Eighteenth-Century British Logic and Rhetoric

Abstract

Wilbur Samuel Howell has been shaping and strengthening our knowledge of logical and rhetorical theory for well over a quarter of a century. His treatment of these two areas of study places his work in the history of ideas, and all students of his subject matter recognize themselves as deeply in his debt. None will be surprised that his most recent book, Eighteenth-Century British Logic and Rhetoric, gives added cause for gratitude and admiration. It is a large book, more than 700 pages, and the material it covers could easily have overwhelmed a lesser man. Howell's grasp of the whole pattern and the significance of the parts and pieces is formidable. He has produced a book that is certain to be a basic text, a necessary starting place, for the study of eighteenth-century logic and rhetoric for many years to come. The firm and secure foundation he has laid must be regarded as a clear advancement for this entire field of study. The precision of his method and the breadth of his erudition will both inspire and inform future investigation. Those who are familiar with Howell's earlier book, Logic and Rhetoric in England, 1500-1700, will know what to expect from the new volume, for it follows a similar pattern and sets similar goals. What Howell has given us is a description of the movements of logical and rhetorical theory during the period he has investigated. Theory, in this case, is a rather rarified altitude of specialization, and future readers of this book need to be warned not to expect of it what it never aimed at doing. I suspect that a large percentage of its readers will be interested in logic and rhetoric as parts of movements or symptoms of the larger whole of intellectual history and will, therefore, find themselves wishing that the book were more of an account of logical and rhetorical practice. They may well want to know not so much what theoretical doctrines were preached as what effect, if any, those doctrines had on the structure and quality of the communicative writing of the period. They might want to know, for example, if theory followed practice, or if the practice was formed by the theory. Such concerns, however, play no important part in Howell's design, although it must be said that with his sorting and pointing of theoretical movements, much work toward a description of logical and rhetorical practice has been done. After they have consulted this book, students of the practice of these disciplines will have a clearer idea of where they are going, what terms and issues to work with, and what sort of distinctions they will need to make.

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