Introductions should not be planned, till after one has meditated in its own Mind the Substance of his Discourse Correctness should be carefully studied in the Expression Modesty is another Character which it must carry To be clear and distinct, to be probable, and to be concise, are the Qualities which Critics chiefly require in Narration Of the argumentative or reasoning Part of a Discourse... The analytic, and the synthetic Methods of reasoning Fourthly, the Terms in which our Partitions are expressed should With regard to the different Degrees of Strength in Arguments, the general Rule is, to advance in the way of Climax.. Observe not to extend Arguments too far, and multiply them too The Pathetic, in which, if any where, Eloquence reigns Consider carefully, whether the Subject admit the Pathetic, and render it proper, and if it does, what Part of the Discourse is Never to set apart a Head of a Discourse in Form, for raising any In order to fulfil the End of History, the Author must study to The drawing of Characters one of the most splendid, and at the same time, one of the most difficult Ornaments of historical GRAMMAR OF RHETORIC. BOOK I. OF LANGUAGE AND STYLE AS THE FOUNDATION OF ELOQUENCE. CHAPTER I. OF THE RISE AND PROGRESS OF LANGUAGE IN THE STRUC TURE AND COMPOSITION OF WORDS. 1. LANGUAGE may be defined, the art of communicating thought, or the ideas of the mind, by certain articulate sounds, which are used as signs of those ideas. Illustration. Articulate sounds are those modulations of simple voice, or of sound emitted from the thorax, which are formed by means of the mouth, and its several organs, the teeth, the tongue, the lips, and the palate. 2. The connection between words and ideas is arbitrary and conventional, owing to the agreement of men among themselves. Illus. Different nations have different languages, or a different set of articulate sounds, which they have chosen, or framed, for communicating their ideas. 3. When we consider written language as a symbol of spoken, and spoken language as a representation of our ideas, and observe, also, how little relation subsists between letters and sounds, and again between sounds and ideas, we shall be satisfied that much artifice and singular efforts of ingenuity were at first employed in the construction of language, that it might accomplish the purposes of communication. Corollary. As speech must have been absolutely necessary previous to the formation of society, the language of the first men would be barely adequate to their present occasions; but they would enlarge and improve it as their future necessities required. 4. The cries of passion, accompanied with such motions and gestures, as are further expressive of passion, are the only signs which nature teaches all men, and which all understand. (Art. 30. and 31.) Illus. Cries indicative of fear, and gestures expressive of peril, would be used by him who sought to warn his neighbour of danger. Corol. Those exclamations, therefore, which have obtained the name of INTERJECTIONS, uttered in a strong and passionate manner, were, beyond doubt, in the rudest ages of the world, the first elements or beginnings of speech. Names began to be assigned to objects, when more enlarged communications became necessary. 5. The invention of words arose from the imitation, as nearly as it could be carried, of the nature or quality of the object which was named, by the sound of the name which the object or its quality received. Illus. As a painter, who would represent grass, must employ a green colour; so, in the beginning of spoken language, the man who gave a name to any thing harsh or boisterous, would employ a harsh or boisterous sound in the pronunciation of that name. He could not do otherwise, if he meant to excite in the hearer the idea of that thing which he sought to name. (See Art. 16, 17, and 18.) Corol. The desire of men to paint, by speech, the objects which they named, in a manner more or less complete, according as the vocal organs had it in their power to effect this imitation, must have been the general motive which led men to the assignation of one name to a particular object rather than another. (See the Illustrations to Art. 7.) 6. Whatever objects were to be named, in which sound, or noise, or motion, was concerned, the imitation by words was abundantly obvious. Nothing was more natural than, by the sound of the voice, to imitate the quality of the sound, or noise, or motion, which the external object made; and to form its name accordingly. Illus. Thus, in all languages, we find words constructed upon this principle. A certain bird is called the cuckoo from the sound which it emits The analogy between the word and the thing signified is discernible, when one sort of wind is said to whistle, and another to roar, when a serpent is said to hiss, a fly to buzz, and falling timber to crash, --wb ́n a stream is said to flow, thunder to roar, and hail to rattle. 7. This analogy becomes more obscure in the names of objects which address the sight only, where neither noise nor motion is concerned; and still more in the terms appropriated to moral ideas; but even here it is not altogether Lost; and throughout the radical words of all languages, some |