CHAPTER X. STYLE ADAPTED TO EXPRESS EMOTION. 72. Nature of Emotion, and its Place in Rhetoric.— WE have defined Rhetoric as the science and art of expressing thought and emotion by language in the best Emotion is as essential as thought, and has its own laws, and its own modes of expression. manner. Mental philosophers have differed in the terms employed to describe that part of our nature exercised when we feel emotions, but all persons are conscious of the meaning of such words as sensibility, appetite, affection, and desire; nor is it necessary, for the purposes of a Rhetoric, that we should be minute in the classification of the passions. All affection is preceded by some degree of thought. 73. A Sense of Duty.- The noblest affections are those growing out of the idea of duty, or the recognition of the right or wrong of some act. No man can plead with peculiar earnestness to produce conviction, unless he has not only a firm belief himself in the truth of the proposition which he is endeavoring to estab lish, but also that it will lead to just action, and will prevent injustice. He then becomes zealous for the right. A man may be zealous for truth alone, but it VALUE OF SINCERITY. 245 communicates zest to his arguments and pleadings, if he believes that the establishment of the truth will. lead to right action. 74. Can one plead for a known Falsehood?—A man can not plead for a known falsehood except hypocritically, or by producing in himself a temporary false belief. The natural indignation of the healthy mind at such a course weakens a man, and if exposed, brings upon him censure and contempt. It is the true function of Rhetoric to overcome and destroy error; and though falsehood may use it as a weapon, it is only by a perversion of its true purpose. A defender of what is believed to be truth will endeavor to expose hypocrisy or dishonesty in an opponent, and awaken in him shame and repentance, and in others toward him indignation, censure, pity, or contempt. These last passions, if persisted in, and if there is no abandonment of the wrong by its defenders, will swell into anger and hatred. 75. All Emotions right.-All passions are right, to a certain degree, when the occasion demands them, and the orator may properly endeavor to excite any one of them. 76. Passions of Approval.-There are passions of approval, as well as disapproval. Love in all its various forms must have an intellectual basis. It proceeds from thought. There is the love of man, as man; the peculiar love of the virtuous and noble; and a love of those who exhibit some good traits, such as generosity, bravery, truthfulness, patriotism, though they may be deficient in other good qualities, and even possessors of some injurious and disagreeable traits of character. Thus the affections excited by the portraiture of character, or the description of actions, are often very complex, blending approval and disapproval, love and hatred, indignation and sympathy, execration and pity. The field, therefore, of the orator is broad, and the language of passion almost infinite. 77. How to awaken Approval.-To awaken approval, the good qualities of the action or the character must be dwelt upon, and vividly brought before the mind. Men instinctively love justice, especially when maintaining itself against strong temptations. What seems to be disinterested benevolence excites the warmest approbation. Instinctively also we sympathize with those who struggle against wrong, even though they yield at last, and the emotion of sympathy may be awakened by a presentation of the extenuating circumstances growing out of temptation, or ignorance, or wrong education, or deception. Suffering endured by the innocent or helpless awakens sympathy, more or less intense, according to the degree of the suffering. If this is conjoined with good positive qualities in the sufferer, such as patience, benevolence, disinterested affection, earnest truth, the liveliest compassion is awakened. What a vast field, then, lies open before the orator, who either describes facts, or calls upon his imagination to invent combinations of characters and events surpassing, if possible, any realities in interest and complexity. 78. How to awaken Disapproval.-So emotions of VARIOUS EMOTIONS-THE PULPIT. 247 disapproval enlarge this field. Pictures of tyranny, whether exercised by a sovereign over a nation, or the head of a family, or the master of servants; covetousness, leading to the violation of right, and of natural affection; malice, steadily hunting down an innocent victim; envy, hating and slandering and destroying the innocent simply because they prosper; the selfish, ruining the virtuous for personal gratification, animal or mental; and all kinds of injustice, excite abhorrence, and detestation and revenge. All these chords are to be touched, sometimes singly, sometimes many together, sometimes producing harmony, and sometimes intentional discord, by the skillful orator. 79. Application to the Rhetoric of the Pulpit.-In this fact lies the boundless power of the oratory of the pulpit. The preacher of religion deals with all actual human character. It is his business to commend all forms of virtue, and to show the detestableness of all forms of vice. In addition to all that is human, he has also the supernal emotions of the Supreme Being toward man, the immaculate character of the Saviour in his relations to man, to portray. His subjects, if they lack the vividness of the appeals made by the lawyer, growing out of present and personal circumstances, and if they are not so direct as the appeals of statesmen on subjects that call for immediate political action, still take hold of the highest and dearest interests of man, and are absolutely boundless in their scope and variety. 80. Degrees of Emotion considered, with Reference to Figurative Language. To awaken gentle emotion, pleasing or painful, it is only needful to set before the mind perspicuously the characters, facts, or actions, or thoughts that naturally produce it. The fancy may ornament the description, and figurative language is appropriate. Even a highly ornamented style may not interfere with the impression. But when the passion, painful or pleasing, becomes strong, the language must become more direct. Ornaments will be discarded. Figures only the most abrupt and condensed, and perhaps not strictly correct according to severe rule, will be suggested-mixed metaphors, if ever, are allowable and the sentences are short and strong. Passion discards superfluities and niceties of expression. Strong passion loses self-consciousness. When a man has time to say that he is angry, or is inclined to think whether he is angry or not, his passion is more sentimental than real. 81. How far egotistical References are proper.-Quiet emotion, held under control by the intellect, is more self-conscious, and often leads to egotistical expressions. Thus Henry Clay said in an eloquent speech, properly endeavoring to produce emotion that should lead to action: "I have no desire for office, not even the highest. The most exalted is but a prison, in which the incarcerated incumbent daily receives his cold, heartless visitants, marks his weary hours, and is cut off from the practical enjoyment of all the blessings of genuine freedom. Pass this bill, and I am willing to go home, and renounce public service forever." So Daniel Webster, in his great speech, full of emotion himself, awakened unselfish appreciation of merit anywhere, and produced a contempt for his opponent, |