6 Rhetoric in the Enlightenment and Romantic Periods
As in earlier time periods, the way that rhetoric developed during the 17th-19th centuries was influenced by the events of the time. Reciprocally, the ways rhetoric was used influenced the development of history. You’ll find some interesting connections as the study and influence of rhetoric begins to span the oceans to impact our own history here in the US. As in previous time periods, we see a dichotomy between two different schools of thought. The scholastic focus on reason transitions into the Enlightenment, and the humanist resistance to that focus on reason inspires Romanticism. As with the scholastic and the humanist schools of thought, Enlightenment and Romantic thinkers coexisted, and many of the scholars discussed in this chapter could be placed in either category, as their thoughts bridge the two, illustrating the dialog that continued to occur.
The Enlightenment AKA The Age of Reason/Long 18th Century (1685-1815)
Introduction
“The desire of being believed, the desire of persuading, of leading and directing other people, seems to be one of the strongest of all our natural desires. It is, perhaps, the instinct on which is founded the faculty of speech, the characteristic faculty of human nature.” Adam Smith (1723-1790)
The Scholastics emphasis of mind over soul is heightened as the emergence of epistemology, the study of how the human mind works and how it knows, inspires rhetoricians to apply the newly developed field of psychology to study how people learn and communicate. The Enlightenment’s emphasis on reason shaped philosophical, political, and scientific discourse from the late 17th to the early 19th century.
The Enlightenment – the great ‘Age of Reason’ – is defined as the period of rigorous scientific, political, and philosophical discourse that characterized European society during the ‘long’ 18th century: from the late 17th century (around 1685) to the ending of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815. This was a period of huge change in thought and reason, particularly in science, philosophy, and politics. As people began to question authority, centuries of custom and tradition were brushed aside in favor of exploration, individualism, tolerance and scientific endeavor, which, in tandem with developments in industry and politics, witnessed the emergence of the ‘modern world’. Understanding the main events of this time period helps to create a framework for understanding the evolution of rhetoric during this time. Note the intersection of European and American history, as much of the rhetorical theory in Europe provided a background for the revolution stirring in the colonies, as well as in France. Additionally, the cycle we have observed thus far where a new school of thought arises in response to another is seen again here as Romanticism emerges at the end of the 1700s as scholars begin to resist the Enlightenment’s focus on reason.
Origins of the Enlightenment
The Enlightenment is usually dated from the last quarter of the 17th century to the last quarter of the 18th century. During the Renaissance (1400-1600), when intellectuals and artists looked back to antiquity for inspiration, there arose the humanist movement, which stressed the promotion of civic virtue, that is, realising a person’s full potential both for their own good and for the good of the society in which they live. The ideas of the Enlightenment flourished from these roots and blossomed thanks to events like the Protestant Reformation (1517-1648), which diminished the traditional power of the Christian Church in everyday life. Most enlightened thinkers did not want to replace the Church, but they did want greater religious freedom and toleration.
The Enlightenment derives its name ‘light’ from the contrast to what was then seen as the ‘darkness’ of the Middle Ages. We now know that the medieval period was perhaps not quite as ‘dark’ as once thought, but the essential fact remains that religion, superstition, and deference to authority did permeate that period of human existence before philosophers began to challenge these concepts in the 17th century. It was no longer possible to simply accept received wisdom as truth just because it had been unchallenged for centuries.
In this new atmosphere of relative intellectual freedom, reason challenged accepted beliefs. Just like the practical experiments scientists were conducting in the Scientific Revolution to discover the laws of nature, so, too, philosophers were keen to apply reason to age-old problems of how we should live together in societies, how we can be virtuous, what is the best form of government, and what constitutes happiness. This was a battle of reason against emotion, superstition, and fear; its principal weapons were optimism for a better world and both the freedom and ability to question absolutely everything. Not for nothing were the new enlightened philosophers also called ‘free-thinkers’.
Pre-Enlightenment Thinkers
The Enlightenment was driven forward by philosophers, although, given that many were also writers of non-philosophical works or even dabblers in politics, they might be better described today as intellectuals. These thinkers challenged accepted thought and, it is important to stress, each other, since there was never any consensus as to the answers to the questions everyone was trying to answer. What is sure is this process of examining and building knowledge was a long one, with different strands in different places. With hindsight, we can reconstruct the chain of ideas we collectively call the Enlightenment, but the participants at that time were aware that they were involved in a new movement of thought.
There is a group of thinkers who are often called ‘pre-Enlightenment’ philosophers since they established some of the key foundations upon which the Enlightenment was built. This group includes Francis Bacon (1561-1626), Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679), René Descartes (1596-1650), Baruch Spinoza (1632-1677), and John Locke (1632-1704).
Francis Bacon (1561-1626)
Bacon stressed the need for a new combined method of empirical experimentation (i.e. observation and experience) and shared data collection so that humanity might finally discover all of nature’s secrets and improve itself. This approach was adopted by many enlightened philosophers. Bacon’s thoughts on the need to test our knowledge to see if it is actually true and his belief that we could build a better world if we all applied ourselves were also influential.
Francis Bacon worked for the queen and used rhetoric to urge the country to go war. He identified three ways of learning: fantastical (myths), contentious (unproven propositions), and delicate (humanists who did not do original research). Bacon invented the term “induction.”
Influenced by Aristotle, Augustine, and Ramus, Bacon believed that the use of rhetoric or imagination could defeat an argument of pure reason. He also believed that language has been corrupted by idols of the tribe (social group/culture), den (home/family), marketplace (popularity), and theater (past theology). This psychological theory would influence the rhetoric of the Enlightenment.
Bacon’s Work
Excerpt from Bacon’s Advancement of Learning
Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679)
Hobbes, an English politician and thinker, proposed the idea of a state of nature, a brutish existence before we got together into societies. Hobbes believed that citizens must sacrifice some liberties in order to gain the security of society, and they do this when they form a social contract between themselves, that is, a collective promise to abide by certain rules of behavior. According to Hobbes, new social contracts between the state and civil society were the key to unlocking personal happiness for all. He also believed, because of his pessimistic view of human nature, that, where people act entirely out of self-interest, a very strong political authority was required. He called this political authority his Leviathan, which was named after the biblical monster. These ideas and Hobbes’ attempt to disentangle philosophy, morality, and politics from religion would all inspire Enlightenment thinkers, either in support or in providing alternative models.
