Sivut kuvina
PDF
ePub

thing imitated, as in the manner of imitation and refemblance, in the portrait or performance. Now the principal scope for this class being in narration and description, poetry, which is one mode of oratory, efpecially epic poetry, must be ranked under it. The effect of the dramatic, at leaft of tragedy, being upon the paffions, the drama falls under another fpecies, to be explained afterwards. But that kind of addrefs of which I am now treating, attains the fummit of perfection in the fublime, or those great and noble images, which, when in fuitable colouring presented to the mind, do, as it were, diftend the imagination with fomne vaft conception, and quite ravifh the foul.

THE fublime, it may be urged, as it raiseth admiration, should be confidered as one fpecies of addrefs to the paffions. But this objection, when examined, will appear fuperficial. There are few words in any language (particularly fuch as relate to the operations and feelings of the mind) which are ftrictly univocal. Thus admiration, when perfons are the object, is commonly used for a high degree of efteem; but when otherwife applied, it denotes folely an internal tafte. It is that pleasurable fenfation

which inftantly arifeth on the perception of magnitude, or of whatever is great and ftupendous in its kind. For there is a greatness in the degrees of quality in spiritual subjects, analogous to that which fubfifts in the degrees of quantity in material things. Accordingly, in all tongues, perhaps without exception, the ordinary terms, which are confidered as literally expreffive of the latter, are also used promifcuously to denote the former. Now admiration, when thus applied, doth not require to its production, as the paffions generally do, any reflex view of motives or tendencies, or of any relation either to private intereft, or to the good of others; and ought therefore to be numbered among those original feelings of the mind, which are denominated by fome the reflex fenfes, being of the fame class with a tafte for beauty, an ear for mufic, or our moral fentiments. Now the immediate view of whatever is directed to the imagination (whether the subject be things inanimate or animal forms, whether characters, actions, incidents, or manners) terminates in the gratification of fome internal tafte; as a tafte for the wonderful, the fair, the good; for elegance, for novelty, or for grandeur.

BUT

[ocr errors]

But it is evident, that this creative faculty, the fancy, frequently lends her aid in promoting till nobler ends. From her exuberant ftores most of thofe tropes and figures are extracted, which, when properly employed, have fuch a marvellous efficacy in roufing the paffions, and by fome fecret, fudden, and inexplicable affociation, awakening all the tendereft emotions of the heart. In this cafe, the addrefs of the orator is not ultimately intended to aftonith by the loftinefs of his images, or to delight by the beauteous refemblance which his painting bears to nature; nay, it will not permit the hearers even a moment's leifure for making the comparifon, but, as it were, by fome magical fpell, hurries them, ere they are aware, into love, pity, grief, terror, defire, averfion, fury, or hatred. It therefore affumes the denomination of pathetic, which is the characteristic of the third fpecies of difcourfe, that addreffed to the paffions.

FINALLY, that kind, the moft complex of all, which is calculated to influence the will,

I am fenfible that this word is commonly used in a more limited fenfe, for that only which excites commiferation. Perhaps the word impassioned would answer better.

and

and perfuade to a certain conduct, as it is in reality an artful mixture of that which propofes to convince the judgment, and that which interefts the paffions, its diftinguishing excellency refults from these two, the argumentative and the pathetic incorporated together. These acting with united force, and, if I may fo exprefs myself, in concert, conftitute that paffionate eviction, that vehemence of contention, which is admirably fitted for perfuafion, and hath always been regarded as the fupreme qualification in an orator *. It is this which bears down

every

* This animated reafoning the Greek rhetoricians termed Sewong, which, from fignifying the principal excellency in an orator, came at length to denote oratory itself. And as vehemence and eloquence became fynonymous, the latter, fuitably to this way of thinking, was fometimes defined the art of perfuafion. But that this definition is defective, appears even from their own writings, fince in a confiftency with it their rhetorics could not have comprehended those orations

[ocr errors]

called demonstrative, the defign of which was not to perfuade, B Julindly

but to please. Yet it is eafy to discover the origin of this defect, and that both from the nature of the thing, and from the customs which obtained among both Greeks and Romans. First, from the nature of the thing, for to perfuade prefupposes in fome degree, and therefore may be understood to imply, all the other talents of an orator, to enlighten, to evince, to paint, to astonish, to inflame: but this doth not hold univerfally; one may explain with clearness, and prove with energy, who is incapable of the fublime, the pathetic, VOL. I.

D

and

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

every obftacle, and procures the fpeaker an irresistible power over the thoughts and purposes of his audience. It is this which hath been fo juftly celebrated as giving one man an afcendant over others, fuperior even to what defpotifm itself can beftow; fince by the latter the more ignoble part, only the body and its members, are enflaved; whereas, from the dominion of the former, nothing is exempted, neither judgment nor affection, not even the inmoft receffes, the moft latent movements of the foul. What oppofition is he not prepared

and the vehement; befides, this power of perfuafion, or, as Cicero calls it, "poffe voluntates hominum impellere quò "velis, unde velis, deducere," as it makes a man mafter of his hearers, is the moft confiderable in refpect of confequences. Secondly, from ancient cuftoms. All their public orations. were ranked under three claffes, the demonftrative, the judiciary, and the deliberative. In the two laft it was impoffible to rife to eminence, without that important talent, the power of perfuafion. Thefe were in much more frequent ufe than the first, and withal the fureft means of advancing both the fortune and the fame of the orator; for as on the judiciary the lives and eftates of private perfons depended, on the deliberative hung the refolves of fenates, the fate of kingdoms, nay of the most renowned republics the world ever knew. Confequently, to excel in thefe, must have been the direct road to riches, honours, and preferment. No wonder then that perfuafion should almost wholly engross the rhetorician's notice.

« EdellinenJatka »