Rhetorical Science [pp. 660-678]

RHETORICAL SCIENCE.
the unnumbered and innumerable multitude of angels and redeemed saints is heard the voice of the Infinite and Invisible
One, ascribing with them blessing and honor, and glory and
power for ever and ever to the Lamb.
ART. VI.-RHETORICAL SCIENCE.
By Rev THEODORE HUNT, Adijunct Professor of Rhetoric and English Literature
in Princeton College.
WE are strongly convinced that the present era is a most
critical one with reference to the interests of Rhetorical Science.
From the time of Aristotle to our day it has been more or less
distinctly under discussion, and yet there is scarcely a single
question of moment, coming within the limits of liberal culture,
so completely unsettled. Nor is this the case simply with what
might be called the accidentals of the science; it goes to its very
foundations. In other words, the science is not really established, as such, upon a definite and accepted basis, but floats
about at random through our halls of learning and the popular
thought, taking on a thousand different shapes, according to the
particular medium through which it happens to pass; as Buckley
expresses it, "That ill-defined art, or habit, or faculty, vaguely
called Rhetoric." Yet the discussion goes on, notwithstanding
the great obscurity that seems to have prevailed relative to its
character, province, processes and results; the leading instructors of Europe and America have been unwilling to expunge it
altogether from the curriculum of preparatory and collegiate
study, and, in one form or another, it still holds the place,
which it has ever held, as an essential part of a complete system of education. Misunderstood as it was by the heathen
mind, it was the culmination of all other culture, the central attainment to which all else was collateral. So decided was its
accepted prominence that philosophy itself, regarded as the
very child of the gods, was not accounted superior. With the
reawakening of the European mind rhetorical science revived,
and has never held a higher place than during the two centuries
660
[Oct.