Two Lectures on Rhetoric: Delivered in the Mechanics' Institute, Toronto (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from Two Lectures on Rhetoric: Delivered in the Mechanics' Institute, Toronto

Policy, but it is of the most benevolent and enlightened kind, and may be held as indicating the dawn ofa brighter day upon the nations. How seldom do we meet, in the history of the world, with statesmen address ing themselves to the people in language like this, We will not be accessary to upholding on the one hand a tax upon education, and on the other an immunity upon ignorance. Here are two classes of labor ers, we shall suppose, the one having both the capacity and the will to correspond with their friends at a distance, by means of writing, and the other having neither the will nor the capacity,we shall not allow ourselves to be either so unwise, or so unjust, as to tax those who ought rather to be free, and to free those who ought rather to be taxed. It is true, we need the money which this tax brought into the public purse, but we shall raise it from a source less objectionable than one which bears the aspect of discouraging the superior tastes and education of the people. It was a spirit of the same kind as this that led the eloquent poet, Cow per, to exclaim England, With all thy faults, I love thee still I It is now admitted by men of all parties, nearly of all religious Opinions, that education, more especially in our large cities, has been very greatly neglected; and, I may afterwards show, that there are certain special considerations which serve to prove, that a neglect in them is a more serious thing than a like neglect among a population living in the coun try.* Meanwhile I proceed to bring again before you the topics which I touched upon the last time I addressed you, when recommending English Composition as a branch of study. I observed, that the mere art of speaking or writing in an ornate style, would be an acquirement of a very inferior kind. The most accomplished pupil in the school of rhetoric would be but poorly qualified for the real business of the world were his mind not previously stored with useful knowledge. Were he not imbued with materials for thought and reflection, it would be of small avail that he had acquired the art of presenting us with elegantly turned sentences, but filled only with empty declamation. This branch of study supposes you have disciplined your mind by reflection, and furnished it With a measure of knowledge; and it meets you at this stage of your progress, and proposes to instruct you in the best mode of conveying, through the medium of written language, your thoughts to other minds. And surely in a community like ours, in which intelligence in all the departments of business is so highly prized, it seems only needful to state the object of a class for English Composition in order to secure for it the countenance of the public, at least of all those, who, entering on the busy arena of life, desire to perform their part with efficiency and honor. I showed, that in the earliest stages of society, we could trace.

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