The author briefly examines three 18th century texts in order to indicate a method of speculating not only about the field of art education, but also about its literature. (Author/SJL)

Characterizes the extent to which--and the ways in which--Hugh Blair's "Sermons" are pathetic or emotional, in light of criticisms that maintain his work is passionless. Examines the closely related matter of Blair's moral philosophy, in which the passions play an important role as subject matter. (TB)

Reproduces portions of the first lecture given to the Philosophical Society of Aberdeen, Scotland--George Campbell's discussion of eloquence of 1758. Explains the importance of this document, asserting that it reveals the "belletristic" roots of Campbell's theory, and proves that his differentiation on the "ends" of speaking…

Scholars and instructors of college writing may find that an examination of the literate sources behind Hugh Blair's bias for oral over written expression during the late 18th century gives perspective to their own teaching endeavors. The fact that there were many sources for Blair's own bias suggests that instead of the oral steadily giving way…

A study focusing on the history of reading, or the uses of literacy, in the first years of the American republic examined the subscription list and content of "The New York Magazine; or, Literary Repository" for 1790. Data for the study were taken from the magazine's subscription list and from various biographical sources, such as the…

Offers a naturalistic picture of literacy in colonial North America by exploring family literacy in an early eighteenth-century urban New England setting. Uses the diaries and other writings of Cotton Mather (1663-1728) as sources on literacy within his family. Notes the importance of writing within the family. (SR)

Modern disillusionment with rationalistic and mechanistic creeds increases the relevance of the thought of Giambattista Vico, an eighteenth century thinker. Vico's "New Science" dealt with the origins of human consciousness and society, and with the development of human nature, knowledge, and institutions in ways that anticipate modern…

Analyzes how John Dickinson's "Letter from a Farmer in Pennsylvania" appropriates pastoral design and convention for rhetorical ends. Explores how literary idiom lends its force of expression to meet the needs of public controversy and how rhetorical judgment is both insubstantiated in the argument and is its chief mode of appeal. (KEH)

The proposition can be offered that the notion of "the plant" should be the paradigmatic metaphor for modern conceptions of the composing process. Various forms of the metaphor are found in classical and eighteenth century writings alike. A modern shift in focus from writing product to process has brought to the fore the dynamic…

In "Emile," Rousseau recognized the educational value of Defoe's "Robinson Crusoe." Despite this, and despite some common ground between these two writers, their differences in educational outlook outweigh their similarities, especially in the educational debates of their age concerning Nature and Nurture and Private and Public…

Discusses how a genre like the essay could have originated in opposition to rhetoric and then nevertheless be taken over by it. Concentrates on four moments in the history of the essay: (1) its birth; (2) the English essay of the seventeenth century; (3) the classical form of "The Tatler" and "The Spectator"; and (4) the role…

Examines issues about the representation of children in art during the 18th and 19th centuries: (1) main representations during this period; (2) principal influences affecting the construction of these images; and (3) whether the verbal and visual arts conceptualize childhood in similar or different ways. Looks at three influences on writers and…

Discusses the conflict between the religious and scientific imaginations as existing between the intellectual realms of unquestioning faith and constant questioning. Relates this conflict to writers of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, e.g., Bacon, Kepler, Wilkins, Godwin, Harrington, Campanella, Cyrano, Le Bret, Defoe, Swift, Voltiare,…

Surveys research on children's literature and humor by professionals in the field. Presents an overview of pre-twentieth century books which indicate the main lines of development of humor in children's literature. (FMW)

Suggests that the poetry and the life of Aphra Behn illumines the dynamic of a fascinating transitional period in definitions of gender and sexuality; and that she was the true pioneer of this brave new world of sexual possibility in the late 17th and early 18th centuries. (RS)