Philosophy of Rhetoric by George Campbell
Philosophy of Rhetoric by George Campbell
Philosophy of Rhetoric by George Campbell
A
A2i
THE
PHILOSOPHY OF RHETORIC,
A NEW EDITION,
WITU THK ACTHOB'S LA.ST Ai>OITIONS AND CORRECTIONS
NEW YORK;
HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS,
>^
329&331PEARLSTREET,
KRANKLIN SQUARE.
1854.
< ISANTA BARBAEA
PREFACE.
and it was then that the first two chapters of the first
book were composed. These he intended as a sort of
groundwork to the whole. And the judicious reader
will perceive that, in raising the superstructure, he has
entirely conformedto the plan there delineated. That
first showed soon after to several of his ac-
outline he
quaintance, some of whom are still living. In the year
1757 it was read to a private literary society, of which
the author had the honour to be a member. It was a
BOOK I.
X CONTENTS.
BOOK II,
THE FOUNDATIOMS AND ESSENTIAL PROPERTIES OF ELOCUTION.
CHAP. I. The Nature and Characters of the Use which gives Law to Language 162
Sect. I. Reputable Use 164
Sect. II. National Use 168
Sect. HI. Present Use 1"0
CHAP. II. The Nature and Use of Verbal Criticism, with its principal Canons. 174
Sect. I. Good Use not always Uniform in her Decisions 176
Canon the First 177
Canon the Second 179
Canon the Third 181
Canon the Fourth il>.
275
4. The Mar\ellou3 276
CHAP. VII. What is the Cause that Nonsense so often escapes being detected,
both by the Writer and by the Reader ? 278
Sect. I. The Nature and Power of Signs, both in speaking and in thinking. . ib.
Sect. II. The Application of the preceding Principles 28*
1
CONTENTS. XI
P»S»
CHAP. VIll. The
extensive Usefulness of Perspicuity 295
Sect. I. When Obscurity apposite, if ever it be apposite, and
is what kind '. t6.
Sect. II. Objections answered 300
CHAP. IX. May there not be an Excess of Perspicuity T 305
BOOK III.
THE DISCKIMINATINO PROPERTIES OF ELOCUTION.
CHAP I. Of Vivacity as depending on the Choice of Words 307
Sect. I. Proper Terms ib.
Sect. Rhetorical Tropes
II. S15
Part I. Preliminary Observations concerning Tropes ib.
Part II. The different Sorts of Tropes conducive to Vivacity 321
1. The Less for the more General ib.
2. The most interesting Circumstance distinguished 322
3. Things Sensible for things Intelligible 325
4. Things Animate for things Lifeless 327
Part III. The Use of those Tropes which are obstructive to Vivacity 331
Sect. III. Words considered as Sounds 338
Part I. WTiat are articulate Sounds capable of imitating, and in what Degree ? 339
Part II. In what Esteem ought this Kind of Imitation to be held, and when
ought it to be attempted? 351
CHAP. II. Of Vivacity as depending on the Number of the Words 353
Sect. I. This Quality explained and exemplified ib.
Sect. II. The principal Offences against Brevity considered 358
Part I. Tautology ib.
Part II. Pleonasm 360
Part III. Verbosity 363
CHAP. III. Of Vivacity as depending on the Arrangement of the Words 372
Sect. I. Of the Nature of Arrangement, and the principal Division of Senten-
ces ib.
Sect. II. Simple Sentences 374
Sect. III. Complex Sentences 38fe
Part I. Subdivision of these into Periods and loose Sentences ib.
Part II. Observations on Periods, and on the Use of Antithesis in the Compo-
sition ofSentences • 29S
Part III. Observations on loose Sentences 401
Part IV. Review of what has been deduced above in regard to Arrangement 403
CHAP. IV. Of the Connectives employed in combining the Parts of a Sentence 404
Sect. I. Of Conjunctions 405
Sect. II. Of other Connectives 41
Sect. III. Modem Languages compared with Greek and Latin, particularly in
regard to the Composition of Sentences 419
CHAP. V. Of the Connectives employed in combining the Sentences in a Dis-
course 423
Sect. 1. The Necessity of Connectives for this Purpose ti.
Sect. II. Observations on the Manner of using the Connectives in combining
Sentences 424
INTRODUCTION
All art is founded in science, and the science is of little
value which does not serve as a foundation to some benefi-
cial art. On the most sublime of all sciences, theology and
ethics, is built the most important of all arts, the art of living.
The abstract mathematical sciences serve as a groundwork
to the arts of tlie land-measurer and the accountant ; and in
conjunction with natural philosophy, including- geography and
astronomy, to those of the architect, the navigator, the dial-
ist, and many others. Of what consequence anatomy is to
surgery, and that part of physiology which teaches the laws
of gravitation and of motion, is to the artificer, is a matter
too obvious to need illustration. The general remark might,
if necessary, be exemplified throughout the whole circle of
'arts, both useful and elegant. Valuable knowledge, there-
fore, always leads to some practical skill, and is perfected
in it. On the other hand, the practical skill loses much of
its beauty and extensive utility which does not originate in
knowledge. There is, by consequence, a natural relation be-
tween the sciences and the arts, like that which subsists be-
tween the parent and the off'spring.
I acknowledge, indeed, that these are sometimes unnatu-
rally separated ; and that by the mere influence of example
on the one hand, and imitation on the other, some progress
may be made in an art, without the knowledge of the princi-
ples from which it sprang. By the help of a few rules, which
men are taught to use mechanically, a good practical arith-
metician may be formed, who neither knows the reasons on
which the rules he works by Avere first established, nor ever
thinks it of any moment to inquire into them. In like man-
ner, we frequently meet with expert artisans, who are igno-
rant of the six mechanical powers, which, though in tlic ex-
ercise of their profession they daily employ, they do not un-
derstand the principles whereby, in any instance, the result
of their application is ascertained. The propagation of the
arts may therefore be compared more justly to that variety
which takes place in the vegetable kingdom, than to the uni-
formity which obtains universally in the animal world for, ;
14 INTRODUCTION.
useful are of slower growth than the other, and their utmost
perfection cannot always be so easily ascertained, yet the
acquisition of any one of them by a learner, in the perfection
which it has reached at the time, is a much easier matter
than the acquisition of any of the elegant arts; besides
that the latter require much more of a certain happy combi-
nation in the original frame of spirit, commonly called genius,
than is necessary in the other.
Let it be observed farther, that as the gratification of taste
is the immediate object of the fine arts, their effect is in a
manner instantaneous, and the quality of any new production
in these is immediately judged by everybody for all have
;
18 INTRODUCTION.
32 INTRODUCTION.
TBG
PHILOSOPHY OF RHETORIC.
BOOK I.
CHAPTER I.
Eloquence in the largest acceptation defined, its more general forms exhib*
ited, with their different objects, ends, and characters.
per qnas imagines rerum absentium ita repraesentantur animo, ut eas cer-
nere oculis ac praesentes habere videaraur."
* Of this kind EucUd hath given us the most perfect models,
which have
not, I think, been sufficiently imitated by later mathematicians. In him
you fmd the exactest arrangement mviolably observed, the properest and
simplest, and, by consequence, the plainest expressions constantly used,
nothing deficient, nothing superfluous in brief, nothing which in more, or
;
fewer, or other words, or words otherwise disposed, could have been better
expressed.
THE PHILOSOPHY OF RHETORIC. 25
latter, argurnent. By that we are made to know, by this to
believe.
The imagination is addressed by exhibiting to it a lively
and beautiful representation of a suitable object. As in this
exhibition the task of the orator may, in some sort, be said,
like that of the painter, to consist in imitation, the merit of
the work results entirely from these two sources : dignity,
as well in the subject or thing imitated as in the manner oi
imitation, and resemblance in the portrait or performance.
Now the principal scope for this class being in narration and
lescription, poetry, which is one mode of oratory, especially
epic poetry, must be ranked under it. The effect of the
iramatic, at least of tragedy, being upon the passions, the
drama falls under another species, to be explained afterward.
But that kind of address of which I am now treating attains
the summit of perfection in the sublime, or those great and
noble images which, when in suitable colouring presented to
the mind, do, as it were, distend the imagination with some
vast conception, and quite ravish the soul.
The sublime, it may be urged, as it raiseth admiration,
should be considered as one species of address to the pas-
sions. But this objection, when examined, will appear su-
perficial. There are few words in any language (particularly
such as relate to the operations and feelings of the mind)
which are strictly univocal. Thus, admiration, when per-
sons are the object, is commonly used for. a high degree of
esteem but, when otherwise applied, it denotes solely an
;
taste for the wonderful, the fair, the good for elegance, for
:
body and its members, are enslaved wliereaa from tiie do-
;
both.
Guided by the above reflections, we may easily trace that
connexion in the various forms of eloquence which was re-
marked on distinguishing them by their several objects. The
imagination is charmed by a finished picture, wiierein even
drapery and ornament are not neglected for here the end is
;
orator; for as on tlie judiciary the lives and estates of private persons de-
pended, on the deliberative hung the resolves of senates, the fate of king-
doms, nay, of the most renowned lepubhcs the world ever knew. Conse-
quently, to excel in these must have been the direct road to riches, honours,
and preferment. No wonder, then, that persuasion should almost wholly
engross the rhetorician's notice.
28 THE philosophy' OF RHETOniC.
gazing on with admiration, we should avert our eyes Irom with abhorrence.
For, however it. might pass in a Roman Senate, I question whether Cice-
ronian eloquence itself could excuse the uttering of such things in any
modern assembly, not to say a polite one. With vernacular expressions
answering to these, " vomere, ructare, frustis esculentis vinum redolenti-
bus," our more delicate ears would be immoderately shocked. In a case of
this kind, the more lively the picture is, so much the more abominable it is.
* A noted passage in Cicero's oration for Cornelius Bulbus will serve as
an example of the union of sublimity with vehemence. Speaking of
Pompey, who had rewarded the valour and public services of our orator's
client by making him a Roman citizen, he says, " IJtrum enim, inscientem
vultis contra fcedera fecisse, an scientem V Si scientem, O nomen noslri
imiierii. O populi Romani excellens dignitas, O Cneii Pompeii sic late lon-
g^que diffusa lans, ut ejus gloris domicilium communis imperii finibus ter-
minetur: O nationes, urbes, populi, reges, tetrarchas, tyranni testes, Cneii
Pompeii non solum virtntis in bello, sed etiam religionis in pace: vos deni-
que niutse regiones imploro, et sola terraruin ultimarum vos maria, portus,
iiisulas,littoraque, qUcB est eniin ora, quse sedes, qui locus, in quo non ex-
tent hujus cum fortitudinis, tum vero humanitatis, turn animi, tum consilii,
impressa vestigia? Hunc quisquam incredibili quadam atque inaudita
gravitate, virtute, constantia prasditum, foedera scientem neglexisse, volasse,
rupisse, dicere audebit." Here everything conspires to aggrandize the
hero, and exalt him to something more than mortal in the minds of the
auditory at the same time, everything inspires the most perfect veneration
;
for his character, and the most entire confidence in his integrity and judg-
ment. The whole world is exhibited as no more than a sufficient theatre
for such a superior genius to act upon. How noble is the idea All the
!
made upon the minds of the people. His words are remarkable: " Atque
C'2
30 THE PHILOSOPHY OF RHETORIC.
Thus much shall suffice for explaining the spirit, the intent,
and the distingiiisliing qualities of each of the forementioned
sorts of address all which agree in this, an accommodation
;
CHAPTER II.
SECTION I
To
consider the matter more nearly, it is the design of wit
to excite in themind an agreeable surprise, and that arising,
not from anything marvellous in the subject, but solely from
the imagery she employs, or the strange assemblage of re-
lated ideas presented to the mind. This end is effected in
one or other of these three ways first, in debasing things
;
ego illos credo qui aderant, nee sensisse quid facerent, nee sponte judicioque
plausisse; sed velut inente captos, et quo assent in loco ignaros, erupisse
in hunc voluntatis affectum," lib. viii., cap. 3. VViiliout douhit a consider-
able share of the effect ought to be ascribed to the immense advantage which
the action and pronunciation of the orator would give to his expression.
* In the latter of these the ancients excel ; in the former, the moderns,
Demosthenes and Cicero, not to say Homer and Virgil, to this day remain
unrivalled, and in all antiquity, Lucian himself not excepted, we ciunot
find a match tor Swil't and Cervantes.
— ;
what
to vilify tndy grave, has something shocking in it,
is
which rarely to connteract the end
fails secondly, in ag- :
with equal latitude. But this is certainly a perversion of the word from its
ordinary sense, through an excessive deference to the manner and idiom of
our ingenious neighbours. Indeed, when an author varies the meaning in
the same work, he not only occasions perplexity to his reader, but falls him-
self into an apparent inconsistency. An error of this kind in Mr. Pope has
been lately pointed out by a very ingenious and judicious critic. "In the
essay on criticism it is said,
'True wit is nature to advantage dress'd.'
But immediately after this the poet adds,
For works may have more wit than does 'em good.'
'
" Now let ussubstitute the definition in place of the thing, and it will stand
thus A work may have more of nature dress'd to advantage than will do i'.
:
good. This is impossible and it is evident that the confusion arises from
;
the poet's having annexed two diflerent ideas to the same word." Webb's
Remarks on the Beauties of Poetry, Dialoiiue ii.
+ Paronomasia is properly that figure which the French call jeu de mo!.i.
Such as •• Inceptio est amentium, hand amantium."— Tfr. Avdr. " Which
templed our attempt."— 3W/., b. i. "To begird the Almighty's throne, be
seeching or besieging." — B. v.
33 THE rUlLOSOPHY OF RHETORIC.
it is certain that, when the effect hath its full influence on us,
Here the low allegorical style of the first couplet, and the
simile used in the second, afford us a just notion of this low-
est species, which is distinguished by the name of the ludi-
crous. Another specimen from the same author you have in
these lines
" Great on the bench, great in the saddle,
That could as well bind o'er as swaddle,
Mighty he was at both of these,
And styled of v;nr as well as peace:
So some rats of amphibious nature
Are either for the land or water."
In this coarse kind of drollery those laughable translations
or paraphrases of heroic and otl}cr serious poems, wherein
the authors are said to be travestied, chiefly abound.
To the same class those instances must be referred in
which, though there is no direct comparison made, qualities
of real dignity and importance are degraded by being coupled
with things mean and frivolous, as in some respect standing
in the same predicament. An example of this I shall give
from the same hand.
•
As Berecynthia, while her offspring vie
In homage to the mother of the sky,
Surveys around her in the bless'd abode
A hundred sons, and every son a god :
more surprising.
The fifth, and only other variety I shall observe, is that
which ariseth from a relation, not in the things signified, but in
the signs of all relations, no doubt the slightest. Identity
here gives rise to puns and clinches. Resemblance to quib-
bles, cranks, and rhymes of these, I imagine, it is quite
:
SECTION II.
OP HUMODR.
D
38 THE THILOSOrHY OF RHETORIC.
former, whereas all things whatever fall within the province of the latter;
secondly, humour paints more simply by direct imitation, wit more variously
by illustration and imagery. Of this kind of humour, merely graphical,
Addison hath given us numberless examples in many of the characters he
hath so finely drawn, and little incidents he hath so pleasantly related in
his Tattlers and S|iectators. [ might remark of the word humour, as 1 did
of the term a-U. that we scarcely find in other languages a word exactly
corresponding. The Latin /nrf/iffi seems to come the nearest. Thus Cice-
ro, " Huic generi oraiioiiis aspergeiitur etiam .sales, qui in dicendo inirum
quantum valent quorum duo genera sunt, unum facetisrum, alterum
:
* Essay on Poetry.
:! ! ;
to find the Legislature make any new laws against the prac-
tice of duelling, because the methods are easy and many for
a wise man to avoid a quarrel with honour, or eng.age in it
with innocence. And I can discover no political evil in suf-
fering bullies, sharpers, and rakes to rid the world of each
other by a method of their own, where the law hath not been
able to find an expedient."!
For a specimen of the humorous, take, as a contrast to the
last two examples, the following delineation of a fop :
But—' "t
This, both in the descriptive and the dramatic part, particu
larly in the draught it contains of the baronet's mind, aspect,
manner, and eloquence (if we except the sarcastic term
justly, the double sense of the word open'd, and the fine irony
couched in the reply), is purely facetious. An instance of
wit and humour combined, where they reciprocally set off
and enliven each other. Pope hath also furnished us with in
another part of the same exquisite performance.
'A Letter to Sir William Windham. t Swift on Good Manners.
t Rape of the Lock, canto 4.
,
D9
42 THE PHILOSOPHY OF RHETORIC.
SECTION III.
OF RIDICULE.
sense, and the virtue of the nation, in his favour Mow much <legrner:tod
from our worthier, though unpolished, ancestors, of whom Tacitus aflirtus,
" Nemo illic vitia ridet; nee corrumpere et corrum(ti saecuhim vocatur."
De Mor. Germ., c. 19. t Poet. 4. t Origin and Progress of Satire.
•i The differe ces and relations to be found in the several forms of poetry
: — :
—g<
I
ject must always appear to the ridiculer, and to those affected by his pleas-
antry, under the notion of littleness and futility, two essential requisites in
the object of contempt and risibility.
t Whether this attention has been always given to morals, particularly in
comedy, must be left to the determination of those who are most conversant
in that species of scenic representations. One may, however, venture to
prognosticate that, if in any period it shall become fashionable to show no
regard to virtue in such entertainments if the hero of the piece, a fine gen
;
tleman, to be sure, adorned, as usual, with all the superficial and exterio:
graces which the poet can confer, and crowned with success in the end,
shall be an unprincipled libertine, a man of more spirit, forsooth, than to be
checked in his pursuits by the restraints of religion, by a regard to the com-
mon rights of mankind, or by the laws of hospitality and private friendship,
which were accounted sacred among pagans and those whom we denomi
nate barbarians; then, indeed, the stage will become merely the school of
gallantry and intrigue thither the youth of both se.Kes will resort, and will
;
not resort in vain, in order to get rid of that troublesome companion, mod-
esty, intended by Providence as a guard to virtue, and a check against li-
centiousness there vice will soon learn to provide herself in a proper Hock
;
of effrontery, and a suitable address for effecting her design*, and triumph-
ing over innocence then, in fine, if religion, virtue, principle, equity, grati-
;
tude, and good faith, are not empty sounds, the stage will prove the great-
est of nuisances, and deserve lo be styled the principal corrupter of the age.
Whether such an era hath ever happened in the history of the theatre, in
this or any other country, or is likely to happen, I do not take upon me to
decide.
THE PHFLOSOPHY OF RHETOUIC. 45
ergy to a joke. The fact, however, is, that in this case the
very dissimulation is dissembled. He would not have you
think him in earnest, though he affects the appearance of it,
knowing that otherwise his end would be frustrated. He
wants that you should perceive that he is dissembling, which
no real dissembler ever wanted. It is, indeed, this circum-
stance alone which distinguishes an ironical expression from
a he. Accordingly, through the thinness of the veil employ-
ed, lie takes care that the sneer shall be discovered. You
are quickly made to perceive his aim, by means of the
strange arguments lie produces, the absurd consequences he
draws, the odd embarrassments which in his personated
character he is involved in, and the still odder methods
he takes to disentangle himself. In this manner doctrines
and practices are treated, when exposed by a continued run
of irony a way of refutation which bears a strong analogy
;
vails most among the lower classes of the people, the latter
only among persons of breeding.
I shall conclude this chapter with observing, that though
the gayer and more familiar eloquence, now explained, may
often properly, as was remarked before, be admitted into
public orations on subjects of consequence, such, for instance
as are delivered in the senate or at the bar, and even some-
times, though more sparingly, on the bench, it is seldom or
never of service in those which come from the pulpit. It is
true that an air of ridicule in disproving or dissuading, by ren-
dering opinions or practices contemptible, hath occasionally
been attempted, with approbation, by preachers of great name.
I can only say, that when this airy manner is employed, it re-
quires to be managed with the greatest care and delicacy,
that it may not degenerate into a strain but ill adapted to so
seriouj an occupation: for the reverence of the place, the
gravity of the function, the solemnity of worship, the severi-
ty of the precepts, and the importance of the motives of re-
ligion; above all, the awful presence of God, with a sense of
which the mind, when occupied in religious exercises, ought
—
eminently to be impressed all these seem utterly incompati-
ble with the levity of ridicule. They render jesting Imperti-
nence, and laughter madness. Therefore, anything in preach-
ing which might provoke this emotion, would justly be deem-
ed an unpardonable offence against both piety and decorum.
In the two preceding chapters I have considered the nature
of oratory in general, its various forms, whether arising from
difference in the object, understanding, imagination, passion,
will; or in the subject, eminent and severe, light and frivo-
THE PHILOSOPHY OF RHETORIC. 49
CHAPTER III.
SECTION I.
tion of things that are amiss yet it does not level at every
;
SECTION 11.
cerned.
In regard to Hobbes's system, I shall only remark farther,
that according to it, a very risible man, and a very self-con-
ceited, supercilious man, should imply the same character,
yet, in fact, perhaps no two characters more rarely meet in
the same person. Pride, and contempt, its usual attendant,
considered in themselves, are unpleasant passions, and tend
to make men fastidious, always finding ground to be dissatis-
fied with their situation and their company. Accordingly,
those who are most addicted to these passions, are not, gen-
erally, the happiest of mortals. It is only when the last ot
these hath gotten for an alloy a considerable share of sensi-
bility in regard to wit and humour, which serves both to mod-
erate and to sweeten the passion, that it can be termed in
any degree sociable or agreeable. It hath been often re-
marked of very proud persons that they disdain to laugh, as
thinking that it derogates from their dignity, and levels them
CHAPTER IV.
is, that the words employed belong to the language, and that
they be construed in the manner, and used in the signification,
which custom hath rendered necessary for conveying the
sense. The orator requires also beauty and strength. The
liighest aim of the former is the lowest aim of the latter;
where grammar ends, eloquence begins.
Thus, the grammarian's department bears much the same
relation to the orators which the art of the mason bears to
that of the architect. There is, however, one difference, that
well deserves our notice. As in architecture it is not neces-
sary that he who designs should execute his own plans, he
may be an excellent artist in this way who would handle
very awkwardly the hammer and the trowel. But it is alike
incumbent on the orator to design and to execute. He must,
therefore, be master of the language lie speaks or writes, and
must be capable of adding to grammatic purity those higher
qualities of elocution, which will render his discourse graceful
and energetic.
So much for the connexion that subsists between rhetoric
and these parent arts, logic and grammar.
CHAPTER V.
SECTION I.
OF INTUITIVE EVIDENCE.
**
Twelve are ;i dozen," " twenty ;irc a score," unless con-
sidered as explications of tlie words dozen and scnrc. ;ire
equally iiisi^fnificant witli tlie former. But when tlie ihinir,
tliougii in effect coinciding, is considered under a different as-
pect: when what is single in the subject is divided in the
predicate, and conversely; or when what is a whole in the
one, is regarded as a part of something else in the other;
such propositions lead to the discovery of imiumerable, and
apparently remote relations. One added to four may be ac-
counted no other than a definition of the word./?(e. as was re-
marked above. But when I say, "Two added to three are
equal to five," I advance a truth, which, thougli equally ck^ar,
is quite distinct from the preceding. Thus, if one should af-
firm. " twice fifteen make thirty," and again, •' thirteen added
to seventeen make thirty," nobody would pretend that he
had repeated the same proposition in other words. The
cases are entirely similar. In both, the same thing is predi
cated of ideas which, taken severally, are different. From
these, again, result other equations, as, '"One added to four
are equal to two added to three," and " twice fifteen are eqaal
to thirteen added to seventeen."
Now it is by the aid of such simple and elementary prin-
ciples that the arithmetician and the algel)raist proceed in
the most astonishing discoveries. Nor are the operations of
the geometrician essentially different. By a very few steps
you are made to perceive the equality, or, rather, the coinci-
dence of the sum of the two angles, formed by one straight
line falling on another, with two right an';rles. By a process
equally plain, you are brougiit to discover, first, that if one
side of a triangle be produced, the (ixternal angle will be
equal to both the internal and opposite angles anil tlien. ttiat
;
the existence of the mind itself, and its actual feelings, im-
pressions, or affections, pleasures or pains, the immediate
subjects of sense, taking that word in the largest acceptation.
