Now, not only have the Germans shown no
eminent aptitude for rhetoric such as the English have shown,--that
was not to be expected, since our public life has done so much to
develop an aptitude of this kind, and the public life of the Germans
has done so little,--but they seem in a singular degree devoid of any
aptitude at all for rhetoric. Take a speech from the throne in
Prussia, and compare it with a speech from the throne in England.
Assuredly it is not in speeches from the throne that English rhetoric
or any rhetoric shows its best side;--they are often cavilled at,
often justly cavilled at;--no wonder, for this form of composition is
beset with very trying difficulties. But what is to be remarked is
this;--a speech from the throne falls essentially within the sphere
of rhetoric, it is one's sense of rhetoric which has to fix its tone
and style, so as to keep a certain note always sounding in it; in an
English speech from the throne, whatever its faults, this rhetorical
note is always struck and kept to; in a Prussian speech from the
throne, never. An English speech from the throne is rhetoric; a
Prussian speech is half talk,--heavy talk,--and half effusion. This
is one instance, it may be said; true, but in one instance of this
kind the presence or the absence of an aptitude for rhetoric is
decisively shown.
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