A Practical System of Rhetoric; Or, The Principles and Rules of Style: Inferred from Examples of Writing. With an Historical Dissertation on English StyleJohn R. Priestley, 1837 - 292 pages |
From inside the book
Page 86
... Ariosto tells a pretty story of a fairy , who , by some mysterious law of her nature , was condemned to appear at certain seasons in the form of a foul and poisonous snake . Those who injured her , during this period of her disguise ...
... Ariosto tells a pretty story of a fairy , who , by some mysterious law of her nature , was condemned to appear at certain seasons in the form of a foul and poisonous snake . Those who injured her , during this period of her disguise ...
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
addressed admired Æneid allusions amplification applied argument attained attempts called cause caution Cicero circumstances clauses common comparison composition connected connexion direct the attention discourse distinct duction effect emotions of beauty emotions of taste English language epithets examination excite emotions exercise exhibit expression familiar favourable feelings fitted to excite frequently give given happy heaven Hence illustration imagination implied importance improvement inferred influence instances intellectual habits introduced jects judgment kind knowledge labour language literary taste literature look manner of writing meaning ment mentioned metaphor metonymy mind nature nexion objects and scenes opinions ornaments of style passage period personification perspicuity philosophical phrases poetry present principles productions pronoun proposition racter readers reason refer regarded remarks resemblance Rhetoric rules sense sentence skill speak striking student sublimity synecdoche tence things thou thoughts tion traits tural vivacity Washington Irving words writer
Popular passages
Page 32 - The sky is changed ! — and such a change ! Oh night, And storm, and darkness, ye are wondrous strong, Yet lovely in your strength, as is the light Of a dark eye in woman ! Far along, From peak to peak, the rattling crags among Leaps the live thunder ! Not from one lone cloud, But every mountain now hath found a tongue, And Jura answers, through her misty shroud, Back to the joyous Alps, who call to her aloud!
Page 270 - For men have entered into a desire of learning and knowledge, sometimes upon a natural curiosity and inquisitive appetite; sometimes to entertain their minds with variety and delight; sometimes for ornament and reputation; and sometimes to enable them to victory of wit and contradiction; and most times for lucre and profession; and seldom sincerely to give a true account of their gift of reason, to the benefit and use of men...
Page 61 - To see him striding along the profile of a hill on a windy day, with his clothes bagging and fluttering about him, one might have mistaken him for the genius of famine descending upon the earth, or some scarecrow eloped from a cornfield.
Page 270 - ... a couch, whereupon to rest a searching and restless spirit; or a terrace, for a wandering and variable mind to walk up and down with a fair prospect; or a tower of state, for a proud mind to raise itself upon; or a fort or commanding ground, for strife and contention; or a shop, for profit or sale; and not a rich storehouse, for the glory of the Creator and the relief of man's estate.
Page 270 - ... as if there were sought in knowledge a couch whereupon to rest a searching and restless spirit; or a terrace for a wandering and variable mind to walk up and down with a fair prospect; or a tower of state for a proud mind to raise itself upon; or a fort or commanding ground for strife and contention; or a shop for profit or sale; and not a rich storehouse for the glory of the Creator and the relief of man's estate.
Page 234 - The graces taught in the schools, the costly ornaments and studied contrivances of speech, shock and disgust men, when their own lives, and the fate of their wives, their children, and their country, hang on the decision of the hour. Then, words have lost their power, rhetoric is vain, and all elaborate oratory contemptible.
Page 287 - All the images of nature were still present to him, and he drew them not laboriously, but luckily : when he describes any thing, you more than see it, you feel it too. Those who accuse him to have wanted learning, give him the greater commendation : he was naturally learned; he needed not the spectacles of books to read nature ; he looked inwards, and found her there.
Page 225 - The resources created by peace are means of war. In cherishing those resources, we but accumulate those means. Our present repose is no more a proof of inability to act, than the state of inertness and inactivity in which...
Page 67 - The mountain-shadows on her breast Were neither broken nor at rest ; In bright uncertainty they lie, Like future joys to Fancy's eye.
Page 95 - Of law, there can be no less acknowledged, than that her seat is the bosom of God, her voice the harmony of the world. All things in heaven and earth do her homage ; the very least as feeling her care, and the greatest as not exempted from her power.