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III. THE TRUE METHOD OF STUDYING RHETORIC.

The principles thus established would seem to determine, also, beyond dispute, the correct method of studying Rhetoric. (1) The goal before the student should be skill in writing and speaking; (2) the order of study should be the order of development, and no one of the three elements, Practice, Rules, Principles, should be omitted; (3) the study should rest on all the nomothetical sciences-not on any number less than all.

And yet the study of Rhetoric has constantly proceeded in violation of one or more of these principles.

(1) Rhetoric has been treated as if its chief end were to make critics, not writers. It has tended to skill in judging, not in constructing. Hence, not only has undue importance been attached to the form of discourse, and too little attention been paid to the thought expressed, but the course has been narrowed to a theoretical discussion of rules and principles, while practice in composition has been wholly or in great part omitted.

(2) The natural order of teaching the art has been inverted, and one or more of its three elements been omitted or else unduly emphasized.' Hence, three mistakes in the methods of teaching;-(a) Rules and principles are put before practice in writing, although it is practice that in the highest degree makes rules and principles intelligible. Earlier practice in composition, (such as is, or certainly was, common in the preparatory schools,) is confined to the writing of themes; and the student, who is ill-prepared for such work, gains but little benefit from it. Simple exercises in sentence-building or in the recasting of work that is more or less defective,— exercises that tell most powerfully on all subsequent practice, and which need only the briefest rules by way of suggestion to guide the student,-such exercises are rarely employed.2 (b) A second blunder results from the error already noted, the error of treating Rhetoric as the art of Criticism. Men whose end in teaching is only to make competent judges of discourse, can not be expected to value highly either

1 In all arts, the greatest amount of attention must, of course, be given to practice; but this greatest amount is not necessarily an undue amount.

2 How to Write Clearly is a capital book for the purpose.

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rules for composition or practice in it. Hence, their instruction omits both rules and practice, while it gives at length abstract discussions of the scientific truths (especially, the truths of Esthetics) that underlie the art. Rhetoric with them becomes a philosophical study, both interesting and profitable in itself, but contributing as little as may be towards the making of competent writers. (c) Still more serious, because (if possible) more misleading, is the error of teaching Rhetoric by practice alone,-practice guided only by "rules of thumb" and the study of worthy models. Whatever value an empirical study

of Rhetoric may have, formal Rhetoric has also its place in the course; for, had not practice needed the guidance of underlying truths, only one element of art would in all probability have been developed. The very men who quarrel most bitterly with formal Rhetoric are often the men who, unconsciously, to be sure, seek its aid. Macaulay is a notable example.1

(3) Rhetoric has not been based on all its nomothetical sciences, but now on one of them, now upon two. Campbell starts from his famous dictum, "It is by the sense that Rhetoric holds of Logic, and by the expression that she holds of Grammar." Blair grounds his work on Esthetics. Theremin thinks Eloquence a virtue. Whately says Rhetoric is an offshoot of Logic. Day seems to have been the first to state formally the truth that Rhetoric rests on four nomothetical sciences. The opposite belief has enfeebled and belittled the art, and disgusted many really sensible persons, who have (unfairly, no doubt, but not unnaturally) charged the vices of “fine writing," puerility, desultoriness, etc., on the ⚫ art that professed to teach something better, but failed. As a result, "Rhetoric has become extremely superficial in its character and influence, so that the term 'rhetorical' has become the synonym of shallow and showy. Considered as jewelry and rouge," says another author, "Rhetoric is sufficiently contemptible."3

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1 Compare the parallel cases of Engineering and other scientific professions. The civil engineer was once trained in the field, the geologist in the bowels of the earth. To-day they are instructed-some say over-instructed-in colleges, and in nothing more than in the underlying truths of their arts. Who would think of showing a raw country boy a finished bridge or a "crack" coal-mine? 2W. G. T. Shedd, Preface to Theremin, p. x.

