Chapter I: Rhetoric: or the Theory of Ornate Form

Rhetoric in the ancient sense--Criticism from moral point of view--Accumulation without system--Its fortunes in the Middle Ages and Renaissance--Criticisms by Vives, Ramus and Patrizzi--Survival into modern times--Modern signification of Rhetoric: theory of literary form--Concept of ornament--Classes of ornament--The concept of the Fitting--The theory of ornament in the Middle Ages and Renaissance--_Reductio ad absurdum_ in the seventeenth century--Polemic concerning the theory of ornament--Du Marsais and metaphor--Psychological interpretation--Romanticism and Rhetoric: present day