Descartes (1596-1650)
Descartes, a French rationalist philosopher, proposed that all knowledge must be subjected to doubt because our senses are unreliable, we may be dreaming, or we may be living in a deception created by an evil demon. Descartes’ conclusion of applying doubt to everything is his founding principle of indubitable truth Cogito, ergo sum (“I think, therefore I am”).
From Decartes’ ideas came Cartesianism and the position that the mind and body (or matter) are two distinct things, but, in some way that thinkers had yet to determine, they interact with each other. While some critics point out that Descartes’ hunting down of doubts can lead to absurdities and total scepticism, his strategy has importance for the Enlightenment since it demonstrates the value of questioning everything and not taking at face value knowledge we have inherited from previous generations – knowledge that may, in fact, turn out to be not knowledge at all but only belief.
Descartes’ Work:
Baruch Spinoza (1632-1677)
The Dutchman Spinoza attacked superstition and challenged the traditional role of God in human affairs, suggesting God does not interfere in our everyday lives. Combining rationalism and metaphysics, Spinoza was greatly interested in science and believed that by using our reason and studying nature we could come to better know ourselves and the divine. He also called for greater religious toleration.
John Locke (1632-1704)
Locke was a Puritan who studied medicine and philosophy. Locke believed that reason and human consciousness were the gateways to contentment and liberty, and he demolished the notion that human knowledge was somehow pre-programmed and mystical. His ideas reflected the earlier, but equally influential works of Thomas Hobbes.
The ancient civilizations of Greece and Rome were revered by enlightened thinkers, who viewed these communities as potential models for how modern society could be organized. Many commentators of the late 17th century, like Locke, were eager to achieve a clean break from what they saw as centuries of political tyranny, in favor of personal freedoms and happiness centered on the individual.
Locke, whose Two Treatises of Government (published in 1689) advocated a separation of church and state, religious toleration, the right to property ownership, and a contractual obligation on governments to recognize the innate ‘rights’ of the people, wrote the bill of rights for William III and Mary II. Notably, as a proponent of family values, equality, liberty, and consensual government, he believed that the role of government is to protect the basic rights of every human being of life, liberty, and property. Locke’s perfect state has a separation of powers, and the government can only operate if it has the consent of the people. Further, citizens can overthrow a government if it does not perform its role of protecting their rights.
More than any other thinker, perhaps, Locke’s ideas not only inspired other thinkers, but also influenced real-world affairs, as this radical political philosophy came to influence revolutionary movements in France and America later in the century.
Locke endorsed the scientific method and believed that the mind is the center of the universe. His belief that the mind categorized knowledge because it could not possibly hold all the information it does unless it was categorized was called the Doctrine of Abstraction. For example, our concept of sky blue is built upon our concept of blue, which is built upon our concept of color.
According to Locke, rhetoric applies reason to move the will.
Locke’s Work
There were many other thinkers that influenced the Enlightenment, but space precludes discussion of them here. In short, a whole body of international thinkers had already come up with the essential playing cards of the Enlightenment game before it had even started. Later philosophers now reshuffled these, selected some, and rejected others in their search for the winning hand of just how humans should live and knowledge be acquired.
Advances in Natural Philosophy AKA Science
These new enlightened views of the world were also encapsulated in the explosion of scientific endeavor that occurred during the 18th century. Instead of through divine revelation of universal truth, intellectuals increasingly believed that knowledge came through experience, which resulted in an increase in scientific experimentation. With the rapid expansion of print culture from around 1700 and increasing levels of literacy among the population, details of experimentation and discovery were eagerly consumed by the reading public.
This growth of ‘natural philosophy’ (the term ‘science’ was only coined later in the 18th century) was underpinned by the application of rational thought and reason to scientific enquiry; first espoused by Francis Bacon in the early 1600s, this approach built on the earlier work of Copernicus and Galileo dating from the medieval period. Scientific experimentation (with instrumentation) was used to shed new light on nature and to challenge superstitious interpretations of the living world, much of which had been deduced from uncritical readings of historical texts.
At the forefront of the scientific revolution stood Sir Isaac Newton, whose achievements in mathematics and physics revolutionized the contemporary view of the natural world. Born in 1643, Newton demonstrated a talent for mathematical theory at Trinity College, Cambridge, where his astonishingly precocious abilities led to his appointment as professor of mathematics at the age of just 26. Among Newton’s weighty catalogue of investigations were his treatises on optics, gravitational forces and mechanics (most famously encapsulated in his Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy, first published in 1687), all grounded in empirical experimentation as a way to demystify the physical world.
The discoveries of Sir Isaac Newton were complemented by those of a host of equally dazzling mathematicians, astronomers, chemists, and physicists (Robert Hooke and Robert Boyle, for example), many of whom were members of the Royal Society (founded in 1660, and active today). Yet it was Newton’s empirical approach to science that remained particularly influential.
As well as fertilizing a huge trade in published books and pamphlets, scientific investigation created a buoyant industry in scientific instruments, many of which were relatively inexpensive to buy and therefore available to the general public. Manufacturers of telescopes, microscopes, barometers, air pumps, and thermometers prospered during the 18th century, particularly after 1750 when the names of famous scientific experimenters became household names: Benjamin Franklin, Joseph Priestley, William Herschel, and Sir Joseph Banks, for example.
Encyclopedias, grammars, and dictionaries became something of a craze in this period, helping to demystify the world in empirical terms. People believed that everything could and should be catalogued.
Secularization and the Impact on Religion
Religion and personal faith were also subject to the tides of reason evident during the 18th century. Personal judgements on matters of belief were actively debated during the period, leading to skepticism, if not bold atheism, while others argued against this idea. Andrew Baxter, for example, argued that all matter is inherently inactive, and that the soul and an omnipotent divine spirit are the animating principles of all life. In making this argument, Baxter rejected the beliefs of more atheistic and materialist thinkers, such as Thomas Hobbes and Baruch Spinoza.
These new views on religion led to increasing fears among the clergy that the Enlightenment was ungodly and thus harmful to the moral well-being of an increasingly secular society. With church attendance in steady decline throughout the 1700s, evidence of increasing agnosticism (the belief that true knowledge of God could never be fully gained) and a rejection of some scriptural teachings was close at hand. Distinct anti-clericalism (the criticism of church ministers and rejection of religious authority) also emerged in some circles, whipped up by the musings of ‘deist’ writers, such as Voltaire, who argued that God’s influence on the world was minimal and revealed only by one’s own personal experience of nature.
