any other case, to be considered as conclusive against the utility of any kind of art, faculty, or profession;because the evil effects of misdirected power require that equal powers should be arrayed on the opposite side;— and because truth, having an intrinsic superiority over falsehood, may be expected to prevail when the skill of the contending parties is equal; which will be the more likely to take place, the more widely such skill is diffused. But many, perhaps most persons, are inclined to the opinion that Eloquence, either in writing or speaking, is either a natural gift, or, at least, is to be acquired by mere practice, and is not to be attained or improved by any system of rules. And this opinion is favoured not least by those (as has been just observed) whose own experience would enable them to decide very differently; and it certainly seems to be in a great degree practically adopted. Most persons, if not left entirely to the disposal of chance, in respect of this branch of education, are at least left to acquire what they can by practice, such as school or college-exercises afford, without much care being taken to initiate them systematically into the principles of the art; and that, frequently, not so much from negligence in the conductors of education, as from their doubts of the utility of any such regular system.

Erroneous It certainly must be admitted, that rules systems of not considered on broad philosophical prinrules. ciples, are more likely to cramp than to assist the operations of our faculties ;-that a pedantic display of technical skill is more detrimental in this than in any other pursuit, since by exciting distrust, it counteracts

* Aris. Rhet. ch. 1--He might have gone further; for it will very often happen that, before a popular audience, a greater degree of skill is requisite for maintaining the cause of truth than of falsehood. There are cases in which the arguments which lie most on the surface, and are, to superficial reasoners, the most easily set forth in a plausible form, are those on the wrong side. It is often difficult to a writer, and still more, to a speaker, to point out and exhibit, in their full strength, the delicate distinctions on which truth sometimes depends.

the very purpose of it;-that a system of rules imper.. fectly comprehended, or not familiarized by practice will (while that continues to be the case) prove rather an impediment than a help; as indeed will be found in all other arts likewise;-and that no system can be ex pected to equalize men whose natural powers are dif ferent. But none of these concessions at all invalidate the positions of Aristotle; that some succeed better that others in explaining their opinions, and bringing over others to them; and that, not merely by superiority ol natural gifts, but by acquired habit; and that consequently if we can discover the causes of this superior success-the means by which the desired end is attained by all who do attain it-we shall be in possession of rules capable of general application: which is, says he, the proper office of an art.* Experience so plainly evinces, what indeed we might naturally be led antecedently to conjecture, that a right judgment on any subject is not necessarily accompanied by skill in effecting conviction-nor the ability to discover truth, by a facility in explaining it- that it might be matter of wonder how any doubt should ever have existed as to the sibility of devising, and the utility of employing, a system of rules for "Argumentative Composition," generally; distinct from any system conversant about the subject-matter of each composition.

pos

It is probable that the existing prejudices on this sub. ject may be traced in great measure to the imperfect or incorrect notions of some writers, who have either confined their attention to trifling minutiae of style, or at least have in some respect failed to take a sufficiently comprehensive view of the principles of the art. One distinction especially is to be clearly laid down and carefully borne in mind by those who would form a correct idea of those principles; viz. the distinction already noticed in the Elements of Logic, between an art, and An Art of Reasoning" would imply, “a

the art.

66

* "OTEP IGTL TεXVñs epyov..-Rhet. booki ch. i.

Method or System of Rules by the observance of which one may reason correctly;" "the Art of Reasoning," would imply a system of rules to which every one does conform (whether knowingly, or not,) who reasons correctly and such is Logic, considered as an art.

