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SECT. V. In regard to the End in view...

130

CHAP. XI. Of the Cause of that Pleasure which we receive from Objects or Representations that excite Pity and other painful Feelings

134

SECT. I. The different Solutions hitherto given by Philosophers, examined... 136 Part I. The first Hypothesis

Part II. The second Hypothesis
Part III. The third Hypothesis..

Part IV. The fourth Hypothesis..

...

SECT. II. The Author's Hypothesis on this Subject

BOOK II,

THE FOUNDATIONS AND ESSENTIAL PROPERTIES OF ELOCUTION.

ib.

137

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145

151

CHAP. I. The Nature and Characters of the Use which gives Law to Language 162 SECT. I. Reputable Use...

SECT. II. National Use.......

SECT. III. Present Use .....

164

168

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CHAP. II. The Nature and Use of Verbal Criticism, with its principal Canons. 174 SECT. I. Good Use not always Uniform in her Decisions..

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SECT. II. Everything favoured by good Use, not on that Account worthy to be retained

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CHAP. V. Of the Qualities of Style strictly Rhetorical..

CHAP. VI. Of Perspicuity...

ib.

195

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213

ib.

224

CHAP. IV. Some grammatical Doubts in regard to English Construction stated

227

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Part III. From using the same Word in different Senses..

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245

Part IV. From an uncertain Reference in Pronouns and Relatives........ 246 Part V. From too Artificial a Structure of the Sentence

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CHAP. VII. What is the Cause that Nonsense so often escapes being detected,

both by the Writer and by the Reader?

278

SECT. I. The Nature and Power of Signs, both in speaking and in thinking.. ib. SECT. II. The Application of the preceding Principles

287

CHAP. VIII. The extensive Usefulness of Perspicuity.....

Page

295

SECT. I. When is Obscurity apposite, if ever it be apposite, and what kind?. ib. SECT. II. Objections answered

CHAP. IX. May there not be an Excess of Perspicuity?...

BOOK III.

THE DISCRIMINATING PROPERTIES OF ELOCUTION.

CHAP I. Of Vivacity as depending on the Choice of Words..
SECT. I. Proper Terms

SECT. II. Rhetorical Tropes

300 ....... 305

......................

Part I. Preliminary Observations concerning Tropes
Part II. The different Sorts of Tropes conducive to Vivacity
1. The Less for the more General ....

2. The most interesting Circumstance distinguished..

3. Things Sensible for things Intelligible..

4. Things Animate for things Lifeless

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Part III. The Use of those Tropes which are obstructive to Vivacity SECT. III. Words considered as Sounds...

... 327

...... 331 338

Part I. What are articulate Sounds capable of imitating, and in what Degree? 339 Part II. In what Esteem ought this Kind of Imitation to be held, and when ought it to be attempted?.....

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351 CHAP. II. Of Vivacity as depending on the Number of the Words.............................. 353 SECT. I. This Quality explained and exemplified. ib. SECT. II. The principal Offences against Brevity considered ............... 358 Part I. Tautology.

Part II. Pleonasm....

Part III. Verbosity

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CHAP. III. Of Vivacity as depending on the Arrangement of the Words...... 372 SECT. I. Of the Nature of Arrangement, and the principal Division of Senten

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Part I. Subdivision of these into Periods and loose Sentences

ib.

374

SECT. III. Complex Sentences ......

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Part III. Observations on loose Sentences..

Part II. Observations on Periods, and on the Use of Antithesis in the Composition of Sentences.....

292

SECT. II. Of other Connectives.

Part IV. Review of what has been deduced above in regard to Arrangement 403 CHAP. IV. Of the Connectives employed in combining the Parts of a Sentence 404 SECT. I. Of Conjunctions

..... 401

405

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CHAP. V. Of the Connectives employed in combining the Sentences in a Dis

SECT. III. Modern Languages compared with Greek and Latin, particularly in regard to the Composition of Sentences..