The former gives rise to those universal truths, first princi-
ples, or axioms, which serve as the foundation of abstract
science whereas the latter, though absolutely essential to
;
* The tirst among the moderns who took notice of this principle, as one
of the genuine springs of our knowledge, was Buffier, a French philosopher
of the present century, in a book entitled Tmiie des Premieres Viritez ; one
who, to an uncommon degree of acuteness in matters of abstraction, added
that solidity of judgment which hath prevented in him, what had proved
the wreck of many great names in philosophy, his understanding becoming
the dupe of his ingenuity. This doctrine hath lately, in our own country,
been set in the clearest light, and supported by invincible force of argument,
by two very able writers in the science of man. Dr. Reid, in his Inxiuiry
into the Human Mind, and Dr. Beattie, in his Essay on the Immutability of
Truth. I beg leave to remark in this place, that though, for distinction's
sake, I use the term common sense in a more limited signification than either
of the authors last mentioned, there appears to be no real difference in our
sentiments of the thing itself. 1 am not ignorant that this doctrine has been
lately attacked by Dr. Priestley in a most e.xtraordinary manner, a manr.-er
which nc man who has any regard to the name of Englishman or of phi-
losopher will ever desire to see imitated in this or any other country. [
have read the performance, but have not been able to discover the author's
sentiments in relation to the principal point in dispute. He says, expressly,
(Fl.xamination of Dr. Reid's Inquiry, «Scc., p. 119], "Had these writers,"
Messieurs Reid, Beattie, and Oswald, " assumed, as the elements of their
common sense, certain truths which are so plain that no man could doubt
of them (without entering into the ground of our assent to them), their
conduct would have been liable to very little objection." And is not this
ihe veTy thing which these writers have done? What he means to signify
l>v the parenthesis (" without efifering into the ground of our assent tc
Tfli: FUlLfC-OVHV or nUEXORIC. 61
knowledge this, or heard of any argumentative treatise that did not go upon
the supposition of it." Now if this be the case, I would gladly know what
is the great point he controverts. It is, whether such self-evident truths
shall be denominated principles of common sense, or be distinguished by
some other appellation. Was it worthy any man's while to write an octavo
of near 400 pages for the discussion of such a question as this? And if,
as he assures us, they have said more than is necessary in proof of a truth
which be himself thinks indisputable, was it no more than necessary in Dr.
Priestley to compose so large a volume, in order to convince the world that
too much had been said already on the subject?* I do not enter into the
examination of his objections to some of the particular principles adduced
as primary truths. An attempt of this kind would be foreign to my purpose :
besides that the authors he has attacked are better qualified for defending
their own doctrine, and, no doubt, will do it, if they think there is occasion,
I shall only subjoin two remarks on this book. The first is, that the author,
—
through the whole, confounds two things totally distinct certain associa-
tions of ideas, and certain judgments implying belief, which, though in
some, are not in all cases, and, therefore, not necessarily connected with
association. And if so, merely to account for the association, is in no case
to account for the belief with which it is attended. Nay, admitting his plea,
[page 86], that, by the principle of association, not only the ideas, but the
concomitant belief may be accounted for, even this does not invalidate the
doctrine he impugns. For, let it be observed, that it is one thing to assign
a cause which, from the mechanism of our nature, has given rise to a par-
ticular tenet or belief, and another thing to produce a reason by which the
understanding has been convinced. Now, unless this be done as to the
principles in question, they must be considered as primary truths in respect
of the understanding, which never deduced them from other truths, and
which is under a necessity, in all her moral reasonings, of founding upon
them. In fact, to give any other account of our conviction of them, is to
confirm, instead of confuting the doctrine, that in all argumentation they
must be regarded as primary truths, or truths which reason never inferred,
through any medium, from other truths previously perceived. My second
remark is, that though this examiner has, from Dr. Reid, given us a cata-
logue of first principles, which he deems unworthy of the honourable place
assigned them, he has nowhere thought proper to give us a list cf those
•elf-evident truths which, by his own account, and in his own express word*
l82 THE PHILOSOPHY OF RHETORIC.
'•
When there is, in the effect, a manifest adjustment of the
several parts to a certain end, there is intelligence in the
cause." " The course of nature will be the same to-morrow
that it is to-day; or, the future will resemble the past."
" 'I'liere is such a thing as body or, there are material sub-
;
see, and feel, and think, what I actually see, and f(^e!, and
think. As in this I pronounce only concerning my own pn.s-
ent feelings, whose essence consists in being fell, and (i(
which am at present conscious, my conviction is reducible
I
SECTION II.
OF DEDUCTIVE EVIDENCE.
I. Experience.
The first of these I have named peculiarly the evidence of
experience, not with philosophical propriety, but in compli-
ance with common language, and for distinction's sake.
Analogical reasoning is surely reasoning from a more indi-
rect experience. Now as to tiiis first kind, our experience is
either uniform or various. In the o^e case, provided the
facts on which it is founded be sufficiently numerous, the
conclusion is said to be morally certain. In the other, the
conclusion built on the greater number of instances is said to
be probable, and more or less so, according to the proportion
which the instances on that side bear to those on the oppo-
site. Thus, we are perfectly assured that iron thrown into
the river will sink, that deal will float, because these conclu-
sions are built on a full and uniform experience. That in
the last week of December next it will snow in any part of
Britain specified, is perhaps probable that is, if, on inquiry
;
III. Testimony.
Thethird tribe is the evidence of testimony, which is ei-
ther oral or written. This, also, hath been thought by some,
but unjustly, to be solely and originally derived from the same
source, experience. f The utmost in regard to this that can
be affirmed with truth is, that the evidence of testimony is to
be considered as strictly logical, no farther than human ve-
racity in general, or the veracit)' of witnesses of such a cliar-
acter, -and in sucli circumstances in particular, is supported ;
IS thrown out of tlie Iiaiifl, we know tliiit its pravitj- will m;ike
il frill;we know, iilso, that this, together with its i-nbical fig.
ure. will make it lie so, when iiitert-epted by the table, as lo
have one side lacing upwanl. Thus far we pr()C(!ed on the
certain principles of a uniforin experience but there is no ;
principle which can lead nie lo conclude that one side rather
than another will be turned up. I know that this circuui-
stance is not without a cause; but is, on the contrary, as
really eflected by the previous tossing which it receives in
the hand or in the box, as its fall and the manner of its lying
are by its gravit)' and lignre. Hut the; various turns or mo-
tions given it, in this manner, do inevitably escape iny notice,
and so are held for nothing. 1 say, therefore, that the chance
is equal for every one of the six sides. Now if five of these
were marked with the same figure, su[)pose a dagger (f), and
only one with an asterisk (*), 1 should, in that case, say, there
were five chances tli;it the die would turn up the dagger, for
one that it would turn up the asteiisk for the turning up ;
each of the six sides being equally possible, there are five
cases in which the dagger, and only one in which the aster-
isk, would he uppcu'most.
'J'his differs from experience, inasmuch as I reckon the prob-
ability here, not fnun mmiberiug and comparing th<; (.'vents
afttM' repeated trials, but without any tri.il, from balancing
llie possibilities on both sides. But, though different from
exp. rience. it is so similar, that we cannot wonder that it
should [)roduce a similar effect upon the mind. These dif-
ferent positions being considered as equal, if any of five shall
produce one effect, and but the sixth another, the mind weigh-
ing the dillerent events, resteth in an expectation of that in
which the greater number of chances conciu' but still ac- ;
A I. [5 0. A 4. 1? X
A 2. B 5. A 5. U 2.
A3, ti 4 A G. B 1.
CHAPTER VI.
OF THE NATURE AND USE OF THE SCHOLASTIC ART OF SVI.LO-
GUING.
Having in the preceding chapter endeavoin-ed to trace the
outlines of naturailogic, perhaps with more miimteness than
84 THE PHILOSOPHY OF IinETOIlIC.
Now I affirm that the former part of this definition suits all
do.iuctive reasoiiiii<j, whetlicr scieiUifical or moral, in which
the principle deduced is distinct from, however closely rela-
ted to, the principles from which the deduction is made. The
latter part of tlie definition, which begins with the words or
rather, does not answer as an explication of the former, as
the author seems to have intended, but exactly hits the char-
acter of syllogistic reasoning, and, indeed, of all sorts of con-
troversy merely verbal. If you regard only the thing signi-
fied, the argument conveys no instruction, nor does it for-
ward us in the knowledge of things a single step. But if
you regard principally the signs, it may serve to correct mis-
application of them, through inadvertency or otherwise.
In evincing the truth of this doctrine, I shall begin with a
simple illustration from what may happen to any one in study-
ing a foreign tongue. I learn from an Italian and French dic-
tionary tiiat the Italian word pecora corresponds to the French
word brebis, and from a French and English dictionary, that
the French brcbis corresponds to the English sheep. Hence
I form this argument,
"Pecora the same with brebis,
is
Brebis the same with sheep ;
is
Therefore pecora is the same with sheep."
This, though not in mood and figure, is evidently conclusive.
Nay, more, if the words pecora, brebis, and sheep, under the
notion of signs, be regarded as the terms, it has three dis-
tinct terms, and contains a direct and scientifical deduction
from this axiom, " Things coincident with the same thing are
coincident with one another." On the other hand, let the
things signified be solely regarded, and there is but one term
in the whole, namely, the species of quadruped, denoted by
three names above mentioned. Nor is there, in this view
of the matter, another judgment in all the three propositions
but this identical one, " A sheep is a sheep."
Nor let it be imagined that the only right application can
be in the acquisition of strange languages. Every tongue
whatever gives scope for it, inasmuch as in every tongue the
speaker labours under great inconveniences, especially on
abstract questions, both from the paucity, obscurity, and am-
biguity of the words on the one hand, and from his own mis-
apprehensions and imperfect acquaintance with them on the
oilier. As a man may, therefore, by an artful and sophisti-
cal use of them, be brought to admit, in certain terms, what
he would deny in others, this disputatious discipline may,
under proper management, by setting in a stronger light, the
inconsistencies occasioned by such improprieties, be rcnder-
s'agit,a deja ete porte d'une maniere implicite des sorte qii'il n'esi phis
;
question que de le developer, et d'en faire voire I'identile avec quelque jugo
inent asi tcrieur." Logique, Art. 7.
H 2
; ; —
ihe words dozen and score, are quite insignificanl. This lini-
itaiicn, however, it was necessarj' to add; for those posi-
tions which are identical when considered purely as relating
to tlic things signified, are nowise identical when retjarded
purely as explanatory of the names. Suppose that through
tlie imperfection of a man's knowledge in the language, aided
by another's sophistry, and perhaps his own inattention, he
is brought to admit of the one term what he would refuse
of the other, such an argument as this might be employed,
"Twelve, yoii allow, are equal to the fifth part of sixty
Now a dozen are eqxial lo twelve;
Therefore a dozen are equal to the fifth part of sixty."
into gpiipra and species, this docs not hold equally in every
oa.se. Hence it is that ihe general terms in dillerent ian-
ffiia^es do not always exacUy correspond. Some nations
iVom particular circnmsiances, are more alVeeted hy one prop-
erty in ohjects, others by another. This leads to a different
distribution of things under their several names. Now, thougli
it is not (jf importance that the words in one tongue exactly
t How ridiculous are the efl'orts which some very learned and judicious
men have made, in order to evince that whatever begins to exist must have
a cause. One argues, "There must have been a cause to determine ihe
tyne and place," as though it were more evident that the accidents could
not be deterinmed without a cause, than that the existence of iht thmg
coul(i not be so determined. Another insists, very curiously, that if a thing
had no cause, it must have been the cause of itself; a third, with equal con-
sistency, that nothing must have been the cause. Thus, by always assu-
ming the absolute necessity of a cause, they demonstrate the absolute necessiti/
of a cause. For a full illustration of the futdity of such pretended reason-
ings, see the Treiitise of Human Nature, b. i., part iii., section 3. 1 do not
tluuk they iiave succeeded better who have attempted to assign a reason for
the lailh we have in this pnnci[)le, that the future will rese/tihle the past. A
late author imagines that he solves the difficulty at once by saying that
" wliat is now time past was once future; and that, though no man has had
experience of what is future, every man has had experience of what was fu-
ture." Would it,. then, be more perspicuous to state the q.uestion thus,
"How come we to believe that what is faiure, not what vms future, will re-
semble the past ?" Of the first he says expressly, that no man has had e.K
perience, though almost in the same breath he tells us, not very consistent
THE PHILOSOPHY OF RHETOKIC. 03
CHAPTER VII.
and tiiid that it actually resembles A, B, and C, liow can this furnish me
with any knowledge of E, E, and G, things totally distinct The resem-
.'
sol(! fciijiidation). 1 .should readily ad. nit, that the man who does not believe
r.uch propositions, if it were possible lo find such a man, is perfectly irra
tional, and, consequently, not to be argued vvitis. ' Cii:;p. iv
—
better for tlie world that all mankind were blind and lame.
Arms are not to be laid aside by honest men because carried
by assassins and ruffians; they are to be used the rather for
tills very reason. Nor are those mental powers, of which
eloquence so much avails herself, like the art of war or other
human arts, perfectly indifferent to good and evil, and only
beneficial as they are rightly employed. On the contrary,
they are by nature, as will perhaps appear afterward, more
friendly to truth than to falsehood, and more easily retained
in the cause of virtue than in that of vice.*
* " Notandum est enim, affectus ipsos ad bomim apparens semper ferri.
atque tiac ex parte aliquid habere cum ratioiie commune verum iliud inter- :
lorig^utn, elian>, fulurum, el in siimina. Ideoque cum quse \n praesentia ol)' er-
sentur, impieant plianlasiam fortius, succumbil pleniinque ratio et suLju
gatnr. Sed postqunm eloqneiuiA, el snasionum vi etiiectum sit, ul luiura et
remota constituaiuur et conspiciantur tanquam prassentia, tiimdemum tlie-
unte in partes rationis phaiitasia, ratio tit superior. Concludamus igitur,
noil deberi masis vitio verti Rhetorics, quod deteriorem partem cohonestare
sciat ; quam DialecticrB, quod sophismata concinnare doceat. Quis enitn
nescit, contrariorum eandein rationem esse, licit usu opponantur?" De
Aug. Sci., I. vi , c. iii. T« v-OKttucva -zpiiynnra ovx o/jtoio); cxn-aXX' iiin Tii\ri9!}
KtiiTO PeXTiio T7J (prau, cvavWoyiCTOTcpa Kill nidiivuiTCf'i. oii d~\uii ti-s7v. * * * El
^(.bri iicyuXa ffXii^ctcv uiio xpdfitvos A-^iKu)i rfj Toinvrri I'lvi'dutt rdv Xnyuiv, TviiTO rt
Kotvof laTt Kr.Ta TTiii'ruv Ton' ilyaUuiii, 7:X>))' upCJtis, K'li naXtcTu Kiira toiv xpi)aiiJnaTd-
Twy, oiov laxvos, iiyidaf, tiXuvtoo. oTpuTijyiui' tuiovtuk yap civ ris uKticXt'iacie 'd
—
yJyioTa, xfiiijitvoi.&iKaiijii, Koi (JXiilj/ucv, aSixiui. AkIST., Khet., \. 1., c. i
THE PHILOSOPHY OF RHETORIC. ^5
SECTION r.
SECTION II.
SECTION III.
Farther, vivid ideas are not only niore powerful than Ian-,
guid ideas in commanding and preserving attention, they are
not only more efficacious in producing conviction, but they
are also more easily retained. Those several powers, un-
derstanding, imagination, memory, and passion, are mutually
subservient. That it is necessaiy for the orator to engage
the help of memory, will appear from many reasons, partic-
ularly from what was remarked above, on the fourth dilfer-
ence between moral reasoning and demonstrative.]) It was
there observed, that in the former the credibility of the fact
is the sum of the evidence of all the arguments, often inde-
pendent of one another, brough*^ to support it. And though
it was shown (hat demonstration itself, without the assistance
cap, xi.
InsU<;-, lib. v., " Proximas exempli vires habet similitudo."
•f-
cap. xi. " Ut si animum dicas excolendum, similitudine
In*tit., lib. v.,
utari? terrse, quae iieglecta sentes atque dumos, exculta tructus creat."
J •' Praeterea, nescio quomodo etiam credit facilius.quce audienti jucunda
sunt, et voluptate ad fidera ducitur." Quint., 1. iv., c. ii.
(} Simile and :::juipanson are in common language frequently confounded.
The difference is lUis Simile is no more than a comparison suggested in a
:
word or two ; as, He fought like a lion ; His face shone as the sun. Com-
parison is a simile cncumstantiated and included in one or more separate
sentences. Chap, v., sect, ii., pt. 1.
II
98 THE PHILOSOPHY OF RHETORIC.
SECTION IV.
surely as much proportions, or, if you will, as true proportions, as some cer-
tain proportions are. Accordingly, if, in the conclusion deduced, you put
the word deformity instead of beauty, and the word beauty instead of defor-
mity, the sense will be equally complete. "Others," he adds, " there are,
who believe beauty to be merely a relative and arbitrary thing and that it
;
this be shown, nothing is shown to the purpose. The author aforesaid, fat
from attempting this, proceeds on the supposition that we first perceive
beauty, he says not how, and then, having by a careful examination dis-
covered the proportions which gave riseto the perception, denominnte them
true ; so that all those elaborate disquisitions with which we are amused
amount only to a few insignificant identical propositions very improperly
expressed. For out of a vast profusion of learned phrases, this is all the
informatici we can pick, that " Beauty is truly boautv," and that "Goo(l
19
LIBRARY
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA
SANTA BARBARA
—
SECTION V.
* This seems to liave been the sense which Quintilian had of the differ-
ence between vaOos and JiOos, when he gave amr.r for ;ui cxHinple of the
<irst, and charitaxo( ihe second. The word tjOo; is also sometimes used fo»
moral sentiment. Just., 1. vi., c. ii.
104 THE PHILOSOPHY OF UHETORIC.
from one idea to another, and admits the wholo with pleas-
ure. If, on the contrarj-, the train he introduceth run coun-
ter to the current of my
experience, if in many things it
shock those conclusions and anticipations which are become
habitual to me, my mind attends him with difficulty, suffers
a sort of violence in passing from one idea to another, and
rejects the whole with disdain :
+ " Guodcunqne ostendis mihi sic, incredulsu odi." Hor., De Arte I oet.
THE PHILOSOPHY OF RHETORIC. 107
those v/ho have not taste to relish the charms of the second,
charge her with folly, levity, and falseness. Meantime, it
appears to be the universal opinion of the impartial, and such
as have been best acquainted Vv'ith both, that though the at-
Iractives of the younger be more irresistible at sight, the vir-
tues of the elder will be longer remembered.
So much for llie tv/o qualities probahilily and plausibility, on
which Ihave expatiated the more, as they are the principal,
and, in some respect, indispensable. The others are not
compatible with every subject but as they are of real mo-
;
tion may derive importance from its own nature, from tlioso
concerned in it as acting or suffering, or from its consequen-
ces. It derives importance from its own nature if it be stu-
pendous in its kind, if the result of what is uncommonly
great, whether good or bad, passion or invention, virtue or
.vice, or what in respect of generosity is godlike, what in
respect of atrocity is diabolical it derives importance from
;
which I'all not within the reach of our memory, past events
are often clearly discoverable by testimony, and by effects at
present existing, whereas we have nothing equivalent to
found our argumenls upon in reasoning about things to come.
It is for this reason that the future is considered as the prov-
ince of conjecture and uncertainty.
in the effects brings the object, if 1 may say so, into contact
with us, and makes the mind cling to it as a concern of its
own. Sympathy is but a reflected feeling, and therefore, in
ordinary cases, must be weaker than the original. Though
the mirror be ever so true, a lover will not be obliged to it
for presenting him with the figure of his mistress when he
hath All opportunity of gazing on her person ; nor' will the
orator place his chief confidence in the assistance of the so-
cial and sympathetic affections, when he hath it in his power
to arm the. selfish.
Men universally, from a just conception of the difference,
liave, when self is concerned, given a different name to what
seems originally the same passion in a higher degree. Inju-
ry, to whomsoever offered, is to every man that observes it,
and whose sense of right is not debauched by vicious prac-
tice, the natural object of indignation. Indignation always
implies resentment, or a desire of retaliating on the injurious
person, so far, at least, as to make him repent the wrong he
hath committed. This indignation in the person injured is,
from our knowledge of mankind, supposed to be, not, indeed,
universally, but generally, so much stronger, that it ought to be
distinguished by another appellation, and is accordingly de-
nominated revenge. In like manner, beneficence, on whom-
soever exercised, is the natural object of our /owe: love always
implies benevolence, or a desire of promoting the happiness of
the beneficent person but this passion in the person benefited
;
SECTION VI.
OTHER PASSIONS, AS WELL AS MORAL SENTIMENTS, USEFUL AUXILIARIES.
So much for those circumstances in the object presented
—
junctus existimandus est." " 15. Omnes hoc loco cives Romani, et qui ad-
sunt et qui ubicunque sunt, vestram severitatem desiderant, vestram fidem
implorant, vestrum auxiiium requirunt. 16. Omnia sua jura, commoda,
auxilia, totam denique libertatem in vestris sentenliis versari arbitrantur."
I shall point out the pathetic circumstances exemplified in this passage, ob
serving the order wherein they were enumerated. 1 have numbered the
sentences in the quotation to prevent repetition in referring to them. It must
be remarked, first of all, that in judiciary orations, such as this, the [)roper
place for plausibility is the narration for probability, the confirmation or
;
proof: the other five, though generally admissible into either of those pla-
ces, shine principally in the peroration. I shall show how the orator hath
availed himself of these in the passage now cited. First, importance; and
that first in respect of the enorrr^ty of the action, No. 7 of the disposition
;
their greatness, No. 1, 2 ; wnere the crime is most artfully, though iinpli
citly, represented as subversive of all that was dear to them, liberty, the right
of citizens, their most valuable laws, and that idol of the people, the tribu
nitian power; their extent. No. 15, 16. Secund[y, proxi7>titi/ of time; there
is but an insinuation of this circumstance in the word tandem. No. 2. There
are two reasons which probably induced the orator in this particular to be
K 2
114 THE PHILOSOPHY OF RHETORIC.
there are also other means by which it may be kept alive, and
even augmented. Other passions or dispositions nuiy be
called in as auxiliaries. Nothing is more efficacious in this
respect than a sense of justice, a sense of public utility, a
sense of glory and nothing conduceth more to operate on
;
so sparing. One is, the recency of the crime, as of the criminal's pretor
ship, was notorious; the other and the weighter is, that of all relations this
is the weakest ; and even what influence it hath, reflection serves rather
to correct than to confirm. In appearing to lay stress on so slight a cir-
cumstance a speaker displays rather penury of matter than ahundance. It
is better, therefore, in most cases, to suggest it, as it were by accident, than
to insist on it as of design. It deserves also to be remarked, that the word
here employed is very emphatical, as it conveys, at the same time, a tacit
comparison of their so recent degeneracy wiih the freedom, security, and
glory which they had long enjoyed. The same word is again introduced,
No. 14, to the same intent. Thirdly, local connexiim ; in respect of vicinage,
how atif'ectingly, though indirectly, is it touched, No. 4, 6, 8, 11, 12? Indi-
rectly, for reasons similar to those mentioned on the circumstance of time;
as to other local connexions, No. 2, " in provincia populi Romani, in oppido
fsederatorum." Fourlhly, persotinl relatioti ; first of the perpetrator, No 2,
"abeoqui beneficio,"&c. his crime, therefore, more attrocious and ungrate-
:
ful, the most sacred rights violated by one who ought to have protected
them next of the sufferer. No. 2, " civis Romanus." This is most pathet-
;
may be omitted, that every sentiment may easily follow that which pre-
cedes, and usher that which follows it, and that everything said may ap-
pear to be the language of pure nature. The art of the rhetorician, like
that of the philosopher, is analytical ; the art of the orator is synthetical.
The former acts the part of the skilful anatomist, who, by removing the
teguments, and nicely separating the parts, presents us with views at once
naked, distinct, and hideous, now of the structure of the bones, now of the
muscles and tendons, now of the arteries and veins, now of the bowels,
now of the brain and nervous system. The latter imitates Nature in the
constructing of her work, vi'ho with wonderful symmetry unites the vari-
ous organs, adapts them to their respective uses, and covers all with a de-
cent veil, the skin. Thus, though she hide entirely the more minute and
the interior parts, and shov\' not to equal acivantage even the articula-
tions of the limbs and the adjustment of the larger members, adds inex
pressible beauty, and strength, and energy to the whole.
—
SECTION VII.
