Blair's Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles-lettresS.G. Goodrich, 1822 - 144 pages |
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Page 6
... truth . Q. What two works have been approved throughout ages , and become standards of po- etical composition ? A. The Iliad of Homer , and the Æneid of Virgil . CRITICISM - GENIUS - PLEASURES OF TASTE - SUBLIMITY IN Taste .
... truth . Q. What two works have been approved throughout ages , and become standards of po- etical composition ? A. The Iliad of Homer , and the Æneid of Virgil . CRITICISM - GENIUS - PLEASURES OF TASTE - SUBLIMITY IN Taste .
Page 43
... writers , who are apt to be carried away by an admiration of what is showy and florid , whether in its place or not . A great secret in composition is to know when to be simple . Q. What is the last ? A. Do not let Metaphor . 43.
... writers , who are apt to be carried away by an admiration of what is showy and florid , whether in its place or not . A great secret in composition is to know when to be simple . Q. What is the last ? A. Do not let Metaphor . 43.
Page 50
... compositions of a serious or elevated kind , similes should never be taken from low or mean objects . Q. What is an Antithesis ? A. An opposition of Words and Thoughts ; as , in want , what distress ? in affluence , what satiety . Q ...
... compositions of a serious or elevated kind , similes should never be taken from low or mean objects . Q. What is an Antithesis ? A. An opposition of Words and Thoughts ; as , in want , what distress ? in affluence , what satiety . Q ...
Page 52
... composition ; that , to be beautiful , they must rise naturally from the subject ; that they must not be employed too frequent- ly ; and that none should attempt them with- out a natural genius for them . Q. What is the foundation of ...
... composition ; that , to be beautiful , they must rise naturally from the subject ; that they must not be employed too frequent- ly ; and that none should attempt them with- out a natural genius for them . Q. What is the foundation of ...
Page 56
... ? A. Simplicity of composition , as opposed to too great a variety of parts ; simplicity of thought , in opposition to refinement ; simpli- city of style , in opposition to ornament ; and 56 General Characters of Style .
... ? A. Simplicity of composition , as opposed to too great a variety of parts ; simplicity of thought , in opposition to refinement ; simpli- city of style , in opposition to ornament ; and 56 General Characters of Style .
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Common terms and phrases
action Addison Æneid ages agreeable ancient animated Aristotle attention beauty blank verse book of Job Cæsar character chiefly Cicero clear colours Comedy composition concise connexion correct Dean Swift Demosthenes didactic dignity discourse distinct distinguished Dryden effect elegant Eloisa to Abelard eloquence eminent employed English epic poem Epic Poetry excel expression favourable figure French genius give grandeur Greek hearers Herodotus historian ideas Iliad imagination Imitation ject kind language Livy Lyric Poetry manner ment Metaphors Milton mind modern moral narration nature ness never object Orator ornament passion pastoral perspicuity philosophical pleasures poet poetical poetry Polybius preacher principal propriety pulpit racter renders ride to town Roman rule scenes sense sentence sentiments sermons simplicity sound speak speaker speech spirit strength style sublime Tacitus Taste Theocritus thing thought Thucidydes tion Tragedy unity Verb versation verse Virgil Whence words writing
Popular passages
Page 46 - Me miserable ! which way shall I fly Infinite wrath, and infinite despair? Which way I fly is Hell; myself am Hell; And, in the lowest deep, a lower deep Still threatening to devour me opens wide, To which the Hell I suffer seems a Heaven.
Page 47 - Earth felt the wound, and Nature, from her seat Sighing through all her works, gave signs of woe, That all was lost.
Page 140 - A man of a polite imagination is let into a great many pleasures that the vulgar are not capable of receiving. He can converse with a picture, and find an agreeable companion in 'a statue. He meets with a secret refreshment in a description, and often feels a greater satisfaction in the prospect of fields and meadows, than another does in the possession.
Page 134 - Our sight is the most perfect and most delightful of all our senses. It fills the mind with the largest variety of ideas, converses with its objects at the greatest distance, and continues the longest in action without being tired or satiated with its proper enjoyments. The sense of feeling can indeed give us a notion of extension, shape, and all other ideas that enter at the eye, except colours ; but at the same time it is very much straitened and confined in its operations to the number, bulk,...
Page 140 - He meets with a secret refreshment in a description, and often feels a greater satisfaction in the prospect of fields and meadows than another does in the possession. It gives him, indeed, a kind of property in every thing he sees, and makes the most rude uncultivated parts of nature administer to his pleasures: so that he looks upon the world, as it were, in another light, and discovers in it a multitude of charms that conceal themselves from the generality of mankind.
Page 141 - There are indeed but very few who know how to be idle and innocent, or have a relish of any pleasures that are not criminal; every diversion they take is at the expense of some one virtue or another, and their very first step out of business is into vice or folly.
Page 142 - ... as the mind, and not only serve to clear and brighten the imagination, but are able to disperse grief and melancholy, and to set the animal spirits in pleasing and agreeable motions. For this reason Sir Francis Bacon, in his Essay upon Health,' has not thought it improper to prescribe to his reader a poem or a prospect, where he particularly dissuades him from knotty and subtile disquisitions, and advises him to pursue studies that fill the mind with splendid and illustrious objects, as histories,...
Page 141 - A man should endeavour, therefore, to make the sphere of his innocent pleasures as wide as possible, that he may retire into them with safety, and find in them such a satisfaction as a wise man would not blush to take.
Page 39 - I shall detain you now no longer in the demonstration of what we should not do, but straight conduct you to a hill-side, where I will point you out the right path of a virtuous and noble education ; laborious indeed at the first ascent, but else so smooth, so green, so full of goodly prospect, and melodious sounds on every side, that the harp of Orpheus was not more charming-.
Page 14 - He, above the rest In shape and gesture proudly eminent, Stood like a tower. His form had yet not lost All her original brightness, nor...