Though certainly a challenge to accepted religious beliefs, the impulse of reason was considered by other contemporary observers to be a complement rather than a threat to spiritual orthodoxy: a means by which (in the words of John Locke) the true meaning of Scripture could be unlocked and “understood in the plain, direct meaning of the words and phrases.” Though difficult to measure or quantify, Locke believed that “rational religion” based on personal experience and reflection could nevertheless still operate as a useful moral compass in the modern age.
New personal freedoms within the orbit of faith were extended to the relationship between the Church and state. In England, the recognition of dissenting religions was formalized by legislation, such as the 1689 Act of Toleration which permitted freedom of worship to Nonconformists (albeit qualified by allegiances to the Crown). Later, political emancipation for Roman Catholics – who were allowed new property rights – also reflected an enlightened impulse among the political elite, while such measures sometimes created violent responses from working people. In June 1780, for example, London was convulsed by a week of rioting called the Gordon Riots in response to further freedoms granted to Catholics, a sign, perhaps, of how the thinking of politicians could diverge sharply from the sentiments of the humble poor. The riots were so bad that 15,000 troops were deployed to quell the disturbances, and nearly 300 rioters were shot dead by soldiers.
Political Freedoms, Contracts and Rights
Public debates about what qualified as the best forms of government were heavily influenced by enlightened ideals, most notably Rousseau’s and Diderot’s notions of egalitarian freedom and the ‘social contract.’ By the end of the 18th century, most European nations harbored movements calling for political reform, inspired by radical enlightened ideals which advocated clean breaks from tyranny, monarchy, and absolutism.
Late 18th-century radicals were especially inspired by the writings of Thomas Paine, whose influence on revolutionary politics was felt in both America and France. Born into humble beginnings in England in 1737, by the 1770s Paine had arrived in America where he began agitating for revolution. Paine’s most radical works, The Rights of Man and later The Age of Reason (both successful best-sellers in Europe), drew extensively on Rousseau’s notions of the social contract. Paine reserved particular criticism for the hereditary privileges of ruling elites, whose power over the people, he believed, was only ever supported through simple historical tradition and the passive acceptance of the social order among the common people.
Similarly, German philosopher Immanuel Kant (1724–1804) pointed towards the “laziness and Cowardice” of the people to explain why “a large part of mankind gladly remain minors all their lives,” and spoke of reasoned knowledge gained from sensual experience as a means of achieving genuine freedom and equality.
Though grounded in a sense of outrage at social and economic injustice, the political revolutions of both America (1765 to 1783) and France (1789 to 1799) can thus be fairly judged to have been driven by enlightened political dogma, which criticized despotic monarchies as acutely incompatible with the ideals of democracy, equality under the rule of law, and the rights to property ownership. These new movements for political reform argued in favor of protecting certain inalienable natural rights that some enlightened thinkers believed were innate in all men (though rarely in women as well): in the freedom of speech and protection from arbitrary arrest, for example, later enshrined in the American Constitution.
However, for other observers (particularly in Britain) the violent extremes of the French Revolution proved incompatible with enlightened thought. Many saw the extremes of revolution as a counterpoint to any true notion of “reason.” British MP Edmund Burke, for example, wrote critically of the “fury, outrage, and insult” he saw embedded in events across the Channel and urged restraint among Britain’s own enlightened political radicals.
Political philosopher David Hume also warned of the dangers he perceived in the headlong pursuit of liberty for all. An ill-educated and ignorant crowd, argued Hume, was in danger of running into violence and anarchy if a stable framework of government was not maintained through the consent of the people and strong rule of law. Governments, he believed, could offer a benign presence in people’s lives only when moderated by popular support, and he therefore offered the extension of the franchise as a counterbalance to the strong authority of the state.
The End of the Enlightenment?
The outcomes of the Enlightenment were thus far-reaching and, indeed, revolutionary. By the early 1800s a new ‘public sphere’ of political debate was evident in European society, having emerged first in the culture of coffee-houses and later fueled by an explosion of books, magazines, pamphlets, and newspapers (the new ‘Augustan’ age of poetry and prose was coined at the same time). Secular science and invention, fertilized by a spirit of enquiry and discovery, also became the hallmark of modern society, which in turn propelled the pace of 18th-century industrialization and economic growth.
Individualism – the personal freedoms celebrated by Locke, Hume, Adam Smith, Voltaire, and Kant – became part of the web of modern society that trickled down into 19th-century notions of independence, self-help, and liberalism. Representative government on behalf of the people was enshrined in new constitutional arrangements, characterized by the slow march towards universal suffrage in the 1900s.
Evidence of the Enlightenment thus remains with us today: in our notions of free speech, our secular yet religiously tolerant societies, in science, the arts and literature: all legacies of a profound movement for change that transformed the nature of society forever.
Overview of the Enlightenment from Crash Course :
Rhetoric of the Enlightenment
The Enlightenment had some key impacts on the way people communicated, especially in the ways in which rhetoric was applied. The Five Canons of Rhetoric (invention, arrangement, style, memory, and delivery) once again became the foundation of rhetorical study.
The focus on natural rights and individual liberty based on the belief that all men are created equal prompted the belief that governments should be based on reason and used to defend the good of the people, not the monarchy/elite. These beliefs led to a rhetorical focus on the use of plain speaking–direct language that could be understood by the common people. Communicators called for a plain style of speech that used plain language. They believed that communication should be accessible to all.
Bacon’s theory of psychology was used as a means to appeal to the mental faculties for the purposes of persuasion. In addition, rhetorical techniques like repetition, rhetorical questioning, and emotional appeals were used to keep the attention and sway the opinions of an audience made up of everyday people. So, in addition to a focus on reason, there was also a focus on making language beautiful to keep the attention of the broader audience demanded by the ideals of the Enlightenment.
Key Figures of the Enlightenment
George Campbell (1719-1796)
George Campbell’s influence on scientific rhetoric focused on British philosophical thought of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. While Campbell advanced how scientific rhetoric was viewed, science to him meant what philosophy is like to us today. Campbell was very open to new ideas and ways of thinking, and he intended on developing a new form of rhetoric that would shed some insight into the enlightenment period. Believing that rhetoric and philosophy were inseparable, his form of rhetoric consisted of practical goals and could be directly tied to the practical concerns of public figures. In particular, Campbell believed that the study of rhetoric would help his students to become more skilled as preachers.