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SECT. II. Observations on the Manner of using the Connectives in combining Sentences

424

INTRODUCTION

ALL art is founded in science, and the science is of little value which does not serve as a foundation to some beneficial art. On the most sublime of all sciences, theology and ethics, is built the most important of all arts, the art of living. The abstract mathematical sciences serve as a groundwork to the arts of the land-measurer and the accountant; and in conjunction with natural philosophy, including geography and astronomy, to those of the architect, the navigator, the dialist, and many others. Of what consequence anatomy is to surgery, and that part of physiology which teaches the laws of gravitation and of motion, is to the artificer, is a matter too obvious to need illustration. The general remark might, if necessary, be exemplified throughout the whole circle of arts, both useful and elegant. Valuable knowledge, therefore, always leads to some practical skill, and is perfected in it. On the other hand, the practical skill loses much of its beauty and extensive utility which does not originate in knowledge. There is, by consequence, a natural relation between the sciences and the arts, like that which subsists between the parent and the offspring.

I acknowledge, indeed, that these are sometimes unnaturally separated; and that by the mere influence of example on the one hand, and imitation on the other, some progress may be made in an art, without the knowledge of the principles from which it sprang. By the help of a few rules, which men are taught to use mechanically, a good practical arithmetician may be formed, who neither knows the reasons on which the rules he works by were first established, nor ever thinks it of any moment to inquire into them. In like manner, we frequently meet with expert artisans, who are ignorant of the six mechanical powers, which, though in the exercise of their profession they daily employ, they do not understand the principles whereby, in any instance, the result of their application is ascertained. The propagation of the arts may therefore be compared more justly to that variety which takes place in the vegetable kingdom, than to the uniformity which obtains universally in the animal world; for, as to the anomalous race of zoophytes, I do not comprehend them in the number. It is not always necessary that the plant spring from the seed, a slip from another plant will often answer the purpose.

There is, however, a very considerable difference in the

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expectations that may justly be raised from the different methods followed in the acquisition of the art. Improvements, unless in extraordinary instances of genius and sagacity, are not to be expected from those who have acquired all their dexterity from imitation and habit. One who has had an education no better than that of an ordinary mechanic, may prove an excellent manual operator; but it is only in the well-instructed mechanician that you would expect to find a good machinist. The analogy to vegetation above suggested holds here also. The offset is commonly no more than a mere copy of the parent plant. It is from the seed only you can expect, with the aid of proper culture, to produce new varieties, and even to make improvements on the species. Expert men," says Lord Bacon," can execute and judge of particulars, one by one; but the general councils, and the plots and marshalling of affairs, come best from those that are learned."

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Indeed, in almost every art, even as used by mere practitioners, there are certain rules, as hath been already hinted, which must carefully be followed, and which serve the artist instead of principles. An acquaintance with these is one step, and but one step, towards science. Thus, in the common books of arithmetic, intended solely for practice, the rules laid down for the ordinary operations, as for numeration, or numerical notation, addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, and a few others, which are sufficient for all the purposes of the accountant, serve instead of principles; and, to a superficial observer, may be thought to supersede the study of anything farther. But their utility reaches a very little way, compared with that which results from the knowledge of the foundations of the art, and of what has been, not unfitly, styled arithmetic universal. It may be justly said that, without some portion of this knowledge, the practical rules had never been invented. Besides, if by these the particular questions which come exactly within the description of the rule may be solved, by the other such general rules themselves, as serve for the solution of endless particulars, may be discovered.

The case, I own, is somewhat different with those arts which are entirely founded on experiment and observation, and are not derived, like pure mathematics, from abstract and universal axioms. But even in these, when we rise from the individual to the species, from the species to the genus, and thence to the most extensive orders and classes, we arrive, though in a different way, at the knowledge of general truths, which, in a certain sense, are also scientific, and answer a similar purpose. Our acquaintance with nature and its laws is so much extended, that we shall be enabled, in numberless cases, not only to apply to the most profitable purposes the

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