I shall give an example of the subdivision of one or two of these heads. With refpect to perfon we may confider The Sex, The Age, The perfonal Qualifications, The Fortune, as rich or poor, The Education, The Capacity or Ability; as Sense, Learning, &c. The Profeffion, or Employment in Life, The Nation, Tribe, Family, &c. The Offices of public Life, The Relations of private Life, The Connexion, Company, Party, &c. Laws may be confidered as to Their Precision or Ambiguity, Their Intention, Their customary Forms, &c. &c. It is obvious that it may be convenient to have recourse to these topics in any kind of discourse or compofition in which any particular fact or perfon is introduced; as, whether a fact be proved, or difproved, whether a perfon be accused, or defended; whether a writer make a panegyric, or an invective; or fimply compofe a history. To give an idea of the use of a few of these topics, it may be observed, with regard to sex, that a woman is not so likely to be guilty of robbery as a man; man; but perhaps more likely to be concerned in poison. With refpect to age, that an old man would most naturally have recourse to fraud, a young man to violence:` with respect to nation, that drunkenness would not so easily be believed of a Spaniard, as of a German; and that an Italian would more easily be actuated by outrageous jealousy than a Frenchman. With refpect to fortune or condition in life, that it is natural to believe that a rich man is the most likely to be the aggreffor in a quarrel with a poor man; and lastly, with refpect to education, that a person educated at St. Omer's would be much more juftly fufpected of being difaffected to the English government, than a perfon educated at Oxford or Cambridge. But I would refer the perfon who is defirous of feeing a specimen of the most excellent declamation upon a great variety of these topics, to Cicero's accufation of Varres, and defence of Milo; alfo to his invectives against Catiline and Antony, and to Pliny's panegyric upon the emperor Trajan. As materials for difcourfe may occur to us from confidering the general heads to which they may be referred, so it is poffible, likewise, that we may take hints of arguments from the manner in which they are generally introduced, or the form into which they are thrown. One form of argument, for inftance, is from greater to lefs, or from lefs to greater. Thus a perfon will be more easily believed to have committed a less infamous action, who is known to have committed a more infamous one; one; as, on the other hand, if a perfon have never been known to be guilty of a small tranfgreffion, it will not easily be believed that he hath, all at once, been guilty of a great and flagrant one. Matter for difcourfe may also occur to a perfon who confiders what may be said by way of objection to what he hath advanced, and what conceffions he may make to his opponent. His invention may also be affifted by confidering whether he can, with propriety, introduce any thing in the form of irony, of a question, of an exclamation, and of every other poffible form of addrefs. Moreover, what will be advanced in these lectures upon the fubject of method, will tend greatly to help the invention. I am aware that this whole business of topics is objected to by fome as altogether useless, and what no perfons, who are capable of composing at all, ever stand in need of, or have recourfe to. To this I reply, that, in fact, no person ever did, or ever can compose at all without having recourse to fomething of a fimilar nature. What is recollection but the introduction of one idea into the mind by means of another with which it was previously af fociated? Are not ideas affociated by means of their connexion with, and relation to, one another? And is it not very poffible that particular ideas may be recollected by means of general ideas, which include them? It is impoffible to endeavour to recolleЯ (or, as we generally fay, invent) materials for a difcourfe, without running over in our minds fuch general heads heads of difcourfe as we have found, by experience, to affift us in that operation. It is even impoffible to conceive in what other manner a voluntary effort to invent, or recollect, can be directed. A perfon may not have recourse to any particular lift, or enumeration, of topics; or he may never have heard of the artificial diftribution of them by rhetoricians; but if he compofe at all, though he may be ignorant of the name, he must be poffeffed of the thing. And if a person have any regular method. in his compofitions, he muft, moreover, have arranged those topics in his mind in fome kind of order; the feveral particulars of which, being attended to fucceffively, furnishes him with a plan for compofition. Now is it not better to fit down to compofition provided with a tolerably complete lift of those topics, digefted with care and precision, than make use of fuch an one as we cafually and without any design form to ourselves from general reading only, or a little practice in compofition, which cannot but be very imperfect, and inadequate to the purpose to which it is applied? After previously running over fuch a table, a person would be much better able to form an idea of the extent of his subject, and might conduct his compofition accordingly; or perufing it after reading the compofition of another, he might with much greater certainty know whether any thing of importance had been left unfaid upon the subject; or whether, if the difcourfe were neceffarily limited to to a few arguments, the writer had felected the beft. I cannot help being of opinion that thofe perfons, in particular, whofe profeffion obliges them frequently to compofe moral essays and Sermons, in which the thoughts are not expected to be original (in which, therefore, their chief bufinefs is merely to recollect and digeft the moft valuable materials upon each fubject) would fpend a few minutes to good purpose in perufing a well-digefted table of topics, before they fat down to write. By this means they could feldom be at a lofs for matter; they would more easily select what was most important; and with lefs trouble arrange it in the most advantageous manner. For want, or through neglect of this, as well as for other reasons, we often hear noble and copious fubjects treated in a jejune and trifling manner, fome parts exceffively overdone, others of equal importance wholly omitted, and the whole put together in a moft perplexed order; which exhibits the appearance rather of random indigested thoughts, than of a compofition which was the refult of a previous ftudy of the fubject, and an acquaintance with the whole extent of it. And this previous acquaintance with the whole extent of a fubject can be acquired no other way fo eafily as by the perufal of a judicious fet of rhetorical topics. If we pay any regard to the practice of the famous orators of antiquity, we cannot but be dif pofed |