Campbell’s The Rhetoric of Western Thought described seven circumstances that he believed were involved in a person’s decision to act, including probability, plausibility, importance, time, connection, relation, and consequences.
Though Campbell’s thinking aligns with the philosophy of the Enlightenment, he found that Enlightenment principles enhanced his faith. He argued that, if reason is not enough, there must be something outside of human experience that is the source of truth. He built a theory of argument based on data of experience, analogy, testimony, and probability and was determined to show that rhetoric is useful in the world, especially in preaching. Influenced by Cicero, he believed that “The ultimate task of rhetoric is to enlighten the understanding, to awaken the memory, to engage the imagination and to arouse the passions to influence the will to action or belief ” (Smith, 256).
A podcast on Campbell:
Campbell’s Work
Richard Whately (1787-1863)
Richard Whately was an English academic, rhetorician, logician, philosopher, economist, and theologian who also served as Archbishop of Dublin. He was a prolific author, a flamboyant character, and one of the first reviewers to recognize the talents of Jane Austen.
He claimed that logic is the only province of rhetoric, which means rhetoric is the center of rational thought. Influenced by Cicero, Aristotle, and Campbell, he believed that God gave man reason so they could understand Him and thought every Christian should understand argumentation to share their faith. He warned about making assumptions about the audience because what we assume the audience believes may not be accurate.
Whately developed a new way to open speeches (called proems), that most writing students might recognize as a hook. For example, the speaker could explain how the information relates to the audience, surprise the audience, or tell a story.
- Introduction Inquisitive: connect topic to the audience
- Introduction paradoxical: focus on the improbable
- Introduction Corrective: addresses a misunderstanding or misrepresentation
- Introduction preparatory: background information
- Narrative introduction: story or event
He believed that speakers should use a natural style instead of dramatic speaking.
Whately’s Work
Other Notable Enlightenment Figures
- Margaret Canvendish (1623–1673), a duchess who studied “natural philosophy” and wrote six books on the subject.
- Alexander Bain (1818-1903): A Scottish philosopher who wrote books on grammar and rhetoric, including a book on how to apply logic to the natural sciences. Advanced the study of psychology.
- Immanuel Kant (1724-1804): Prussian philosopher who believed in human autonomy. Argued that “human understanding is the source of the general laws of nature that structure all our experience.” (IEP)
- Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770-1831): German historian and scholar who used dialectic to explain history.
Additional Resources:
- Here is an interesting resource on The American Enlightenment from the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. It’s important to understand how the intellectual movements in Europe impacted thought in the US, as well.
The Industrial Revolution 1760-1820
The 18th century saw the emergence of the ‘Industrial Revolution’, the great age of steam, canals, and factories that changed the face of the British economy forever.
Early 18th century British industries were generally small scale and relatively unsophisticated. Most textile production, for example, was centered on small workshops or in the homes of spinners, weavers, and dyers: a literal ‘cottage industry’ that involved thousands of individual manufacturers. Such small-scale production was also a feature of most other industries, with different regions specializing in different products: metal production in the Midlands, for example, and coal mining in the North-East.
New techniques and technologies in agriculture paved the wave for change. Increasing amounts of food were produced over the century, ensuring that enough was available to meet the needs of the ever-growing population. A surplus of cheap agricultural labor led to severe unemployment and rising poverty in many rural areas. As a result, many people left the countryside to find work in towns and cities. So the scene was set for a large-scale, labor intensive factory system.
Steam and coal
Because there were limited sources of power, industrial development during the early 1700s was initially slow. Textile mills, heavy machinery, and the pumping of coal mines all depended heavily on old technologies of power: waterwheels, windmills, and horsepower were usually the only sources available.
Changes in steam technology, however, began to change the situation dramatically. As early as 1712, Thomas Newcomen first unveiled his steam-driven piston engine, which allowed the more efficient pumping of deep mines. Steam engines improved rapidly as the century advanced and were put to greater and greater use. More efficient and powerful engines were employed in coal mines, textile mills, and dozens of other heavy industries. By 1800, perhaps 2,000 steam engines were eventually at work in Britain.
New inventions in iron manufacturing, particularly those perfected by the Darby family of Shropshire, allowed for stronger and more durable metals to be produced. The use of steam engines in coal mining also ensured that a cheap and reliable supply of the iron industry’s essential raw material was available: coal was now king.
Factories
The spinning of cotton into threads for weaving into cloth had traditionally taken place in the homes of textile workers. In 1769, however, Richard Arkwright patented his ‘water frame’, which allowed large-scale spinning to take place on just a single machine. This was followed shortly afterwards by James Hargreaves’ ‘spinning jenny’, which further revolutionized the process of cotton spinning.
The weaving process was similarly improved by advances in technology. Edmund Cartwright’s power loom, developed in the 1780s, allowed for the mass production of the cheap and light cloth that was desirable both in Britain and around the Empire.
Steam technology would produce yet more change. Constant power was now available to drive the dazzling array of industrial machinery in textiles and other industries, which were installed up and down the country.
New ‘manufactories’ (an early word for ‘factory’) were the result of all these new technologies. Large industrial buildings usually employed one central source of power to drive a whole network of machines. Richard Arkwright’s cotton factories in Nottingham and Cromford, for example, employed nearly 600 people by the 1770s, including many small children, whose nimble hands made light-work of spinning. Other industries flourished under the factory system. In Birmingham, James Watt and Matthew Boulton established their huge foundry and metal works in Soho, where nearly 1,000 people were employed in the 1770s making buckles, boxes and buttons, as well as the parts for new steam engines.
Though not all factories were bad places to work, many were dismal and highly dangerous. Some factories were likened to prisons or barracks, where workers encountered harsh discipline enforced by factory owners. Many children were sent there from workhouses or orphanages to work long hours in hot, dusty conditions, and were forced to crawl through narrow spaces between fast-moving machinery. A working day of 12 hours was not uncommon, and accidents happened frequently.
Transport
The growing demand for coal after 1750 revealed serious problems with Britain’s transport system. Though many mines stood close to rivers or the sea, the shipping of coal was slowed down by unpredictable tides and weather. Because of the growing demand for this essential raw material, many mine owners and industrial speculators began financing new networks of canals in order to link their mines more effectively with the growing centers of population and industry.
