Master Mind or The Key To Mental Power Development And Efficiency
Mental Therapeutics, or Just How to Heal Oneself and Others
Genuine Mediumship or The Invisible Powers
Clairvoyance and Occult Powers (As Swami Panchadasi)
The Human Aura: Astral Colors and Thought Forms
The Secret Doctrines of the Rosicrucians
The Arcane Formulas, or Mental Alchemy
The Solar Plexus Or Abdominal Brain
The inner secret; or, That something within
The Art of Expression and The Principles of Discourse
Chapter II. Language: Its Beginnings
Chapter III. The Evolution of Language
Chapter V. Building a Vocabulary
Chapter VI. The Choice of Words
Chapter VII. The Choice of Words (continued)
Chapter VIII. Figurative Speech
Chapter IX. Discoursive Expression
Chapter X. Argumentative Discourse
Chapter XII. Evidence and Proof
Chapter I.
Expression
IN THE volume of this series entitled “The Art of Logical Thinking,” we have endeavored to point out to you the rules of logical mentation, and the methods best calculated to develop the faculty of logical thought. In another volume of the same series entitled “ThoughtCulture,” we have endeavored to instruct you in the principles and methods of developing the several faculties of the mind, so that you may use these faculties as efficient instruments of thought. The purpose of the present volume is that of pointing out to you the approved methods and principles of expression—the art of expressing the thoughts, ideas, desires and feelings within you.
The term “expression” is derived from the Latin word expressus, meaning “to squeeze out.” And even in the present usage the idea of “squeezing out,” or pressing out as the wine is pressed out from the grape, is present. “Expression” as used in this connection is defined as: “The act of expressing, uttering, declaring, declaration, utterance, representation; representation by words; style of language; the words or language in which a thought is expressed; phraseology, phrase, mode of speech; elocution, diction, or the particular manner or style of utterance appropriate to the subject and sentiment.”
The Art of Expression is concerned chiefly with oral expression or speaking, but its rules and principles are equally applicable to expression by writing, or composition. As an authority says of one aspect of rhetoric: “It was originally the art of speaking effectively in public, but afterward the meaning was so extended as to comprehend the theory of eloquence, whether spoken or written. * * * Campbell considers the art the same as eloquence, and defines it as ‘That art or talent by which the discourse is adapted to the end,’ and states that the ends of speaking, or writing are reducible to four: to enlighten the understanding, to please the imagination, to move the passions, or to influence the will. Broadly speaking, its aim is to expound the rules governing speech or written composition, designed to influence the judgment or feelings. It includes, therefore, within its province, accuracy of expression, the structure of periods, and figures of speech.”
For our purpose we may consider the Art of Expression as the art of efficient and effective communication between individuals by language. It is not a science, observing, uncovering, discovering, disclosing and classifying, but an art applying the results of prior scientific investigation and classification. As Hill well says: “Logic simply teaches the right use of the reason, and may be practiced by the solitary inhabitant of a desert island; but rhetoric (one aspect of the Art of Expression), being the art of communication by language, implies the presence, in fact or in imagination, of at least two persons—the speaker or the writer, and the person spoken to or written to. Aristotle makes the very essence of rhetoric to lie in the distinct recognition of a hearer. Hence its rules are not absolute, like those of logic, but relative to the character and circumstances of those addressed; for though truth is one, and correct reasoning must always be correct, the ways of communicating truth are many. Being the art of communication by language, rhetoric applies to any subject matter that can be treated in words, but has no subject matter peculiar to itself. It does not undertake to furnish a person with something to say; but it does undertake to tell him how best to say that with which he has provided himself.”
Before one can successfully apply the Art of Expression, he must first have something to express. In order to express thoughts and ideas, one must first have evolved these