ing moral character we ascertain from knowing of what kind purpose. this is; and of what kind the deliberate choice is, ration of the concomitant circumstances. from being acquainted with its proposed end. Hence the doctrines of mathematics have no display of character, for neither have they deliberate choice; and this for that they have not the influence of motive2: but the Socratic discourses [have this display], for 9. they treat concerning subjects of this kind. But ii. By nar- those things convey a notion of character, which is consequent upon the several characters3; e. g. "Whilst saying this he began to hasten off;" for this manifests a hardihood and rusticity of character. iii. By And be cautious not to speak coldly as from the unspeaking derstanding merely, as orators do now-a-days, but with feelas though from the deliberate choice 1. 'I, for I ing. wished and deliberately preferred this; and if I profit nothing by it, then it is the more honourable :" for the one is characteristic of a prudent5, the other of a good man since [the proposed end] of the prudent consists in pursuing the expedient; of a good man, in pursuing what is honourable. And should any circumstance be incredible, you must subjoin the reason; as Sophocles does. He furnishes an example in the Antigone, that she mourned more for her brother than for a husband or children; for these, if lost, might again be hers. 66 "But father now and mother both being lost, 2 See the next chapter, § 8. 3 Using, in fact, the onusov of the action as an evidence of the thought, or taking the result of the feeling for the feeling itself; as Pericles does when alluding to the morose looks of the Lacedæmonians, a process which, though ingenious, yet often leads to a fallacy. Which is will regulated by the understanding. See Nich. Eth. book iii. chap. 2, 3, etc. 5 That is, the prudent speak from the dictates of the understanding solely, the good on the impulse of deliberate choice. Sophocles, Antigone, 911. See the speech of the wife of Intaphernes to Darius, on asking the life of a brother in preference to those of her husband or children :- ßaoïλεũ, ávne μέν μοι ἂν ἄλλος γένοιτο, εἰ δαίμων ἐθέλοι, καὶ τέκνα ἄλλα, εἰ ταῦτα ἀποβάλοιμι· πατρὸς δὲ καὶ μητρὸς οὐκ ἔτι μεῦ ζωόντων, ἀδελφεὸς ἂν ἄλλος οὐδενὶ τρόπῳ γένοιτο. Herodotus, Thalia, But if you should have no reason to offer, then avow "that you are well aware that you speak what exceeds belief, but that such is your nature:" for the world discredit a man's doing any thing voluntarily, except what is expedient. ý, Again, draw your remarks out of those things 10. Let which are indicative of the passions; narrating both ration be the nar their attendant circumstances, and those which the antiaudience know, and which attach peculiarly either to the speaker himself or his adversary :—“ He, having scowled at me, departed." And as Eschines said of Cratylus, "that whistling and snapping his fingers" for they have a tendency to persuade : therefore these things which they know, become indices of that which they do not know. Such instances one may get in abundance out of Homer:"Thus Penelope spoke, and the old woman covered her face with her hands7:" for those who are beginning to shed tears cover their eyes. And forthwith and hoh insinuate yourself as a person of a certain character, in order that they may look upon you as one of such a description, and your adversary [as the reverse]: but beware of observation as you do it. And that it is easy to effect this we may observe in those who report any thing to us; for respecting the communication (of which as yet we know nothing), we cap. 119. See the reply of Robert Duke of Normandy to He turned him right and round again, Odyssey, book xix. 361. 11. Narration least used in de oratory. still catch a kind of guess. But the narration must be carried on in different parts, and, in some instances, even at the commencement. But in deliberative speeches narration occurs least of all, because no one narrates respecting what is yet to be: if, however, there should be any narration, it liberative will be respecting things which have already happened, that the recollection of them having been awakened, the judges may determine better on the future; the orator either reprehending or praising them: but he is not then performing the functions proper to him as an adviser. If, however, the thing narrated be incredible, see you promise to state a reason for it immediately, and to submit it to whom they please; like the Jocasta of Carcinus in his Edipus, who always keeps promising when he who was seeking out her son inquires of her: and the Hæmon of Sophocles 10. CHAP. XVII. Of the Proof. 1. Proof PROOF should be demonstrative; and the points of in judicial dispute being four, you must demonstrate by pro oratory: ducing proof respecting the particular point at issue : thus, if the adversary question the fact, you must at the trial produce proof of this point above the rest; should it be that he did no harm, then of that point; mischief. and so should he urge that the action is not of the iii. The degree. importance supposed, or that it was done justly: [and it must be done in the latter cases] exactly in the same way as if the inquiry were respecting the mat See the Trachiniæ of Sophocles, verse 869, where part of the Chorus conjecture, from the dejected looks of the nurse as she approaches, that some calamity is about to be announced. 