RHEIMS 



4992 



RHETORIC 



teenth century cathedral made it a place of in- 

 terest to all lovers of art. This great edifice, 

 one of the most beautiful examples of Gothic 

 architecture ever built, was injured beyond all 

 possibility of repair during the War of the 



NAVE OF RHEIMS CATHEDRAL 

 This great cathedral, one of the most beautiful 

 in the world, was slightly damaged in 1915 in the 

 War of the Nations ; more serious bombardment 

 in 1917 threatened its total ruin. Should it 

 emerge with walls and roof at the end of the war 

 it is proposed to make the building a memorial 

 to the French who died in the service of their 

 country. 



The destruction of the cathedral is one of the 

 most cruel blows that could be struck at the 

 French. For 650 years nearly all the kings of 

 France were crowned in it, and here Joan of Arc 

 stood at the coronation of Charles VII, in 1429. 



Nations. Up to the armistice nearly 750 shells 

 had hit the building. (A picture of the exte- 

 rior, accompanying the article CATHEDRAL, will 

 be found in these volumes on page 1228.) 



Rheims, the center of a great vine region, is 

 on the Vesle River, ninety-eight miles north- 

 east of Paris, and is the capital of the depart- 

 ment of Marne. After the Battle of the Marne 

 in September, 1914, the city was not in the ter- 

 ritory occupied by the Germans, but the hostile 

 forces could reach it with their great guns, and 

 not a week passed for over three years that it 



was not bombarded. The extent of the de- 

 struction can be imagined from the fact that 

 from June 15 to June 28, 1917, a total of 16,052 

 shells fell within the city. The town in August 

 of that' year was rapidly becoming a shapeless 

 mass. 



The population in 1914 was 115,178. In 1917 

 fewer than 5,000 people remained, and the 

 majority of those were women and children. 



RHETORIC, ret'orik. During all his school 

 years, from the primary school to the univer- 

 sity, the student is receiving instruction, more 

 or less formal, in the use of his mother tongue. 

 In the early grades he has "language" lessons, 

 through which he learns, half unconsciously, to 

 express himself freely in speech and to set forth 

 some of his thoughts in writing. Then follows 

 grammar, in which the student learns the "why" 

 of many of the things he has been told to say 

 or not to say, and in which increased emphasis 

 is placed on composition, or written exercises. 



Further study into this most interesting sub- 

 ject of oral and written expression makes clear 

 the fact that fluent expression or even gram- 

 matical expression is not the sole aim. That 

 the words used, the sentence structure chosen, 

 the figures of speech introduced may be such as 

 to convey in the very best possible manner a 

 certain thought that is the final goal. To 

 teach such a correct method of conveying the 

 thought is the province of rhetoric. Strictly 

 speaking, rhetoric concerns itself merely with 

 spoken language, while the closely-related sub- 

 ject, composition, deals with written language; 

 for the word rhetoric is derived from a Greek 

 word meaning orator. But in its commoner sense 

 it includes everything pertaining to the art of 

 communication, whether written or spoken. 



To sum up, the person who has mastered 

 rhetorical principles will not use poetic, flowery 

 language in a business letter; he will not use 

 in a simple after-dinner speech the balanced 

 phrases and the dignified, sonorous sentences 

 which might be perfectly in keeping with a 

 formal address on a lofty subject; he will not 

 treat a serious subject in flippant, colloquial 

 style, but he will strive always to make the 

 manner of expression fit the topic, that his 

 hearers and readers may feel in the very words 

 his attitude toward his subject. 



Consult Erskine's Written English; Baker an'd 

 Thorndike's Everyday English; Baldwin's College 

 Manual of Rhetoric. 



Related Subject*. The following articles in 

 these volumes may be consulted in connection 

 with this discussion of rhetoric: 



