Composition however, of the Argumentative kind, may be considered (as has been above stated) as coming under the province of Rhetoric. And this view of the subject is the less open to objection, inasmuch as it is not likely to lead to discussions that can be deemed superfluous, even by those who may choose to consider Rhetoric in the most restricted sense, as relating only to "Persuasive Speaking;" since it is evident that Argument must be, in most cases at least, the basis of Persuasion.

present

I propose then to treat, first and princi- Plan of the pally, of the Discovery of ARGUMENTS, and of Treatise. their Arrangement; secondly, to lay down some Rules respecting the excitement and management of what are commonly called the Passions, (including every kind of Feeling, Sentiment, or Emotion,) with a view to the attainment of any object proposed, principally, Persuasion, in the strict sense, i. e. the influencing of the WILL; thirdly, to offer some remarks on STYLE; and, fourthly, to treat of ELOCUTION.

§ 2.

Rhetoric.

It may be expected that, before I proceed History of to treat of the Art in question, I should pre

Cicero.

sent the reader with a sketch of its history. Little however is required to be said on this head, because the present is not one of those branches of study in which we can trace with interest a progressive improvement from age to age. It is one, on the contrary, to which more attention appears to have been paid, and in which greater proficiency is supposed to have been made, in the earliest days of Science and Literature, than at any subsequent period. Aristotle. Among the ancients, Aristotle, the earliest whose works are extant, may safely be pronounced to be also the best of the systematic writers on Rhetoric. Cicero is hardly to be reckoned among the number; for he delighted so much more in the practice than in the theory of his art, that he is perpetually drawn off from the rigid Philosophical analysis of its principles, into discursive declamations, always eloquent indeed, and often highly interesting, but adverse to regularity of system, and frequently as unsatisfactory to the practical student as to the Philosopher. He abounds indeed with excellent practical remarks, though the best of them are scattered up and down his works with much irregularity; but his precepts, though of great weight, as being the result of experience, are not often traced up by him to first principles; and we are fre

quently left to guess, not only on what basis his rules are grounded, but in what cases they are applicable. Of this latter defect a remarkable instance will be hereafter cited.*

tilian.

Quinctilian is indeed a systematic writer; Quincbut cannot be considered as having much extended the Philosophical views of his predecessors in this department. He possessed much good sense, but this was tinctured with pedantry;-with that aλasoveía, as Aristotle calls it, which extends to an extravagant degree the province of the art which he professes. A great part of his work indeed is a Treatise on Education, generally; in the conduct of which he was no mean proficient; for such was the importance attached to public speaking, even long after the downfal of the Republic had cut off the Orator from the hopes of attaining, through the means of this qualification, the highest political importance, that he who was nominally a Professor of Rhetoric, had in fact the most important branches of instruction intrusted to his care.

Many valuable maxims however are to be found in this author; but he wanted the profundity of thought and power of analysis which Aristotle possessed.

The writers on Rhetoric among the ancients

*See Part I. ch. 3. § v.

Bacon.

Campbell.

whose works are lost, seem to have been numerous; but most of them appear to have confined themselves to a very narrow view of the subject; and to have been occupied, as Aristotle complains, with the minor details of style and arrangement, and with the sophistical tricks and petty artifices of the Pleader, instead of giving a masterly and comprehensive sketch of the essentials.

Among the moderns, few writers of ability have turned their thoughts to the subject; and but little has been added, either in respect of matter, or of system, to what the ancients have left us. Bacon's "Antitheta" however, the Rhetorical common-places,-are a wonderful specimen of acuteness of thought and pointed conciseness of expression. I have accordingly placed a selection of them in the Appendix.*

It were most unjust in this place to leave unnoticed Dr. Campbell's Philosophy of Rhetoric a work which does not enjoy indeed so high a degree of popular favour as Dr. Blair's, but is incomparably superior to it, not only in depth of thought and ingenious original research, but also in practical utility to the student. The title of Dr. Campbell's work has perhaps deterred many readers, who have concluded it to be more abstruse and less

See Appendix, [A.]

popular in its character than it really is. Amidst much however that is readily understood by any moderately intelligent reader, there is much also that calls for some exertion of thought, which the indolence of most readers refuses to bestow. And it must be owned that he also in some instances perplexes his readers by being perplexed himself, and bewildered in the discussion of questions through which he does not clearly see his way. His great defect, which not only leads him into occasional errors, but leaves many of his best ideas but imperfectly developed, is his ignorance and utter misconception of the nature and object of Logic; on which some remarks are made in my Treatise on that Science. Rhetoric being in truth an off-shoot of Logic, that Rhetorician must labour under great disadvantages who is not only ill-acquainted with that system, but also utterly unconscious of his deficiency.

§ 3.

From a general view of the history of Rhetoric, two questions naturally suggest themselves, which, on examination will be found very closely connected together: first, what is the cause of the careful and extensive cultivation, among the ancients, of an Art which the