Rhetoric Common Sense

In his lectures on Rhetoric, sympathy is described as a mode of perception, a mechanism for moral judgement and a channel for affective communication. Sympathy, motor of action is a means of persuasion. Smith objects to the notion the ancient Greeks espoused that argued that passion and beauty of style consisted in the use of figures of speech. Smith disagrees and argues that beauty of style consists in one’s ability to properly express the thought they wish to communicate by sympathy. Smith says:
When the sentiment of the speaker is expressed in a neat, clear, plain and clever manner, and the passion or affection he is possessed of and intends, by sympathy, to communicate to his hearer, is plainly and cleverly hit off, then and then only the expression has all the force and beauty that …show more content…
Smith calls this mode of rhetoric common sense. Citing Addison, Swift and Bolingbroke as examples of communicating to our sympathies Smith says:
This you’ll say is no more than common sense, and indeed it is no more. But if you’ll attend to it all the Rules of Criticism and morality when traced to their foundation, turn out to be some Principles of Common Sense which every one assents to; all the business of those arts is to apply these Rules to the different subjects and shew what their conclusion is when they are so applied. Tis for this purpose we have made these observations on the authors above mentioned. We have shown how far they have acted agreeably to that Rule, which is equally applicable to conversation and behavior as writing. For what is that makes a man agreeable company, is it not, when his sentiments appear to be naturally expressed, when the passion or affection is properly conveyed and when their thoughts are so agreeable and natural that we find ourselves inclined to give our assent to