ABSTRACT
As one of several excerpts in the Selections which reflect the tenets of John Thelwall's learner-centred approach to elocutionary development, Armstrong's passage demonstrates the connections between Thelwall's speech-based theory of education and Britain's nascent learning culture. The Selections may be read as a subsidiary to Thelwall's elocutionary lectures or as a composite textual collection which was sold, circulated and recited independently of the lecture. Once Thelwall verbally and physically delivered the Selections in his lectures, they spread in much the same way as the vocal organs diffuse sound: through reverberations. Thelwall's Selections, as an oratorical workbook, promoted the spread of knowledge by encouraging its readers to adopt an oral, performative and co-respondent reading practice. Once released, the Selections physically or orally passed through the hands and mouths of learners and travelled through institutions, reading circles, libraries, coffee-houses and homes, spreading themselves across communities and even nations.
