Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles Lettres, Volume 1Bell and Bradfute, and Mundell, Doig, and Stevenson, Edinburgh., 1811 - English language - 838 pages |
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Page 2
... ornaments ; the language may be artful , splendid , and highly figured , and yet the composition be on the whole frigid and unaffecting . Not to speak of sentiment and thought , which constitute the real and lasting merit of any work ...
... ornaments ; the language may be artful , splendid , and highly figured , and yet the composition be on the whole frigid and unaffecting . Not to speak of sentiment and thought , which constitute the real and lasting merit of any work ...
Page 3
... ornaments of style arise from sentiment . They flow in the same stream with the current of thought . A writer of genius conceives his subject strongly ; his imagination is filled and impressed with it ; and pours itself forth in that ...
... ornaments of style arise from sentiment . They flow in the same stream with the current of thought . A writer of genius conceives his subject strongly ; his imagination is filled and impressed with it ; and pours itself forth in that ...
Page 4
... ornament . When the orna- ments cost labour , that labour always appears ; though they should cost us none , still the reader or hearer may be surfeited with them ; and when they come too thick , they give the impression of a light and ...
... ornament . When the orna- ments cost labour , that labour always appears ; though they should cost us none , still the reader or hearer may be surfeited with them ; and when they come too thick , they give the impression of a light and ...
Page 5
... toge- " ther such ornaments ; which is just as ridiculous , where " there is no sentiment to support them , as to contrive gestures these judicious and useful observations , I have no more LECT . XVIII . FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE . 5.
... toge- " ther such ornaments ; which is just as ridiculous , where " there is no sentiment to support them , as to contrive gestures these judicious and useful observations , I have no more LECT . XVIII . FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE . 5.
Page 6
... , a solicitous attention to words weakens passion ; " and when so much art is shewn , there is suspected to be lit. " tle sincerity . " those which admit of ornament , admit it only as 6 LECT . XVIll . FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE .
... , a solicitous attention to words weakens passion ; " and when so much art is shewn , there is suspected to be lit. " tle sincerity . " those which admit of ornament , admit it only as 6 LECT . XVIll . FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE .
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Addison advantage agreeable ancient appears argument Aristotle Athenians attention beauty beginning Bishop Atterbury cause cerning character Cicero Cluentius composition concise consider Dean Swift degree Demosthenes diffuse discourse distinguished effect elegant eloquence employed endeavour English English language exordium expression fancy favour French genius give grace Greece hath hearers heart honour idea imagination inaccuracies introduction Isocrates judges Julius Cæsar kind language LECTURE Leontium Lysias manner Massillon means ment mind nature never object observe occasion Oppianicus orator oratory ornament panegyric particular passion pathetic pause peculiar perly perspicuous persuasion plain pleading pleasures popular assemblies praise preacher preaching proper propriety public speaking pulpit quæ quam quence Quinctilian racter reason remarkable render rhetoric Roman rule sense sentence sentiments sermon shew simplicity speaker strain strength style tence thing thought tion tone treat truth turally voice warmth whole words writers
Popular passages
Page 72 - He can converse with a picture, and find an agreeable companion in a statue. He meets with a secret refreshment in a description, and often feels a greater satisfaction in the prospect of fields and meadows than another does in the possession. It gives him, indeed, a kind of property in every thing he sees...
Page 227 - Non enim omnis fortuna non omnis honos non omnis auctoritas non omnis aetas nee vero locus aut tempus aut auditor omnis eodem aut verborum genere tractandus est aut sententiarum semperque in omni parte orationis ut vitae quid deceat est considerandum; quod et in re de qua agitur positum est et in personis et eorum qui dicunt et eorum qui audiunt.
Page 63 - We cannot indeed have a single image in the fancy that did not make its first entrance through the sight; but we have the power of retaining, altering, and compounding those images, which we have once received, into all the varieties of picture and vision...
Page 132 - Our trees rise in cones, globes, and pyramids. We see the marks of the scissors upon every plant and bush. I do not know whether I am singular in my opinion, but, for my own part, I would rather look upon a tree in all its luxuriancy and diffusion of boughs and branches, than when it is thus cut and trimmed into a mathematical figure; and cannot but fancy that an orchard in flower looks infinitely more delightful than all the little labyrinths of the most finished parterre.
Page 112 - In short, our souls are at present delightfully lost and bewildered in a pleasing delusion, and we walk about like the enchanted hero of a romance, who sees beautiful castles, woods, and meadows, and at the same time hears the warbling of birds and the purling of streams ; but, upon the finishing of some secret spell, the fantastic scene breaks up, and the disconsolate knight finds himself on a barren heath or in a solitary desert.
Page 104 - The cause is secret, but th' effect is known ADDISON. THOUGH in yesterday's paper we considered how every thing that is great, new, or beautiful, is apt to affect the imagination with pleasure, we must own that it is impossible for us to assign the necessary cause of this pleasure, because we know neither the nature of an idea, nor the substance of a human soul...
Page 57 - OUR sight is the most perfect and most delightful of all our senses. It fills the mind with the largest variety of ideas, converses with its objects at the greatest distance, and continues the longest in action without being tired or satiated with its proper enjoyments.
Page 111 - Things would make but a poor appearance to the eye if we saw them only in their proper figures and motions: and what reason can we assign for their exciting in us many of those ideas which are different from any thing that exists in the objects themselves (for such are light and colours,) were it not to add supernumerary ornaments to the universe, and make it more agreeable to the imagination?
Page 99 - ... and therefore, for want of such a light, all that we can do in speculations of this kind, is to reflect on those operations of the soul that are most agreeable, and to range, under their proper heads, what is pleasing or displeasing to the mind, without being able to trace out the several necessary and efficient causes from whence the pleasure or displeasure arises.
Page 85 - Our imagination loves to be filled with an object, or to grasp at any thing that is too big for its capacity. We are flung into a pleasing astonishment at such unbounded views, and feel a delightful stillness and amazement in the soul at the apprehension of them.