By
proving the falsity of the narration, or the utter incred-
ibility of the future event, on the supposed truth of whicl the
passion was founded, the object is annihilated. It is dimin-
ished by all such circumstances as are contrary to those by
which increased. These are, improbability, implausi-
it is
distance of time, remoteness of place,
bility, insignificance,
the persons concerned such as we have no connexion wiih,
the consequences such as we have no interest in. The meth-
od recommended by Gorgias and approved by Aristotle, though
peculiar in its manner, is, in those cases wherein it may prop-
erly be attempted, coincident in effect with that now men-
tioned. " It was a just opinion of Gorgias, that the serious
argument of an adversaiy should be confounded by ridicule,
and his ridicule by serious argument. "'f For this is only en-
deavouritig, by the aid of laughter and contempt, to diminish,
* Instit., I , i., c. 9,
t Ativ C(pri Vofiytas rriv fttv ai!Ov& tjv SiaipOtipctv Toiv tvavTiuiv ycXiiiTh Toi cl
yikiara o-rrov&i! o//Sa>s Xeywv. Mhet., 1. iii., c. xvui.
116 THE PIIILOSOPHY OF RHETORIC.
finds that acting thus would gratify one passion ;not acting,
or acting otherwise, would gratify another. To take such a
step, I perceive, would promote myinterest, but derogate
from my honour. Such another will gratify my resentment,
but hurt my interest. When this is the case, as the speaker
can be at no loss to discover the conflicting passions, he must
be sensible that whatever foice he adds to the disposition
that favours his design is, in fact, so much subtracted from
the disposition that opposeth it, and conversely as in the
;
ing the telescope, the object may be again removed and di-
nnnished.
It were endless to enumerate all the rhetorical figures thaJ
are adapted to the pathetic. Let it sufFice to say, that mosi
of those already named may be successfully employed here,
Of others, the principal are these correction, climax, vision,
:
not. one would imugine, excite in their miilds any new emo-
tion that was not there before. This, nevertheless, it doth
excite, through an oblique operation of the same principle.
Such an appeal implies in the orator the strongest confidence
in the rectitude of his sentiments, and in the concurrence of
every reasonable being. The auditors, by sympathizing with
this frame of spirit, find it impracticable to withhold an assent
which is so confidently depended on. But there will be oc-
casion afterward for discussing more particularly tiie rhetor-
ical tropes and figures, when we come to treat of elocution.
Thus I have finished the consideration which the speaker
ought to have of his hearers as men in general that is, as ;
CHAPTER VIII.
concerning them.
CHAPTER IX.
OF THE CONSIDERATION WHICH THE SPEAKEK /UGHT TO HAVE
OP HIMSELF.
The last consideration I mentioned is that which the speaker
ought to have of himself. By this we are to understand, not
that estimate of himself which is derived directly from con-
sciousness or self-acquaintance, but that wliich is obtained
reflexively from the opinion entertained of hun by the hear-
ers, or the character which he ^ ears witli them. Sympathy
is one main engine by which the orator operates on the pas-
sions.
" With them who laugh our social joy appears
With them who mourn we sympathize in tears
If you would have me weep, begin the strain,
Then I shall feel your sorrows, feel your pain."*
• Francis.
induced to walk with jou, you must slacken your pace and
keep tiicm company, lest thej^ either stand still or turn back.
Difterent rules are given by riietoricians as adapted to differ-
ent circumstances. Differences in this respect are number-
less. It is enough here to have observed those principles in
the mind on which the rules are founded.
CHAPTER X.
THE DIFFERENT KINDS OF PUBLIC SPEAKING IN USE AMONG THE
MODERNS, COMPARED, WITH A VIEW TO THEIR DIFFERENT AD-
VANTAGES IN RESPECT TO ELOQUENCE.
The principal sorts of discourses which here demand our
notice, and on which I intend to make some observations, are
the three following the orations deliverjed at the bar, those
:
SECTION I
dressed.
As to the first, arising from the nature of the profession, it
* Rom., xiii., 4.
THE PHILOSOPHY OF RHETORIC. 123
SECTION II.
they are, the more covertly must you operate on their pas-
sions, and the more attentive must you be in regard to the
justness, or, at least, the speciousness of your reasoning.
Hence some have strangely concluded, that the only scope
for eloquence is in haranguing the multitude that in gaining
;
SECTION III.
SECTION IV.
think it evident tluit botli ihe pleader and tiie senator have
the advantage of the preacher. When any important cause
conies to be tried before a civil judicatory, or when any im-
portant question comes to be agitated in either house of Par-
liament, as the point to be discussed hath generally, for sonif/
time before, been a topic of conversation in most companies,
perhaps, throughout the kingdom (vviiich of itself is sufhcient
to give consequence to anything), people are apprized before-
hand of the particular day fixed for the discussion. Accord-
ingly, they come prepared with some knowledge of the case,
a persuasion of its importance, and a curiosity which sharp-
ens llieir attention, and assists both their understanding and
their memory.
Men go to church without any of these advantages. The
subject of the sermon is not known to the congregation till
the minister announces it, just as he begins, by reading the
text. Now, from our experience of human nature, we may
be sensible that whatever be the comparative importance of
the things themselves, the generality of men cannot be here
wrought up in an instant to the like anxious curiosity about
what is to be said, nor can they be so well prepared for hear-
ing it. It may, indeed, be urged, in regard to those subjects
which come regularly to be discussed at stated times, as on
public festivals, as well as in regard to assize sermons, char-
ity sermons, and other occasional discourses, that these must
be admitted as exceptions. Perhaps in some degree they are,
but not altogether; for, first, the precise point to be argued,
or proposition to be evinced, is very rarely known. The most
that we can say is, that the subject will have a relation (some-
times remote enough) to such an article of faith, or to the ob-
ligations we lie under to the practice of such a duty. But,
farther, if the topic were ever so well known, the frequent
recurrence of such occasions, once a year at least, hath long
famiUarized us to them, and by destroying their novelty, hath
abated exceedingly of that ardour which ariseth in the mind
for hearing a discussion conceived to be of importance, which
one never had access to hear before, and probably never will
have access to hear again.
I shall here take notice of another cnxumstance, which,
without great stretch, may be classed under this article, and
which likewise gives some advantage to the counsellor and
the senator. It is the opposition and contradiction which
they expect to meet with. Opponents sharpen one another,
as .iron sharpeneth iron. There is not the same spur either
to exertion in the speaker, or to attention in the hearer,
where there is no conflict, where you have no adversary to
encounter on equal terms. Mr. Bickerstaff would have made
but small progress in the science of defence, by pushing at
1 36 THE PHILOSOPHY OF RHETORIC.
SECTION V
IN REGARD TO THE END IN VIEW.
The fifth and last particular mentioned, and, indeed, the
most important of them all, isthe effect in each species in-
tended to be produced. The primary intention of preaching
is the reformation of mankind. The grace of God, that bring-
eth salvation, hath appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying
ungodliness and icorldly litsts, we should live soberly, righteously,
arid godly in this present ivorld.\ Reformation of life and man-
ners—of all things that which is the most difficult by any
means whatever to effectuate I may add, of all tasks ever
;
—
attempted by persuasion that which has the most frequent-
ly baffled its power.
What is the task of any other orator compared with this T
It is really as nothing at all, and hardly deserves to be named.
An unjust judge, gradually worked on by the resistless force
of human eloquence, may be persuaded, against his inclina-
tion, perhaps against a previous resolution, to pronounce an
equitable sentence. All the effect on him, intended by the
pleader, was merely momentary. The orator hath had the
address to employ the time allowed him in such a manner
as to secure the happy moment. Notwithstanding this, there
may be no real change wrought upon the judge. He may
continue the same obdurate wretch he was before. Nay, if
the sentence had been delayed but a single day after hearing
the cause, he would, perhaps, have given a very different
award.
Is it, to be wondered at, that when the passions of the peo
pie were agitated by the persuasive powers of a Demosthe-
nes, while the thunder of his eloquence was yet sounding in
their ears, the orator should be absolute master of their re-
solves ? But an apostle or evangelist (for there is no an-
achronism in a i)are supposition) might have thus addressed
the celebrated Athenian ' You do, indeed, succeed to ad-
:
and to whose lands they had at least no belter title than those
whom they intended, by all possible means, to dispossess
and to give the world a melancholj' proof that there is no
pitch of brutality and rapacity to which the passions of ava-
rice and ambition, consecrated and inflamed by religious en-
thusiasm, will not drive mankind. At another time you see
132 THE PHILOSOPHY OF RHETORIC.
CHAPTER XI.
OF THE CAUSE OF THAT PLEASURE WHICH WE RECEIVE FROM
OBJECTS OR REPRESENTATIONS THAT EXCITE PITY AND OTHER
PAINFUL FEELINGS.
It hath been observed already,* that without some gratifi-
cation in hearing, the attention must inevitably flag; and it
* Chapter iv.
THE PHILOSOPHY OF RHETORrC. 135
SECTION I.
whatever will rouse the passions, and take off the mind's at-
tention from itself. It matters not what the emotion be,
only the stronger it is, so much the better and for this rea-
;
t Essay on Tragedy.
;
pleasure, pushed a little too far, becomes pain ; and that the
movement of pain, a little moderated, becomes pleasure. For
aii illustration of this, he gives an example in tickling. I
will admit that there are several other similar instances in
which the observation to appearance holds. The warmth
received from sitting near the fire, by one who hath been al-
most chilled with cold, is very pleasing; yet you may in-
crease this warmth, first to a disagreeabl^heat, and then to
burning, which is one of the greatest torments. It is never-
theless extremely hai;aruoiis, on a few instances, and those
not perfectly parallel to the case in hand, to found a general
theory. Let us make the experiment how the application of
this doctrine to the passions of the mind will answer. And
for our greater security against mistake, let us begin with
the simplest cases in the direct, and not in the reflex or sym-
pathetic passions, in which hardly ever any feeling or affec-
tion comes alone. A merchant loseth all his fortune by a
shipwreck, and is reduced at one stroke from opulence to
indigence. His grief, we may suppose, will be very violent.
If he had lost half his stock only, it is natural to think he
would have borne the loss more easily, though still he would
THE PHILOSOPHY OF RHETORIC. 139
the matter than from those which preceded it. I could have
wished, indeed, that the author had been a little more explicit
in his manner of expressing himself, for I am not certain that
I perfectly comprehend his meaning. At one time he seems
only to intend to say that it is the purpose of eloquence, to
the promoting of which its tropes and figures are wonderful-
ly adapted, to infuse into the mind of tlie hearer such com-
passion, sorrow, indignation, and other passions, as are, not-
withstanding their original character when abstractly consid-
ered, accompanied sviili pleasure. At another time it appears
rather his design to signify, though he doth not plainly s|)eak
it out, that the discovery made by the hearer of the admirable
art and ingenuity of the speaker, and of the elegance and har-
mon} of what is spoken, gives that peculiar pleasure to the
mind which makes even the painful passions become de-
lightful.
If the first of these be all that he intended to affirm, he
hath told us, indeed, a certain triuh, but nothing new or un-
common nay, more, he hath told us nothing that can serve
;
hil videatur ftctum, nihil solicitum omnia potius a causa, quam ah oratore
:
profecta credantur. Sed hoc pati nou possumus, et perire artem putamus,
nisi appareat ciiin desinat ars esse, si apparet."
: Quint., Inst., lib. iv.,
cap. ii.
a farther degree of afiliclion to make us even pleased to think that the copy
never had any archetype in n;vture. Cut when this is the case, we may
truly say that th& poet -hath exceeded, and wrought up pity to a kind of
horror.
N
J46 THE rillLOSOPHT OF RHETORIC.
SECTION II.
sentiment of feeling wliinh is strictly called love. I own, at the same time,
that the term love is also ofleii u.sed to denote simply lienevolence or good-
will ;as when we are commanded lo love all men, known and tniknown,
good and bad, friendly and mjunons. To that lender emotion which qual-
ities supposed amiable alone can excite, the precept surely doih not extend.
These things 1 thought it necessary to observe, in order to prevent mistake
in a case which requires so much precision.
154 THE PHILOSOPHY OF RHETORIC.
Essay on Tragedy.
156 THE PHILOSOPHY OF RHETORIC.
doubt that several, from this very motive, have exalted this
principle as immoderately as others have vilified it. Every
good man will agree that this is the case when people con-
sider it as either a veil for their vices, or an atonement for.
the neglect of their duty. F'or my own part, I am inclined
to think that those who are most ready to abuse it thus are
not the most remarkable for any exercise of it by which sa-
ciety can be profited. There is a species of deception in the
case which it is not beside the purpose briefly to unravel.
It hath been observed that sense invariably makes a strong-
er impression than memory, and memory a stronger than
imagination yet there are particular circumstances which
;
BOOK 11.
CHAPTER I.
"Usus
Quem pone.', arbitrium est et jus et norma loquendi.''
HoK., De ArU Poet.
THE PHILOSOPHY OP RnETonic. 1G3
sooner obtain and become general tlian they are laws of iho
language, and tlie grammariar. s only business is to note, col-
lect, and niethodizf them. Nor does this truili concern only
those more compreliensive analogies or rules which alfecl
whole classes of words, such as nouns, verbs, and the other
parts of speech but it concerns every individual word, in the
;
»vas certainly true, but not to the purpose, since we can say
with equal truth of ever}' language, that it (jiTends against the
grammar of every other language whatsoever. If he meant
the Knglish grammar, I would asii. Whence has that grammar
derived its laws ? If from general use (and I cannot conceive
another origin), then it must be owned that there is a gener-
al use in that language as well as in others and it were ab-
;
* Thus, ill the two verbs call and shall, the second person singular of ihe
former is callesi. agreealiiy to the general rule; ilie spcoiuI jicrscn smgulai
of the latter is shall, agreeably to a jiarticuiar rule aftecling that verl). To
say shallest lor shnlt would be as much a barbarism, though according lo the
gene'-al rule, as to say calt for callesi, which is according to no rule.
1 Letter to the Lord thgh Treasurer, &c.
P 2
—
SECTION I.
EEPUTABLE USE.
This leads to <a distinction between pood use and had use
in lanjruMpe, ll'.o former of which will be found to Iimvc ilie
ap|)robatioii of those who liave n(H themselves attained it.-
The far greiiter part of mankind, perhaps ninety-nine of a
hundred, are, by reason of poverty and other cireumstances,
deprived of the advantages of education, and condennied to
toil for bread, almost incessantly, in some narrow occupation.
They have neither tlie leisure nor the means of attaining any
knowledge except what lies within tlic contracteii circle of
their several professions. As the ideas which occupy llieir
minds are few, the portion of the language known to them
must be very scanty. It is impossible that our knowledge
of words sliould outstrip our knowledge of things. It may,
and often doth, come short of it. Words may be remember-
ed as sounds, but camiot be understood as signs while we re-
main unacquainted with tlie things signified.
Hence it will happen, that in ti.e lower walks of life, from
the intercourse which all ranks occasionally have with one
another, the people will frequently have occasion to hear
words of v.'liich they never had occasion to learn tlie mean-
ing. These they will pick up and remember, produce and
misapply. But there is rarely asiy uniformity m
such bhni-
ders, or anytliing determinate in the senses they give to
words which are not within tlieir sphere. Na3% they are not
themselves altogether unconscious of this defect. It often
ariseth from an admiration of the manner of their superiors,-
and from an ill judged imitation of their way of speaking,
that the greatest errors of the illiterate, in respect of con-
versation, proceed. And were they sensible how widely dif-
ferent their use and application of such words is from that
of those whom they affect to imitate, they would renounce
their own immediately.
But it may be said, and said with truth, that in such sub-
jects as are within their reach, many words and idioms pre-
vail among the poimlace which, notwithstanding a use pretty
uniform and extensive, are considered as corrupt, and, like
counterfeit money, though common, not valued. This is the
case particularly with those terms and phrases which critics
have denominated vuJgartsms. Their use is not reputable.
On the contrary, we always associate with it such notions
of meaimess as suit those orders of men among whom chief-
ly the use is found. Hence it is that many who have con-
tracted a habit of employing such idioms do not approve
them; and t!U)ugh, tlirough lu^gligencc, they frequently fall
into them in conversaticni, they carefully avoid them in wri-
ting, or even in a solemn speech on any important occasion
Thuir curnency, therefore, is witliout authority and weight.
The tattle of children hath a currency, but, howfver univer-
sal their manner of corrupting words may be among them-
166 THE rHILOSOPHT OF RHETORIC.
SECTION II.
NATIONAL USE.
Another qualification of the term use w^hich deserves our
attention that it must be national.
is, This i consider in a
twofold view, as it stands opposed both to provincial 'And. for-
eign.
In every province there are peculiarities c^ dialect, which
affect not only the pronunciation and the accent, but even the
inflection and the combination of words, whereby their idiom
is distinguished both from that of the nation and from that of
every other province. The narrowness of the circle to which
the currency of the words and phrases of such dialects is
confined, sufficiently discriminates them from that which is
properly styled the language, and which commands a circu-
lation incomparably wider. This is one reason, I imagine,
why the term use, on this subject, is commonly accompanied
with the epithet general. In the use of provincial idioms,
there is, it must be acknowledged, a pretty considerable con-
currence both of the middle and of the lower ranks. But still
this use is bounded by the province, county, or district which
gives name to the dialect, and beyond which its peculiarities
are sometimes unintelligible, and always ridiculous. But the
language, properly so called, is found current, especially in
the upper and the middle ranks, over the whole British Em-
pire. Thus, though in every province they ridicule the idiom
of every other province, they all vail to the English idiom,
and scruple not to acknowledge its superiority over their own.
For exaiTiple, in some parts of Wales (if we may credit
Shakspeare*), the common people say gont for good in the ;
that they deviate, there may not in any one of these be found
so many as those whom you will meet upon the king's high-
way.
What now said of provincial dialects may, with
hath been
very variation, be applied to professional dialects, or
little
the cant which is sometimes observed to prevail among those
of the same profession or way of life. The currency of the
latter cannot be so exactly circumscribed as that of the for-
mer, whose distinction is purely local but their use is not,
;
SECTIOxNf III.
PRESENT USE.
But there will naturally arise here another question " Is
:
not use, even good and national use, in the same country, dif-
ferent in different periods ] And if so, to the usage of what
period shall we attach ourselves as the proper rule ^ If you
say the present, as it may reasonably be expected that you
will, the difficulty is not entirely removed. In what extent
of signification must we understand the word present ? How
far may we safely range in quests of authorities'? or at what
distance backward from this moment are authors still to be
accounted as possessing a legislative voice in language ?" To
this, I own, it is difficult to give an answer with all the pre-
cision that might be desired. Yet it is certain that, when we
are in search of precedents for any word or idiom, there are
certain mounds wliich we cannot overleap with safety. For
instance, the authority of Hooker or of Raleigh, however
great their merit and their fame be, will not now be admitted
in support of a term or expression not to be found in any
good writer of a later date.
In truth, the boundary must not be fixed at the same dis-
tance in every subject. Poetry hath ever been allowed a
wider range than prose and it is but just that, by an indul-
;
DV all good authors for a longer period than the age of man
extends to. It is not by ancient, but by present use, tliat our
style must be regulated. And tliat use can never be denom-
inated present wliich hath been laid aside time immemorial,
or, which amounts to the same thing, falls not within the
knowledge or remembrance of any now living.*
This remark not only affects terms and phrases, but also
the declension, combination, and construction of words. Is
it not, then, surprising to find that one of Lowth's penetra-
tion should thini< a single person entitled to revive a form of
inflection in a particular word which had been rejected by all
good writers, of every denomination, for more than a hun-
dred and fifty years if But if present use is to be renounced
for ancient, it will be necessary to determine at what pre-
cise period antiquity is to be regarded as a rule. One inclines
to remove the standard to the distance of a century and a
half; another may, with as good reason, fix it three centu-
ries backward, and another six. And if the language of any
of these periods is to be judged by the use of any other, it will
be found, no doubt, entirely barbarous. To me it is so evi-
dent either that the present use must be the standard of the
present language, or that the language admits no standard
whatsoever, that I cannot conceive a clearer or more indis-
putable principle from which to bring an argument to sup-
port it.
duce antiquated authors in support of all these. Besides, they are all used
to this day in some provincial dialects. J See the word Nowadays
—
verbal critic, the man who seasonably notifies the abuses that
are creeping in. Both tend to facilitate the study of the
tongue to strangers, and to render natives more perfect in the
knowledge of it, to advance general use into universal, and to
give a greater stability, at least, if not a permanency, to cus-
tom, the most mutable thing in nature. These are advanta-
ges which, with a moderate share of attention, may be dis-
covered from what hath been already said on the subject
but they are not the only advantages. P^om what I shall
have occasion to observe afterward, it will probably appear
that these arts, by assisting to suppress every unlicensed
term, and to stigmatize every improper idiom, tend to give
greater precision, and, consequently, more perspicuity and
beauty to our style.
The observations made in the preceding chapter might
easily be converted into so many canons of criticism, by
which whatever is repugnant to reputable, to national, or to
present use, in the sense wherein these epithets have been
explained, would be condemned as a transgression of the
radical laws of the language. But on this subject of use there
arise tvpo eminent questions, the determination of which may
lead to the establishment of other canons not less important.
The first question is this " Is reputable, national, and pres-
:
ent use, which, for brevity's sake, I shall hereafter simply de-
nominate good use, always uniform in her decisions?" The
second is, " As no term, idiom, or application that is totally
unsupported by her can he admitted to be good, is everv term,
idiom, and application that is countenanced by her to be es-
teemed good, and therefore worthy to be retained ?'
176 THE PHILOSOPHY OF RHETORIC
SECTION I.
* The words nmvise, noway, and noways, afford a proper instance of this
divided use.. Yet our learned and ingenious lexicographer hath denomina-
ted all those whoeither write or pronounce the word noways ignorant bar-
barians. These ignorant barbarians (but he hath surely not adverted to this
circumstance) are only Pope, and Swift, and Addison, and Locke, and sev-
eral others of our most celebrated writers. Tins censure is the more as
tonishing, that even in this form which he has thought fit to repudiate, the
meaning assigned to it is strictly conformable to that which etymology, ac-
cording to his own explication, would suggest. — See Johnson's Dictionary
on the words nowise and way, particularly the senses of way, marked with
these numbers, 15, 16, 18, and 19.
+ Such are fubterranean and subterraneous, homogeneal and homogene-
ous, authentic and authentical, isle and island, mount and mountain, clime
and climate, near and nigh, betwixt and between, amongst and among,
amidst and amid. Nor do 1 see any hurt that would ensue from adding
nowise and noway to the number.
THE rmLosoniY or itiiF/roiac. 177
* What has given rise to it is evidently the French Plut a Dieu, of the
same import. But it has not been adverted to (so servile commonly are
imitators) that the verb plaire is impersonal, and regularly construed with the
preposition a ; neither of which is the case with the English will and would.
t In proof of this, I shall produce a passage taken from the Prologue of
the EiTgUsh translation of the Legenda Aurea, which seems to have been
made towards the end of the fifteenth century. " I haue submysed my
selfe to translate into Engylsshe the legende of sayntes vvhyche is called
legenda aurea in Latyn ; that is to saye, the golden legende. For in lyke
wyseas golde is moost noble aboue all other metallys in like wyse is thys
;
legende holden moost noble aboue all other werkes." About the time that
our present version of the Scriptures was made, the old usage was wearing
out. The phrase in like wise occurs but once (Matt., xxi., 24), whereas the
compound term likewise occurs frequently. We find in several places, on
this wise, in any wise, and in no wise. The first two phrases are now obso-
lete, and the third eeems to be in a state which Dr. Johnson calls obsolescent
THE PHILOSOPHY OF RHETORIC. 181
SECTION II.
wlien they are used sparingly and properly, they have even
a good effect. Variety in sound is advantageous to a lan-
guage and it is convenient that we should have some sounds
;
that are rough and masculine, as well as some that are liquid
and feminine.
I observe this the rather, because I think there is at pres
ent a greater risk of going too far in refining than of not going
far enough. The ears of some critics are immoderately del-
icate. A late essayist,* one who seems to possess a consid-
erable share of ingenuity and taste, proposes the utter extir-
pation of encroach, encroachment, inculcate, purport, methinksy
and some others, the precise meaning of which we have no
single words in English that perfectly express. An ear so
nice as to be hurt by these, appears to me in the same light
as a stomach so squeamish as to nauseate our beef and beer,
the ordinary food of the country. Such ears, I should say,
are not adapted to our speech, nor sucli stomachs to our cli-
mate. This humour, were it to become general, would give
* Sketches by Launcelot Temple, Esq., of laie republished and owned
by Dr. Armstrong.
