect of the lower world to see if there be any preparation for my reception there and yet I'm much troubled at the apprehension of being clogged with the uneasy, restless lump of humanity, and the attending consequences make me very impatient.

Trunkard, why so? What conjectures have ye? Poet, tis the want of reasonable conjectures, for by all the observations I can make of my temper, I cannot resolve myself whether I am a male or a female spirit.

but why do i thus busy myself about sexes certainly tis ominous

Nor is there any spirit in all our order That can be afraid of such a body, But I must meet with it in this epitome of all plagues.

A drunkard can be poet, beggar, cully, buffoon, or anything, So that I'm like to meet with the most abject slavery in nature.

End of Dialogue between the Spirits of a Poet and a Drunkard by John Dunton 1659-1733

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