Page images
PDF
EPUB

parts of speech, the Substantive and the Verb. But the form of a sentence that will satisfy logic, rhetoric will reject as tame and unexpressive, and demand what is vivid and striking. Logic says, "My will is that you should come.' Rhetoric says, vividly, "Come!" Logic says, "Men are ungrateful." Rhetoric exclaims, "O the ingratitude of men !" Logic says, "I wish to know who thou art." Rhetoric calls out, "Who

art thou ?"

[ocr errors]

THE VALUE OF RHETORICAL FORMS.

§ 426. Rhetorical forms are of great value as the MEDIUM OF INTELLECTION, whether truth is to be communicated by the tongue or the pen. Thus an abstract truth, which is but shadowy in conception, and difficult of description, becomes distinct by being associated with some sensible object which illustrates it, just as a diagram illustrates a truth in Geometry. The human mind has to lean upon matter. In the communication and the reception of abstract truth, it has to depend largely upon figurative language drawn from the material world. Thus those rhetorical forms which may be regarded as equivalent to what is called Figurative Language furnish the means to the speaker and to the hearer, the one for communicating, and the other for receiving an idea, however refined or abstract it may be. By this aid, in bringing them into communication with each other, the two can become one in thought, feeling, and purpose. The watch-word in battle or in revolution often derives much of its magical power from a sentiment expressed in some rhetorical form, which, passing from lip to lip, carries the same feeling from heart to heart. Thus "England expects every man to do his duty!" which had such power in winning the battle of Trafalgar, is a rhetorical form, called Personification.

THE ESTHETICAL VALUE.

§ 427. A familiarity with rhetorical forms is of great ÆSTHETICAL VALUE to the linguist, not only because it assists him to perceive the import and beauty of a thought, which would otherwise be concealed under its drapery, but also because it enables him at pleasure to produce

similar forms in their beauty and force. Language is, to a great extent, deflected from its literal to a figurative use. He who is dull in understanding and applying it in its figurative use, can perceive and communicate only a small part of its meaning. Words arranged in rhetorical forms he can read in books, but to him they are dead forms. He can employ them in his own writings, but it may be only to disgust others. Said a sensible man, somewhat deficient in taste, “A figure is to me an edged tool, with which I always wound myself."

THE INTERFERENCE OF RHETORIC WITH GRAMMAR AND LOGIC.

§ 428. Moreover, Rhetoric, by its disturbing force, often INTERFERES WITH THE GRAMMATICAL CONSTRUCTION AND THE LOGICAL SIGNIFICANCE OF SENTENCES. He, therefore, who does not understand that interference, can not be a good grammarian or a good logician. Many a case of anomalous syntax can be explained upon rhetorical grounds. Many an error has gained currency from mistaking rhetoric for logic. "Take, eat; this is my body." Is this a Logical form, or is it a Rhetorical form? In the Roman Catholic faith it is the first; in the Protestant, the second.

The question may often arise, Whether, in a given sentence, there is a rhetorical form? Now it must be conceded that it is not always easy to answer this question. If you go back to the most ancient usage of a given word, you would perhaps decide that it is figurative in its application; whereas, if you consult only present use, it is plain and literal. The same word may, therefore, be regarded as tropical by one person who goes back to its origin, and not tropical by another who does not thus go back to its original meaning. The number of radical words in a language is comparatively few, and are chiefly applied to physical objects. As men found the stock of their ideas increasing, instead of inventing new terms to describe them, they applied old words with an extended or changed meaning, or, what is the same thing, used them figuratively. In this way the great body of words in a language have, in one stage of their history or another, been used tropically. The word imagination, derived from image, a term applied to a sensible object, was, on its first application to a mental faculty or operation, tropical. But it ceased to be tropical when it had been used so long that its secondary meaning became indissolubly fixed as the principal one, or, indeed, to most minds, as its only one. Imagination can not now be con

sidered as a figurative term. It has lost its tropical meaning, at least to the mass of readers, if not to the scholar. What is true of imagination is true of many words. They can be regarded as faded metaphors. The investigation of their history revives their original meaning and their tropical application..

FIGURES OF SPEECH.

§ 429. One class of Rhetorical Forms are called FIGURES OF SPEECH. These are divided into Figures of Words and Figures of Thought.