THE riiiT.osorirY of RiiETonic. 187
* I shall only observe here by the way, that those languages which are al-
lowed to be the most susceptible of all the graces of harmony, have admitted
many ill-sounding words. Such are in Greek aTrXxyxyi^i'rdi'L, T:{)on<l>Otyiaadai,
ty)(fiifi<^Qtii, KtKOKOKa, ficiiifirjiitvov. In the last two one finds a dissonant re-
currence of the same letter to a degree quite unexampled with us. There
is, however, such a mixture of long and short syllables, as prevents that
dilliculty of utterance which was remarked in some English words. Such
are also, in Latin, dixisses, spississimtis, pcrcrebrcsccbaiUque. The last of
these words is very rough, and the first two have as much of the hissing
letters as any English word whatever. The Italian is considered, and I be-
lieve justly, as the most musical of all languages, yet there are in it some
sounds which even to us, accustomed to a dialect boisterous like our weath-
er, appear harsh and jarring. Such are incrockckiare, sdruccioloso, sprcgiat-
rice. There is a great difference between words which sound harshly, but
are of easy pronunciation to the natives, and those words which even to
natives occasion difficulty in the utterance, and, consequently, convey some
idea of awkwardness to ihe hearer, which is prejudicial to the design.
There are, in the languages of all countries, many words which foreigners
will find a difficulty in pronouncing that the natives have no conception of.
The Greeks could not easily articulate the Latin terminations in ans and
ens. On the other hand, there were many sounds in Greek which appeared
intolerable to the Latins, such as words beginning with piv, <pO, \^,. Trr, «r,
and many others. No people have so studiously avoided the collision of
consonants as the Italians. To their delicate ears, pt, ct, and c»- ovx, though
belonging to different syllables, and interposed between vowels, are oll'en-
sive, nor can they easily i)ronounce them. Instead of apta, and lecto, and
Alexandra, they must say alto, and Ictto, and Allessandro. Yet these very
people begin some of their words with the three consonants sdr. which to
our ears are perfectly shocking. It is not, therefore, so much harshness of
sound as difficulty of utterance that shouki make some words be rejected
altogether. The latter tends to divert our attention, and, consequently, to
obstruct the effect. The former hath not this tendency, unless they be
obtruded on U3 too frequently.
188 THE ruiLosoniY op rhetoric.
* Dunciad, b. i.
THE PIIILOSOniY OF RIIETOBTC. 18J)
derstand, in such phrases as these " You take me," and " as
:
I take it ;" hold for continue, as " he does not hold long in one
mind." But of all kinds, the worst is that wherein the words,
when construed, are susceptible of no meaning at all. Such
an expression as the following, " There were seven ladies ir
the company, every one prettier than another," by which it
is intended, I suppose, to denote that they were all very
pretty. One prettier implies that there is another less pret-
ty, but where every one is prettier, there can be none less,
and, consequently, none more pretty. Such trash is the
disgrace of any tongue. Ambitiously to display nonsensical
phrases of this sort, as some writers have affected to do, un-
der the ridiculous notion of a familiar and easy manner, is
not to set off the riches of a language, but to expose its rags.
As such idioms, therefore, err alike against purity, simplicity,
perspicuitj'-, and elegance, they are entitled to no quarter from
the critic. A few of these, in the writings of good authors,
I shall have occasion to point out when I come to speak ot
the solecism and the impropriety.
So much for the canons of verbal criticism, which properly
succeed the characters of good use, proposed in the prece-
ding chapter for the detection of the most flagrant errors in
the choice, the construction, and the application of words.
The first five of these canons are intended to suggest the
principles by which our choice ought to be directed in cases
wherein use itself is wavering and the last four eo point out
;
arisen, nobody knows how, like Jig, banter, bigot, fop, jlippant,
among the rabble, or, Vike Jiiinsy, sprung from the cant of
manufacturers. It is never from an attention to etymology,
which would frequently mislead us, but from custom, the
only infallible guide in this matter, that the meanings of
words in present use must be learned. And, indeed, if the
want in question were material, it would equally affect all
thostj words, no inconsiderable part of our language, whose
descent is doubtful or unknown. Besides, in no case can
the line of derivation be traced backward to infinity. We
must always terminate in some words of whose genealogy
no account can be given.*
* Dr. Johnson, who, notwilhstanding liis acknowledged learning pene-
tration, and ingenuity, appears sometimes,if 1 may adopt his own expres-
hath declared the name jmnch, which signifies
sion, " lost in le.xicograpiiy,"
a certain mixed liquor very well known, a cant word, because, being to ap
pearance without etymology, it hath probably arisen from some silly con-
ceit among the people. The name sherbrt, which signifies another known
mixture, he allows to be good, because il is .Arabic ; though, for aught we
know, its origin among the Arabs hath been equally ignoble or uncertain.
By this way of reckoning, if the word punch, in the sense wherein we use
it, should by any accident be imported into Arabia, and come into use there,
it would make good Arabic, though it be bu'. cant English ; as their sherbet,
though in all likelihood but cant Arabic, makes good English. This, I
iwn, appears to me very capricious.
192 THE PHILOSOPHY OF RHETORIC.
CHAPTER III.
OF GRAMMATICAL PURITY.
It was remarked formerly,* that though the grammatical
irt bears much the same relation to the rhetorical which the
art of the mason bears to that of the architect, there is one
very memorable difference between the two cases. In archi-
tecture it is not necessary that he who designs should exe-
cute his own plans he may, therefore, be an excellent artist
;
SECTION I.
THE BARBARISM.
The reproach of barbarism may be incurred by three diffei
cnt ways by the use of words entirely obsolete, by the use
:
—
refinement I mean the alterations that have been made by
some late writers on proper names and some other words of
foreign extraction, and on their derivatives, on pretence of
bringmg them nearer, both in pronunciation and in spelling,
to the original names, as they appear in the language from
which those words were taken. Jn order to answer this im-
portant purpose, several terms whicli have maintained tiieir
place in our tongue for many centuries, and which are known
to everybody, must be expelled, that room may be made for
a set of uncouth and barbarous sounds with which our ears
are unacquainted, and to some of which it is impossible for
us to adapt our organs, accustomed only to EngUsh, as right-
ly to articulate them.
It has been the invariable custom of all nations, as far as I
—
know it was particularly the custom of the Grecians and
the Romans, when they introduced a foreign name into their
language, to make such alterations on it as would facilitate
the pronunciation to their own people, and render it more
analogous to the other words of their tongue. There is an
evident convenience in this practice but where the harm of
;
ments, afid thus criticising on the word aversion : " This substantive is by
divers authors diversely construed. Some say aversion to a change, others
aversion from a change ; both, I affirm, from a blind attachment to vernaca-
Har idioms, have alike deviated into the most ugly and delormed faults.
This judgment, how severe soever, 1 am able to support by an irrefragable
argument. Aversioyi, according to Us etymology, denotes iHrn;Ǥ-/ro7n. The
the original language, a preposition signilying//-»m. It
first syllable, o, is, in
would, therefore, be absurd to conjoin in the same plirase with it the prepo-
sition to, which hath a contrary signification; and to use/mrd after aversion
would render the e.ipression hideously pleonastic. In defiance, therefore,
of a habitude, which, however ancient and universal, is the offspring of ig-
norance, we must, if we would speak correctly, either say aversion a change,
the first syllable a having the force of the preposition, or, cutting olT this
preposition, we must say t)<r.»(o/t/rom a c/ia?'^>'." If any should think tins
representation e.xaggerated, let him compare the reasoning with that w hich
hath been seriously used for mutilating the word Alcoran, and he will rind
It in all respects the same. It is, I acknowledge, of no consequence wheth
it. But as the word in question hath gotten use, the supreme
arbitress of language, on its side, there would be as much ob-
stinacy ill rejecting it at present, as there was perhaps folly
at first in ushering it upon the public stage.
As to the humour of abbreviating, we need say very little,
as it seems hardly now to subsist among us. It only arose
in this island about the end of the last century and when, in
;
SECTION II.
THE SOLECISM.
I NOW enter on the consideration of the second way by
which the purity of the style is injured, the solecism. This
s accounted by grammarians a much greater fault than the
former, as it displays a greater ignorance of the fundamental
rules of the language. The sole aim of grammar is to con-
vey the knowledge of the language consequently, the de-
;
*'
I am sensible that, in what concerns the subject of this section. I have
* The
oblique cases of their personal pronouns, answering to our me, thee,
and him, te, and le, not moi, toi, and lui.
are, me, In these last we have the
indefinite form, which serves indifferently, as occasion requires, for either
nominative or accusative, and to which there is nothing in our language
that exactly corresponds. Thus, to express in Frencii " He and I are rela-
tions," we must say " Lui et moi, nous sommes parens." But in English,
" Him and me, we are relations," would be insufferable. The nominative
je, tu, are never used by them but when immediately adjoined to the verb,
il,
worst."
Both the expressions above censured may be corrected by
substituting the comparative in room of the superlative.
" The vice of covetousness is what enters deeper into the
soul than any other ;" and " Wehave a profession set apart
for the purposes of persuasion, wherein a talent of this kind
would prove likelier, perhaps, thaii any othery It is also pos-
sible to retain the superlative, and render the expression
grammatical. '• Covetousness is what of all vices enters the
deepest into the soul ;" and " wherein a talent of this kind
would perhaps, of all talents, prove the likeliest.''''
In the following example we have a numeral adjective,
which doth not belong to any entire word in tlie sentence as
same general truth, are led to use the same tense' in enumer-
ating tTie general truth, with that which had heen employed iu
the preceding part of the sentence. Of this we iiave llie fol-
lowing example from Swift, which shall serve for tlie second
instance of inaccuracy in tlie verbs. " It is confidently re-
ported that two young gentlemen of real hopes, bright wit,
and profound judgment, who, upon a thorough examination
of causes and effects, and by the mere force of natural abil-
ities, without tlie least tincture of learning, have made a dis-
covery that there was no God, and generously communica-
ting their thoughts for the good of the public, were .some time
ago, by aii unparalleled severity, and upon I know not what
ob.solete law, broke for blasphemy."* Properly, " Have
made a discoverj' that there ts no God.''
The third example shall be of a wrong mood. " If thou
bring thy gift to the altar, and there remcmbp.rcst that thy
brother hath aught against ihee."t The construction of the
two verbs bring and remcmherest ought to be the same, as
they are both under the regimen of the same conjunction if.
Yet the one is iu the subjunctive mood, and the other in the
indicative.
The fourth instance shall be the omission of an essential
part of one of the complex tenses, the writer apparently re-
ferring to a part of the verb occurring in a former clause of
the sentence, although the part referred to will not supply
the defect, but some other part not produced. Of this the
following is an example " I shall do all I can to persuade
:
others iolahe the same measures for their cure which I /inr<r."J
Here we have a reference in the end to the preceding verb
Lake. Yet it is not the word lake which will supply the sense,
but taken. This participle, therefore, ought to have been
added.
The fifth specimen in the verbs shall be of a faulty refer-
ence to a part to be mentioned. '' This dedication may serve
for almost any book that has^'ia, or shall be published." Has
in this place being merely a part of a complex tense, means
nothing without the rest of the tense; yet tlic rest of the tense
is not to be found in the sentence. We cannot say " any
boidv that has published.''^ no more can we say " tluit bos be pub-
lis/ted.''' Corrected it would run thus, " that bas been or sball
be published.'''' The word is ought to be expunged, as adding
nothing to the sense.
I shall next produce a few instances of inaccuracy which
S9
210 THE PHILOSOPHY OF RHETORIC.
four Gospels are as old, or even older, than tradition ?"* The
words as old and older cannot have a common regimen the ;
gether " He lamented the fatal mistake the world had been
:
quite down, and build it again from the ground, perhaps upon
a new foundation, or at least in a new form, which may
neither be so safe nor so convenient as. the old. "J It is im-
possible to analyze this sentence grammatically, or to say
whether it be one sentence or more. It seems, by the con-
junction GA-, to begin with a comparison, but we have not a
single hint of the subject illustrated. Besides, the intro-
ducing of the interrogation, How much more'? after else,
which could be regularly followed only by an affirmation or
negation, and the incoherency of the next clause. He /nusl
live, render it, indeed, all of a piece.
So much for the solecism, of which examples might be
multiplied almost without end. Let those produced suffice
for a specimen. It is acknowledged that such negligences
are not to be considered as blemishes of any moment in a
Avork of genius, since those, and even worse, may be dis-
covered, on a careful examination, in the most celebrated
writings. It is, for this reason, acknowledged also, that it is
, .
SECTION III.
t I THE I.MPROPHIETY.
, 1
use hath not affixed them. This fault may be commit led
either in single words or in phrases.
our people who tasted this fish ate sparingly, they were all,
soon afterward, dangerously ill."* I have given this passage
entire, chiefly because it serves to show both that an inac-
curacy apparently trifling may. by misleading the reader, be
productive of very bad consequences, and that those remarks
which tend to add precision and perspicuity to our language
are not of so little moment as some, who have not duly con-
sidered the subject, would affect to represent them.
To this class we may reduce the idiotism, or the employing
of an English word in a sense which it bears in some provin-
cial dialect, in low and partial use, or which, perhaps, the cor-
responding word bears in some foreign tongue, but junsup-
ported by general use in our own language. An example of
this we have in the word imp7-acticable, when it is used for im-
?assable, and applied to roads an application which suits the
;
"rench idiom, but not the English. Of the same kind are the
following Gallicisms of Bolingbroke " All this was done at
:
The auxiliaries should, should have, and should be, are some-
times used in the same improper manner. I am not sensible
of the elegance which Dr. Priestley seems to have discover-
ed in the expression, " The general report is that he should
have said''' for "that he said." It appears to me not only as
an idiomatical expression, but as chargeable both with pleo-
nasm and with ambiguity for what a man said is often very
;
apprehend that all the sophism which has been or can be em-
ployed, will not be sufficient to acquit this system at the tri-
nay, that these two are so widely different, that the former
is most commonly the result of the greatest care. It is like
ease in motion, which, though originally the effect of disci-
pline, when once it hath become habitual, has a more simple
and more natural appearance than is to be observed in any
manner which untutored Nature can produce. This senti-
ment is well expressed by the poet
" Bvit ease in writing flows from art, not chance,
As those move easiest who have learned to dance."
True ease in composition, accompanied with purity, d
as much from that homely manner which affects the famili-
arity of low phrases and vulgar idioms, as the appearance of
a woman that is plainly but neatly dressed differs from that
of a slattern. But this affectation is to be considered as the
spring of one species of impropi-iety only.
All the rest, unless when chargeable on inadvertency, as
they sometimes doubtless are, seem naturall}' to flow from
one or other of these two sources, which are almost diamet-
rically opposite to the former. One is, the love of novelty ;
And in these
" The loveliest pair
That ever since in love's embraces met."t
reckon that we want a genius more than the rest of our neigh-
bours."! The impropriety here is corrected by omitluig the
words in italics.
Another oversight, of much the same kind, and by the same
author, we have in the following passage " I had like to :
that I have not loilfully committed the least mistake. ^'^ The
words used here are incompatible. wrong wilfully com- A
mitted no mistake.
is
Addison hath fallen into an inaccuracy of the same kind
in the following lines :
the former.
The only species of impropriety that remains to be exem-
plified is that wherein there appears some slight incongruity
in the combination of the words, as in the quotations follow-
ing " When you fall into a man's conversation, the first thing
:
—
you should consider is ."f Properly, " fall into conversation
with a man.'''' " 1 wish, sir, you wouid animadvert frequently
on the false taste the town is in with relation to plays as well
as operas."! Properly, " the false taste of the town.''''
" The presence of the Deity, and the care such an august
Cause is to be supposed to take about any action.'"^ The impro-
priety here is best corrected by substituting the word Being
in the place of cause; for though there be nothing improper
in calling the Deity an august Cause, the author halh very
improperly connected with this appellative some word total-
ly unsuitable for who ever heard of a cause taking care about
;
an action ?
I shall produce but one other instance. " Neither implies
that there are virtuous habits and accomplishments already
attained by the possessor, but they certainly show an unpreju-
diced capacity towards them."|| In the first clause of this
sentence there is a gross inconsistency we are informed of :
words with any trope, which are not applicable in the literal
sense. The former errs chiefly against vivacity, the latter
against elegance. Of the one, therefore, I shall have occa-
sion to speak Avhen I consider the catachresis, of the other
when I treat of mixed metaphor.
I have now finished what was intended on the subject of
grammatical purity the first, and, in some respect, the most
;
CHAPTER IV.
OME GRAMMATICAL DOUBTS IN REGARD TO ENGLISH CONSTRUC-
TION STATED AND EXAMINED.
Before I dismiss this article altogether, it will not be amiss
to consider a little some dubious points in construction, on
which our critics appear not to be agreed.
One of the most eminent of them makes this remark upon
the neuter verbs " A neuter verb cannot become a passive.
:
In a neuter verb the agent and the object are the same, and
cannot be separated even in imagination as in the examples
;
the latter, the ship split upon the rock and converting the
;
verb active into a passive, we may say. The rock was split
by tlie force of gunpowder, or tlie ship was split upon the
rock. But we cannot say with any propriety, turning the
verb neuter into a passive, The rock was split upon by the
ship."
This author's reasoning, so far as concerns verbs properly
neuter, is so manifestly just, that it commands a full assent
from every one that understands it. from him only
I differ
in regard to the application. In my apprehension, what may
grammatically be named the neuter verbs are not near so
numerous in our tongue as he imagines. I do not enter into
the difference between verbs absolutely neuter and intransi-
tively active. I concur with him in thinking that this dis-
tinction holds more of metaphysics than of grammar. But
by verbs grammatically neuter I mean such as are not fol-
lowed either by an accusative, or by a preposition and a
noun for I take this to be the only grammatical criterion
;
less apt to affect the sense of it, and to give it a new mean-
ing; and may still be considered as belonging to the verb,
and a part of it. As, to cast is to throw but to cast vp, or to
;
till after some painful attention that the reader discovers two
have eternal life and thei/ are they which testify of me."*
;
the governing verb only that marks the absolute time the ;
observed and leing neglected are not nouns, nor can you sup-
ply the place of the possessive case by the preposition nf be-
fore the noun or pronoun."* For my part, notwithstanding
what is here very speciously urged, I am not satisfied that
there is any fault in the phrases censured. They appear to
me to be perfectly in the idiom of our tongue, and such as
on some occasions could not easily be avoided, unless by
recurring to circumlocution, an expedient which invariably
tends to enervate the expression. But let us examine the
matter more nearly.
This author admits that the active participle may be em-
ployed as a noun, and has given some excellent directions
regarding the manner in which it ought to be construed, that
the proper distinction may be preserved between the noun
and the gerund. Phrases I'ke these, therefore, he would
have admitted as unexceptionable " Much depends upon
:
passive a noun yet the genius of the tongue permits that all
;
aside.
I am of opinion, therefore, upon the whole, that as the
idiom in question is analogical, supported by good use, and
sometimes very expedient, it ought not to be entirely rep-
robated.
CHAPTER V.
* B. ii., chap. i.
238 THE PHILOSOPHY OP RHETORIC.
CHAPTER VI.
OF PERSPICUITY.
Of the qualities above mentioned, the first and most es
all
sential perspicuity*
is Every speaker doth not propose to
please the imagination, nor is every subject susceptible of
those ornaments which conduce to this purpose. Much less
is it the aim of every speech to agitate the passions. There
are some occasions, therefore, on which vivacity, and many
on which animation of style, are not necessary nay, there ;
man may speak properly, and at the same time speak unin-
telligibly,yet this last case falls more naturally to be consid-
ered as an offence against perspicuity than as a violation o°
propriety for when the meaning is not discovered, the par-
;
SECTION I.
THE OBSCURE.
Pakt I. From Defect.
writer, " with a true sense nf thai funclion, when chosen from
a regard to the interests of piety and virtue.*'* Sen.tc in this
passage denotes an inward feeling, or the impression whicli
some sentiment makes upon the mind. Now a function can-
not be a sentiment impressed or felt. The expression is
therefore defective, and ought to have been, " He is inspired
with a true sense of the dignity or of the importance of that
function." "You ought to contemn all tire wit in the world
r.gainst yon."t As the writer doth not intend to signify that
all the wit in the world is actually exerted against the per-
son whom he addresses, there is a defect in the expression,
though perhaps it will be thought chargeable with redundancy
at the same time. More plainly thus: "You ought to con-
temn all the wit that can be emploj'ed against you." " He talks
all the way up stairs to a visit."! There is here also a faulty
omission, vv'hich, if it cannot be said to obscure the sense,
doth at least withhold that light whereof it is susceptible. If
the word visit ever meant person or people, there would be
an ambiguity in the sentence, and we should imagine this the
object talked to but as that cannot be the case, the expres-
;
the case being different witli them, renders it necessary to follovv a differ-
ent rule, and lo say monpereet ma mere. But it is not to instances of this
8ort that the rule is limited. Custom with them hath extended it to innu-
merable cases wherein there is no necewsity from construction. With ug
it is enough to say, " She was robbed of her clothes and jewels." With them
the preposition and the pronoun must boUi be repealed de ses habits et deses
joiaiix. Again, with them it is not sufficient to say. "The woman whom
—
you kmw and love," but whoyii you know .itid whom ynalovc que vons connois-
sez et que vons aimez. In like manner, the relatives in French must never be
omitted. They often are m English, and when the omission occasions no
obscurity, it is not accounted improper. An e.xpression like this would in
tlieir tongue be intolerable : " You are obliged to sny and do all you can." It
must be " to xay and to do all that which you —
can" de dire et de faire tout ce
que vous savez. But though in several instances the critics of that nation
have refined on their language lo excess, and by needless repetitions have
sometimes enervated the expression, their criticisms, when useful in assist-
ing us to shun any obscurity or ambiguity, deserve to be adopted.
* Guardian, Ko. 13. t Guardian, No. 53.
1 Spect., No. 2. <^ Sentiments of a Church of England Man.
X
"
hopes that when Will confronts him, and when all the ladies
—
cast kind looks " The subsequent sentence is liable to the
same exception " He advanced against the fierce ancient,
:
imitating his address, his pace, and career, as ivell as the vig-
our of his horse, and his own skill would allow. "|| The clause
as loell as the vigour of his horse appears at first to belong to
the former part of the sentence, and is afterward found to be-
long to the latter. In all the above instances of bad arrange-
ment, there is what may be justly termed a constructive am-
biguity that is, the words are so disposed in point of order
;
did not want natural talents; but the father of him was a
coxcomb, who aflected being a line gentleman so unmerciful-
ly, that he could not endure in his sight, or the lVe(]uent mcn-
iwn of one who was his son, growing into manhood, and
thrusting him out of the gay world.'"* It is not easy to dis-
entangle the construction of this sentence. One is at a loss,
at first, to find any accusative to the active verb endure; on
fartiier examination, it is discovered to have two, the word
mention and the word one, which is here closely combined
with the preposition of, and makes the regimen of the noun
mention. I might observe, also, the vile application of the
word unmcrcifuihj. This, together with the irregularity of
the reference and the intricacy of the whole, renders the pas-
sage under consideration one of those whicii may, with equrl
justice, be ranked under solecism, impropncii/, obscurity, or in-
eleirance.
ances (for they denote plainly one single system, all ihc
parts of which are so intimately connected and dependant
one on another, that the whole begins, proceeds, and ends to-
gether), this union of a body and a soul must be magical in-
deed, as Doctor Cudworth calls it so magical that the hy-
;
SECTION II.
It was
/^ THE DOUBLE MEANING.
obrserved that perspicuity might be violated not
only by obscurity, but alscj by double meaning. The fault
in this case is, not that tlie sentence conveys darkly or im-
perfectly the autlior's meaning, but that it conveys also some
other meaning which is not the author's. His words are sus-
ceptible of more than one interpretation. When this hap-
pens, it is always occasioned either by using some expression
—
which is equivocal that is, hath more meanings than one af-
fixed to it, or by ranging the words in such an order that the
construction is rendered equivocal, or made to exhibit differ-
ent senses. To the former, for distinction's sake, I shall as
sign the name of equivocation; to tlic latter I shall appro-
priate that of ambiguity.
Part I. Equivocation.
relation which any affection bears to its subject that is, the
;
—
neither death nor life shall be able to separate us from the
love of God."* By the love of God., say interpreters, may be
understood either God's love to us, or our love to God. It is re-
markable, that the geaitive case in the ancient languageii,
and the prepositions corresponding to that case in the mod-
ern languages, are alike susceptible of this double meaning.