The early canals were small, but highly beneficial. In 1761, for example, the Duke of Bridgewater opened a canal between his colliery at Worsley and the rapidly growing town of Manchester. Within weeks of the canal’s opening, the price of coal in Manchester halved. Other canal building schemes were quickly authorized by Acts of Parliament in order to link up an expanding network of rivers and waterways. By 1815, over 2,000 miles of canals were in use in Britain, carrying thousands of tons of raw materials and manufactured goods by horse-drawn barge.
Most roads were in a terrible state early in this period. Many were poorly maintained, and even major routes flooded during the winter. Journeys by stagecoach were long and uncomfortable. London, in particular, suffered badly when wagons and carts were bogged down in poor conditions and were left unable to deliver food to markets. Faced with these difficulties, local authorities applied for ‘Turnpike Acts’ that allowed for new roads to be constructed, paid for out of tolls placed on passing traffic. New techniques in road construction, developed by pioneering engineers such as John McAdam and Thomas Telford, led to the great ‘road boom’ of the 1780s.
The improvements achieved by 18th century road builders were breathtaking. By the 1830s, the stagecoach journey from London to Edinburgh took just two days, compared to nearly two weeks only half a century before.
The church in the 18th century by Ryan Reeves:
18th Century Warfare by Crash Course
Additional Resources:
- Overview of European history from Brittanica
- Overview of American history from Brittanica
- Searchable timeline of the 18th century from George Mason University
Romanticism (1798-1832)
“…figures of thought, if properly fashioned by careful word choice, [can] fascinate the mind and thereby hold attention or move the soul” (Vico as quoted by Smith, 242).
The Romantic movement, which favored the soul over the mind, is an extension of humanism. Beginning in the late 16th century, the Baroque era, which was spurred on through the Catholic Church’s emphasis on “realism, emotionalism, spiritualism, and contrasts in light and dark” coincides with much of the Enlightenment (Smith, 238). The Jesuits believed that the background for a sermon enhanced its meaning and its effectiveness, influencing them to build ornate altars in churches that appealed to all five senses. In rhetoric, the “baroque rhetors sought to overwhelm their audiences with intense images that appealed to the senses” (Smith, 238).
Today the word ‘romantic’ evokes images of love and sentimentality, but the term ‘Romanticism’ has a much wider meaning. It covers a range of developments in art, literature, music, and philosophy, spanning the late 18th and early 19th centuries.
In 1762 Jean-Jacques Rousseau declared in The Social Contract: “Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains.” During the Romantic period, major transitions took place in society as dissatisfied intellectuals and artists challenged the Establishment. In England, the Romantic poets were at the very heart of this movement. They were inspired by a desire for liberty, and they denounced the exploitation of the poor. There was an emphasis on the importance of the individual, a conviction that people should follow ideals, rather than imposed conventions and rules.
The Romantics renounced the rationalism and order associated with the preceding Enlightenment era, stressing the importance of expressing authentic personal feelings. They had a real sense of responsibility to their fellow men: they felt it was their duty to use their poetry to inform and inspire others, and to change society. Note that Romanticism and the Enlightenment periods overlapped by close to a half a century.
Age of Revolutions
When reference is made to Romantic verse, the poets who generally spring to mind are William Blake (1757-1827), William Wordsworth (1770-1850), Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834), George Gordon, 6th Lord Byron (1788-1824), Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822), and John Keats (1795-1821). These writers had an intuitive feeling that they were “chosen” to guide others through the tempestuous period of change.
This was a time of physical confrontation, of violent rebellion in parts of Europe and the New World. Conscious of anarchy across the English Channel, the British government feared similar outbreaks. The early Romantic poets tended to be supporters of the French Revolution, hoping that it would bring about political change; however, the bloody Reign of Terror shocked them profoundly and affected their views. For instance, in his youth, William Wordsworth was drawn to the Republican cause in France, but he gradually became disenchanted with the Revolutionaries.
The Imagination
The Romantics were not in agreement about everything they said and did: far from it! Nevertheless, certain key ideas dominated their writings. They genuinely thought that they were prophetic figures who could interpret reality. Intuition, instinct, and feelings were more important than logic alone.
In fact, the Romantics highlighted the healing power of the imagination because they truly believed that it could enable people to transcend their troubles and their circumstances. Their creative talents could illuminate and transform the world into a coherent vision, to regenerate mankind spiritually. In A Defence of Poetry (1821), Shelley elevated the status of poets: “They measure the circumference and sound the depths of human nature with a comprehensive and all-penetrating spirit…” He declared that “Poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world.” This might sound somewhat pretentious, but it serves to convey the faith the Romantics had in their poetry.
The Marginalized and Oppressed
Romantics were concerned with the individual. They believed that every individual was important and that people should be unique. They should be bold and experiment, rather than following the rules. For Romantics, poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings to reflect the journey and development of that self.
Wordsworth was concerned about the elitism of earlier poets, whose highbrow language and subject matter were neither readily accessible nor particularly relevant to ordinary people. He maintained that poetry should be democratic– that it should be composed in “the language really spoken by men”(Preface to Lyrical Ballads [1802]). For this reason, he tried to give a voice to those who tended to be marginalized and oppressed by society: the rural poor, discharged soldiers, ‘fallen’ women, the insane, and children.
Likewise, Blake was radical in his political views, frequently addressing social issues in his poems and expressing his concerns about the monarchy and the church. His poem “London” draws attention to the suffering of chimney-sweeps, soldiers, and prostitutes.
Children, Nature, and the Sublime
For the world to be regenerated, the Romantics said that it was necessary to start all over again with a childlike perspective. They believed that children were special because they were innocent and uncorrupted, enjoying a precious affinity with nature.
Romantic verse was suffused with reverence for Nature and the natural world. To them, nature represented the divine imagination. In Coleridge’s “Frost at Midnight” (1798), the poet hailed nature as the “Great universal Teacher!” Recalling his unhappy times at Christ’s Hospital School in London, he explained his aspirations for his son, Hartley, who would have the freedom to enjoy his childhood and appreciate his surroundings. The Romantics were inspired by the environment, and they encouraged people to venture into new territories – both literally and metaphorically. In their writings they made the world seem a place with infinite, unlimited potential.
Usage terms Public Domain
A key idea in Romantic poetry is the concept of the sublime. This term conveys the feelings people experience when they see awesome landscapes, or find themselves in extreme situations which elicit both fear and admiration. For example, Shelley described his reaction to stunning, overwhelming scenery in the poem ‘Mont Blanc’ (1816).
