KIRWAN. S65 passions of a mixed audience, are most powerful instru ments in the hands of the orator; and the popular success of the evangelical preachers in our dissenting chapels— and even of ignorant enthusiasts in the sectarious conven ticles, where clamour, wild action, and fanatical zeal so frequently supply the place of argument and true elo quence, proves, by the rapid increase of proselytes from the established church to the profession of methodism, how ineffective are the short and solemn discourses of our orthodox divines to arrest the attention and awaken the consciences of that class of their audience who stand most in need of instruction. Hence their complaints of the increase of methodism, and hence the desertion of our parish churches by the lower and middling classes, to fol low the declamatory lectures, and catch the fanatical fire of the dissenting orators. But the glowing language, the simple, though elegant compositions, the powerful intonations, and the eloquent action of Mr. Kirwan—whose eye, -whose hand,-whose every inflexion of attitude as well as voice, more than doubled the powers of his language, were felt by every class of hearers, and identified the whole preacher with the very souls of his congregation. These qualifications so new in the usage of the established church, threw a charm round his discourse, attractive to all ranks; and the united talents of Bossuet, Massillon, Bourdaloue, and Fléchier, seemed now to concentre in a man, who had made their eloquence and their celebrity the models for his own. Eloquence i s , indeed, a n indigenous plant i n the luxu riant soil o f Ireland; and when we recollect, within our own day, the splendours o f a Flood, o f a Burke, o f a Sheridan, o f a Grattan, o f a Curran, o f a Ponsonby, and many others we could enumerate, which challenged the admiration o f senates, we recognise them a s the contem poraries and countrymen o f Kirwan, whose talents have s o universally marked him a s a gem o f the same mine, t o which the British empire i s indebted for s o many splendid ornaments i n every walk o f genius.
