RHETORIC. RHETORIC discusses the means whereby language, spoken or written, may be rendered effective. There are three principal ends in speaking,—to inform, to persuade, to please. They correspond to the three departments of the human mind, the Understanding, the Will, and the Feelings. The means being to some extent different for each, they are considered under separate heads. But as there are various matters pertaining to all modes of address, it is convenient to divide the entire subject into the two following parts: Part First, which relates to Style generally, embraces the following topics:-I. The Figures of Speech. II. The Number of Words. III. The Arrangement of Words. IV. The Qualities of Style. V. The Sentence and the Paragraph. Part Second treats of the different Kinds of Composition. Those that have for their object to inform the UN DERSTANDING, fall under three heads-Description, Narration, and Exposition. The means of influencing the WILL are given under one head, Persuasion. The employing of language to excite pleasurable FEELINGS, is one of the chief characteristics of Poetry. The Will can be moved only through the Understanding or through the Feelings. Hence there are really but two Rhetorical ends. PART I. STYLE IN GENERAL. CHAPTER I. THE FIGURES OF SPEECH. 1. A FIGURE of Speech is a deviation from the plain and ordinary mode of speaking, with a view to greater effect. When, instead of saying, "that is very strange," we exclaim "how strange!" we use a figure. "Now is the winter of our discontent," is figurative; the word "winter" is diverted from signifying a season of the year, to express a condition of the human feelings. The ancient Rhetoricians distinguished between Figures and Tropes. A Figure, says Quintilian, is a form of speech differing from the ordinary mode of expression; as in the first example given above. A Trope is the conversion of a word from its proper signification to another, in order to give force, as in the second example above. The distinction is more in appearance than in substance, and has no practical value. The The Figures are classed under a variety of names. most common are Simile, Metaphor, Allegory, Antithesis or Contrast, Metonymy, Synecdoche, Epigram, Hyperbole, Interrogation, Exclamation, Apostrophe, Climax, Irony. 2. Several of the more important Figures have reference to the operationsof the human Understanding, or Intellect, and may be classified accordingly. All FIGURES OF SPEECH. 21 our intellectual powers are reducible to three simple modes of working. The first is DISCRIMINATION, or the Feeling of Difference, Contrast, Relativity. It means that the mind is affected by change, as in passing from rest to motion, from cold to heat, from light to dark; and that, the greater and the more sudden the change, the more strongly is it affected. The figure denominated Antithesis, or Contrast, derives its force from this fact. The second power is called SIMILARITY, or the Feeling of Agreement. This signifies that, when like objects come under our notice, we are impressed by the circumstance, as when we see the resemblance of a child to its parent. It signifies farther that we are made to understand things better, and to feel them more strongly, by means of other similar things. We are enabled to know something of the Desert of Sahara, by being told that it resembles a sea of sand. The Figures named Simile, Metaphor, Allegory, are modes of increasing the force. of style in this way. The third power of the Intellect is RETENTIVENESS, or Acquisition. The ability to retain successive impressions without confusion, and to bring them up afterwards, distinguishes mind; it is a power familiarly known as Memory. Now, the chief way in which memory works is this: impressions occurring together, become associated together, as sunrise with daylight; and, when we are made to think of one, we are reminded of the accompaniments. We cannot think of the sun's rising, without remembering daylight, and the other circumstances that go along with it. Hence, things contiguously placed are associated mentally; and one of the many consequences is that we often name a thing by some of its adjuncts, as when we say "the throne" for the sovereign, "gold" for wealth. Such is the nature of Metonymy. Of the three powers of Intellect now named-Discrimination or Contrast, Similarity, and Retentiveness-the second, Similarity, is most fruitful in figures, and may be considered first. FIGURES FOUNDED ON SIMILARITY. 3. The intellectual power named Similarity, or Feeling of Agreement, is the chief inventive power of the mind. By it similitudes are brought up to the view. When we look out upon a scene of nature, we are reminded of other similar scenes that we have formerly known. This power of like to recall like (there being also diversity) varies in different individuals. The fact is shown by the great abundance of comparisons that occur to some men; for example, the great poets. Homer, speaking of the descent of Apollo from Olympus, says, "He came like night." The eloquence of Ulysses is described by the help of a similitude: "Soft as the fleeces of descending snows, The copious accents fall with easy art; The Figures of Similarity are these:-1. Simile, or Comparison. 2. Metaphor. 3. Personification. 4. Allegory. 5. Certain forms of Synecdoche. We shall first remark on the features common to them all. OF SIMILITUDES GENERALLY. 4. The tracing of resemblances among the objects and events of the world, is a constant avocation of the human mind. In Science, general notions are classed together on the basis of some feature that they possess in common. We identify a great number of objects on the property of roundness, all else being different. Some sciences are expressly styled Comparative; as, Comparative Anatomy, Comparative Grammar. The purpose of the former is to find out the points of community or likeness in the structure of Animals: the latter shows the similarities occurring in the midst of diversities in Languages. Reasoning is often based on the similarity or identity of two or more things. When we infer that the men now alive will die, it is because of their likeness in constitution to those that went before them. This is called reasoning by Analogy. A comparison is often intended to serve for an argument, as well as for an illustration. The following is an example: "It is remarked by Anatomists, that the nutritive quality is not the only requisite in food;—that a certain degree of distention of the stomach is required, to enable it to act with its full powers;— and that it is for this reason hay or straw must be given to horses, as well as corn, in order to supply the necessary bulk. Something analogous to this takes place with respect to the generality of minds; which are incapable of thoroughly digesting and assimilating what is presented to them, however clearly, in a small compass." (Whately.) 5. In all departments of composition addressed to the UNDERSTANDING-in Description, Narration, and Exposition-Similitudes are made use of to render the subjects more intelligible. If, from some cause or other, a subject is.but dimly con ceived, one mode of assisting the mind, is to bring forward something of the same kind that we already understand. Our knowledge of the familiar throws light upon the unfamiliar object. Thus, the action of the heart, which is concealed from our view, may be made intelligible by comparison to a forcepump for supplying water to a town. An event in ancient history may be illustrated by something that has happened in more recent times. A man's character is brought home to us, when likened to that of some one that we already know. We often make subjects mutually illustrative through their community of nature; thus Painting and Poetry, as Fine Arts, elucidate each other. 6. A Resemblance is not a Figure of Speech, unless the things compared be different in kind. The comparison of Napoleon to Cæsar is literal and not figurative; the subjects are of the same kind. The comparison of a great conqueror to a destructive conflagration, or a |