Richard Whately: Rhetoric

“In the present day, however, the province of Rhetoric, in the widest acceptation that would reckoned admissible, comprehends all "Composition in Prose;" in the narrowest sense, it would be limited to "Persuasive Speaking."”

Richard Whately

Introduction, p. 4
Elements of Rhetoric (1828)

Sense

“No one complains of the rules of Grammar as fettering Language; because it is understood that correct use is not founded on Grammar, but Grammar on correct use. A just system of Logic or of Rhetoric is analogous, in this respect, to Grammar..”

Richard Whately

Introduction, p. 17
Elements of Rhetoric (1828)

“Of Rhetoric various definitions have been given by different writers; who, however, seem not so much to have disagreed in their conceptions of the nature of the same thing, as to have had different things in view while they employed the same term.”

Richard Whately

Introduction, p. 1
Elements of Rhetoric (1828)

Nature

“Concerning the utility of Rhetoric, it is to be observed that it divides itself into two; first, whether Oratorical skill be, on the whole, a public benefit, or evil; and secondly, whether any artificial system of Rules is conducive to the attainment of that skill.”

Richard Whately

Introduction, p. 13
Elements of Rhetoric (1828)

Evil