Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles Lettres, Vol. 1 of 3 (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles Lettres, Vol. 1 of 3

Indeed, when the arts of fpeech and Writing are mentioned, I am fenfible that prejudices againlt them are apt to rife 111 the minds of many, A fort of art is immediately thought of, that is Oftentatious and deceitful; the minute and trifling Rudy of words alone the pomp of expreffion; the fiudied fallacies of rhetoric; ornament fubltituted in the room'ofufe. We need not wonder, that under fuch imputations, all ltudy of difcourfe asan art, ihould have fuffered in the opinion of men of underltanding: andi am far from denying, that rhetoric and criticifm have fo'metimes'been fo managed as to tend to the corruption, rather than to the improvement, of good talte and true eloquence. But lure it is equally pollilsle to ap ply the principles of reafon and goand fenfe tow this art, as to any other that 15 cultivated among men. If the following Lectures have any merit, it will confilt in an endeavour to fubftitute the application of thefe principles in the place oi ar tificial and fcholal'tic rhetoric; in an endeavour to explode falfe ornament, 'to direct attention more towards fubl'tance than ihow, to recom mend good fenfe as the foimdation of all good compofition, and fimplicity as elfential to all true ornament.

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