Only as to our own language, we may observe in passing,
that of late the preposition of is more commonly put before
the subject, and to before the object of the passion. But this
is not the only way in which the preposition of may be equiv-
ocal. As it sometimes denotes the relation of t.he eff'ect to
the cause, sometimes that of the accident to the subject, from
this duplicity of signification there will also, in certain cir
cumstances, arise a double sense. You have an example in
these words of Swift " A little after the reformation 0/ Lu-
:
the great body of the people in her and their common inter-
est."! 'i'he word her may be either the possessive pronoun,
or the accusative case of the personal pronoun. A very
small alteration in the order totally removes tiie doubt. Say,
'•
in their and her common interest." The word her, thus
connected, can be only the possessive, as the author doubt-
less intended it should be, in the passage quoted.
An example in substantives " Your majesty has lost all
:
If the word ordij is here an adverb, the sense is, " To equivo-
cate is not the only thing that Jesuits can do." This inter-
pretation, though not the author's meaning, suits the con-
struction. A very small alteration in the o^'der gives a prop-
er and unequivocal, though a prosaic expression of this sense :
—
the subject, Avhich I liave already handled I mean, the iiaked
bosoms of our British ladies. 'a) Sometimes, indeed, a thing
like this may be said ai-chly and of design, in which case it
falls not under this animadversion.
It was remarked above, that there are not only equivocal
words jn our language, but equivocal phrases. Not the least
and not the smallest are of this kind. They are sometimes
made to imply not any ; as though one should say, not even
the least, not so much as the smallest ; and sometimes, again, to
signify a very great, as though it were expressed in this man-
ner, /ar /row* being the least or smallest. Thus they are sus-
Spect., No. 19. t Spect . No. 627.
"^
} Dryden's Hind and Panther. ^ ^^o 1 y&
THE PHILOSOPHY OF RHETOniC. 253
-
Guardian, No. 60 + Matt., ix., 13 % PIos , vi., 6.
Y
"
—
whom Saul persecuted, was the richest " But this phrase-
ology has to modern ears I knov/ not what air of formality,
that renders it intolerable. Better thus " Solomon, whose
:
—
of trouble" " Godliness, which with contentment is great
gain, has the promise both of the present life and of the fu-
ture." The clause " who is born of woman." in the first ex-
ample, and " which with contentment is great gain," in the
second, point to certain properties in the antecedents, but do
not restrain their signification. For, should we omit these
clauses altogether, we could say with equal truth, " Man is
—
of few days and full of trouble" " Godliness ha:; llie promise
both of the present life and of the future." On the other
hand, these pronouns are determinative wlicn they are em-
ployed to limit the import of the antecedent, as in these in-
stances " The man that endureth to the end sliall be saved''
:
qui peut vons gnrantir de toute chute." ask whether the antecedent here
I
est no de la femme, vit ties peu de il est rempli de iniseres ;" and
terns, et
" L'homuie, qoi perseverera ju&qu'ii la fin, sera sauve." In like manner,
"La piete, qui jointe avcc le contentement est v.n grand gain, a les pro-
messes de la vie presente, ct de celie qui est a venir ;" and " Le retnords qui
aboutii a !a reformation, est le vrai repeniir." The like indistinctness will
be found to obtain in Italian and some other modern languages, and arises,
in a great measure, from their giving the article almost invariably to ab-
stracts. In some instances llmre appears of late a tendency in writers, es-
pecially on politics, to give up this advantage entii-ely ; not by adding the ar-
ticle to abstracts, but (which equally destroys the distinction) by omitting
il when the term has a particular application. How often do we now litxl,
even in books, .'such phrases as the following? " This was an undertaking
too arduous for private persons imaided by government" —
"It is hard to say
what measure administration vvill next adopt." As in l)olh cases it is the
present government and the present administration of the country of the
author that is meant, these nouns ought to have the definite article prefixed
to them, and can scarcely be called English without it. The former of
these words is indeed frequently used in the abstract, in which case it nev-
er has the article, as thus "Government is absolutely necessary in all civil-
— :
and her precludes several ambiguities that affect most other European
tongues. Suppose the promise had been made to the mother instead of
the father, the simple enunciation of it would be equally ambiguous in
French as in the other case. " Lysias promit a sa mere de n'abandonner
jamais ses amis," is their expression, whether they be his friends or furs of
whom he speaks. If it were a daughter to her father, the case would be
the same with them, but different with us. I may remark here, by-lheway,
how much more this small distinction in regard to the antecedent conduces
to perspicuity, than the distinctions of gender and mnnlier in regard to the
nouns with which they are joined. As to this last conne.xion, the place of
the pronoun always ascertains it, so that, for this purpose at least, tha
change of termination is superfluous. t Gen., xliv., 22.
THE PHILOSOPHY OF KHETORIC. 259
nieiit, :uidquestion not but you will throw it inio such lijfhls
as shall at once improve and entertain your reader."'* Tlicre
is no ambiguity here, nor would it, on the most cursory read-
ing, enter nito the head of any person ol" common sense that
the pronoun IL relates to niamigemeiif, which is Jioarer, and
not to svhjfct, which is more remote. Nor 15 it the sense only
that directs us in this preference. There is another principle
by which we are influenced. The accusative of tlie active
verb is one chief object of attention in a sentence the regi-
;
Here, though the word king is adjoining, and the word God at
some distance, the pronoun he cannot so regularly refer to
that noun as to this. The reason is, the whole of the second
clause, begiiuiing with these words, " with half the zeal,"
maintains but a subordinate rank in the sentence, as it is in-
troduced in explication of the first, and might be omitted, not,
indeed, without impairing, but without destroying the sense.
Yet neither the rank in the sentence, nor the nearness of po-
sition, will invariably determine the import of the relative
Sometimes, indeed, as was observed by the French author
last quoted, the sense of the words connected is sufficient to
remove the ambiguity, though the reader should have no pre-
vious knowledge of the subject. And, doubtless, it is equally
reasonable to admit a construction which, though naturally
equivocal, is fixed by the connexion, as to admit an equivo-
cal term, the sense whereof is in this manner ascertained.
Of an ambiguity thus removed the following will serve for
an example " Alexander, having conquered Darius, made
:
bflong to the noun which follows the first, tliDugh that nonn
may properly suggest to the reader the word lo be supplied.
Thus I should say rightly, " It is the opinion o{ aW !2:o:>d and
wise men, that a vicious person cannot enjoy true happiness."
because I mean to signify that this is the opinion of those lo
whom both qualities, goodness and wisdom, are justly attrib-
uted. But the following passage in oin* version of the sacred
text is not so proj)er " Every scribe instructed unto the king-
:
virtuous and the vile, the learned and ignorant, the lemperale
and debauched, all give and return the jest.'"* For the same
reason, and it is a sufficient reason, that he said " the virtu-
ous and the vile," he ought to have said " the learned and the
ignorant, the temperate and the debauched."
I proceed to give examples in some of the other parts of
speech. The construction of substantive nouns is sometimes
ambiguous. Take the following instance " You shall sel- :
Did the tomb bear the column, or the column the tomb?
" And thus the son the fervent sire address'd.''ij
first, "Thus his son addressed the father;" and in lieu of the
second, " Thus his father addressed the son," are not English.
By the English idiom, therefore, the possessive pronoun is,
in such instances, more properly joined to the regimen of
the verb than to the nominative. If this practice were uni-
versal, as it is both natural and suitable to the genius of our
tongue, it would always indicate the construction wherever
the possessive pronoun could be properly introduced. For
this reason I consider the two following lines as much clear-
er of the charge of ambiguity than the former quotation from
the same work
"Young Itylus, his parent's darling joy,
"Whom chance misled the mother to destroy."*
For though the vi'ords whom and the mother are both in the
accusative, the one as the regimen of the active verb misled,
the other as the regimen of the active verb destroy, yet the
destroyer or agent is conceived in the natural order as pre-
ceding the destroyed or patient. If, therefore, the last iine
had been,
" Whom chance misled his mother to destroy,"
itwould have more naturally imported that the son destroy-
ed his mother as it stands, it more naturally imports, agree-
;
ably to the poet's design, that the mother destroyed her son ;
that they have 7iot the spleen, because they cannot talk with-
out the help of a glass, or convey their meaning to each oth-
er uithout the interposition of clouds. "f The ambiguity here
lies in the two words 7io!, and because. What follows because
appears on the first hearing to be the reason why the person
here addressed is desired to inform these fellows that they
are not splenetic on the second, it appears to be the reason
;
why people ought to conclude tiiat tliey are not; and on ihe
third, the author seems only intending to signify that this is
not a sufficient reason to make anybody conclude that they
are. Thrs error deserves our notice the more, that it is of-
ten to be found even in our best v^riters.
Sometimes a particular expression is so situated that it
may be construed with more or less of another particular ex-
pression which precedes it in the sentence, and may conse-
quently exhibit different senses: "He has, by some strange
magic, arrived at the value of half a plum, as the citizens
call a hundred thousand pounds. ^"X Is it a -plum or half a plum
which the citizens call " a hundred thousand pounds V " 1
will spend a hundred or two pounds rather than be enslaved. "J
This is another error of the same sort, but rather worse.
Hundred cannot regularly be understood betvveen the adjec-
tive two and its substantive pounds. Besides, the indefinite
article a cannot properly express one side of the alternative,
and si'.pply the place of a numeral adjective opposed to two.
The author's meaning v/ould have been better expressed ci-
ther of these ways: "I will spend one or two hundred
pounds," or, " I will spend one hundred pounds or two rather
than be enslaved." In the former case it is evident that the
the hitter, that tliey are luiderstood alter the second. The
reference and coiislruetioM of the conclndiiig words in the
next quotation is very indeihiile: " .My Christian and surname
begin and end with the same IcHcrs.'"* Dolli his Cliristisiu
name begin with tiie same letter that liis surname hegnii
with, and end with tlie same letter tiiat his surname ends
wil!i or (loth iiis Ciiristian name end with the same letter
!
with whicli it begins, and his surname also end with the same
letter with wiiieh it begins or, lastly, are all these four let-
?
ters, the first and the last of each name, llic same letter 'f
Sometimes a particular clause or expression is so situated
that it may be construed with diHerent members of the sen-
tence, and thus exhibit diiFerent meanings " it has not a :
word," says Pope, " but what the auliior religiously thinks
in zi.'"J Une would at first imagine iiis meaning lo be, that
it had not a word which the author did not think to be in it.
Alter a little the place of the last two words, and the amlii-
g\iity will bo removed " it has not a word
: il but what the m
author religiously thinks." Of the same kind, also, is the
subsequent quotation " Mr. Dryden makes a very handsome
:
SECTKJN III.
THE rMNTELT.:a:-jLE.
'f T havb already consiJorcd two of ilic principal and most
connnon onVnces iigainst j")<>rspicL!it3%a:i(l come v.r.w id make
some remarks on tiiC tliiid and last oii'encc incntioiit-J in the
onnineralion Ibrnicriy given. If. wa.^ observed tliat a jq)eak-
com[)lex sentences.
l'"Mbt in snnp!e sentences: "I have observed," snys Sir
liichard Steele, who. tlionjrli a man of ^ent:e and genius, was
a great master in llns style, "ihiil the snp(Mioiily an-.'-.iig-
these," lie is speakin^r of some coffee luaise politicians, "pro-
ceeds from an oj)inio;i of gallantry and fasliion."* 'i'iiis t-.-jii-
tencc. considered in itself, evideuily conveys no meaning.
First, it is not said whose opinion, their own or Ih.a of (Uh-
ers secoiidly. it is not said what opinion, or of what soit,
;
shall exemplify this sort also, first in a few more simple seu-
teucfs, and then in such as are more complex. Of (he for-
mer, take the following mslnuces " Tiiis temper of soui," :
if the fancy be lloriil. and tlie appetite lii<;h towards t!ie sub-
altern beauties and lower order of worldly symmetries and
proportions, the condnit will infaliibly turn liiis latter way.' *
This is that figure of speech which the rreiich critics ciill
^i;a!i/naliijs, and the Knglish compreheiKl under the goiieral
name hombast, and wliicli nv.i}' not improperly be defmeu the
subiime of vonacnse. Voii have lofty imagrs and high-sojiid-
iiig words, but are always at a loss to hnd the sense. The
meaning, where there is a meaning, cannot be said to be
commanicatcd and adorned by the words, but is rather buried
under them. Of the same kind are the two following fpiotu-
tioiis from the same author: " Men miisL acquire a very pe-
culiar and strong haliit of turning their eye inward, in order
to explore the interior regions and recesses of the mind, tlu;
liollow caverns t)f deep thought, the private .scats of faiic}',
and the wastes and wikieriiesses, as well as the more fruitlul
and cultivated tracts of this obscure climate."! A nio'it won-
derlul way of telling its that it is ditiicuU to trace tlie opera-
lions of llie mind. This may .serve to give some notion of
the figure which the Frencli Piucbus no oQeiice to the Gre- —
cian, who is of a very different family is capabie of making —
in an Knglish dress. His hu'dship proceeds i:i his own inim-
itable mitnner, or, rather, in wiiat follows hiiili oiituone him-
self: "But what can one do or how dispense with tlieso
!
though very acute and able in their kind, yet being moon-
blind, they cannot see by night, and having renouncted day-
light,they will not see by day so that, for any use they have
;
Z-2
—
" ut speciem artis, nescio cujus, prffclaras szpenumero reportcnt ea, qua
THE rniLosoPTiY OF niir.TosTr. 2'il
the same time, using those words so indcfii^-'eiy, •luit tlie lat-
ter can eitljer alTix no meaning to them at all, or may almost
aiTix any meaniiig to thcin he pleases. "If "iis asked." says
a late vtriter, "wh.ence arises this iiarmon^' or beatity of lan-
guage what are the riiies for obtaining it U:c answer is ob-
? ;
2. THE LEARNED.
3. THE PROFOeND.
proceed in nnolher species, whieii I shvJl c?cnominaie /lie
I
* For the farther eluriilation of this point, see the analysis cf persuasion
given in book i., chap. v,i., sect. iv.
•f Disc, of ihe Conlesls and Dissensions in Athens and Kome, first senr
lene*
'
4. THE JIARVKLJUOUS.
225. Tliis is raiher worse than the Knglish. Tiie qualifying phrase in the
jast sentei.ce, we find, is the iranslator's, who seems, out ol' sheer iiiodc.-ty,
;o have brought it to cover nudities. His intention was good, lait this la
such a rag as cannot answer. % Drydcn 0:1 the if estoration.
A A
;
SECTION I.
THE KATCUE AND POWER OF SIGN"?, DOTH I.\ SPCAKINU AND IX THINK
IXfi.
that aiiihcn-, " that language has no other end but the com-
municating our iiieas, and that every significant name stands
for an idea. 'I'his being so, and it being withal certain that
names, which yet are not tliought altogether insignificant,
do not always mark out particular conceivaldt: ideas, it is
straightway concluded that they stand for abstract notions.
ThM there are many names in use among speculative mc!i
which do not always suggest to others determinate particu-
lar ideas, is \\\vA nobody will deny. And a little attention
will discover, tliat it is not necessary (even in the strictest
reasonings) significant names wiiich stand for ideas sliouid,
every lime tlu-y are used, excite in the understanding the
ideas they are made to stand f >r. In reatiing and disc;>ursing,
iia;n<;s being f.)r the most part used as iettv.r>; are in aljiei.ra,
in which, lliongh a particniar quantity be marked by each let-
ter, yet to proceed rigiit, it is not requi-ate that in eveiy step
each letter' suggest to your thoughts tiiat particular quantity
TiiE rini.osGriiY or niinTORic. 270
belipve evt-rv oiiP who f*x;iiiiiiu s llie siHiHliois of hi'^ ir.jiid i:i
reasoning will n^nc with me, tliat we i'j noi amivx (]isiin( I
and complete ideas to every term wo make use of, and that,
i'l talUiii<r *.A government, church, ncgotiuliiri, rorK/uesi, we sel-
dom spread out in onr minds all the f-imp.ie ideas of w!:i(!i
these complex ones are composed. "I'is. however, ohserva-
l)le,that, iiotwilhstanding this impeiT c!io)i. w(! m;;y avoid
talkinjr nonsense on these subjects, ;\w} may perceive any nr-
pugnance among the ideas as wcil as if v.'e had a full (!o:a-
prehensiou of them. T!m'^ if. instead of saying that '// xciir
the icenker hace ahont/x recourse to ne<iolialUni. we siionid say
that lliey have aiwai/x recourse to corx/tiext, the custtjm wlilcM
we Inve acquired of attributing eeitaiu relations t.'. i-.l.-as siiil
follows the W!)r.!s, and makes u-i immediately perceive the
absurdjiy of that proposiliou."'t ^omu excelient observa-
tions to t;ie same purpose have also beeu msue by tiie elj
giiiU Intpiirer into the Origin of our Ideas of the Subiime an J
Beaiiliful.J:
Now that the notions on tliis subject maiiitr^ined by these
ingenious writers, however strange t'aey m:;y appear upon a
superficial view, are well founded, is at least presumrdno
from this consideration tijat if, agreeabi}' to the comm.iii
;
• Introd., sect. xLx. t Vol i., book i., pail j., sect. \iL 1 I'art v
f
*•
It may be thought improper to menlion identity as a relation by which
different tilings are i;i)iiiiecte(l but it must be observed, that only mean so
; I
far dfferent AS to constitute distinct oljjects to the ininci. Thus the con-
si leralioii ol the sairte person, when a child and when a man. is the con-
sideration of ditferenl objects, between which there subsists the reialion ol
identity.
t Book i., chap, v., sect, ii., part ii. On the Fornaation of Experience.
THE PIIILOSOrilY OF RHETORIC. 281
gross tb.e minds attentinii. ISul »iiis is not uiiat tliose v.ri-
ters seem V) meaji who pbdlosophize noon abstract ideas, ;is
is evident from ihcir own ex[)!iuati'jn?!.
Thepatron? of I'lis theorv intintain, or, at ieasf, expreSo
themseivas as if thoy maiat:::ned, that t:ie mini is endow; <I
witii a power of forrnin^^ ideas or irn.'goo witiiin itself, th.U
are possessed not o:iiy of incoiitrmoi::^, but of iiicotisisier.t
qualities— of a triangle, for example, Hint v-< of all possible
(limeiisions and pr<»portiiins, ijoth in si.U's aiid ajigles. at once
n'g!:t aujjjl.'.d, acute aiigloi, aiid obtas:^---ingk'.', equilateral,
equicurai, and sival( num. Oae would have lliou^Iit that llio
bare mention of this hypothesis would h;;ve beeii equivalent
to a confutation of it, since it really confutes itself.
Vet in this manner one no les.s respect. .bie in ine philo-
sophic world thin i\Ir. l.ocke has, on tsoiue occasions, ex-
pressed himself.* 1 oonsi let- ilie di.Terea'jc, 'lowever, on this
Other, " it hoh^g that term which," in his opinion, " serves
best 10 stand lor whttsoever is the object of the understand-
ing w hen a man tliinks.''* Accordingly, he nowiiere, that I
remember, defines it, with some h)gici.ui.s, •' a pattern or copy
of a thing in tlie mind." Nevertheless, he has not always, in
speaking on the subject, aitended to the different acceptation
he liad m the beginning aflLxed to the word ; but. misled l)y
the common definilioh (which regards a more hnuted objeci),
and applying it to the teriii in tliat more extensive iinpo't
which he had himself given it, has fallen into tliose incon-
sistencies in language whicli have been before observed,
'i'luis this great man has, in his own exaniple, as it were,
demonstrated how difficult it is even for ihe wisest to gUi;ni
uniformly against the incouvenicnccs arising from the aiu-
biguiiy of words.
iiut' tiiat what I have now advanced is not spoken rashly,
and that there was no maierial difference between his opin-
ion and theirs on this arlicle, is, I think, manifest from the
following passage " To return to general words, it is plain,
:
by what Ins been said, that general and n.iiversal belong not
to the real existence of things, but are the inventions and
creatures of tiie understanding, in.ide by it for its own use,
and concern only signs, whetiier words or ideas. Words are
general, as has been said, when used for signs of gener;;l
1 leas, and so are applicable indifferently to many pariicnlar
'hings ; and ideas are general when lliey are set up as the
representatives of many particular things; but universality
belongs not to things themselves, which are all of tliem par-
ticular in their existence, even those icords and ideas wluch in
Iheir sign'JicaliuH are frencral. When, therefore, we quit par-
ticulars, the generals that rest arc only creatures of our own
makmg, Lhcir general nalure being nallung Imt the capaciiy Lheij
are put in/o it/ the uuders/andingf of siginfying or represen'mg
many particulars. For the signijicatinn thaij have is nothing but
a relation that by the mind of man is added to them."\ Nothing,
in my apprehension, can be more exactly coincident witii
Berkeley's doctrine of abstraction. Mere not only words,
bat ideas, are made signs and a particular idea is made
;
lies nearest, but will never think of that meaning more re-
mote, which the figures themselves are intended to signify.
It is no wonder, then, that this sense, for the disi-overy of
which it is necessary to see through a double veil, should,
where it is, more readily escape our observalio'^^and that
where it is wanting we should not so quickly miss^'it.
There is, in respect of the two meanings, considerable va-
riety to he found in llie tropical style. In just allegory and
similitude there is always a propriety, or, if you choose to -
not easy to say how absurdly even just sentiments will some-
times be expressed. But when no such hidden sense can be
discovered, what, in the first view, conveyed to our minds a
glaring absurdity, is rightly, on reflection, denominated noii-
sensc. We are satisfied that Do Piles neither thought, nor
wanted his readers to think, that Rubens v/as really the origi-
nal performer, and God the copier. This, then, was not his
meaning. But what he actually thought, and wanted them
to think, it is impossible to elicit from his words. His words,
then, may justly be termed bold in respect of their literal im-
port, but unmeaning in respect of the author's intention.
It may be proper here to observe, that some are apt to con-
found the terms absurdity and nonsense as synonymous, which
they manifestly are not. An absurdity, in the strictesto ac-
ceptation, is a proposition either intuitively" or demonstrative-
ly false. Of this kind are these: "Three and two make
—
seven" " All the angles of a triangle arc greater than two
right angles." That the former is false we know by intu-
ition ;that the latter is so, we are able to demonstrate. But
the term is farther extended to denote a notorious falsehood.
If one should afliirm that at the vernal equinox " the sun rises
in the north and sets in the south," wc should not hesitate to
say that he advances an absurdity; but still what he affirms
has a meaning, insomuch that, on hearing- the sentence, we
pronounce its falsity. Now nonsense is that whereof we can-
not say either that it is true or that it is false. Thus, when
the Teutonic iheosopher enounces that " all the voices of the
celestial joyfulness qualify, commix, and harmonize in the
fire which was fnjm eternity in the good quality," I should
think it equally impertinent to aver the falsity as tlie truth of
this enunciation ;lor, though the words grannnatically form
a sentence, they exhibit to the understanding no judgment,
B B
290 THE PHILOSOPHY OF RHETORIC.
ror are infinite. One quahfied iii the manner above mention-
ed could as successfully dispute on a subject of which he was
totally ignorant, as on one with which he was perfectly ac-
quainted. Success, indeed, tended then no more to decide
the question, than a man's killing his antagonist in a duel
serves now to satisfy any person of sense that the victor had
right on his side, and that the vanquished was in the wrong.
Such an art as this could at bottom be no other than a mere
playing with words, used indeed grammatically, and accord-
ing to certain rules established in the schools, but quite in-
significant, and, therefore, incapable of conveying knowledge.
" Vain wisdom all, and false philosofijiy."
B b2
f
Nothing can more fully prove that the fruit of all such con-
trivances was mere words without knowledge, an empty show
of science without the reality, than the ostentatious and ab-
surd way in which the inventors and their votaries talk of
these inventions. They would have us believe that in these
is contained a complete encyclopedia, that here we may dis-
cover all the arts and sciences as in their source, that hence
all of them may be deduced a priori, as from their principles.
Accordingly, they treat all those as no better than quacks
and empirics who have recourse to so homely a tutoress as
experience.
The consideration of their pretensions hath indeed satisfied
me that the ridicule thrown on projectors of this kind, in the
account given by Swift* of a professor in the academy of
Logado, is not excessive, as I once thought it. The boasts
of the academist, on the prodigies performed by his frame,
are far less extravagant than those of the above-mentioned
artists, which in truth they very much resemble.
