| Résumé: | This article explores the relationship established by nineteenth century men of letters between the study of rhetoric, the notion of neoclassical good taste and the normative guidelines that should guide eloquence in the new public space of the Chilean press and parliament, up through the middle of the nineteenth century. It argues that, during this period, these aesthetic norms also possessed an ethical and political character, connected to the civilizational standards put forward by liberal and Enlightenment men of letters. This paradigm was in tension with the guidelines of ecclesiastical oratory. Though the political sphere adopted the rules of political eloquence, priests still turned to images and messages that appealed to the spiritual fears of their parishioners, violating the principles of good taste, which earned them criticism from liberal men of letters.
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