Date: 1776

"When therefore the orator can obtain no direct aid from the memory of his hearers, which is rarely to be obtained, he must, for the sake of brightening, and strengthening, and, if I may be permitted to use so bold a metaphor, cementing his ideas, bespeak the assistance of experience"

— Campbell, George (1719-1796)

Date: 1776

"Hence the strange parade he makes with regions, and recesses, hollow caverns, and private seats, wastes, and wildernesses, fruitful and cultivated tracks, words which, though they have a precise meaning as applied to country, have no definite signification as applied to mind."

— Campbell, George (1719-1796)

Date: 1776

"It is his purpose in this Work, on the one hand, to exhibit, he does not say, a correct map, but a tolerable sketch of the human mind; and aided by the lights which the poet and the orator so amply furnish, to disclose its secret movements, tracing its principal channels of perception and action...

— Campbell, George (1719-1796)

Date: 1776

"Knowledge, the object of the intellect, furnisheth materials for the fancy; the fancy culls, compounds, and, by her mimic art, disposes these materials so as to affect the passions; the passions are the natural spurs to volition or action, and so need only to be right directed."

— Campbell, George (1719-1796)

Date: 1776

"But that kind of address of which I am now treating, attains the summit of perfection in the sublime, or those great and noble images, which, when in suitable colouring presented to the mind, do, as it were, distend the imagination with some vast conception, and quite ravish the soul."

— Campbell, George (1719-1796)

Date: 1776

"But it is evident, that this creative faculty, the fancy, frequently lends her aid in promoting still nobler ends. From her exuberant stores most of those tropes and figures are extracted, which, when properly employed, have such a marvellous efficacy in rousing the passions, and by some secret,...

— Campbell, George (1719-1796)

Date: 1776

"It is this which hath been so justly celebrated as giving one man an ascendant over others, superior even to what despotism itself can bestow; since by the latter the more ignoble part, only the body and its members, are enslaved; whereas, from the dominion of the former, nothing is exempted, ne...

— Campbell, George (1719-1796)

Date: 1776

"Would we penetrate farther, and agitate the soul, we must exhibit only some vivid strokes, some expressive features, not decorated as for show (all ostentation being both despicable and hurtful here), but such as appear the natural exposition of those bright and deep impressions, made by the sub...

— Campbell, George (1719-1796)

Date: 1776

"In respect of dignity, or the impression they make upon the mind, they must be things homogeneous."

— Campbell, George (1719-1796)

Date: 1776

"It is likewise witty, for, not to mention the play on words like that remarked in the former example, a trope familiar to this author, you have here a comparison of---a woman's chastity to a piece of porcelain,---her honour to a gaudy robe,---her prayers to a fantastical disguise,---her heart to...

— Campbell, George (1719-1796)