owerful instrument of error and deceit,

The good kind is used in good causes, the bad kind in bad causes. Our kind is the good kind; the bad kind is used by our opponents

who expected rhetoric to act on the imagination to se-cure the triumph of reason.

Truth, it was held, presided over a dialectical discussion, and the in-terlocutors had to reach agreement about it by themselves, whereas rhetoric taught only how to present a point of view-that is to say, a partial aspect of the question-and the decision of the issue was left up to a third person

We have not here in view the more familiar ways in which words may be used to deceive. In a later chapter, when the function of language as an instrument for the promotion of purposes rather than as a means of !iymbolizing references is fully discussed, we shall see how the intention of the speaker may complicate the situation.

as a solution to problems raised by traditional theo-ries of language and meaning.

i11.\'tru111e111al arts; and, as such, applicat,/e

Our eyes and hands and feet will give us the ~~'.r , same assistance in doing mischief as in doing ~. good; but it would not therefore be better for the "'""- world that all mankind were blind and lame

Hence it hath become a common topic with rhetoricians, that, in order to be a successful orator, one must be a good ~ . man; for to be good is the only sure way of ci..~ being long esteemed good, and to be esteemed ~ good is previously necessary 10 one's being 6 .... •~ heard with due allention and regard.

hetoric and criticism have some-times been so managed as to tend to the corrup-tion, rather than to the improvement, of good taste and true eloquence. But sure it is equally possible to apply the principles of reason and good sense to this art, as to any other that is culti-vated among men.

First, to make known one man's (r thoughts or ideas to another; Secondly, to do it with as much ease and quickness as possible; and, Thirdly, thereby to convey the knowledge of things: language is either abused or deficient, when it fails of any of these three.

First, One for the recording of our own thoughts. Secondly, The other for the communicating of our thoughts to others

Tolookatlanguageself-consciouslyistoplaygameswithit;tolookthroughlanguageunselfconsciouslyistoactpurposivelywithit

HisstateddefenseistheWeakone:"Rhetoricismerelyatool,nobadthinginitself.Orrather,itistheboxoftoolsforper-suasiontakentogether,availableforpersuadersgoodandbad"

theinterfacebetweenabsoluteandcontingentstatements

endangeringpossibilities