Rhetorical Analysis and Synthesis [pp. 456-483]

RHETORICAL ANALYSIS AND SYNTHESIS.
YII. The principle of analysis, in classes, is some common
attribute of the class; in individuals, some particular view of
the theme in relation to space.
In every case of formal analysis a principle is'applied with
reference to which the theme is decomposed into its parts.
This principle is always some particular attribute, quality, aspect, or property of the subject which is to be analyzed; and
in consequence of this every theme admits of being analyzed
in as many different ways, yielding as many different sets of
parts, as it has properties or aspects which are exclusive of
each other. It is by the application of such different principles
that several sets of parts have been obtained from the same
theme in the foregoing examples.
1. In classes the principle of analysis is always some one
attribute which is common to the class. Thus the common attribute of color is the principle upon which the class, man,is
analyzed into white, yellow, red, brown and black man. The
continent inhabited, or habitat, is the principle which determines the parts of the same class, as European, Asiatic, American and African man. Our duties to God, to our neighbors,
and to ourselves, are the parts which are obtained by analyzing
the class, duty, upon the principle of the object to whom we are
under obligation. And if we apply to the same theme the principle of the causes which influence us to violate our duty, we
obtain as the parts, duties which are violated from thoughtlessness, from habit, passion, example, ignorance, and the like.
Any other quality, trait, or attribute, which is common to the
class, might be applied in every case, and would yield a still
different set of parts.
2. In individuals the principle of analysis is some particular
view of the theme in reference to space. In all such cases
there is some reference to the mode in which we conceive of the
object to be analyzed as existing in space. We distinguish the
parts of the thought which corresponds to the object, as if they
were capable of being spacially separated from each other.
But this reference to space is either direct or by way of
analogy, according as the object is either concertc-i. e., one
which occupies space in one or more of its dimensions, length,
breadth and depth*-or abstract, such as a quality, or a truth.
* The word concrete is here defined because it has been found necessary to employ it in a more restricted sense than that which it bears in logic.
1874.]
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