Alexander Bain: From English Composition and Rhetoric

I thought this piece was pretty interesting, and I was pleasantly surprised when he said: "The fulfillment of this design has ended in a treatise more closely allied to Campbell's Philosophy of Rhetoric, Blair's Lectures, and Whately's Rhetoric, than to the majority of recent works on English Composition.". He even refers to Campbell's rhetorical method a little, later on in the piece! I didn't know prior to choosing this piece that he would refer to Campbell at all so that was cool to see :).

Another thing that I really liked about this piece was his discussion of description and its use in rhetoric. he basically states if you explain anything well enough, then even a simple mind will find success, and without description, the greatest genius will fail to persuade the audience of their ideas. I also really liked how in this piece he says that you can pick up any reading book, select a passage and find examples of what he is saying. I thought it was really cool that he made this connection because it probably made it easier for his students to understand what he was saying because it relates to something they probably already understand.

Strangely, Bain suggests that writing essays and themes for rhetorical practice is not the best way for an English student to practice rhetorical methods. I thought this was quite weird because as English majors, we write to practice everything under the sun!