The art of speaking written in French by Messieurs du Port Royal in pursuance of a former treatise intituled, The art of thinking ; rendred into English.

II.

The Qualities of the Style depend upon the Qualities of the Imagination, Memory, and Judgment of the Writer.

WHen the outward Object strikes upon our Sense, the motion it makes is communicated by the Nerves to the very Centre of the Brain, whose substance being soft, re∣ceives thereby certain prints and impressions: The Alliance or Con∣nexion betwixt the Mind and the Bo∣dy, is the cause that the Ideas of Cor∣poral things are annex'd to these Prints; so that when the Prints of an Object, (for Example of the Sun) are imprinted in the brain, the Idea of the Sun presents it self to the mind; and as oft as the Idea of the Sun is presented to the Mind, the Impressions caus'd by the presence of the Sun, begin to open and dilate. We may call those Prints the Images of the Objects. The power the Soul has to form upon the Brain the Ima∣ges

of things that have been percei∣v'd, is called Imagination, which word signifies both that power of the Soul, and the Images that it forms.

The Qualities of a good Imaginati∣on are very necessary to Well-speak∣ing; for Discourse is nothing but a Copy of those things of which we are to speak, form'd before by the Soul. If the Original be confused, the Copy must be so also; if the Original be not, the Copy cannot be like. The form, the clearness, the good Order of our Idea's, depend upon the clearness and distinction of the Impressions which the Objects make upon our Brain; so that it cannot be doubted but the Quality of the Style must de∣pend upon the quality of the Imagi∣nation. The substance of the Brain has not the same qualities in all heads, and therefore we are not to wonder if the ways of Speaking be different in each Author.

Words read or heard leave their Im∣pressions in the Brain, as well as other Objects, so as we commonly think of Words and Things at the same time;

the Impressions of Words and Things which have been opened in Company at several times, are linked together in such sort that the Things represent themselves to the mind with their Names: when this falls out, we say the Memory is happy, and its Felici∣ty consists only in the easiness where∣with the prints of words, and the things to which they are linked, do open themselves at the same time; that is to say, when the name of the thing follows the thought we have of it. When the Memory is unfaithful in representing the proper Terms of the things committed to it, we cannot speak justly; we are forced either to say nothing, or make use of the first words that occur, though perhaps they are not proper to express what we would say. Happy and just Ex∣pression is the effect of good Memo∣ry.

In short, it is manifest the Quali∣ties of the Mind are the cause of the Difference observed among all Au∣thors. Discourse is the Image of the Mind; we shew our Humours and In∣clinations

in our Words before we think of it. The Minds then being different, what wonder if the Style of every Author has a character that di∣stinguishes it from all others, though all use the same Terms and Expressi∣ons in the same Language.