In his 1757 essay, the philosopher Edmund Burke discusses the attraction of the immense, the terrible and the uncontrollable. The work had a profound influence on the Romantic poets.
Romantics saw Symbolism and Myths as the human equivalent to nature’s language. Symbols and myths were seen as universal and, because they could simultaneously mean multiple things, they were seen as superior.
The Second-generation Romantics
Blake, Wordsworth, and Coleridge were first-generation Romantics, writing against a backdrop of war. Wordsworth, however, became increasingly conservative in his outlook: indeed, second-generation Romantics, such as Byron, Shelley, and Keats, felt that he had ‘sold out’ to the Establishment.
In the suppressed Dedication to Don Juan (1819-1824), Byron criticized the Poet Laureate, Robert Southey, and the other ‘Lakers’, Wordsworth and Coleridge (all three lived in the Lake District). Byron also expressed his displeasure with the English Foreign Secretary, Viscount Castlereagh, denouncing him as an “intellectual eunuch,” a “bungler,” and a “tinkering slavemaker” (stanzas 11 and 14). Although the Romantics stressed the importance of the individual, they also advocated a commitment to mankind. Byron became actively involved in the struggles for Italian nationalism and the liberation of Greece from Ottoman rule.
Notorious for his sexual exploits, and dogged by debt and scandal, Byron left Britain in 1816. Lady Caroline Lamb famously declared that he was “Mad, bad and dangerous to know.” Similar accusations were pointed at Shelley. Nicknamed “Mad Shelley” at Eton, he was sent down from Oxford for advocating atheism. He antagonized the Establishment further by his criticism of the monarchy, and by his immoral lifestyle.
Female Poets
Female poets also contributed to the Romantic movement, but their strategies tended to be more subtle and less controversial. Although Dorothy Wordsworth (1771-1855) was modest about her writing abilities, she produced poems of her own; and her journals and travel narratives certainly provided inspiration for her brother. Women were generally limited in their prospects, and many found themselves confined to the domestic sphere; nevertheless, they did manage to express or intimate their concerns. For example, Mary Alcock (c. 1742-1798) penned “The Chimney Sweeper’s Complaint.” In “The Birth-Day,” Mary Robinson (1758-1800) highlighted the enormous discrepancy between life for the rich and the poor. Gender issues were foregrounded in “Indian Woman’s Death Song,” by Felicia Hemans (1793-1835).
The Gothic
Reaction against the Enlightenment was reflected in the rise of the Gothic novel. The most popular and well-paid 18th-century novelist, Ann Radcliffe (1764–1823), specialized in “the hobgoblin-romance,” in which heroines ventured into awe-inspiring landscapes. She was dubbed “Mother Radcliffe” by Keats because she had such an influence on Romantic poets.
The Gothic genre contributed to Coleridge’s Christabel (1816) and Keats’ “La Belle Dame Sans Merci” (1819). Mary Shelley (1797-1851) blended realist, Gothic, and Romantic elements to produce her masterpiece Frankenstein (1818), in which a number of Romantic aspects can be identified. She quotes from Coleridge’s Romantic poem The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. In the third chapter, Frankenstein refers to his scientific endeavors being driven by his imagination. The book raises worrying questions about the possibility of ‘regenerating’ mankind, but at several points the world of nature provides inspiration and solace.
The Byronic Hero
Romanticism set a trend for some literary stereotypes. Byron’s Childe Harold (1812-1818) described the wanderings of a young man, disillusioned with his empty way of life. The melancholy, dark, brooding, rebellious ‘Byronic hero’, a solitary wanderer, seemed to represent a generation, and the image lingered. The figure became a kind of role model for youngsters: men regarded him as ‘cool’ and women found him enticing. Byron died young, in 1824, after contracting a fever. This added to the appeal of his works. Subsequently, a number of complex and intriguing heroes appeared in novels: for example, Heathcliff in Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights and Edward Rochester in Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre (both published in 1847).
Contraries
Romanticism offered a new way of looking at the world, prioritizing imagination above reason. There was, however, a tension at times in the writings, as the poets tried to face up to life’s seeming contradictions. Blake published Songs of Innocence and of Experience, Shewing the Two Contrary States of the Human Soul (1794). Here we find two different perspectives on religion in “The Lamb” and “The Tyger.” The simple vocabulary and form of “The Lamb’”suggest that God is the beneficent, loving Good Shepherd. In stark contrast, the creator depicted in “The Tyger” is a powerful blacksmith figure. The speaker is stunned by the exotic, frightening animal, posing the rhetorical question: “Did he who made the Lamb make thee?” In The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (1790-1793) Blake asserted: “Without contraries is no progression’”(stanza 8).
Wordsworth’s “Tintern Abbey”(1798) juxtaposed moments of celebration and optimism with lamentation and regret. Keats thought in terms of an opposition between the imagination and the intellect. In a letter to his brothers, in December 1817, he explained what he meant by the term “Negative Capability,” “that is when a man is capable of being in uncertainties, Mysteries, doubts, without any irritable reaching after fact and reason” (22 December). Keats suggested that it is impossible for us to find answers to the eternal questions we all have about human existence. Instead, our feelings and imaginations enable us to recognize Beauty, and it is Beauty that helps us through life’s bleak moments. Life involves a delicate balance between times of pleasure and pain. The individual has to learn to accept both aspects: ‘“Beauty is truth, truth beauty,” – that is all/Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know”‘(“Ode on a Grecian Urn”[1819]).
The premature deaths of Byron, Shelley, and Keats contributed to their mystique. As time passed they attained iconic status, inspiring others to make their voices heard. The Romantic poets continue to exert a powerful influence on popular culture. Generations have been inspired by their promotion of self-expression, emotional intensity, personal freedom and social concern.
Romantic Rhetoric
Two rhetorical movements tied the Enlightenment’s focus on the value of the individual with the focus of the Romantics on beauty: the Belles Lettres and the Elocutionary Movement.
Belles Lettres means “fine or beautiful letters” in French. The Belles Lettres tradition focused on the aesthetic qualities of writing, highly valuing forms of writing like poetry, story, and drama, in addition to formal speech. This movement changed the way rhetoric was viewed as a study of invention and arguments to now being seen as the study of the universal effects of language on readers and listeners. The Belles Lettres expanded rhetoric into a study of history, poetry, and language. With an emphasis on the appreciation of texts, the rules of classical rhetoric were used to critique literature.