9 An instance of this occurs in the statement of finance which Pericles laid before the Athenians, to substantiate the hopes which he had held out to them. Thucyd. ii. 13. io See the Antigone, 635, etc. character ter of fact. And let it not escape us that in this sin- 2. iv. The gle inquiry, it must needs be that one party is guilty 1: moral for it is not ignorance which is to blame, as though of the any were to dispute on a point of justice. So that, action. in this inquiry, the circumstance should be employed; but not in the other [three]. 3. deictic the But, in demonstrative rhetoric, amplification, for In epithe most part, will constitute the proof, because the proof is facts are honourable and useful; for the actions made by should be taken on credit2, since, even on these sub- amplificajects, a speaker on very rare occasions does adduce proof, if either the action be passing belief, or if another have the credit of it3. tion. liberative cies of the ry, for these are a part of our proof. But, in deliberative speeches, the orator may either 4. In decontend that the circumstances will not take place, or we must that what he directs will indeed take place, but that observe it is not just, or not beneficial, or not in such a degree. the fallaAnd it will be well for him to observe whether any adversafalsehood appears in the extraneous observations of his adversary; for these appear as so many convincing proofs, that he is false in the case of the other more important statements. And example is best adapted to deliberative rhe- 5. Examtoric; while enthymem is more peculiar to judicial4. ple best For the former is relative to the future; so that out it. of what has been heretofore, we needs must adduce examples: the latter respects what is or is not matter of fact, to which belong more especially demonstration and necessity; for the circumstances of the past involve a necessity. The speaker ought not, 6. How however, to bring forward his enthymems in a conenthytinued series, but to blend them by the way; should he not do this, they prove an injury one to the other, He states the same doctrine in the Nich. Eth. v. 2::οὐ γὰρ ὥσπερ ἐν τοὶς συναλλάγμασι περὶ τοῦ γιγνέσθαι ἀμφισβητοῦσιν ὧν ἀνάγκη τὸν ἕτερον εἶναι μοχθηρὸν ἂν μὴ διὰ λήθην αὐτὸ ὁρῶσιν, κ. τ. λ. 2 "For the facts are taken for granted; so that it only re mains to invest them with grandeur." Book i. chap. 9, § 40. 3 Victorius notices the use of the phrase airíav xew in a good sense. He asserts this, and assigns the reason, at the end of his consideration of demonstrative rhetoric book i. c. 9 40. suited to mems are to be used Not in a series. for there is some limit on the score of quantity too: "Oh friend, since you have spoken just so much as a prudent man would5;" but the poet does not say, of 7. Nor on such a quality. Neither should you seek after en all sub jects. 8. Nor to excite any emotions or passions. thymems on every subject; otherwise you will be doing the very thing which some philosophers du who infer syllogistically conclusions in themselves better known, and more readily commanding belief, than the premises out of which they deduce them. And when you would excite any passion, do not employ an enthymem; for either it will expel the passion, or the enthymem will be uttered to no purpose; for the emotions which happen at the same time expel each other, and either cancel or render one or the other feeble. Neither when one aims at speaking with the effect of character, ought he at all to aim at the same time at enthymem; for demonstration possesses neither an air of character, nor deliberate choice. But a speaker should employ maxims alike in narration and in proof; for it has an expression of character:-"Yes; I delivered it, even knowing the proof that one ought never to repose implicit confidence." And if one speak with a view to excite passion:"And injured though I be, yet I do not repent ; for the gain, indeed, is on his side, but justice on mine." G. But maxims may be used in and nar ration. 10. Rea delibera tive is And deliberative is more difficult than judicial sons why rhetoric, and probably enough,-because it respects the future; whereas, in the latter, the question is respecting the past, which has already become matter of absolute science, even to diviners, as Epimenides the Cretan used to say; for he did not exercise his art of divination respecting things yet to be, but respecting those which had already happened indeed, but which were obscure: again, in judicial questions, more difficult than judicial oratory. i. It is on the future. . Judi 5 The words of Menelaus to Pisistratus, the son of Nestor, Odyssey, lib. iv. 204. The force of the illustration here seems to be this: the poet, no less than the philosopher, thought it no small praise to know when to stop; so that, without allusion to the prudence of what had been said, (to the category of quality, Tolauta,) he commends him merely on the score of its due quantity. |