A Dissertation on Rhetoric

London: J. J. Stockdale. Good with no dust jacket. 1812. 2nd Edition ( Corrected and Enlarged ). Hardcover. Quarter-bound in the orginal contemporary binding with a beige cloth spine, and paper covered boards. No Titling to the spine or boards. (Probably had a paper label - now missing). All covers are a little marked/grubby and there is a 2" narrow split in the top inner edge to the cloth of the spine - but all hinges tight and sound - it's just the cloth that has split. The corners, edges and head/tail of the spine are bumped, with a little scraping to the corners but generally sound, tight and complete. Plain Endpapers with traces of a bookplate (? ) having been removed from the front pastedown. No Inscriptions but a brown mark (O.25 cm at it's widest by 2.00 cm long) affecting the blank edge and fore edge of the last 20pp and the Index - possibly old dried-brown ink? Most pages uncut. Rough edged pages with some light foxing spots. Internally a few pages browned, some foxing, creasing and light thumbing, but generally the text is white and very clean. 476 pp + (11 pp) Index. Overall considering the book is 200 years old this is a Very Clean, Tight and Bright copy. "Aristotle's Rhetoric and Poetics are an alternative to Plato. Aristotle's rhetoric tries to strike a middle position. Aristotle says rhetoric and poetry are a technique, the Rhetoric is a handbook. Aristotle says the speaker needs to appeal to appropriate information for the particular setting. Much like a lawyer's argument, not just relying on facts, need to appeal to people's emotions. Aristotle does understand that rhetoric can be used in a harmful way. Aristotle lays out three features in rhetoric: 1. Ethos= character of the speaker, also charisma, speaker earns the audience's trust, use of body language. 2. Pathos= condition of the hearer. 3. Logos= essential bearing on political persuasion, truth. Plato's concern by definition therefore excludes speech because it deals with emotion. These three conditions must be in play for a speech to be successful. The rhetoric contains a detailed analysis of the different human emotions and how to elicit them in a speech. Aristotle knows the speaker must be a good student of human nature to tap into human emotions." (Michael A Neulander) ; Large 8vo 9" - 10" tall .