The Elocutionary Movement focused on delivery, correct pronunciation, and non-verbal appeals, focusing on the importance of oral presentation that we now refer to as “public speaking.” Practicing good delivery was a crucial way of showing the audience that the speaker is credible. A person’s speech was an indication of their class and education. So, by improving their speech, a person could increase the likelihood of being heard and believed.
The Romantics influenced rhetoric in many of the following ways:
- The focus on using the language of the common people led to a use of Analogy instead of enthymemes and syllogisms.
- The focus on Nature led to the belief that composition should grow instead of being constructed. It should be “organic.”
- Creation of Pulpit/Sermon Rhetoric. This style of speech focused on expressiveness, certain types of organization, appeals to the emotions, ethics, and aesthetics. There should be a dual focus on speaking from the heart and rhetorical considerations. Sermons should be both literary and rhetorical so as to appeal to the common man.
- The value of personal writing, like diaries and letters, and extemporaneous speech was elevated.
- The focus on the individual led to a reliance on pathetic appeals to drive home messages. The emphasis was on the sublime, especially nature and the unpredictable acts of God. `The goal was for the audience to identify with a poem or story and participate through the imagination.
- There was a focus on the past, the surprising, and nature to find harmony with self and God.
- Romantic rhetoric relied upon an appeal to unity in the audience; they believed that the audience must be a willing participant in the communication act and try to identify with the speaker.
Key Figures:
Giambattista Vico (1668-1744)
Giambattista Vico was a professor of Rhetoric at Naples for 40 years. Though he originally studied law, Vico later became more interested in things like literature, history, mathematics, rhetoric, and philosophy, spending long hours teaching himself philosophy, law, and literature. Vico became so passionate about rhetoric and literature that he took it upon himself to write a response to Renee Descartes. He argued that anyone who “intends a career in public life, whether in the courts, the senate, or the pulpit” should be taught to “master the art of topics and defend both sides of a controversy, be it on nature, man, or politics, in a freer and brighter style of expression, so he can learn to draw on those arguments which are most probable and have the greatest degree of verisimilitude.” His book, On the study methods of our time, was published in 1708.
Vico had a holistic view of mind and body that posited that imagination was necessary to make sense of the world. He believed that a study of myths and fables would help develop the imagination. Like most Romantics, he believed that current words were imitations of nature. Adopting Aristotle’s enthymemes, he believed that rhetoric is the foundation of society.
Vico’s Work
Vico began work on his self-proclaimed (and self-funded) masterpiece, the Scienza Nuova, in 1720.
David Hume (1711-1776)
David Hume was an 18th-century Scottish philosopher known for his empiricism and skepticism.
Hume begins his essay Of the Standard of Taste by discussing whether it is possible to propose a universal system of ethics. He proposes that the mere naming of specific moral attitudes gives the impression that these are desirable, but study of poetry soon makes it clear that different poets, and different cultures, praise different ethical values. He proposes that there is no merit in a notion of a universal morality, and that there can be no general standard of taste. This derives from the idea that there are two ways to consider an object, through judgement and through sentiment. Because judgements make reference to real facts, they can be true or false. But sentiment, the way an individual feels about an object, cannot conform – “all sentiment is right” as it derives from the individual’s perception and experience, culture, education, etc. “Beauty … exists merely in the mind which contemplates [things]; and each mind perceives a different beauty.”
What Hume is proposing is that anything can provoke a wide range of reactions of taste; an object has no inherent quality of taste. “Beauty is no quality in things themselves; it exists merely in the mind which contemplates them; and each mind perceives a different beauty.”
Hume defined high and low rhetoric depending on the purpose. Low rhetoric is manipulative, while high rhetoric is polite and accurate.
Hume’s Work
Edmund Burke (1729-1797)
Burke was an Irish statesman, journalist, and writer. Born in Dublin, Burke moved to London in 1750, where he served as a member of parliament (MP) in the Whig Party of the House of Commons in Great Britain between 1766 and 1794.
In 1756, Burke published his first important work, A Vindication of Natural Society. Here he assessed the latest trends in social theory. Burke’s second important work, published in 1757 (but written a decade earlier), was a treatise on aesthetics titled Philosophical Inquiry into the Origin of our Ideas on the Sublime and the Beautiful. In this work Burke “explores the nature of ‘negative’ pleasures, that is, irrational and mixed feelings of pleasure and pain, of attraction and terror” (Yolton, 72). The sublime, that is the interaction between reason and emotion, was a concept that preoccupied many Enlightenment thinkers. The historian S. Blackburn describes the significance of Burke’s work: “[It] marked a very early Romantic turn away from the 18th-century aesthetic of clarity and order, in favour of the imaginative power of the unbounded and infinite, and the unstated and unknown” (66). Burke was challenging the idea that reason was the best faculty to deal with the world and expand our knowledge of it. Reason was a cornerstone of the Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment movement, but Burke, nevertheless, insisted that emotion (what we today might call intuition or creative imagination) had its place in the learning process. he wrote:
“Whatever turns the soul inward on itself, tends to concentrate its forces and to fit it for greater and stronger flights of science. Whenever the wisdom of our Creator intended that we should be affected with any thing, he did not confine the exercise of his design to the languid and precarious operation of our reason; but he endued it with powers and properties that prevent [i.e anticipate] the understanding, and even the will, which seizing upon the senses and imagination, captivate the soul before the understanding is ready either to join with them or to oppose them.” (Hampson, 193)
Burke believed that reason must prevail over an excess of emotions, and he supported the idea that organized religion had a crucial role to play in maintaining good social order.
Descriptions of Burke:
“The personal description of Edmund Burke has been handed down. He was about five feet ten inches high, well made and muscular; of that firm and compact frame that denotes more strength than bulk. His countenance had been in his youth handsome. The expression of his face was less striking than might have been anticipated; at least it was so until lit up by the animation of his conversation, or the fire of his eloquence. In dress he usually wore a brown suit; and he was in his later days easily recognisable in the House of Commons from his bob-wig and spectacles.”
“He deserved … worship better than most idols. Gentle, affectionate, unassuming towards the members of his own family, he was also dignified, polished, and courteous in his manner to all the rest of mankind. Nature had stamped the noblest impress of genius on his wrinkled brow, and time had slowly conferred a grace on his address which made him appear singularly pleasing and lovable. In the House of Commons only the fiercer peculiarities of his character were now seen; while at home he seemed the mildest and kindest, as well as one of the best and greatest of human beings. He poured forth the rich treasures of his mind with the most prodigal bounty. At breakfast and dinner his gaiety, wit, and pleasantry enlivened the board, and diffused cheerfulness and happiness all round.”