So much for the third and last cause of illusion that was
taken notice of, arising from the abuse of very general and
abstract terms, which is the principal source of all the non-
sense that hath been vented by metaphysicians, mystagogues
and theologians.
* Gulliver's Travels, part iii.
CHAPTER VIII.
SECTION I.
est, qui hac institutione libros doctos, novos, utiles, omni rerum scientia
plenos, levissima opera edere non potest." How much more modest is the
professor of Logado. " He Hatters himself, indeed, that a more iioblo, ex-
alted thought than his never sprang in any other man's head." hut doth not
lay claim to inspiration. " Every one knows,'' he adds, " how laborious the
usual method is of attaining to arts and sciences whereas, by his contri-
;
vance, the most ignorant person, at a reasonable charge, and with a little
bodily labour, may write books in philosophy, poetry, |)oiiiics, law, mathe-
matics, and theology" (no mention of history), •• without the least assistance
from genius and study." He is still modest enough to require time and
some corporeal e.xercise in order to the composing of a treatise but those
;
that the latter are sometimes the foreseen eflects of the med-
icines employed, doth not invalidate the general truth. What-
ever be the real intention of a speaker or writer, whether to
satisfy our reason of what is true or of what is untrue, whether
to incline our will to what is right or to what is wrong, still
he must propose to effect his design by informing our under-
standing nay, more, without conveying to our minds some
;
Book i., chap, vii., sect. iv. See the analj-sis of persuasion
THE rHiLosoPiiv OF RiiriTor.ii'. 297
purpose.
Perhaps it will be urged, that though, where the end is
persuasion, there doth not seem to be an absolute necessity
for sophistry and obscurity on either side, as there is not on
either side an absolute necessity for supporting falsehood,
the case is gertainly different when the end is to convince
* Book i., chap, vii., sect. v. The explication and use of those circum-
stances.
298 THE PinLOsopnY of rhetoric.
in persuasory discourses, for all the arts that can both rivet
the hearer's attention on the circumstances of the proof fa-
vourable to the speaker's design, and divert his attention from
the contrary circumstances.- Nor is there, in ordinary cases,
that is, in all cases really dubious and disputable, any neces-
sity, on either side, for what is properly called sophistry.
The natural place for sophistry is when a speaker finds
himself obliged to attempt the refutation of arguments that
are both clear and convincing. For an answerer to overlook
such arguments altogether might be dangerous, and to treat
them in such a manner as to elude their force requires the
most exquisite address. A
little sophistry here will, no doubt,
be thought necessary by one with whom victory hath more
Book i., chap, v., sect. ii. t Book i., chap, v., sect, ii
THE PIIILOSOrilY OF niir.i\!U ;r. 299
clKirms than t«itn and sophistry, as was hinted above, al-
;
That they arc otlen successful this way halh been justly remarked
by Aristotle " Tuv i' oia/xaTdiv, nii ^cv roiiicTy] i^uiiu/ii((t ;^fjr/or(f/u«, jrapn ravTM
:
SECTION II.
OBJECTIONS ANSWERED.
But are there not some subjects, and even some kind of
composition, which from their very nature demand a dash of
obscurity 1 Doth not decency often require this 1 Doth not
delicacy require this I And is this not even essential to the al-
legoric style, and to the enigmatic ' As to the manner which
—
other words, that they be not directly spoken, but that suf-
ficient ground be given to infer them from whut is spoken.
Such sentiments are, though improperly, considered as ob-
scurely expressed for this special reason, that it is not by
the first operation of the intellect, an apprehension of the
meaning of what is said, but by a second operation, a reflec-
tion on what is implied or presupposed, that they are discov^-
ered, in which double operation of the mind there is a faint
resemblance to wliat happens in the case of real obscurity.
But in the case of which I am treating, it is the thouglit more
than the expression that serves for a veil to the sentiment
suggested. If, therefore, in such instances there may be said
to be obscurity, it is an obscurity which is totally distinct
from obscurity of language.
That this matter may be better understood, we must care-
fully distinguish between the thought expressed and the
thought hinted. The latter may be gffirmcd to be obscure
because it is not expressed, but hinted whereas the former,
;
venez-vous que rien n'est plus oppose a la veritable delicatesse que d'ex-
primer trop les choses, et que le gratid art consiste a ne pas tout dire sur
certain sujets; a glisser dessus pliitot que d'y appnyer et un mot, a en
;
laisser Denser auxautres plus que Ton n'en dil." Mamire de bicn Peiurr, &c
C o
302 THE PHILOSOPHY OP RHETORIC.
of the literal sense, and the literal sense is the sign of the
figurative. Perspicuity in the style, which exhibits only the
literal sense, is so far from being to be dispensed with here,
that it is even more requisite in this kind of composition than
in any other. Accordingly, you will, perhaps, nowhere find
more perfect models both of simplicity and of perspicuity of
style than in the parables of the Gospel. Indeed, in every
sort of composition of a figurative character, more attention
is always and justly considered as due to this circumstance
than in any other sort of writing. iSsop's fables are a noted
example of this remark. In farther confirmation of it, we
may observe, that no pieces are commonly translated with
greater ease and exactness than the allegorical, and that even
by those who apprehend nothing of the mystical sense. This
surely could never be the case if the obscurity were charge-
able on the language.
The same thing holds here as in painting emblems or gra-
ving devices. It ma}% witliout any fault in the painter or en-
graver, puzzle 5'ou to discover what the visible figure of the
sun for example, which you observe in the emblem or the
device, was intended to signify but if you are at a loss to
;
CHAPTER IX.
MAY THERE NOT BE AN EXCESS OF PERSPICUITY 1
I SHALL conclude this subject with inquiring whether it be
possible that perspicuity should be carried to excess. It
hath been said that too much of it has a tendency to cloy the
reader, and, as it gives no play to the rational and active
powers of the mind, will soon grow irksome through excess
of facility. In this manner some able critics have expressed
themselves on this point, who will be found not to differ in
sentiment, but only in expression, from the principles above
laid down.
The objection ariseth manifestly from the confounding ol
two objects, the common and the clear, and thence very natu-
rally their contraries, the new and the dark, that are widely
different. If you entertain your reader solely or chieily willi
thougiits that are either trite or obvious, yon cannot fail soon
to tire him. You introduce few or no new sentiments into
his mind, 5^ou give him little or no information, and, consi;-
quently, afford neither exercise to his reason nor entertaiu-
C ca
306 THE PHILOSOPHY OF RHETORIC.
ought to be adapted.
It is proper, iiowever, before I dismiss this subject, to ob-
serve, that ever}- kind of style doth not admit an equal degree
of perspicuit5^ In the ode, for instance, it is difficult, some-
times perhaps impossible, to reconcile the utmost perspicuity
with that force and vivacity which the species of composi-
tion requires. But even in this case, though we may justly
say that the genius of the performance renders obscurity to
a certain degree excusable, nothing can ever constitute it an
excellence. Nay, it may still be affirmed with truth, that the
more a writer can reconcile this quality of perspicuity with
that which is the distinguishing excellence of the species of
composition, his success will be the greater.
* Shakspeare's Merchant of Venice.
THE PHILOSOPHY OP RHETORIC. 307
4 BOOK III.
THE nSCRLMINATING PROPERTIES OF ELOCUTION.
CHAPTER I.
SECTION I.
PROPER TERMS.
I BEGIN with proper terms, and observe that the quality of
?hief importance in these for producing the end proposed is
their specialiti/. Nothing can contrihutc? more to eidiven the
expression than that all the words employed be as particuhir
and determinate in their signification as will suit with tiic na-
ture and the scope of the discourse. The more general the
* Book i., chap. i.
308 THE PHILOSOPHY OF EHETORIC.
terms are, the picture is the fainter ; the more special they
are, it isthe brighter. The same sentimenls may be express-
ed with equal justness, and even perspicuity, in the former
way as in the la'ter but as the colouring will in that case be
;
;
toil not, they spin not and yet I say unto you, that Solomon
;
in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. If, then,
God so clothe the grass which to-day is in the field and to-
morrovvr is cast into the oven, how much more Avill he clothe
youl"! Let us here adopt a little of the tasteless manner
of modern paraphrasts, by the substitution of more general
terms, one of their many expedients of infrigidating, and let
us observe the effect produced by this change. " Consider
the flowers how they gradually increase in their size they ;
•«
Exod., XV., 10.
t I am sensible that genus and species are not usually, and perhaps can-
not be so properly, applied to verbs yet there is in the reference which the
;
meanings of two verbs soinelimes bear to each other what nearly resem-
bles this relation. Jt is only when to fall means to move downward, as a
brick from a chim.ney-top or a pear from the tree, that It may he denomina-
ted a genus in respect of the verb to xink. Som.eiimes, indeed, the former
denotes merely a sudden change of posture from erect to prostrate, as when
a man who stands upon the ground is said to fall, though he remain still on
the ground. In this way we speak of the fall of a tower, of a house, or of
a wall. t Luke, xii., 27 and 28.
'
Here both the words sidelong and snatcWd are very significant,
and contribute much to the vivacity of the expression. Taken
or kCen, substituted for the latter, would be much weaker. It
may be remarked, that it is principally in those parts of speech
which regard life and action that this species of energy takes
place.
I shall give one in nouns from Milton, who says concern-
ing Satan, when he had gotten into the garden of Eden,
" Thence up he flew, and on the tree of life
Sat hke a cormorant.''X
If for cormorant he had said bird of prey, which would have
equally suited both the meaning and the measure, the image
would still have been good, but weaker than it is by this
specification.
In adjectives the same author hath given an excellent ex-
ample, in describing the attitude in which Satan was discov-
ered by Ithuriel and his company, when that malign spirit
was employed in infusing pernicious thoughts into the mind
of our first mother.
" Him there they found
Squat like a toad, close at the ear of Eve."iJ
No word in the language could have so happily expressed
the posture as that which the poet hath chosen.
It will Be easy, from the same principles, to illustrate a re-
mark of the Stagyrite on the epithet rosy-fingered, which Ho-
mer hath given to the morning. This, says the critic, is bet-
. ter than if he had said purple-fingered, and far better than if
he had said red-fingered\ Aristotle hath observed the effect
solely in respect of beauty, but the remark holds equally true
of tliese epithets in respect of vivacity. This, in a great
measure, may be deduced from what hath been said already.
Of all the above adjectives, the last is the most vague and
general, and therefore the worst the second is better, be-
;
pray y«n</e?."* The adverb there would not have been near
so expressive. t Though we cannot say properly that pro-
nouns or adverbs, either of phice or of time, are susceptible of
genera and species, yet we can say (which amounts to iha
same as to the effect) that some are more and some less lim-
ited ill signification.
To the ai)ove remarks and examples on the subject of
speciality, I shall only add, that in composition, particularly
of the descriptive kind, it invariably succeeds best for bright-
ening the imaoe to advance from general expressions to more
special, and thence, again, to more particular. This, in the
language of philosophy, is descending. We
descend to par-
ticulars but in the language of oratory it is ascending.
; A
very beautiful climax will sometimes be constituted in this
manner, the reverse will ofte.i have all the effect of an anti-
climax. For an example of this order in description, take
the following passage from the Song of Solomon " My be- :
gone, the ilowers appear on the earth, the time of the sing-
ing of birds is come, and the v(»ice of the turtle is heard m
our land, the fig-tree pulteth forth her green figs, and tlie
vines with the tender grape perfume tiie air. Arise, my
love, my fair, and come away."| The poet here, with admi-
rable address, begins with mere negatives, observing the ab-
sence of every evil which might discourage his bride from
liearkening to his importunate request; then he proceeds by
a fine gradation to paint the mo.st inviting circuuistances that
couii serve to ensure the compliance of the fair. The first
expression is the most general " The winter is past.'' The
:
lieu qu'ii leur montroildu doigt." Tlie i^nglish version needs no such sup-
plement, t Chap., ii., 10, 11, 12, 13.
THE rniLosoniY of RiiF.Tonic. 315
isheard in onr hind, the fig-wee puttctli forih hor green fii^s,
ami llie viiu-s wiili llie tciider jrr;ipo lU'iruiiin the air." 'llie
|)ass;ige is not remaikiihJe lor ilje llvclnles^s lliaii lur
iiioih;
the elofrance of the picture it exliiliils. 'I'lic t-xuDiplcs are
all taken from uiiutever can coniribiile to re^Mle lit scu-sey
and a\val<eii love yet, reverse the order, and the beauty is
;
SECTION ir.
nHETOiUCAL XnOPES.
species and the genus, between the part and the whole, and
between the matter and the thing made from it; in metonymy,
which is the most various of the tropes, the relation is nev-
erilieless always reducible to one or other of these three
causes, effects, or adjuncts in antonomasia, it is merely that
:
vice ;" but we should say, " Ilis behaviour to those unlia|)py
people was quite 6rH/a/." The word brutish, however, though
derived from the same root, is employed, like beastly, to de-
note stupid or ignorant. Thus to say of au}^ man " he acted
brutishly,"' and to say "he acted brutally," are two very dif-
ferent things. The first implies he acted stupidly ; the sec-
ond, he acted cruelly and rudely. If we recur to the nature
of the things themselves, it will be impossible to assign a
satisfactory reason for these differences of application. Tiie
usage of the language is, therefore, the only reason.
It is very remarkable tliat the usages in difTerent languages
are in this respect not only diflerent, but even sometimes
contrary, insonmch that the same trope will suggest oppo-
site ideas in different tongues. No sort of metonymy is
connnoner among every people tlian that by which some
parts of the body have been substituted to denote certaiii
powers or affections of the mind with which they are sup-
posed to be connected. But as the opinions of one nation
differ on this article from those of another, the figurative
sense in one tongue will bj'^ no means direct us to the figura-
tive sense in another. The same may be said of different
ages. A commentator on Persius has this curious remark :
" Naturalists affirm that men laugh with tJie spleen, rage with
suitably rendered into English "Whuse si.!e cTiil that point seek ?" is a
literjl version,bnt qniic intolerable. " WiioiTi did you mean to assail with
that sword '." Here the sense is exhibited but as iieiUinrlroiie is rendered,
;
much of the energy is lost, in lik'^ manner in llic plirase " \'aiio Mario
pugnatum e.st." "'I'hey fought with various success," ihere is a meionymy
in the word .1/a>7c which no Iranslaior mto any modem lan^'uage, who hath
—
common sense, Vi^ould attempt to transplant mto liis version. See T'aiii
des Tropes, par M. du Miirsais, art. vii., iv.
Dd2
— J
the gall, love with the liver, understand with the heart, and
boast with the lungs."* A modern may say with Sganarelle
in the comedy, " It was so formerly, but we have changed all
that ;"t for so unlike are our notions, that tlie spleen is ac-
counted tbe seat of melancholy and ill-humour. The word
is accordingly often used to denote that temper so that with ;
* Coinutuson these worfis of the first satire, Sum petulanti splene cachinnn.
" Physici dicunt liomines splene ridere, telle irasci, jscore ainare, corde sa-
pe.-e. et pulinone jactari." In the ancient piece called tlie Testaments of
the Twelve Patriarchs, supposed to be the work uf a Christian of the tirst
century, we (ind these words in the testament ot Naphtali, fqr illustration
that God made all things good, adapting each to its proper use: '"Ka/zi^iav
Ui ^fjdvtioiv, riT'ifi Vfjos S-u^iov, j^oX^v ttjios iriKpiuv, ei{ yeXuira itXriva, vs^iiovs ct;
Tavuvpytav." — Grab. SpiciL ptnnan, see. i., t. i,, ed. 2, p. 212.
t " Cela etoit autrefois ainsi ; mais nous avons cliange tout cela." Le
medecin inalgre lui. Moliirc.
X Fiom these things we may observe, by-the-vvay, how unsafe it is in
translating, especially from an ancient language into a modern, to reckon
that because ilie proper sense in two words of the different languages cor-
responds, the metaphorical sense of the same words will correspond also.
In this last respect the words, as we have seen, may nevertheless be very
different in signilica'ion, or even opposite. I think, in particular, that many
translators of the Bib'e have been betrayed into blunders through not suHl-
ciently adverting to this circumstance. For instaiice, iiothin..' at first ap-
pears to be juster, as well as a more literal version of the Greek (tkXi?;ok'i/)-
<5(oj, than the Ertglish hardhmrirj. Yet 1 sus ect that tlie true me.inmg
of the former term, both in the Septuagint and in the New Testament, is
not cruel, as the F-nglish word imports, but indocile, intraciahle. The gen-
eral remark might be illustrated by numberless examples ; but this is not
the place.
THE PHrLOSOPIlY OT nilETORIC. 319
From all that hath been said, it evidently follows, that those
metaphors which hold mostly of tlie thought, that is, those to
wliicli the ear hath not been too much familiarized, have most
of the peculiar vivacity resulting from this trope; the inva-
riable effect of very frequent use being to convert the niela-
phorical into a proper meaning. A metaphor halh undouht
edly the strongest effect when it is first ushered into the Ian
guage but by reason of its peculiar boldness, this, as was
;
and as to the latter, they can hardly ever be said to have this
indulgence, unless when they are wrouglit up to a kind of en-
thusiasm by their subject. Hence, also, have arisen those
qualifying phrases in discourse, which, though so common in
Greek and Latin, as well as in modern languages, are rarely,
If ever, to be met with either in the rudest or in the most an-
cient tongues. These are, so lo spea/c, If I mat/ thus express
myself, and the like.
I cannot help remarking, before I conclude this article of
the origin of tropes, and of the changes they undergo through
the gradual operation of custom, that critics ought to show
more reserve and modesty than they commonly do in pro-
nouncing either on the fitness or on the beauty of such as
occur sometimes in ancient authors. For, first, it ought to
be observed (as may be collected from what has been shown
above), that the less enlightened a nation is, their language
Avill of necessity the more abound in tropes, and the people
will be the less shy of admitting those whicli have but a re-
mote connexion with the things they are employed to denote.
Again, it ought to be considered that many words which must
appear as tropical to a learner of a distant age, who acquires
the language by the help of grammars and dictionaries, may,
through the imperceptible influence of use, have totally lost
that appearance to the natives, who consider them purely as
proper terms. A stranger v.^ill be apt to mistake a grammati-
cal for a rhetorical trope, or even an accidental homonvmv
!
" May some choice patron bless cacli gray goose quill
'."*
Mayev'ry Bavius liave his Bulb still
peiebai .'" Mucro for gladius, the point (or the weapon, is in this place a
iiope particularly a[)|)0¥ite. From the point the danger iinmediatciy pro-
ceeds; lo it, therefore, in any assault, the eye both o( the assailant and of
the assailed are naturaby directed of the one that he may guide it arijjht,
:
and of the other liiiit he may avoid it. Consequently, on it the imaginaiiou
will ti.x, as on that particular which is the most iniere.siing, because on it
the event directly depends; and wherever the exjiression thus happily as-
sists the lancy by coinciding with its natural bent, the sentiment is exhib-
ited with vivacity. We
may remark by the way, that the specif, ing of the
part aimed at, liy saying Ciijns laiut; and not simi>ly qu(^m, makes ihe ex-
pression itill more graphical. 'W't latus here is no trope, else it had been
Quod latus, not Cujus latus. But that we may conceive the dill'ereiice l)e-
tween such a proj>er use of tropes as is here exemplified, and such an inju-
dicious use as noway lends to enliven ihe expression, let us suppose the
oiator had intended to say " he held a sword in Ins hand."' 11, instead of
the proper word, he had employed the siiiiccdnrh'',n\v\ said " mucrnui-m manu
tenebal." he would have spoken absurdly, and counteracted the bent ol the
fancy, which in this instance leads tho attention to the hilt of the sword,
not to the point.
324 THE piiiLosoriiY of niiETonrc.
Here the terms prai/er, vision, dream (for the word theme is
literal),are used each for its respective subject. Nothing is
more natural or more common among all nations, the sim-
plest as well as the most refmod, than to substitute the pas-
sion for its object. Kuch tropes as these, my love, my jo>/, my
delight, my aversion, my horror, for that which excites the
emotion, are to be found in every language. Holy Writ
abounds in them and they are not seldom to be met with in
;
the poems of Ossian. " 'rhe sigh of her secret soul" is a fine
metonymy of this kind, to express the youth for whom she
sighs in secret. As the vivacity of the expression in such
quotations needs no illustration to persons of taste, that the
cause of this vivacity ariseth from the coincidence of the ex-
pression witii the bent of the imagination, fixing on the most
interesting particular, needs no eviction to persons of judg-
ment.
••
When empire in its childhood first appears,
A watchful fate o'ersees its tender years."*
" Every hedge,"' says the Tatler, " was conscious of more
than what the representations of enamoured swains admit
of. "J Who sees not how much of their energy these quota-
tions owe to the two words relents and conscious ? 1 shall
only add, that it is the same kind of metaphor which hath
brought into use such expressions as the following a happy :
translated into any modern tongue, as was hinted in Part First, in regard
to the phrase " Vario Marte pugnatum est.'" Another example of the same
'iiing:, " Sine Cerere et Baccho friget Venus."
I
:
up tlie Ha/;(,m.*-hi5--e^mies.'"f
A thintJ tribe of irui^^ttymrGs, which often presents us witli
animatd-imrtTTnTt)!' inanimate objects, is when the concrete is
made to siguily the abstract; as, the fool, used for folly; the
knave, for knavery ///'. philosopher, for philosophy.
; 1 shall
As David himself was king, both the proper name and the
appellative w'ould^oint to the same object, were they to be
literally interpreted. But the opposition here exhibited mani-
festly shows that the last term, the lung, is employed by me-
tonymy to denote the royalty. The sense therefore is, that
they have not only a personal hatred to the man that is king,
but a detestation of the kingly office. trope of this kind A
ought never to be introduced but when the contrast, as in the
present example, or something in the expression, effectually
removes all obscurity and danger of mistake. In the pas-
sage last quoted, there is an evident imitation of a saying re-
corded by historians of Alexander the Great concerning two
of his courtiers, Craterus and Hephajstion " Cratcnis," said :
he, " loves the /.inif, but Hephaestion loves Alexander.''' Gro-
tius hath also copied the same mode of expression, in a re-
mark which he hath made, perhaps with more ingenuity than
truth, on the two apostles Peter and John. The attachn\/cnt
of .John, he observes, was to Jesus, of Peter to the Mcssiah.\\
Accordingly, their master gave the latter the charge of his
church, the former that of his family, recommending to him
* Matt., xxiii., 14. The noun oixiaj may be rendered either /am(7/f.« or
hottsrs. The last, though u=ed by our translators, hath here a donlile dis-
advantage. First, it is a trope formed upon a trope (which rarely haih a
good eliect),the Iwusr for the family, the thing containing for the thmg con-
tained, and the fitmHi/ for their means of livmg; secondly, ideas are intro-
duced which are incompalilile. There is no'hing improper in speaking of
a person or family being devoured but to talk of devouring a house is ab-
:
E E 2
:
The viceroy for the viceroyalty. I shall only add two exam-
ples more in this way the first from Addison, who, speak-
: is
ing of Tallard when laken prisoner by the allies, says,
An English muse is touch'd witli generous wo,
'•
Part III. The Use of those Tropes which are Obstructive to Vi-
\^ vacily.
terday," that is, " The body of such a one was buried yes-
terday." " Jl^neas saw his father in Elysium," that is, his fa-
ther's ghost. The common phrase " all the world," for a great
number of people, and some others of the same kind, liave
also been produced as examples, but improperly ; for in <dl
such expressions there is an evident hyperbole, the iuteiition
being manifestlj' to magnify the number. Of the third kind,
the matter for what is made of it, there are doubtless several
instances, such as silcer for money, cara-uss for sail, and steel
for sword.
It is proper to inquire from what principles in our nature
tropes of this sort derive their origin, and what are the pur-
poses which they are intended to promote. The answer to
the first of these queries will serve elTectually to answer
both. First, then, tiiey may arise merely from a disposition
to vary the expression, and prevent the too frequent recur-
rence of tlie same sound upon the ear. Hence often the ge-
nus for the species. This is the more pardonable if used
moderately, as there is. not even an apparent impropj'iety in
putting at any lime the genus for the species, TJecause'the lat-
ter is always compreliended in the former; whereas, in the
reverse, there is inevitably an appearance of impropriety till
it is inoHified by use. -If one in speaking of a linnet, and
sometimes instead oi linnet says bird, he is considered rathei
as varying the expression than as employing a trope. Sec-
ondly, they may arise from an inclination to suggest contempt
wiihout rudeness ; that is, not openly to express, but indirect-
ly to insinuate it. Tlius, v/hen a particular man is called a
creature or an animal, there is a sort of tacit refusal of the
specific attributes of human nature, as the term implies onl-^
the diri'ct acknovvleflgment of those enjoyed in common wiih'
the brules, or even wilii the whole creation. The phrases no
creature and every creature, like all the icorld, are a kind of hy-
perbolic idioms, which come not under this category. Third-
ly, they may proceed from a love of brevity in cases where-
in perspicuity cannot be hurt. Thus to say,
;
Esod., XX
336 THE PHILOSOPHY OF RHETORIC.
they are the same, upon the main, in all nations, barbarous
and civilized that the simplest and most ancient tongues do
;
• Universal Passion.
