The Principles of Rhetoric |
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Page vi
... style , the primary rule and con- dition is , not to attempt to express ourselves in language before we thoroughly ... style for style's sake , but to stimulate and train his powers of expression , to enable him to say what he has to say ...
... style , the primary rule and con- dition is , not to attempt to express ourselves in language before we thoroughly ... style for style's sake , but to stimulate and train his powers of expression , to enable him to say what he has to say ...
Page 5
... style . On this ground , had rather and had better 2 are quite as good English as would rather and might better : “ I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God , than to dwell in the tents of wickedness . " 3 " I had rather be a ...
... style . On this ground , had rather and had better 2 are quite as good English as would rather and might better : “ I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God , than to dwell in the tents of wickedness . " 3 " I had rather be a ...
Page 11
... style ought to bend to this consideration . To write what is not understood in its full force for fear of using some word which was unknown to Swift or Dryden would be , I think , as absurd as to build an observatory like that at Oxford ...
... style ought to bend to this consideration . To write what is not understood in its full force for fear of using some word which was unknown to Swift or Dryden would be , I think , as absurd as to build an observatory like that at Oxford ...
Page 16
... style by overloading it with imported ornament , some genuine , some pinch- beck ; another caters to vulgar readers who prefer second- rate French to first - rate English . A writer who has mastered his business will follow the laws of ...
... style by overloading it with imported ornament , some genuine , some pinch- beck ; another caters to vulgar readers who prefer second- rate French to first - rate English . A writer who has mastered his business will follow the laws of ...
Page 29
... style yourself an artist , or an artiste , as the case may be , and do not speak of applause , how- ever loud and genuine , as a perfect furore . Do not describe a per- formance given at three o'clock in the afternoon as a matinée , and ...
... style yourself an artist , or an artiste , as the case may be , and do not speak of applause , how- ever loud and genuine , as a perfect furore . Do not describe a per- formance given at three o'clock in the afternoon as a matinée , and ...
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Common terms and phrases
adjective American newspaper Anthony Trollope argument Barchester Towers Bride of Lammermoor Browning Burke called chap Charles Reade clause clearness composition Daniel Webster Dickens Disraeli E. F. Benson ease Emerson England English Essays example exposition expression eyes fact fallacy fault feeling force George Eliot give Guy Mannering hand History Ibid idea instance J. S. Mill kind Landor language Latin lect less letter look Lord Macaulay Martin Chuzzlewit matter Matthew Arnold means ment metaphor Middlemarch Milton mind nature never object observation paragraph person phrase pleonasm poetry poets preferable present principles proposition prose purpose question Quincey Quintilian Quoted R. W. Dale reader Rhetoric rule scene Scott sect sense Shakspere simile sometimes speak Spectator speech story Student's theme style Thackeray thing thou thought tion truth unity verb vulgar whole words writer
Popular passages
Page 164 - Go to the Ant, thou Sluggard, consider her ways, and be wise : which having no guide, overseer, or ruler, provideth her meat in the summer, and gathereth her food in the harvest.
Page 162 - Therefore, whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock ; and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house, and it fell not ; for it was founded upon a rock.
Page 190 - The question with me is not whether you have a right to render your people miserable, but whether it is not your interest to make them happy. It is not what a lawyer tells me I may do, but what humanity, reason, and justice tell me I ought to do.
Page 78 - I thought the writing excellent, and wished, if possible, to imitate it. With this view I took some of the papers, and making short hints of the sentiment in each sentence, laid them by a few days, and then, without looking at the book, tried to complete the papers again, by expressing each hinted sentiment at length, and as fully as it had been expressed before, in any suitable words that should come to hand. Then I compared my Spectator with the original, discovered some of my faults, and corrected...
Page 163 - Then Satan answered the LORD, and said, Doth Job fear God for nought ? Hast not thou made an hedge about him, and about his house, and about all that he hath on every side ? thou hast blessed the work of his hands, and his substance is increased in the land. But put forth thine hand now, and touch all that he hath, and he will curse thee to thy face.
Page 217 - Venerable men! you have come down to us, from a former generation. Heaven has bounteously lengthened out your lives, that you might behold this joyous day. You are now where you stood fifty years ago, this very hour, with your brothers, and your neighbors, shoulder to shoulder, in the strife for your country.
Page 152 - Of old hast THOU laid the foundation of the earth : And the heavens are the work of thy hands. They shall perish, but THOU shalt endure : Yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment ; As a vesture shalt THOU change them, and they shall be changed : But THOU art the same, And thy years shall have no end.
Page 386 - I happened soon after to attend one of his sermons, in the course of which I perceived he intended to finish with a collection, and I silently resolved he should get nothing from me. I had in my pocket a handful of copper money, three or four silver dollars, and five pistoles in gold. As he proceeded I began to soften, and concluded to give the coppers.
Page 256 - The foam is not cruel, neither does it crawl. The state of mind which attributes to it these characters of a living creature is one in which the reason is unhinged by grief. All violent feelings have the same effect. They produce in us a falseness in all our impressions of external things, which I would generally characterize as the "pathetic fallacy.
Page 114 - Nothing worse happens to you than does to all nations who have extensive empire, and it happens in all the forms into which empire can be thrown. In large bodies, the circulation of power must be less vigorous at the extremities.