A rightly.

tem does

not cramp

In like manner "an Art of Composition formed sys- would imply "a System of Rules by which a good Composition may be produced;" "the the natural Art of Composition,"--" such ruies as every powers. good Composition must conform to," whether the author of it had them in his mind or not. Of the former character appear to have been (among others) many of the logical and rhetorical systems of Aristotle's predecessors in those departments. He himself evident. ly takes the other and more philosophical view of both branches: as appears (in the case of Rhetoric) both from the plan he sets out with, that of investigating the causes of the success of all who do succeed in effecting conviction, and from several passages occurring in va rious parts of his treatise; which indicate how sedulously he was on his guard to conform to that plan. Those who have not attended to the important distinction just alluded to, are often disposed to feel wonder, if not weariness, at his reiterated remarks, that "all men effect persuasion either in this way or in that ;" it is impossible to attain such and such an object in any other way;" &c. which doubtless were intended to remind his readers of the nature of his design; viz. not to teach an Art of Rhetoric, but the Art;-not to in struct them merely how conviction might be produced, but how it must.

If this distinction were carefully kept in view by the teacher and by the learner of Rhetoric, we should no onger hear complaints of the natural powers being fettered by the formalities of a system; since no such com. plaint can lie against a system whose rules are drawn from the invariable practice of all who succeed in at taining their proposed object.

No one would expect that the study of Sir Joshua Reynolds' lectures would cramp the genius of the painter. No one complains of the rules of Grammar as fettering language; because it is understood that correct use is not founded on Grammar, but Grammar on correct use. A just system of Logic or of Rhetoric is analogous, in this respect, to Grammar.

5. The chief reason probably for the Exercises in existing prejudice against technical systems Composition. of composition, is to be found in the cramped, meagre, and feeble character of most of such essays, &c., as are avowedly composed according to the rules of any such system. It should be remembered, however, in the first place, that these are almost invariably the productions of learners; it being usual for those who have attained proficiency, either to write without thinking of any rules, or to be desirous, (as has been said,) and, by their increased expertness, able, to conceal their employment of art. Now it is not fair to judge of the value of any system of rules, those of a drawing-master for instance, from the first awkward sketches of tyros in the art.

Still less would it be fair to judge of one system, from the ill-success of another, whose rules were framed (as is the case with those ordinarily laid down for the use of students in Composition) on narrow, unphilosophical, and erroneous principles.

the compo

of

But the circumstance which has mainly Difficulty in tended to produce the complaint alluded to, sition is, that in this case, the reverse takes place exercises. of the plan pursued in the learning of other arts; in which it is usual to begin, for the sake of practice, with what is easiest; here, on the contrary, the tyro has usually a harder task assigned him, and one in which he is less likely to succeed, than he will meet with in the actual business of life. For it is undeniable that it is much the most difficult to find either propositions to Inaintain, or arguments to prove them-to know, in short, what to say, or how to say it--on any subject on

which one has hardly any information, and no interest; about which he knows little, and cares still less.

Now the subjects usually proposed for school or col. lege-exercises are (to the learners themselves) precisely of this description. And hence it commonly happens, that an exercise composed with diligent care by a young student, though it will have cost him far more pains than a real letter written by him to his friends, on subjects that interest him, will be very greatly inferior to it. On the real occasions of after life, (I mean, when the object proposed is, not to fill up a sheet, a book, or an hour, but to communicate his thoughts, to convince, or persuade)-on these real occasions, for which such exercises were designed to prepare him, he will find that he writes both better, and with more facility, than on the artificial occasion, as it may be called, of composing a declamation ;--that he has been attempting to learn the easier, by practising the harder.

Ill effects

But what is worse, it will often happen that resulting such exercises will have formed a habit of from exer- stringing together empty common-places, and cises. vapid declamations of multiplying words and spreading out the matter thin-of composing in a stiff, artificial, and frigid manner: and that this habit will more or less cling through life to one who has been thus trained, and will infect all his future compositions.

So strongly, it should seem, was Milton impressed with a sense of this danger, that he was led to condemn the use altogether of exercises in Composition. In this opinion he stands perhaps alone among all writers on education. I should perhaps agree with him, if there were absolutely no other remedy for the evil in question; for I am inclined to think that this part of education, if conducted as it often is, does in general more harm than good. But I am convinced, that practice in Composition, both for boys and young men, may be so conducted as to be productive of many and most essential advantages.