RHETORIC AND BELLES-LETTRES. 



great damage of the person or cause against 

 whom they are directed. 



10. The gratifying of the emotions of taste and 

 of the love of ornament and beauty, is a useful 

 accompaniment of the persuasive art, and disposes 

 the hearers in favour of the speaker. An ornate 

 speaker like Burke, or a writer like Bacon, will 

 gain influence over a class of minds by the enjoy- 

 ment that each of them imparts through his 

 style and treatment The highest poetic art may 

 be brought to the aid of an argument ; and an 

 appeal to the taste may go a great way, as well as 

 an appeal to the heart or the head. The author 

 of enjoyment will always gain influence over the 

 people that he delights, and he may use this influ- 

 ence to suit his other purposes. 



1 1. There is a certain kind of persuasive address 

 that so completely enters into the heart and feel- 

 ings and entire being of an audience, that it 

 carries them away as if by irresistible enchant- 

 ment. If a speaker has the power of inspiring 

 this overwhelming enthusiasm in the minds of an 

 audience, he may do with them as he pleases ; he 

 works not by reason, but by infatuation. By 

 intensely exciting and gratifying all the powerful 

 impulses and most exquisite susceptibilities of an 

 individual or a multitude, such an inestimable 

 boon is conferred upon them, that the author of 

 the enchantment may ask what he will, and it 

 will be given him. Men will rush with eagerness 

 to listen to a speaker or to join a cause that can 

 inspire all their highest emotions to the utmost 

 pitch. Indeed, an orator or leader can hardly 

 expect to be extensively popular without some 

 power of inspiring an enthusiasm of feeling or 

 sentiment on the side of his cause. It is this that 

 properly constitutes eloquence. A spiritual reward 

 has to be given in return for obedience. The 

 influence of an orator is thus of a piece with the 

 influence of a favourite or an object of affection ; 

 an influence, not of reason, but of fascination, 

 infatuation. When such powers of fascination 

 concur with truth and right, they are an inestim- 

 able blessing to the world. 



The progress of civilisation modifies the tone of 

 oratory and eloquence by changing the tempers 

 and aims of men's minds. In a rude primitive 

 age, the passions required to be strongly roused ; 

 but in an advanced period of the world, and in 

 calm, routine, comfortable times, cautious prudence 

 and worldly interest exert a powerful sway, and 

 require to be kept in view in persuasive efforts. 



POETIC AND LITERARY ART. 



The compositions that go under the name of 

 poetry are so various, that a difficulty has been 

 experienced in determining what feature is com- 

 mon to them all. The metrical form is evidently 

 not the boundary of the species, as there are many 

 compositions in prose that' are felt to have a 

 highly poetical character, while many that are 

 cast in a metrical dress do not deserve to be 

 ranked in the class. 



The definition given by Coleridge, if it does not 

 completely narrow the idea of poetry to its strict 

 limits, at least goes a great way to do so. Accord- 

 ing to him, poetry is the contrast, not of prose, 

 but of science. Science analyses and separates 

 the appearances of nature into their ultimate and 

 indivisible parts; in other words, it deals in 



abstractions, and in certain artificial modes of 

 viewing the world that are adapted for explaining 

 the order of cause and effect, or invariable con- 

 junction therein ; while poetry deals in aggregates 

 or combinations, and endeavours to produce such 

 combinations as are of a harmonious kind. Science 

 deals with a majestic river by resolving it into the 

 forces of gravitation, cohesion, liquidity, optical 

 transparency, solubility, &c. ; poetry, in common 

 with painting, views it in its full body and entire 

 aspect, and, instead of decomposing, combines it 

 with other objects of the landscape. To harmonise 

 combinations of different objects and effects is 

 the aim of art in every region ; to harmonise the 

 images and thoughts that can be conveyed by lan- 

 guage with one another, and with the language 

 itself, is a general description of the poetic art 

 But in accomplishing its end, poetry has to select 

 appropriate subjects; for it is not everything 

 expressible in language, however harmonious, 

 that will constitute the matter of a true poem. 

 Accordingly, there is a certain range of materials 

 adapted for poetic treatment, and reproduced in 

 the literatures of all ages : being the objects in the 

 outer world, and the occurrences and situations 

 of human life that most profoundly stir and agi- 

 tate the minds of men. The eternal struggle of 

 humanity with the world around, and the dread 

 powers above ; the tragedy and the triumph of 

 human life ; the all-ruling passion of love, and 

 the intense aspirations of men towards the great, 

 the lofty, and the infinite ; the magnificence, the 

 variety, the complexity, and the mystery of nature 

 and of being ; the divinities that are recognised as 

 ruling in the sphere of the supernatural ; the great 

 aspects and scenery of the firmament above, and 

 of the earth beneath ; the revolutions of time and 

 seasons ; the mode of existence, the achievements 

 and the vicissitudes of human societies, and of 

 their leaders and heroic men ; and, in general, 

 all objects that address themselves to the feelings 

 and susceptibilities that we term sublime, awful, 

 grand, venerable, beautiful, melodious, pathetic, 

 stirring, humorous, or picturesque. The mere 

 vulgar utilities of life, although indispensable to 

 the existence of men, and therefore the objects 

 of their solicitude, do not stir and occupy their 

 entire being so effectually as these matters 

 of extraneous interest, and are not included 

 among poetic subjects. The exclusion also extends 

 to scientific abstractions and technicalities, to 

 tables of logarithms, calculations of annuities, and 

 atomic weights, although expressing some of the 

 gravest facts of creation. 



No better short example of the peculiar matter 

 of poetry, adorned with the highest felicity of 

 treatment, could be given than in the following 

 lines : 



' How sweet the moonlight sleeps upon this bank ! 

 Here will we sit, and let the sounds of music 

 Creep in our ears ; soft stillness and the night 

 Become the touches of sweet harmony. 

 Sit, Jessica ; look how the floor of heaven 

 Is thick inlaid with patines of bright gold ; 

 There 's not the smallest orb which thou bcbolde*, 

 But in his motion like an angel sings, 

 Still quiring to the young-eyed cherubim.' 



The metrical form of language has always been 

 felt to be the appropriate accompaniment of a 

 certain elevation of subject ; white the prose form 