From Word Portraits of Famous Writers on Project Gutenberg.
Burke “On the Sublime“
Thomas Sheridan (1719-1788)
Sheridan was an Irish doctor, educator, author, and actor who provided students with the knowledge of speaking publicly. Believing that skillful public speaking was beneficial, Sheridan referred to “poor preaching” as a threat to Britain and its education system. He argued that oratory was the pulpit and that it must effectively support religion against the opposition or it would be the principal means of its destruction.
The godson of Jonathan Swift, he wrote at least eleven books on pronunciation, including the Dictionary of the English Language. His goal was to make English the international language. He believed that a person’s accent affected their credibility.
Gilbert Austin (1753-1837)
Austin was an Irish minister who established a private school and wrote Chironomia, or a Treatise on Rhetorical Delivery, which focused on using hand gestures while speaking.
Austin observed that British orators were skilled in the first four divisions of rhetoric: inventio, dispositio, elocutio, and memoria. However, the fifth division, pronuntiatio or delivery, was all but ignored. Rather than study the art of delivery, orators trusted to the inspiration of the moment to guide their voices and gestures.
Austin, however, felt that delivery should be highlighted as an important rhetorical tool. Good delivery, Austin noted, can “conceal in some degree the blemishes of the composition, or the matter delivered, and…add lustre to its beauties” (187). In the first part of the book, Austin traces the study of the art of delivery from the classical world to the 18th century. The second part of the book is devoted to a description of the notation system Austin designed to teach students of rhetoric the management of gesture and voice. The system of notation is accompanied by a series of illustrations depicting positions of the feet, body and hands.
Throughout Chironomia, Austin instructs speakers to avoid the appearance of vulgarity or rusticity. Austin first developed the system of notation described in Chironomia at his school for privileged young men. Austin’s goal was to prepare his students for a life in the church or politics by training them to become better orators. Although Austin’s system was eventually dismissed as too rigidly prescriptive, Chironomia was a highly influential book during the 19th century. Interestingly, a recent work has revived Austin’s Chironomia by creating a digital way to analyze a speaker’s gestures. Read more about the Digital Chrironomia.
Austin’s Work
Hugh Blair (1718-1800)
Hugh Blair was born in Edinburgh, the only child of a prominent Presbyterian family. He entered the University of Edinburgh at age thirteen, where he studied moral philosophy and literature. Two years after finishing his university education, Blair became a Presbyterian preacher. Blair achieved various positions of authority within the Church and began publishing his largest work, Sermons, during this time.
Beginning in 1760, Blair taught rhetoric and composition at the University of Edinburgh. Blair believed that speech should be sincere and that speakers should clearly understand the rhetorical situation. Fond of Quintilian, he believed that “True eloquence is the art of placing truth in the most advantageous light for conviction and persuasion.”
As he approached retirement, Blair published many of his lessons in Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles Lettres, perhaps fearful that corrupt manuscripts would circulate. The Lectures series was first published in 1783 in London, and later that same year in Edinburgh.
Hugh Blair’s Work
Thomas De Quincey (1785-1859)
De Quincey was a British author and opium addict. His Confessions of an English Opium-Eater was first published in 1821 in the London Magazine. It professes to tear away the ‘decent drapery’ of convention and present the reader with ‘the record of a remarkable period’ in the author’s life, beginning when he ran away from school at the age of 17 and spent several months as a vagrant. It is the sections that describe his opium addiction, however, that have become the most famous. De Quincey began to take the drug as a student at Oxford to relieve a severe bout of toothache, and he remained dependent on it for the rest of his life. He describes, in vivid detail, the visions and dreams he experiences, conjuring up a world of contrasts that was both a ‘paradise’ and a place of ‘incubus and nightmare’.
De Quincey wrote his Confessions while unknown and in debt, but the work caused such a sensation that his literary fame was secured, and his account of his addiction has become a central Romantic text.
Romanticism vs the Enlightenment
The article “What was Romanticism” gives a great overview of the conversation between Romanticism and the Enlightenment, and this table shows a simplistic view of the differences between the Enlightenment and Romanticism:
| Enlightenment | Romanticism |
| Reason | Passion/Emotion |
| Human nature | Nature |
| Man over nature | Nature over man |
| Forward looking | Backward looking |
| Ignore the middle ages | Look to the middle ages |
Here’s a short video discussing how Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein illustrates the tension between the ideas of Romanticism and the Enlightenment:
Finally, looking at work of Descartes and Vico side by side can also give us an interesting look at the contrast between the two styles.
- Descartes vs Vico
- Vico’s Objections to Descartes
- “Which Hero, Which Story?”
- “Philosophy of History”
Additional Resources:
- American Romanticism from the Stevenson Library Digital Collections
- An overview of Romantic Rhetoric/Aesthetics from Stanford
- What was Romanticism?
- Discussion Descartes vs Vico
Attributions
- “Enlightenment” adapted from “The Enlightenment” by Matthew White licensed CC BY NC.
- “Enlightenment” adapted from “The Enlightenment” by Mark Cartwright licensed CC BY NC.
- “Rhetoric in the Enlightenment” adapted from History of Rhetoric in Writing licensed CC BY NC.
- “Campbell” adapted from History of Rhetoric in Writing licensed CC BY NC.
- “Industrial Revolution” adapted from “The Industrial Revolution” by Matthew White licensed CC BY.
- Content adapted from “Romanticism” by Stephanie Forward licensed CC BY NC.
- “Vico” adapted from History of Rhetoric in Writing licensed CC BY NC.
- “Hume” adapted from “Four Dissertations” licensed under CC BY.
- “Burke” adapted from “Edmund Burke” licensed CC BY NC.
- “Sheridan” adapted from History of Rhetoric in Writing licensed CC BY NC.
- “Hugh Blair” adapted from “Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles Lettres” licensed CC BY NC.
- “Confessions of an Opium Eater” licensed CC BY.
Citations
- Smith, Craig R. Rhetoric and Human Consciousness, 5th Edition. Waveland Press, 2017.
- Percy Bysshe Shelley, Shelley’s poetry and prose: authoritative texts, criticisms, ed. by Donald H. Reiman and Sharon B. Powers (New York; London: Norton, c.1977), p.485.
