Rhetorical Science [pp. 660-678]

IRHETORICAL SCIENCE.
that immediately followed. It is a matter of no slight significance, that in the very best periods of the ancient and modern
mind, this science has held its most conspicuous position.
Although in the course of the eighteenth century it was tem.
porarily under a cloud, by reason of a false conception of its
nature, this was against the earnest protest of the best minds
of England. It was soon reinstated upon a better basis under
the leadership of Campbell and Whately. With these names
the history of the science as modern dates its origin. Its present clearest philosophical expression in this country is in the volumes of Professor Day, and though the nature of the science
is yet somewhat in dispute, it is still regarded as indispensable
in our courses of instruction. In such a posture of things there
is something very significant and critical. We feel that this
whole department is on trial, and that there is an urgent call
for a critical inquiry into its nature, and this not merely in its
relations to secular, but to ministerial education, of which Sacred
Rhetoric, applied to preaching, is so important an element.
In regard to the science and the art called Rhetoric, then let
us inquire what is its Nature, Sphere and Object in our culture,
and what are its Relations to Literature?
(I.) Yctttre, including Sphere and Object. "We may lay it
down as a general rule," says Dr. Shedd, "that in proportion
as a product is living in its nature, and takes its origin in the
more spontaneous agencies of the mind, so will it be difficult of
definition. Like the definition of life itself, the definition of
poetry, art and eloquence must be an approximation only." It
is thus that the great multitude of definitions which have been
given on this subject, instead of being derogatory to it, as Quintilian asserts, are seen to be highly complimentary, the natural
outreaching of the human mind after a concise declaration of
its thought. Passing by the opinions of the ancient world, as
sufficiently familiar, we find Milton speaking of Rhetoric as "an
organic art," the organ or instrument of expression. Says
Bacon: " Its office is to apply the reason to imagination, for
the better moving of the will." Says D'Alembert: "It is the
ability to cause a sentiment with which the mind is deeply pen etrated, to pass with rapidity into the souls of others, and im press itself there with force and energy," in keeping with which
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