Figures of Words are called Tropes, from the Greek trepo, to turn. A Trope is a word turned from its original or literal signification to another, on account of some resemblance. Tropes are founded on the relation which one subject bears to another, in virtue of which the name of the one can be substituted for the other. See Examples under Metaphor, Metonymy, Synecdoche, Catachresis, Antonomasia, Syllepsis, Metalepsis.

Figures of Thought are forms of language in which the words are used in their proper and literal signification, but in which the figure consists in the turn of thought. See Examples under Apostrophe, Comparison, Climax, etc.

The common statement concerning Figures is,

1. That they enrich language, make it more attractive, and render it more copious.

2. That they bestow elevation and dignity upon style when used judiciously.

3. That they afford pleasure in presenting two objects at once, which the mind can take in and compare without confusion, but even with increased distinctness.

4. That they present a clearer and more striking view of the principal object than can be expressed in simple

terms.

This statement is especially true of that class of figures called Tropes.

are,

RULES FOR THE USE OF FIGURES.

§ 430. The rules usually given for the use of figures

1. That they be suited to the nature of the subject; that they be neither too many, nor too gay, nor too elevated. As nature and art open their abundant stores of illustration, there is no necessity for recurring to allusions that will raise in the mind disagreeable, mean, or vulgar ideas, except for the purpose of degrading the object illustrated.

2. The resemblance upon which the trope is founded should be clear and obvious, and not far fetched. Trite and common resemblances, however, should be avoided.

3. Tropical and plain language should not be jumbled together in the same sentence.

4. Two different tropes relating to the same object should not meet in the same sentence.

THE STUDY OF RHETORICAL FORMS.

§ 431. I. The Definitions should be carefully committed to memory and recited to the teacher.

II. The examples should be carefully studied, and one at least under each definition should be committed to memory, or, rather, learned by heart as something admired. They are to be studied for the same purpose for which paintings of the great masters are studied by the young artist, that they may have an influence upon the taste, in refining and elevating it, beyond what mere rules can have.

III. Other examples of each kind of Rhetorical Forms, original or selected, should be exhibited to the teacher by the pupil.

This exercise has been found by experience to be exceedingly profitable in disciplining the mind and improving it in many respects.

CHAPTER II.

DEFINITIONS AND EXAMPLES.

ALLEGORY.

§ 432. ALLEGORY, Greek allegoria, of allos, other, and agoreuo, to speak, is a sentence or discourse in which the principal subject is described by another subject resembling it. It is made up of continued allusion, so that, while professedly a description of one subject, it has an obvious resemblance to another, to which every part may be metaphorically applied.

THE EMPIRE OF POETRY.

This Empire is a very large and populous country. It is divided, like some of the countries of the Continent, into the higher and lower regions. The upper region is inhabited by grave, melancholy, and sullen people, who, like other mountaineers, speak a language very different from that of the inhabitants of the valleys. The trees in this part of the country are very tall, having their tops in the clouds. Their horses are superior to those of Barbary, being fleeter than the winds. Their women are so beautiful as to eclipse the star of day. The great city which you see in the maps, beyond the lofty mountains, is the capital of this province, and is called Epic. It is built on a sandy and ungrateful soil, which few take the pains to cultivate. The length of the city is many days' journey, and it is otherwise of a tiresome extent. On leaving its gate, we always meet with men who are killing one another; whereas, when we pass through Romance, which forms the suburbs of Epic, and which is larger than the city itself, we meet with groups of happy people, who are hastening to the shrine of Hymen.

The mountains of Tragedy are also in the province of Upper Poetry. They are very steep, with dangerous precipices; and, in consequence, many of its people build their habitations at the bottom of the hills, and imagine themselves high enough. There have been found on these mountains some very beautiful ruins of ancient cities, and, from time to time, the materials are carried lower to build new cities; for they are now never built nearly so high as they seem to have been in former times.

The Lower Poetry is very similar to the swamps of Holland. Burlesque is the capital, which is situated amid stagnant pools. Princes speak there as if they had sprung from the dung-hill, and all the inhabitants are buffoons from their birth. Comedy is a city which is built on

« PreviousContinue »