R

CHA P. LXXXVI.

OF INVENTION AND DISPOSITION.

HETORIC hath four parts, namely, invention, difpofition, elocution, and pronunciation. Invention is the finding out fuch arguments as are fuited, according to the nature of the subject, to inftruct, perfuade, or gain the affent and belief of our hearers. Arguments drawn from reafon are to inform the judgment, or to inftruct; thofe from the affections, are to move the paffions, or to please.

1

This

Nothing concerns an orator more, than thorough ly to understand the frame of human nature. knowledge will enable him to work upon thofe affections, which the author of nature has placed in human minds, as fecret fprings to all our actions. Without the pathetic, even the justest reasoning, fupported by the foundest learning, will appear a cold, lifeless, unaffecting harangue.

The chief paffions are joy, hope, grief, and fear. The reft are anger, love, hatred, envy, compaffion, indignation, emulation, levity, modefty, and im-" pudence. Some of these the orator, as his fubject requires, muft fhew in himself, if he intends to work

6

work upon the affections of others; for, as Horace obferves, in his Art of Poetry,

'Tis nature forms and foftens us within,
And writes our fortune's changes in our face.
Pleasure enchants, impetuous rage transports, T
And grief dejects and wrings the tortur'd foul
And these are all interpreted by speech.
But he, whofe words and fortunes difagree,
Abfurd, unpitied, grows a public jeft.

In fhort, to be able to move the paffions properly, is one of the moft effential qualifications of an orator. As the archbishop of Cambray has obferved from Cicero, "The whole art of eloquence: confists in enforcing the cleareft proofs of any truth, with fuch powerful motives as may affect the hearers, and employ their paffions to just and worthy ends; may raise their indignation at ingratitude, their horror against cruelty, their compaffion towards the miferable, their love for virtue, and direct every other paffion to its proper objects."

Difpofition is the ranging our arguments in the moft orderly and proper manner..

The parts of an oration are ufually reckoned fix;. namely, exordium, narration, propofition, confirmation, refutation, and peroration.

In the exordium, or beginning of an oration, the orator gives his audience fome intimation of his fubject, and prepares their mind for attention. In this part, the speaker ought to be clear, modeft, and not too prolix.

The narration is a brief recital of the whole cafe, from beginning to end. This ought to be plain and perfpicuous, that it may be understood; likely or probable, that it may be believed; pleasing, that it may be willingly liftened to; and fhort, that it may, not tire the audience.

The propofition propofes the fum of the whole discourse, or matter in difpute. If it divides the oration into parts, which ought never to exceed three, or four at moft, it is called partition. The beauty of the partition or divifion is, that it be full, diftinct, plain, fhort, and certain.

The confirmation is the ftrengthening and confirming our cause, by all the proofs and arguments we can obtain from invention. In doing this, the orator places his strongest arguments in the front, when the minds of his hearers are fired with the greatest expectation. His weakeft arguments he employs in the middle, where their number may render them of feeming importance. But he makes referve of some of the most forcible reafons to

brirg

bring up the rear, because what the audience hear laft makes the greatest impression.

In the refutation, or eonfutation, the orator anfwers all his adverfary's arguments, and takes off all objections, by fhewing them to be abfurd, false, or inconfiftent.

The peroration, or conclufion, recapitulates or fums up the ftrongest and principal arguments, and. endeavours to gain the affent of the hearers by moving the paffions. In a conclufion, an orator should always obferve brevity and vehemence..

CHA P. LXXXVII.

ON ELOCUTION, AND THE SEVEN TROPES

THE parts of elocution are elegance, compofition, and dignity.

Elegance confifts in the purity, perfpicuity, and politeness of language. It is chiefly acquired by reading the best and most correct authors, conwerfing with gentlemen and fcholars, and by study and practice.

Compofition regard's grammatical plainnefs and propriety, by imitating the phrafe, idiom, and order

of

of words made ufe of by the beft authors, in the feveral forts of ftile, whether in the humble, middle, or fublime; or whether the fubject be philofophical, historical, or poetical.

Dignity is that which adorns language with fublime thoughts and rhetorical flowers, fuch as noble tropes, moving figures, and beautiful turns, or re-petitions.

A trope is the elegant turning of a word, from its natural and proper to a relative fignification. It is derived from the Greek word trips, I turn. ¡

The chief tropes in language are feven; namely, a metaphor, an allegory, a metonymy, a fynecdoche, an irony, an hyperbole, and a catachrefis.

A metaphor in borrow'd words compares :
Thus, for excefs, we fay a flood of tears.

The term is Greek, and fignifies a transferring. It is the most frequent and florid of all tropes, being a fhort and sprightly fimilitude in one word.

We fpeak metaphorically, when we fay, a fine woman is an angel; a beautiful country,, a paradife; man, a fhadow; Chrift, a vine; and his fol→ lowers, the branches.

Though the metaphor be chofen on account of fimilitude, yet it is not properly a comparison or Smile. A fimile introduces a comparison or like

nefs,