F F
338 THE PHILOSOPHY OF RHETORIC.
u
they flow, extre.mely little hath as yet been attempted. Nay,
he names that have been given are but few, and, by conse-
quence, very generical. Each class, the metaphor and the
metonymy in particular, is capable of being divided into sev-
which no namefc have yet been assigned.
eral tribes, to
It was affirmed that the tropes and figures of eloquence are
found to be the same, upon the main, in all ages and nations.
The words upon the main were added, because, though the
most and the principal of them are entirely the same, there
are a few which presuppose a certain refinement of thought
not natural to a rude and illiterate people. Such, in particu-
lar, is that species of the metonymy, the concrete for the ab-
stract, and possibly some others. We
shall afterward, per-
haps, have occasion to remark, that the modern improve-
ments in ridicule have given rise to some which cannot prop-
erly be ranged under any of the classes above mentioned, to
which, therefore, no name hath as yet been appropriated,
and of which I am not sure whether antiquity can furnish us
with an example.
SECTION III.
Dreadful gleams,
Dismal screams,
Fires that glow.
Shrieks of wo,
Sullen moans,
Hollow groans.
And cries of injured ghosts."t
^
latter. these may be ^TH-ioysly combined in a sentence,
As \
and syllables of either kind may Be made more or less to pre-
dominate, the sentence may be rendered by the sound more
or less expressive of celerity or tardiness. And though even
here the power of speech seems to be much limited, there be-
ing but two degrees in syllables, whereas the natural degrees
of quickness or slowness in motion or action may be infinite-
ly varied, yet on this subject the imitative power of articu-
late sound seems to be greater and more distinctive than on
"
K6ttt'
F p 2
: :
" And with swift force roll through the humble plain."
* Lucretius, b. iii
THE PHILOSOPHY OF RHETORIC. 345
same word or not) begins with the same vowel, or with one /
which approaches to it in sound. Re-enter, co-operate, re-
enforce, re-animate though oft, the ear, the open, are examples
of this. A certain effort is required to keep them, as it were,
asunder, and make both be distinctly heard as belonging to
different syllables. When the vowels are very unlike in
sound, or the formation of the one is easily accomplished af-
ter the articulation of the other, they have not the same effect.
Thus, in the words vanety, coeval, the collision doth not cre-
ate a perceptible difficulty. Now, as difficulty is generally
* II Penseroso.
:
First, the word verse is harsher than line ; secondly, the end-
ing is in two spondees, which, though perhaps admissible into
V
It is chiefly from this cause that the line in the Odyssey above quoted
is so expressive of both " Aonv : i'l-w wOcctkc — '"
the iambic measure, is very rare, and hath for that reason a
more considerable effect. A fourth cause of difficulty in the
pronunciation is the want of hurniony in the numbers. This
is frequently an effect of some of the forementioned causes,
and may be illustrated by some of the examples already
quoted. In the following passage from Milton, one of the
most unharnionious in the book, hugeness of size, slowness
and difficulty of motion, are at once aptly imitated
" Part huge of bulk !
expression.
Indeed, the power of numbers, or a series of accordant
sounds, is much more expressive than tliat of single sounds.
Accordingly, in poetry, we are furnished with the best ex-
amples in all the kinds and as the writer of odes hath, in
;
Of these one occurs in the noun breath, the other in the verb breathe.
The first is the roughest.
THE PHILOSOPHY OF RHETORIC. 351
CHAPTER II.
SECTION I.
is still the principal cause. The trope in the fifth line, their
passion, for the object of their passion, conduceth to vivacity,
not only as being a trope, but as rendering the expression
briefer, and thereby more nervous. Even the omission of
the substantive verb, of the conjunctions, and of the personal
pronouns, contribute not a little to the same end. Such el-
lipses are not, indeed, to be adopted into prose, and may even
abound too much in verse. This author, in particular, hath
sometimes exceeded in this way, and hath sacrificed both
perspicuity and a natural simplicity of expression to the am-
bition of saying a great deal in few words. But there is no
beauty of style for which one may not pay too high a price :
In another place,
_ " It is a custonn
3wre honoured in the breach than the observance." f
* Macbeth. t Hamlet.
t 1 Kings, ii., 5. <j Prov., xxxi., 37.
II The Hebraism each of these quotations from Scripture constitutes
in
the peculiarity and as the reasons are nearly equal with regard to all mod-
;
ern lafiguages for either admitting or rejecting an Oriental idiom, the obser-
vation will equally affect other European tongues into which the Bible is
translated. A scrupulous attention to the purity ot" the language into which
the version is made must often hurt the energy of the expression. Saci,
who in his translation hath been too solicitous to Frenchify the style of
Scripture, hath made nonsense of the first passage, and (to say the leastl
—
hath greatly enervated the second. The first he renders in such a manner aa
implies that .Toab had killed Abner and Amasa oftener than once. " Ayant
repandu leur sang" (lesangd'Abner et d'Amasa) "durant la paix, comme il
The other passage he renders " Elle n'a point mange son pain dans I'oisive-
te." The meaning is very indistinctly expressed here. Can a slugg:ard be
said to be idle when eating? or does the most industrious disposition re-
quire that in the time of eating one should be employed in something else?
Such a translation as this is too free to exhibit the style of the original, too
literal to express the sense, and, therefore, is unlucky enough to hit neither.
Diodati hatli succeeded better in both. The last he renders literally as we
do, and the first in this manner: "Spandendo in tempo di pace, il sangue
che si spande in battaglia." This clearly enough exhibits the sense, and is
sufficiently literal. The meaning of the other passage, stripped of the id-
iom, and expressed in plain English, is neither more nor less than this:
" She eateth not the bread which she hath not earned." In many cases it
may be difficult to say whether propriety or energy should have the pref-
erence. I tlnnk it safer in every dubious case to secure th*^ former.
* Book ii., chap, viii., sect, ii.
THE PHILOSOPHY OF RHETORIC. 357
but no man
—
would be old" " A nice man is a man of nasty ideas" " The
;
—
sluggard," saith Solomon, " hideth his hand in his bosom it
grieveth him to bring it to his mouth"! "The desire of the — ;
On the other hand, the kinds of writing which are less sus-
ceptible of this ornament are the descriptive, the pathetic, the
declamatory, especially the last. It is, besides, much more
suitable in writing than in speaking. A
reader has the com-
mand of his time he may read fast or slow, as he finds con-
;
necessary, or lay down the book and think. But if, in ha-
ranguing to the people, you comprise a great deal in few
words, the hearer must have uncommon quickness of appre-
hension to catch your meaning, before you have put it out ol
his power by engaging his attention to something else. In
such orations, therefore, it is particularly unseasonable and ;
SECTION II.
Part I. Tautology.
A great many serious reflections ;"* much better, " full of se-
rious reflections." " If lie happens," says the Spectator, " to
have any leisure upon his handsy] To what purpose ''upon
his hands V " The everlasting chib," says the same author,
'•
treats all other clubs with an eye of contempt,"^ for " treats
all other clubs with contempt." To treat iviih the eye is also
chargeable with impropriety and vulgarism. '* Flavia, who
is the mamma," says the Taller, " has all the charms and de-
sires of youth still about her.''^ The last two words are at
le ist superfluous.
In such a phrase as this, "I wrote a letter to you yester
day," the French critics w-ould find a pleonasm, because it
means no more than what is clearly expressed in these words,
"I wrote to you yesterday." Yet in the last form there is
an ellipsis of the regimen of the active verb and one would
;
It deserves our notice, that on this article the idiom of the torigne hath
II
in Knglish, '• He gave him blows with his hand." On the contrary, "11 lui
donna des cnnps de main," is proper in French. " Heg-'^vc him blows with
hand" is defective in English. The sense, however, may be expressed m
our language with equal propriety and greater brevity in this manner, " H»
gave him handy blows."
Hh
362 THE PHILOSOPHY OF RHETORIC.
The like holds of comic and comical. We say " the tragic
muse, the comic muse ;" and " a tragic poet" for a writer of
tragedy " a comic poet" for a writer of comedy but " 1
; ;
heard a tragical story" for a mournful story and " I met with
;
iiic man" for an artful fellow, but a political writer for a wri-
ter on politics. There is not. however, a perfect imiforniity
in such applications, for we constantly use the phrase "the
body polilici" and not political, for the civil society. On the
whole, however, it would seem that what is affixed, espe-
cially when unaccented, is conceived as more closely united
to the word than what is prefixed is conceived to be. In
this last case the supernumerary syllable, if il make no change
on the signification, always conveys the notion of an exple-
tive, which is not suggested in the first.
But before I quit this subject, it will not be beside the pur-
pose to observe, that there are cases in wiiich a certain spe-
cies of pleonasm may not only be pardonable, but even have
a degree of merit. It is at least entitled to indulgence when
it serves to express a pertinent earnestness of affirmation on
seen with our eyes," " We have heard with our ears," which,
perhaps, are to be found in every language.* Again, in po-
etical description, where the fancy is addressed, epithets
which would otherwise be accounted superfluous, if used
moderately, are not without effect. The azure heaven, the
silver moon, the blushing morn, the seagirt isle. Homer abounds
in such. They often occur, also, in Sacred Writ. The warm
manner of the ancient Orientals, even in their prose compo-
sitions, holds much more of poesy than the cold prosaic dic-
tion of us moderns and Europeans. A stroke of the pencil, if I
may so express myself, is almost always added to the arbitra-
ry sign, in order the more strongly to attach the imagination.
Hence it is not with them, the leasts, the birds, the fish, the
heaven, and the earth; but the beasts of the field, the birds of the
air, the fish of the sea, the heaven above, and the earth beneath.
But though, in certain cases, there is some indulgence given
to terms which may properly be styled pleonastic, I scarcely
think that an epithet which is merely tautological is in any
case tolerable.
To have said nine days and nights would not have been prop-
er, when talking of a period before the creation of the sun,
and, consequently, before time was portioned out to any be-
ing in that manner. Sometimes this figure serves, as it were
accidentally, to introduce a circumstance which favours the
design of the speaker, and which to mention of plain purpose,
without apparent necessity, would appear both impertinent
and invidious. An example I shall give from Swift: "One
of these authors (Me felloio thai was pilloried, I have forgot
his name) is so grave, sententious, dogmatical a rogue, that
there is no enduring him."| What an exquisite antonoma-
sia have we in this parenthesis Yet he hath rendered it ap-
!
right ]"^ The Judge of all the earth is a periphrasis for God,
* See book iii., chnp. i., sect, ii., part iii. t Paradise Lost, b. i
* OV (IT).
+ Ne pas or non point. Sometimes the French use even three negatives
where we can properly employ but one in English, as in this sentence " Je
—
•
ne :iie pas quo je n^ I'aye dil" " do 7iot. deny that I said it."
I I believe no
man who understands both languages will pretend that the negation here is
expressed more strongly by them than by us.
;
" the meridian sun," the word meridian is not barely an epi-
thet, because it makes a real addition to the signification,
denoting the sun in that situation wherein he appears at noon.
The •ke may be said of " the rising'"'' or " the selling sun."
Again, when 1 say "the lowering eagle," I use an epithet, be-
cause the quality (oivering may justly be attributed to all the
kind not so when I say " the golden eagle," because the ad-
;
" Wherefore he that shall not only hear and receive these my
instructions, but also remember, and consider, and practise, and
lice according to them, such a man may be compared to one
that builds his house upon a rock for as a house founded
;
upon a rock stands unshaken and firm against all the assaults
of rains, and floods, and storins, so the man who, in his life
and conversation, actually practises and obeys my instructions,
will_^/77z/y resist all the temptations of the devil, the allure-
ments of pleasure, and the terrors of persecution, and shall
be able to stand in the day of judgment, and be rewarded of
God."t It would be difficult to point out a single advantage
which this wordy, not to say flatulent, interpretation hath of
which, in their practice, they do not often depart, that the most commodi-
ous way of giving to their work the extent proposed, is that equal portions
of the text (perspicuous or obscure, it matters not) should be spun out to
equal length. Thus regarding only quantity, thev view their text, and par-
cel it, treating it in much the same manner as goldbeaters and wiredrawers
treat the metals on which their art is employed.
372 THE PHILOSOPHY OF RHETORIC
She conceived and bore a son. He opened his moulh and said.
For my own part, I should not approve the delicacy of a
translator who, to modernize the style of the Bible, should
repudiate every such redundant circumstance. It is true
that, in strictness, they are not necessary to the narration,
but they are of some importance to the composition, as bear-
ing the venerable signature of ancient simplicity. And in a
faithful translation, there ought to be not only a just trans-
mission of the writer's sense, but, as far as is consistent with
perspicuity and the idiom of the tongue into which the ver-
sion is made, the character of the style ought to be preserved.
So much for the vivacity produced by conciseness, and
those blemishes in style which stand in opposition to it, tau-
tology, pleonasm, and verbosity.
CHAPTER III.
SECTION I.
Ij
374 THE PHILOSOPHY OF RHETORIC
owner, and the ass his master's crib but Israel doth not
|
;
shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory. "T[
This sentence consists of two members, the former of which
is divided into two clauses one of these clauses, " who is
;
SECTION II.
SIMPLE SENTENCES.
» Gen., i., 1. t Isaiah, Ixiii., 16. t Ibid., i., 3. () Prov., i., 24.
II The words number and ctauxe in English are used as corresponding to
ttie Greek kuXov and KOjxfia, and to the Latin membru?>i and incisum
•T Ccl , ill., 4.
THK PHILOSOPHY OF RHETORIC. 375
should precede the governing verb, their way of arranging nouns governed
by verbs is unnatural, since they always place them after the verb ; so that,
whichever be the natural way, they depart from it in the disposition of ono
or other of these parts of speech. The like may be urged in regard to the
nominative which, though for the most part it go before the active vejb, m
: ;
certain cases follows il. This hnppens frequently when the verb is prece-
ded hy itie oblique case of the relative, as in this sentence " Le retanle-
:
ment, qup sovjj're tc Icctair, lo rend phis aiientif."' And c\ct\ in placing iheir
adjectives, wherever use hath made e.xceptions from 'he general rule, il has
carried the notion of what is natural along with it. They would call it as
unnatural to say Iwmme jnme ns to sn.y gardieii nnge. All, therefore, that
can be affirmed with truth is, that the French adhere more inviolably tlian
other nations to the Ordinary arrangement established in the language. But
this, as I hope to evince in the sequel, is one of the greatest nnperfeclions
of that tongue. The ease wiiii which the Italian adniils either order in the
personal pronouns, especially in poetry, adds often to the harmony and tiie
elegance, as well as to the vivacity of the e.xprcssion, as in these hues of
Metastasio's Artaserse
" Sallo amor, lo sanno i numi
11 mio core, il tuo lo sa."
desire other or belter topics for evincing the point than the greater part o(
those which he has employed, in my judgment very unsuccessfully, for Iho
contrary purpose. * Hamlet.
Ii2
378 THE PHILOSOPHY OP RHETORIC.
arise and walk. "J Here the wishful look and expectation of
* Gr., MsyaXj? J? kprtfiii E(pionov. Lat. Vulg., Erasm., " Magna Diana
Ephesiorum." Castal., Beza, " Magna est Diana Ephesiorura." Ital., Di-
odati, " CTrande e la Diana degli Efesii." How weak in comparison is Ihe
French version of Le Cierc !
" La Diane des Ephesiens est une grande
deese." How deficient that of Beausobre !
" La grande Diane des Ephe
siens." How ridiculous that of Saci !
" Vive la grande Diane des Ephe-
siens."
t Matt., xxi., 9. Gr., EuXoyiy/zsvoj 6 ep^oiuvo; sv ovopLari Kvpiov. Lat.
Vulg., Eras., Bez., " Benedictus qui venii in nomine Domini." Cast.,
" Bene sit ei qui venit." &c. Ital, Died., "Benedetto cohii che viene nel
nome del Signioro." Fr., Le Clerc, Beaus., Saci, " Beni soit celui qui vient
au noni du Seigneur."
J Acts, ill., 6. Gr., Apyvptov Kat ^ptJO'ioi' ov^ vtrap^u fxai 5 3e £\«), rovro
•
aot itSw/ii. Ev ovo/taTi Irjaov Xpiorou tov Na^io/Jatou tycipai /cut xtpcrdrtj.
Lat. Vul., Eras., Bez.," Argentum et aiirum non'est mihi ; quod autem ha-
beo, hoc tibi do. In nomine Jesu Christi Nazareni, surge et ambula."
Castaglio hath not adhered so closely to the orderof the words in the origi-
nal, but hath in this and some other places, for the sake of Latinity, weak-
ened the e.xpression "Nee argentum mihi nee aurum est ; sed quod habeo,
:
hoc tibi do. In nomine," &c. It would seem that neither the Italian Ian
guase nor the French can admit so great a latitude in arranging the words,
for in these the vivacity resulting from the order is not only weakened, but
destroyed. Diod., " lo non ho ne argento ne oro; ma quel ciie ho, io t'el
dono nel nome di Jesu Christo il Nazareo, levati e camina." Le Clerc,
:
in the name of
: "
—
The import is
the same, but the expression is rendered quite exanimate.
Yet the sentences differ chiefly in arrangement ; the other
difference in composition is inconsiderable.
There is another happy transposition in the English version
of the passage under review, which, though peculiar to our
version, deserves our notice, as it contributes not a little to
the energy of the whole. I mean hot only the separation of
the adjective none from its suTfslahtives silcei- and gold, but
the y)lacing of it at the end of the clause^ whiclr, as it were,
rests upon it. " Silver and gold have I nvne ;" for here, as in
several other instances, the next place to the first, in respect
of emphasis:, is the last. We
shall be more sensible of this
by making a very small alteration on the composition and
structure of the sentence, and saying, " Silver and gold are
not in my possession," which is manifestly weaker.
My fourth example shall be one wherein the verb occupies
the first place in the sentence, which often happens in the
ancient languages with great advantage in point of vivacity.
But this cannot frequently obtain in English without occasion-
ing an ambiguity the first place, when given to the verb, be-
;
saii:e, except in the la«:t member, where, by transposing the words "nu nom
de .lesiis Christ cte Naznreth," an<] putting them after " levezvons," he
hath altered the sense, and made that a circnmstance attending the action
'of the lame man, which was intended to express the authority whereby tho
Kpostle gave the order.
—
grande ville." This, I believe, is as near the original as the idiom of the
French will permit. In the Italian, Diodati hath preserved entirely the vi-
vacity resulting both from the disposition of Ihe words and the reduplica-
tion of the verb, and hath given the passage that turn which the English
ititerpreteis might and should have given it: "Caduta. caduta e B;ibiloina
la gran cilta." It is evident that in this m.itter the Italian allows more lib-
erty than the French, and the English more than the Italian. The truth
of this observation wUl appear more fully afterward.
t Somewhat similar is the admirable example we have in this passage of
Virgil:
"Me, me, adsum qui feci, in me convertite ferrum." ^n., 1. 9.
The emphasis here is even the stronger, that the pronoun so happily begim
with and repeated is perfectly irregular, it being quite detached from the
'•onstruction of the sentence.
THE PHILOSOPHY 01' RHETORIC. 381
trera nel rogno de' cieli." Not so the Froiicli. Le CIcic and Ueaiisobre
thus: ••Tons cenx qni inc disent, Sf>ignenr. Sei^jneiir, n'entreront pas dans
le royaume du cicl." Saci thus " Ceux qui me uiseat, Seigneur, Seigneur,
:
pression that fills it, as in other cases the first placo will do.
»••••***»
"Powers and dominions,
fix'd
!
laws of heaven,
Did first create your leader."t
JNothing could better suit, or more vividly express, the pride
and arrogance of the arch-apostate, than the manner here
used of introducing himself to their notice. Thirdly, the
place after a call to attention, as that of the apostle, " Be-
hold, 720W is the accepted time behold, now is the day of :
fathers, where are they and the prophets, do they live for-
?
* Exod., XV., 0, 10. The word by our interpreters rendered xtind also
denotes spirit and breath. A similar honionymy in the correspond.ng term
may be observed not only in the Oriental, but in almost all ancient langua-
ges. When Ibis noun has the afli.K pronovm by which it is appropriated tr,
a |)erson, the signification wind is evidently excluded, and the ineanuig is
limited to either xpiru or breath. When it is, besides, construed with the
verb blow, the signification spirit is also excluded, and the meaning confined
\o breath, ll is likewise the intention of the inspire<l penman to represent
the wonderful facility with which Jehovah blasted all the towering hopes
of the Egyptians. Add to this, that such a manner is entirely in the He-
brew taste, which considers every great natural object as bearing some r©-
Kk
386 THE PHILOSOPHY OF RHETORIC.
stool ; the whirlwind and the tempest are the blasts of his nostrils.
*•
Esod., XV., 7.
THE PHILOSOPHY OF nnnTORrc. 397
SECTION III.
COMPLEX SENTENCES.
Part I. Subdivision of these into Periods aiul loose Sentences,
wliere before the end, tlio preceding words will not form a
setUence, and therefore cannot conv(!y an^' determined sense.
This is plaiiily,ilie case willi the above example. 'The first
verb being could, and not r^n, the potent-ial and not the indic-
ative inood, shows that the sentence is hypothetical, and re-
quires to its completion some clause beginning with ij\ un-
less, or some other conditional panicle. And after you are
come to the conjunctior), you (ind no part where \ou can
stop l^fore the en<l.t From this account of the nature of a
period, wc may justly infer that it was much easier in Greek
and Latin to write in periods than it is in Mnglish. or per-
haps in any European tongue. The construction with them
the import of' the word penotl. conlouiuling it will) Ihc compie.ic sentence in
general, and soninlimes even witli the jiinpie hiitcirciinisiantiated sentence.
Though none of the anc'enis, as far as remember, either tJreek or Laiin,
I
have treated this mailer wilh all the precision that intgbi be wished, vet it
appears to me evident, I'roin lie expressions they cmjtioy, the siinilini<les
I
they use, and ihe examples they produce, that Ihe distinction given above
perfectly coincides with their notions on this subject. But nothing seems
more decisive than the instance which Demetrius Phalerius has given ol a
period from Demosthenes, and which, for the sake of illnstraiing ih«*difl'er
ence, he ibas also ihrown into the form of a loose sentence. 1 refer the
learned reader lo the book itself: " fltpj f/.fi^rti^i; I. lA. The ancients (hd
*
indeed sometimes apply the word period to simple hut circiimstnniialed sen
"fences of a certain structure. shall give the following example in our cyyn
I
language for an illustration: "At last, after mnch (atigue, tlnoii")) deep
roads and bad weather, we came with no small difficulty to our journey's
end." Otherwise thus, "Wecame to our journey's end at luxt, with nn
"^nali tlifficuttv, after much/n^'.L,n/f. through deep mails, and bad weather.'"
The latter is in the loose, the former is in the periodic-composition. Ac-
cordingly, in the latter there are, t)eforc the conclusion, no less than five
words, which 1 have distinguished hy the character, namely, on!, l/i.sl, iliffi-
culty, fntig-iif, rmuh, with any of which the sentence might have terminated.
One would not have expected that a writer so accurate and knowing as M.
du Marsais should have so far tnistaken the meaning of the word pirioii \n
the usage of the ancients as to define it in this manner " La perioilr est un
:
assmiitlage dc propositinnn, lierx eii/r' ellc.t par di^s coujunclio'is, et qvi toiiffs pu
sernhle font wt sens fini" — " The period is an assemblage of propositions con
nected by conjunct iors, and piaking altogether one complete sense." {I'rin-
cipes de Graminnirf:, La Periode.) This is a proper definition of a coin[i!ex
sentence; and that he meant no more is manilest from all his subsequent
illnstraiions. Take the tbiiowing for an example, which he gives in anothci
place of the same work " // ;/ a un avanln^e ri'l h tire instrait ; vims il ;i«
:
—
/nut pas que ret nvnnln^e inspirr de Vor^wil" " 'I'heie is a real a<lvanlage ill
be.ng insiructe<l but we ought not to be proud of this advantage." Ho
;
A
great deal hath been said, both by ancient critics and by
modern, on the formation and turn of periods. But their re-
marks are chiefly calculated with a view to harmony. In
order to prevent the necessity of repeating afterward, I shall
take no notice of these remarks at present, though the rules
founded on them do also in a certain degree contribute both
to perspicuity and to strength.
