Thus far the learned Professor Ward on that part of oratory called invention; in which we perceive he has followed the ancients, step by step, but not without several judicious observations of his own. On all subjects that do not admit of experiment or demonstration, I own I am a great friend to authority: and when the ancients unanimously, and almost all the moderns down to Priestley and Ward, recommend the topics or common places, I cannot think they can be unworthy of attention. Let those who do not feel themselves in want of such assistance enjoy their superiority, and leave the less gifted part of their species to such resourses as are suited to the mediocrity of their abilities. This part of rhetoric, therefore, which ought to have been the first, is reserved to the last, that the student, if he pleases, may more easily omit the perusal of it. FINIS. |