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Eloquence in the largest acceptation defined, its more general forms exhibited, with their different objects, ends, and characters.

N fpeaking there is always fome end pro

IN

pofed, or fome effect which the speaker intends to produce in the hearer. The word eloquence in its greateft latitude denotes, That

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art or talent by which the difcourfe is adapted to its end.'

ALL

"Dicere fecundum virtutem orationis. Scientia bene "dicendi." Quintilian. The word eloquence, in common

con

ALL the ends of speaking are reducible to four; every fpeech being intended to enlighten the understanding, to please the imagination, to move the paffions, or to influence the will.

ANY one difcourfe admits only of one of thefe ends as the principal. Nevertheless, in difcourfing on a fubject, many things may be introduced, which are more immediately and apparently directed to fome of the other ends of fpeaking, and not to that which is the chief intent of the whole. But then thefe other and immediate ends are in effect but means, and must be rendered conducive to that which is the primary intention. Accordingly, the propriety or the impropriety of the introduction of fuch fecondary ends, will always be inferred from their fubferviency or want of fubferviency to that end, which is, in refpect of them, the ultimate. For example, a difcourfe addreffed to the understanding, and calculated to illustrate

converfation, is feldom ufed in fuch a comprehenfive fenfe. I have, however, made choice of this definition on a double account: 1ft, It exactly correfponds to Tully's idea of a perfect orator; 66 Optimus eft orator qui dicendo animos audien"tium et docet, et delectat, et permovet." 2dly, It is best adapted to the fubject of thefe papers. See the note on

page 33.

or

or evince fome point purely fpeculative, may borrow aid from the imagination, and admit metaphor and comparifon, but not the bolder and more ftriking figures, as that called vifion or fiction*, prosopopoeia, and the like; which are not fo much intended to elucidate a fubject, as to excite admiration. Still lefs will it admit an addrefs to the paffions, which, as it never fails to disturb the operation of the intellectual faculty, must be regarded by every intelligent hearer as foreign at leaft, if not infidious. It is obvious, that either of these, far from being fubfervient to the main defign, would diftract the attention from it.

THERE is indeed one kind of addrefs to the understanding, and only one, which, it may not be improper to obferve, difdains all affiftance whatever from the fancy. The addrefs I mean, is mathematical demonftration. As this doth not, like moral reasoning, admit degrees of evidence, its perfection in point of eloquence,

By vifion or fiction is understood, that rhetorical figure of which Quintilian fays, "Quas palavras Græci vocant, nos “fanè vifiones appellamus, per quas imagines rerum absen"tium ita repræfentantur animo, ut eas cernere oculis ac "præfentes habere videamur."

if

if fo uncommon an application of the term may be allowed, confifts in perfpicuity. Perfpicuity here refults entirely from propriety and fimplicity of diction, and from accuracy of method, where the mind is regularly, ftep by ftep, conducted forwards in the fame track, the attention no way diverted, nothing left to be fupplied, no one unneceffary word or idea introduced*. On the contrary, an harangue framed for affecting the hearts or influencing the refolves of an affembly, needs greatly the affiftance both of intellect and of imagination.

In general it may be afferted, that each preceding fpecies, in the order above exhibited, is preparatory to the fubfequent; that each fubfequent fpecies is founded on the preceding; and that thus they afcend in a regular progreffion. Knowledge, the object of the intel

Of this kind Euclid hath given us the most perfect models, which have not, I think, been fufficiently imitated by later mathematicians. In him you find the exactest arrangement inviolably observed, the properest and simpleft, and by confequence, the plainest expreffions conftantly used, nothing deficient, nothing fuperfluous; in brief, nothing which in more, or fewer, or other words, or words otherwife difpofed, could have been better expreffed.

lect,

lect, furnisheth materials for the fancy; the fancy culls, compounds, and, by her mimic art, difpofes thefe materials fo as to affect the paffions; the paffions are the natural fpurs to volition or action, and fo need only to be right directed. This connexion and dependency will better appear from the following obfervations,

When a fpeaker addreffeth himself to the understanding, he propofes the inftruction of his hearers, and that, either by explaining fome doctrine unknown, or not diftinctly comprehended by them, or by proving fome pofition difbelieved or doubted by them.-In other words, he proposes either to difpel ignorance or to vanquish error. In the one, his aim is their information; in the other, their conviction. Accordingly the predominant quality of the former is perfpicuity; of the latter, argument. By that we are made to know, by this to believe.

The imagination is addreffed by exhibiting to it a lively and beautiful reprefentation of a fuitable object. As in this exhibition, the task of the orator may, in fome fort, be faid, like that of the painter, to confift in imitation, the merit of the work refults entirely from thefe two fources; dignity, as well in the subject or

thing

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