That kind of period which hath most vivacity is commonly
that wherein you find an antithesis in the.menibers, the sev-
eral parts of one having a similarity to thdse of the other,
adapted to some resemblance in the sense. The effect pro-
duced by the corresponding members in such a sentence is
like that produced in a picture where the figures of the group
are not all on a side, with their faces turned the same way,
but are made to contrast each other by their several posi-
tions. Besides, this kind of periods is generally the most
perspicuous. There is in them not only that original light
wliich results from the expression when suitable, but there
is also that which is reflected reciprocally from the opposed
members. The relation between these is so strongly marked,
that il is next to impossible to lose sight of it. The same
quality makes them also easier for the memory.
/Yet to counterbalance these advantages, this sort of pe-
,
THE rniLosoniY of nriETonir. 303
riod oftnn nppears moro artful and studied tTTan any dtlmr.
I fefiy f»/(V», because nothing can be more evident than that
this is not always the case. Some antitheses seem to arise
so naturally out of the subject, tliat it is scarcely possible in
another manner to express the sentiment. Accordinglj', we
discover them even in the Scriptures, the style of which is
perhaps the most artless, the most natural, the most unaf-
fected that is to be found in anj' composition now extant
But 1 shall satisfy myself with producintj a few specimens
of this figure, mostly taken from the noble author lately
quoted, who is commonly very successful in applying it.
"If Cato," says he, " may be censured, severely indeed, but
justly. for abandoning the cause of liberty,
11
which he wouUI ||
I
orffaud that every knave may employ, to lead them by j
who made them had not thought them just and if they were :
true and just then, they must be true and just now, and
always. "i^
Sometimes the words contrasted in the second clause are
'•
The old inay inform the young, and llie young may uiii- ||
vivo, sed ut vivam edo." A literal translation into P^nglish," I do not live
that I may eat, but I eat that I may live," preserves the antithesis, but nei-
ther the vivacity nor the force of the original. The want of inlieclion is one
reason of the inferiority, biu not the only reason. It weakens the expression
that we must emplov lideen words for vvliat is expressed in Latin with
equal perspicuity in eight. Perhaps il would be better rendered, though not
so e.vplicilly, " do not live to eal, i>ut I eat to live." Another example in
I
that the advantage of varied inllections appears, it is not in this sort only.
In all antitheses, without exception, the similar endings of tlie contrasted
words add both light and energy to the expression. Nothing can better il-
lustrate this than the compliment paid to Cajsar by Cicero, in his pleading
for Ligarius " Nihil habet nee fortuna tua majus qnam ut po.ssis, nee nat-
:
V.rn tua melius quam nt veils, conservarc qiiam plurimos." This, perhaps,
would appear to us rather too artificial. Hut this appearance ariseili mere-
ly from the diHerent structure of modern languages. What would \n most
c;\ses be impossible to us, the genius of their tongue rendered not only easy
to them, but almost unavoidable. t Dunciad, b. iv
, Pope's Imitations «f Horace, b ii., Ep. ii.
396 THE PHILOSOPHY OF HHETORIC.
* Ilept 'Ep/i. AA. S,ai:tp ynp «rij CAtivuf faXu). trv ra O'otycav cypaxpa;' olrwg
av cv vtiv (iXuij. aWo; ov yijoi^ti.
t n£;;i 'E;;^. A.\. M/jirir/vtrcrs toi; ra rvpayoua Ypa<povaiV ctyap ckwXvovto,
ovk av vvv o'vTo; Tuvra eypaiptv hcpo; tri yp:i.\j/ct. tovtuv ivv uXiovroi.
oui5'
+ De [nveiuione, 111), i. As
the aiuitliesis in the words is more perfect,
and the expression more simple in the Latin than it is possih!? to rendei
them m
a translation into any modem tongue, so the argument i'se!<" np
pears more forcible. " Si improbus ct, cur uteris ( sin probus, cur accu
sas ?"
L I.
398 THE PHILOSOPnY OP RHETORIC.
.spoken. and shall lie not make it good V* In the same anti-
||
he not hear? Me that formed the eye, shall he not see ?''t ||
TuhciaST'
400 THE PHILOSOPHY OF RHETORIC.
served, also, that this order, which alone deserves tiie name
of Natural, is in every language more or less cramped by the
artificial or conventional laws of arrangement in the lan-
guage that in this respect, the present languages of Europe,
;
CHAPTER IV.
OF THE CONNECTIVES EMPLOVED IN COMBINING THE PAP.TS OF A
SENTENCE.
I AM very sensible that the remarks contained in the pre-
ceding chapter, on the particular structure and the particular
arrangement in sentences, whether simple or complex, which
are most conducive to vivacity, however well these remarks
are founded, and however much they may assist us in form-
ing a judgment concerning any performance under our re-
view, are very far from exhausting this copious subject, and
still farther from being sufficient to regulate our practice iu
composing.
For this reason, 1 judged that the observations on the na-
ture and the management of coimexive particles contained in
this chapter and the succeeding, might prove a useful supple-
ment to the two preceding ones (for they are connected with
both), and serve at once to enlarge our conceptions on this
subject, and to assist our practice. At first, indeed, I had
intended to comprehend both these chapters in the HuTgoing
But wlien I reflected, on the other hand, not only that they
would swell that article far beyond the ordinary bounds, but
that, however much the topics are related, the nature of the
investigation contained in them is both different in itself, and
must be differently conducted, I thought it would have less
the appearance of digression, and conduce more to perspi-
cuity, to consider them severally mider their proper and dis-
criminating titles.
THE PHILOSOPHY OF RHETORIC. 405
SECTION I.
OF CONJUXCTIO.VS.
It was observed already concerning the connectives, that
of the parts of speech they are the most unfriendly to
all
vivacity. In their nature they are the least considerable
parts, -as their value is merely secondary. Vet, in respect
of the difficulty tlierc is in culling and disposing them, they
often prove to an author tlic most considerable. In them-
selves tiiey arc but the taches which serve to unite the con-
stituent parts in a sentence or a paragraph. Consequently,
the less conspicuous they are, tlie more perfect will the union
of the parts be, and the more easily will the hearer glide, as
it were, from one word, clause, or member of a period into
another. The more observable they are, the less perfect
will the union be, ami the more difHcullly will the hearer pass
on from member to member, from clause to clause, and from
word to word. The cohesion of the parts in a cabinet or
other piece of furniture seems always the more complete,
the less the pegs and tacks so necessary to efTect it are ex-
posed to view.
a secret sense of the truth of this doctrine with regard
It is
to language which imperceptibly, as the taste improves in a
nation, inliuences their writers to prefer short to long con-
junctions. With us in particular, it is the more necessary to
attend to this circumstHnce, as the nouns and the verbs, which
are the most significant words, are mostly monosyllables.
For as everything is judged by comparison, polysyllabic con-
junctions nuist appear ttie more cumbersome on that very ac-
count. Happily enough, at present our conjunctions and rel-
atives in most frequent use (for the last, also, are nif-rely a
species of connectives) are monosyllables.* A few wh^ch do
not occur so often are dissyllables. f Almost all the polysyl-
* Such are the following, in several of which the coiistitiienl syll;ihle I8
also short, and. twn, or, nor. itni/, yen, hut, yet. if, though. I'St, than, as, ere, till,
since, ko, fur, that, white, wheii, who. V}hosf, whom, which, what.
t 'I'hes-e are, n/.^o, likewise, before, afltr, because, besides farther, again, uif
less, wlicreas, although.
f
they are still used. I shall, therefore, here offer a few argu-
ments against dispossessing them of the ground which they
still retain. First, they occasion a little variety; and even
this, however inconsiderable, unless some inconvenience
could be pleaded on the opposite side, ought, in conjunctions
especially, for a reason to be given afterward, to determine
the matter. Secondly, they sometimes, without lengtliening
the sentence, interrupt a run of monosyllables (a thing ex-
tremely disagreeable to some critics), very opportunely sub-
stituting a dissyllable instead of two of the former. 'I'hird-
ly, they in certain cases even prevent a little obscurity, or
at least inelegance. It was observed on a former occasion,
that when any relative occurs oftener than once in a sen-
tence, it will seldom be compatible with the laws of perspi-
cuity that it should refer to different antecedents. And even
if such change of the reference should not darken the sense,
it rarely fails to injure the beauty of the expression. Yet
* Misc., v., chap. i. For the same reason we should condemn the qua-
propter,quamobrem, ijiuiiidoqiiidem, quemndmndum of the Lai in, whoso com-
position and use are pretty similar. To these a good writer will not fre-
quently recur but their best authors have not thought fit to reject them
;
altogether.
f
+ The local adverbs are very properly classed with us, as in Latin, into
three orders, lor denoting rest or motionm a place, motion to it, and motion
from it. \x\ every one of these orders there are three adverbs to denote this
: :
|, < There
u. ( Where
Tliither
Whither
Thence.
Whence.
^n
£ ( Ou
M
De Ml.
D'oii.
Since the RestoratioTi, which I take to be neither the only nor th<! earliest,
tmt liie most successful era, in regard to the inlriKiiiciion ot Krench hooks,
I''rench sentitnents, and French modes into tills island, ilie adv(>il)s o( ihe
lirst order have almost always been employed in coiivoisaiion, and Ireqnent
iy in print, tor those of the second, 'i'hns we say, " Whtrf are yon going '.''
and someiime.^, '• Come /itc," though the only proper adverbs in such iiaaes
be whithir and hither. Another instance the above scheme tiirnislies olthe
absurd tendency we have to imitate the French, even in their hnperlections.
'I'he localadverbs of the third order are with themdisiingiiished (roin tiiose
of the and second only by preti.xing the preposition <te. wlijuli sigmlies
first
frmii. manifestly the origin of those pleonastic phrases in Knglish,
'I'his is
from hence, from thence, and /roni whence. 1 shall produce another evidence
of the bad effect of this propensity. So many of Nature's works are known
to us by pairs, ihe sexes, lor e.xample. and the most of the organs and ihe
members of the human body, and, indeed, of every animal body, that it is
natural, even in the simplest state oi society, and in the rise of languages,
to distinguish the dual number from the plural and though few languages
;
have made, or, at least, retained this distinction in the declension ol tiouns,
yet most have observed it in the numeral adjectives. 'I'he Knglish, in |iar-
licular, have observed it with great accuracy, as appears from the annexed
scheme.
When the discourse is of - - - two when it is of - several
Collectively Both. All.
Distributively Each. Every.
Indiscriminately Either. Any.
Exclusively - . Neither. None.
Relatively and Interrogatively - - Whether. Which.
This distinction in French hath been overlooked altogether, and in English
is beginning, at least in some instances, to be confounded. I'erhaps the
word eiertj will not be found in any good writer applied to two but it is ;
certain that the word each hath usurped the place oi every, and is now \\>,p(l
promiscuously by writers of all denominations, whether it be two or mor
that are spoken of. The pronominal adjective whether is now quite obso
lete, its place being supplied by which. About a century and a half ago
whether was invariably used of two, as appears from all the writings of thai
period, and particularly from the translation of the Bible ; thus. Matt., xvi.
31," Whether of them twain did the will of his father?" and xxiii., 17,
" Whether is greater, the gold or the temple ?" The rest of this class hf vo
hitherto retained their places among us. How long they may continue to
do so, it will be impossible to say. Indeed, the clumsy manner in which
these places are supjilied in French doth perhaps account for our constancy,
as it will prove, I hope.^r security against a sudden change in this partic-
ular. It would sound exwemely awkward in our ears, «// the two. or the one
or the other, and nnr the one nor the other, which is a literal version of tonx In
denx, on I'lin ou i'aatrc. and vi fun. n.i Cautre, the phrases whercl>v both.eithcr,
and neither are expressed in French, it may be sni.l, ctisioin softens every
thing, and what though several words thus fail into disuse, since experi-
ence shows us thatvve can do without them ? I answer, lirsl, change itsc-il
M M
410 THE PHILOSOPHY OF nHETORIC.
joints o{ style, the r/c.'s. and the i. e.'s, and the e. ^.'.y, fori'/.
dchcct, id csl, and exempli gratia, may not. unfitly 'je termed
its crutches. Like tliese wretched props, they are not only
of foreign materials, bnt have a foreign aspect. For as a
stick can never be mistaken for a limb, though it may, in a
clumsy manner, do the office of one. so these pitiful supple-
ments can never be made to incorporate with the sentence,
which they help in a bungling maimer to hobble forward.
I proceed to exemplify farther, in our own language, the
general observation made above, that an improvement of
taste leads men insensibly to abbreviate those weaker parts
of speech, the connexive particles. I have remarked already
the total suppression of the conjunction llial after because, he-
fore, allhnu<rh,-Aw\ many others of the same stamp, with which
it was wont to be inseparably combined. But we have not
stopped here. This panicle is frequently omitted, when
there is no other conjunction to connect the clauses, as in
tills example, " Did I not tell you positively I would go my-
self!" In order to construe the sentence, we must supply
the word ihil after positively. Concerning this omission 1
shall jusi observe, what 1 would be understood, in like man-
ner, to observe concerning the omission of the relatives, to
be mentioned afterward, that, though in conversation, come-
dy, and dialogue, such an ellipsis is graceful, when, without
hurling perspicuity, it contributes to vivacity, yet, wherever
the nature of the composition requires dignity and precision
in the style, this freedom is hardly to be risked.
Another remarkable instance of our dislike to conjunctions
is a method, for aught I know, peculiar to us, by which the
particles though and if, when in construction with any of the
tenses, compounded with had, coidd,ioould, or should, are hap-
pily enough set aside as unnecessary. This is effected b. a
small alteration in the arrangeinent. The nominative is
sli fted from its ordinary station before the auxiliary, and is
isbad, unless evidently for the better; seconrlly, perspicnity is more effect-
ually secured by a greater chnjre of words, when the meanings are distinct ;
thirdly, vivatnty is promoted boiii t)y avoiding perifiiirasis, and by using
as much as pos*il)le limited in signiticalion to liie thmcs meant by
v.•(^rlls
SECTION II.
OF OTHER CONNECTIVES.
ifthou hadst been here, my brother had woi died.'"* The last
clause would have been feebler had it been " my brother would
not have died." An example of the second is the words of
the Israelites on hearing the report of the spies " Were it :
not better for us to return into Egypt T'f for " Would it not
he better !"
stead of that which, as, " I remember wAa/f you told me ;" oth-
erwise, " that which you told me." Another is the extending
of the use of the word ivhose, by making it serve as the pos-
sessive of the pronoun lohich.
The distinction between ivho and u<hich is now perfectly es-
tablished in the l;mg!i,ige. The former relates only to per-
sons, the latter to things. But this distinction, though a real
tive, " Who ihat has any sense of religion would have argued
thnsi" Secondly, when persons make but a part of the an-
tecedent "The men and things that he hath studied have
:
know not the ways thereof, nor abide in the paths thereof,'"*
for " they know not tV* ways, nor abide in its paths ;" or by
the possessive of the masculine, as in tliis verse " The altar :
iegge," for " a qitd ch< ." This is exactly similar to the English whai or that
which. By poetic lice ise there is sometimes an ellipsis oi the antecedent in
English verse, as in t lis line of Dryden, Georg. 2:
" Which who would learn as soon may tell the sands."
Who for he who. M» re rarely when the antecedent is the regimen of a
verb, as,
" I glad ly shunn'd, who gladly fled from me."
Rom. and Juliet.
t Such as at, iji, of, from, till, to, fur, by, through, near, with, on, off.
X Such are above, be! li), along, acroxs, amid, around, bei/ond, within, without,
beside, among, between, < vcept. It may not be amiss to observe, thai though
the French in the comnionest prepositions have the advantage of us by rea
son of their frequent eli>ions, the coalition of some of them with the article,
and their pronominal pa tides y and en, ihey have, nevertheless, greatly the
disadvantage in the less common, which with them are not so properly de-
nominated prepositions .-is prepositive phrases that supply the place of prep-
ositions. In evidence oi this, take the French translation of all the dissyl-
labic prepositions above mentioned, except the last four. These are au
dessux de, aw dexsous de, ,e long de, au t ravers de, au milieu de, auloiir de. ait
dela dt, au dedans de, au'tehorsde. On comparing the two languages merely
in point of vivacity, the French, I think, excels in the colloquial and epis-
tolary style, where the r.icurrence must be frequent to those petty auls of
discourse, the prepositiois first mentioned, and where there is little scope
for composition, as there -.ire almost no complex sentences. The English,
or. the contrary, excels ii'. the more elaborate style of history, iihilusophy,
riction of this is the cause that a sort of detached aphoristic style is getting
much into vogue with their authors. 1 shall remark here. also, that their
irivaciiy of expression is olien attained at the expense of [)erspicuity. '•
La
jersonne qui I'aime" may mean either " The person who loves him," " The
THE PHILOSOPHY OF RHETORIC. 415
On this part of speech ihe improvements have not been so
consiclernble (nor wjis lliere equal need) as on (lie conjunc-
tions and llie relatives. Yet even iiere llie progress ol" ta.sie
hatli not been entirely wiihout efTecf. Thejoiii/ and //;//« are
now almost always, and the upon very often, contracted into
(ill and to, and on. The to and the for are in some cases,
without occasioning any inconvenience, and with a sensible
advantage in point of energy, discarded altogether. Tims
we say. " Forgive us our debts," and not " forgive to n.i our
debts"— "I have gotten 3/i)M a license." and not •• 1 have got en i
all shared the same fate. Some indulgence, I think, may still be given to
the more familiar style of dialogues, letters, essays, and even of popular art
dresses, which, like comedy, are formed on the dialect of conversation. In
this dialect, wherein all languages originate, the eagerness of conveving
one's sentiments, the rapidity and ease of utterance, necessarily produce
;
SECTION in.
MODERN LANGUAGt;s COMPARED WITH GREKK AND LATIN, PARTICULAR-
LY IN REGARD TO THE COMPOSITIJN OK SENTENCES.
Before I this chapter, I must beg leave to offer a
conclude
few* general remarks on the comparison of modern langua-
ges with Greek and Latin. Tiiis I am the rather disposed to
do, that it will serve farther to illustrate the principles above
laid down. I make no doubt but the former have some ad-
vantage in respect of perspicuity. I think not only that the
disposition o! the words, according to certain stated rules,
may be made more effectually to secure the sentence against
ambiguous construction than can be done merely by inflec-
tion, but that an habitual method of arranging words which
are in a certain way related to one another, must, from the
natural influence of habit on the principle of association, even
Jvhere there is no risk of misconstruction, more quickly sug-
gest the meaning than can be done in tiie freer and more va-
ried methods made use of in those ancient languages. This
holds especially with regard to Latin, wherein the mnnber of
equivocal inflections is considerably greater than in Greek;
and wherein there are no articles, which are of unspeakable
advantage, as for several other purposes, so in particular for
ascertaining the construction. But while the latter, though
in this respectt inferior, are, when skilfully managed, by no
means ill adapted for perspicuous expression, they are, in re-
spect of vivacity, elegance, animation, and variety of harmo-
ny, incomparably superior. I shall at present consider their
* Let lis make the experiment on the inscriptions of some of the best de-
vices or emhleins that are extant. I shall give a few examples, for illustra-
tion's sake, from the sixth of Bonhours'.s Entretiens d' Ariste et iT Eugene, call-
ed Les Devises. The first shall be that of a starry sky without the moon,
as representing an assembly of the fiir, in which the lover finds not the ob-
ject of his passion. The motto is, "Non mille quod absens." In English
we must say. "A thousand cannot equal one that is absent." Another in-
stance shall be that of a rock in the midst of a tempestuous sea, to denote
a hero who with facility baffles all the assaults of his enemies. The mot-
to, " Conantia frangere frangit." In English, " I break the things which
attempt to break me " In this example, we are obliged to change the per-
son of the verb, that the words may be equally applicable both m the literal
sense and in the figurative, an essential point in this e.f ercise of ingenuny.
The personal pronoun in our langu^.ge must always be expressed before the
verb. Now the neuter it will not apply to the hero, nor the masculine ke
to the rock, whereas the first person applies equally to both. The third in-
stance shall be that of the ass eating thistles, as an emblem of a parasite
who serves as a butt to the company that entertain him. The motto, " Pun-
gant dum saturent." In English, " Let them sting me, provided they fill
my belly." In all these, how nervous is the expression in the original ; how
spiritless in tho translation ! Nor is this recourse to a multitude of words
peculiar to us. All European languages labour, though not equally, under
the same inconvenience. For the French, take Bonhours's version of the
preceding mottoes. The first is, " Mille ne valent pas ce que vaut nne ab-
senlo." The second, " II brise ce qui fait effort pour le briser." This ver-
eion is not perfectly adequate. The Latin implies a number of enemies,
which is implied here. Better thus, " II brise les choses qui font effort pour
le briser." The third is, " Qu'ils me piquent, pourvu qu'ils me saouUent."
These are in no respects superior to the English. The Italian and the
Spanish answer here a little better. Bonhours himself, who is e.xlremely
unwilling, even in the smallest matters, to acknowledge anything like a de-
fect or imperfection in the French tongue, is nevertheless constrained to
admit '.hat it is not well adapted for furnishing such mottoes and inscri[<
tions.
THE PHILOSOPHY OF RHETORIC. 421
But even this is not all the advantage they derive from this
particularity in their structure. The various terminations of
the same word, whether verb or noun, are always conceived
to be more intimately vuiited with the term which they serve
to lengthen, than the additionvd, detached, and in tiiemselves
insignificant, syllables or particles, which we are obliged to
employ as connectives to our significant words. Our meth-
od gives almost the same exposure to the one as to the other,
making the insignificant parts and the significant equally con-
spicuous theirs much oftener sinks, as it were, the former
;
into the latter, at once preserving their use and hiding their
weakness. Our modern languages may, in this respect, be
compared to the art of carpentry in its rudest state, when the
union of the materials employed by tlie artisan could be ef-
fected only by the help of those external and coarse imple-
ments, pins, nails, and cra^nps. The ancient languages re-
semble the same art in its most improved state, afier the in-
vention of dovetail joints, grooves, and mortises, when thus
all the principal junctions are efi'ected by forming properly
the extremities or terminations of the pieces to be joined ;
for by means of these the union of the parts is rendered closer,
while that by which their union is produced is scarcely pei-
ceivable. •
Addison, if I remember right, somewhere compares an epic
poem (and the same holds, though in a lower degree, of eve-
ry other literary production), written in Greek or in J/aiin, to
a magnificent edifice, built of marble, porphyry, or granite,
and Contrasts with it such a poem of pt rformance in one of
our modern languages, which he likens to such a building ex-
ecuted in freestone, or any of those coarser kinds of stone
which abound in some northern climates. The latter may be
made to answer all the essential purposes of accommodation
as well as the former, but as the materials of which it is con-
structed are not capable of receiving the same polish, and,
consequently, cannot admit some of the finer decorations, il
N N
—
CHAPTER V.
OP THE CONNECTIVES K.MPLOVEn IN COMBINING THE SENTENCES
IN A DISCOUKSE.
SECTION I.
SECTION II.
N n 2
426 THE PHILOSOPHY OF RHETORIC.
tude is allowed, hi French, too, the monosyllal)les el, 7nais, car. have in-
variably the same situation, it is otherwise with aussi, pourtant, pourquoi
though there is not so great freedom allowed in arranging them as in tha
English dissyllabic conjunctions.
THE PUILOSOPHY OP RHETORIC. 431
therefore, but not and for. We are not to seek the reason of
thisdifTerence in the import of the terms, but in the custom
of applying tliem. Again, idiom permits the use of two cop-
ulatives, but not of every two. We may say and also, and
likewise, but not also likewise. Two causal conjunctions are
not now associated, as /or because, nor two illatives, as there-
fore then ; yet, in the dialect which obtained in the beginning
of the last century, these modes of expression were common.
Indeed, some of those heavy connectives which are now but
little used, as moreover, furthermore, over and above, are all but
combinations of synonymous particles, and flow from a dis-
position which will perhaps ever be found to prevail where
style is in its infancy.
The fifth and last observation I shall make on this subject
is, that it is not necessary that all the sentences in any kind
THE END.
piy THE LIBRARY
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