3 T. Starr King, in Whipple's Introduction to Substance and Show, p. xii.

IV. CERTAIN TECHNICAL TERMS OF Rhetoric.

The following table will help the student as he reads the older modern or the ancient writers on Rhetoric ;

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Certain terms-oratory, eloquence (in the sense of the Greek Koyiórns), and elocution-refer wholly to spoken discourse. The other terms have the double reference to either speech or writing.

V. THE LATIN WORD TROPUS.

What did tropus-Greek Tрóñоs and τрóжη—mean? Cicero (Brutus, xvii.) defines τрóñоç as verborum immutationes, and says that the Greeks called sententiarum orationisque formas oxhuara. But Quintilian says, "Tropus est verbi vel sermonis . . mutatio," and, "vertique formas non verborum modo, sed et sensuum et compositionis. Quare mihi videntur errasse, qui non alios crediderunt tropos, quam in quibus verbum pro verbo poneretur." Curiously enough, no Greek writer now extant seems to have used трóлоs in its rhetorical sense, and Lucianus alone of Greek writers (A. D. 160?) has τρóπŋ in this meaning. [See Liddell and Scott's Lexicon, s. vv.] More than this, the confusion of trope and figure—especially the modern use of figure as genus-had begun in Quintilian's time. 12 1, above.

22 10 ff, above.

32 23, above.

423, above.

5 Obsolete in this sense.-Eloquence seems to be used sometimes by Campbell to mean as much as Rhetoric. (See. I. i.)

"Theremin defines Eloquence as "thought in a flood." 7 VIII. vi. 1-3. Cf. IX. i. 4.

8 IX. i. 2.

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Brevity, 149; exceptions to, 154; viola-
tions of from excess, 152; from defi-
ciency, 156; means to, 158.
Burden of proof, the, 317.

CANONS for divided use, 127; of the

whole composition, 232.

Choice of words, 133.

Circumlocution, 152.

Conclusion, the, 223.
Continuousness, 250.
Contrast, 294, 308.
Criticism, 331.

DARTMOUTH College case, 30.

Definition, 292; of Rhetoric, 9, 329.
Departments of Rhetoric, 19.
Description, 294, 299.

Dicta, 16.

Diction, 51; varieties of, 114; of poetry,
116; figures of, 236.

Discourse, 9; matter, or content, of, 14;

form of, 14, 50; kinds of, 23; repre-
sentative, 36.

Discussion, the, 223, 287; general rules
for, 288; modes of, 290.

Divided use, 125; canons for, 127.
Division, 294, 306.

Due proportion in sentence, 194; in
paragraph, 219.

ELEGANCE, 278.

Elements of style, 52, 132.
Emphasis, 162.

Ethics, 14.

Excitation, 320; proposition in, 321.
Exceptions to purity, 114; to brevity, 154.

Clauses, order of in sentence, 160; modi- Exemplification, 294, 307.

fying, 166.

Clearness, 254.

Climax, 220.

Colloquialisms, 124.

Composition, 9, 12; the whole, 223; parts
of, 223; canons of, 232.

Compositions with respect to form, 23;
to intrinsic character, 30; to pur-

pose, 49.

Completeness, 234.

Comparison and contrast, 294, 308.
Compounds, 89.

Condensed sentence, 188.

Explanation, 291; proper, 293; pathetic,

320.

Explicit reference in sentence, 174; by
repetition, 178; in paragraph, 198.

FIGURES of speech, 235; of diction, 236;
of thought, 236; rules for, 243.
Force, 262.

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Form of Discourse, 14, 50.
Fundamental maxims, 16.

GOOD use, 55; characteristics of, 64.
Grammar, 14.

Grammatical purity, 53; propriety, 87;
precision, 95.

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Long and short words, 146; sentences, Present use, 67.

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Relative pronoun as connective, 177, 202.
Repetition, tautological, 152; justifi-
able, 154; for emphasis, 163; for ex-
plicit reference, 178, 200; obverse, 308.
Reputable use, 64.

Representative discourse, 36.

Order of words and clauses in sentence, Rhetoric defined, 9, 329; proper, 12;

160.

departments of, 19; sciences that give

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