The Sixth Canon: Belletristic Rhetorical Theory and Its French Antecedents by Barbara Warnick. Columbia: University of South Carolina P, 1993. 176 pp.

Two admissions in Hugh Blair's Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles Lettres seem peculiar in relation to his own rhetorical practice. One is his observation in Lecture 25 that it is debate in popular assemblies, rather than the pulpit, which provides the illustrious field for the highest kind of eloquence. The other, not so striking in itself, but somewhat so in relation to Blair's own choice of rhetorical strategies as a preacher, is his judgment in Lecture 26, and again in Lecture 29, that among modern divines, it is French preachers rather than English who most nearly approach the ideal of true eloquence. There are repeated indications in the middle parts of Blair's Lectures that he accepts the Ciceronian view that the truest eloquence is strongly pathetic in the sense of vigorously arousing the more violent and more perturbing emotions. This highest degree of eloquence he characterizes in Lecture 25 as eloquence

Research Article| February 01 1992 The Passions as Subject Matter in Early Eighteenth-Century British Sermons. Alan Brinton Alan Brinton Dapartmant of Philosophy, Boise Stata University, Boise, Idaho 83725. Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar Rhetorica (1992) 10 (1): 51–69. https://doi.org/10.1525/rh.1992.10.1.51 Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Peer Review Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn MailTo Tools Icon Tools Cite Icon Cite Search Site Citation Alan Brinton; The Passions as Subject Matter in Early Eighteenth-Century British Sermons.. Rhetorica 1 February 1992; 10 (1): 51–69. doi: https://doi.org/10.1525/rh.1992.10.1.51 Download citation file: Ris (Zotero) Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All ContentRhetorica Search This content is only available via PDF. Copyright 1992, The International Society for the History of Rhetoric1992 Article PDF first page preview Close Modal You do not currently have access to this content.