Plato discussed, whether rhetoric was not to be rejected as a dangerous weapon. He determined the contrary, upon the principle which allows the use of every dangerous weapon, that we may defend our rights, and oppose our adversaries." But should we therefore turn our arms against our friends? The rhetoricians were banished from Rome at one period: this fact is asserted by Suetonius, who, in confirmation of it, quotes a curious decree of the senate, and also a declaration of the censors," which took place about seventy years later: they were afterwards, however, not only admitted, but encouraged by the highest authority.

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Δεῖ μέντοι ὦ Σώκρατες, τῇ ῥητορικῇ χρῆσθαι, ὥσπερ τῇ ἄλλῃ πάσῃ ἄγωνίᾳ . καὶ ci yaş τῇ ἄλλῃ ἄγωνιᾳ ἔ τέτε ἕνεκα δεῖ πρὸς ἅπαντας χρῆσθαι ἀνθρώπους, ὅτι ἔμαθε τις πυκτέυειν τε καὶ πα[κρατιάζειν καὶ ἐν ὄχλοις μάχεσθαι, ὣς τε κρέιτων εἶναι καὶ φίλων καὶ ἐχθρῶν· ἔ τέτε ἕνεκα τὰς φίλες δεῖ τύπλειν, ἔδε κεντεῖν τε καὶ ἀποκτιννύναι.

Neither is art or strength to be blamed, though some men pervert and use them to bad purposes.

Οι δὲ μετασρέψαντες, χρῶνται τῇ ἰσχὺς καὶ τῇ τεχνῇ ἔκ ὀρθῶς. ἔκουν ὅι διδάξαντες, πονηρὸι· ἔδε ή τέχνη, ἔτε αιτία, ἔτε πονηρὰ τέτε ἕνεκα ἔσιν· ἀλλ' ὁι μὴ χρώμενοι, δίμαι, ὀρθῶς. ὁ αὐτὸς δὴ λόγος καὶ περὶ τῆς ῥητορικῆς Plato in Gorgia.

20 Rhetorica quoque apud nos, perinde atque grammatica, sero recepta est, paullo etiam difficilius quippe quam constet nonnunquam etiam prohibitam exerceri. Quod ne cui dubium sit, vetus senatusconsultum, item censorium edictum subjiciam :* Caio Fannio Strabone, Marco Valerio Messalla consulibus, Marcus Pomponius prætor senatum consuluit. Quod verba facta sunt de philosophis et de rhetoribus, de ea re ita censuerunt, ut Marcus Pomponius prætor animadverteret, curaretque uti è republica fideque sua videretur, uti Roma ne essent.† De iisdem interjecto tempore, Cnæus Domitius Ænobarbus, et Lucius Lucinius Crassus censores, ita edixerunt. Renunciatum est nobis esse homines qui novum genus disciplinæ instituerunt: ad quos juventus in ludos conveniat: eos sibi nomen imposuisse latinos Rhetoras ibi homines adolescentulos totos dies desidere. Majores nostri, quæ Liberos suos discere, et quos in ludos itare vellent, instituerunt. Hæc nova, quæ præter consuetudinem ac morem majorum fiunt, neque placent, neque recta videntur. Quapropter et iis qui eos ludos habent, et eos qui eo venire consueverunt, videtur faciendum ut ostendamus nostram sententiam, nobis non placere.

Paullatim et ipsa utilis honestaque apparuit, multique eam præsidii causa, et gloriæ, appetiverunt. Sueton. de Claris Rhet.

The great advancement of the British islands in every department of literature and refinement, leaves no reason to apprehend any public or private violence of this kind. All the branches of rhetoric, if we except only the last, have been long cultivated with advantage. The neglect of it may probably be attributed with more reason to the want of approved living models for imitation, than to any supposed incapacity for, or rooted indisposition towards, this division of the art. The theatre indeed is in no want of living models of almost absolute perfection in the art of delivery, and accordingly stands perhaps unrivalled in the higher walks of the drama: and from the growing attention of the public to this subject, and the various attempts to form intelligible systems of delivery, all so favourably received; it may be expected, that in the progress of many improvements suggested by those who are engaged in these labours, and aided by the arts of engraving, so little known to the ancients, that correct delivery shall in a short time be as well understood, and as commonly practised, as correct composition: and that at the bar, in the pulpit, and in the senate, as many impressive and graceful speakers will be found in proportion, as in the theatres. If the authority of the ancient illustrious orators have any weight, we shall be the less inclined to shrink from the labour necessary for the acquisition of this excellence, when we recollect the incessant and extraordinary exertions, which they considered indispensable for the same object. All these labours (by some of the greatest orators esteemed the most important of any) have perished with their mortal remains; either through the difficulty of recording them, and the want of those aids which modern arts can supply, or from that fatality which deprived posterity many of their valuable writings. Except what is briefly deli

of

vered in Cicero's works, and for this brevity he apologizes ;" and what Quintilian has taught more at large, little has come down to us; but even that little will furnish an idea of the importance attached to the art. Quintilian has named his work Institutes of Oratory, and he has fully devoted it to this subject; but oratory in his sense, and under his management, takes a very wide range. It comprehends the whole of those studies which form the orator, beginning at the earliest period of education, and extending to the most perfect exercise of his public functions; it relates not only to the language, the composition, the memory, the action, but even to the means of aiding the invention; and it insists above all on the morality and virtues of the perfect orator. And whilst he shews that a liberal education contributes chiefly to the formation of the orator, he also insists that morality, science, and philosophy are so connected with eloquence, that he claims them by right, as forming absolutely a part of his plan." Nay, he even requires ideal perfection itself." Cicero

21 Edidi quæ potui, non ut volui, sed ut me temporis angustia coegerunt. Cic. de Oratore, cap. 61. 22 Oratorem autem instituimus illum perfectum, qui esse, nisi vir bonus, non potest. Ideoque non dicendi modo eximiam in eo facultatem, sed omnes animi virtutes exigimus. Neque enim hoc concesserim, rationem rectæ honestæque vitæ (ut quidam putaverunt) ad philosophos relegandum; cum vir ille vere civilis, et publicarum privatarumque rerum administrationi accommodatus, qui regere consiliis urbes, fundare legibus, emendare judiciis possit, non alius sit profecto, quam orator. Quare, tametsi me fateor usurum quibusdam, quæ philosophorum libris continentur, tamen ea jure vereque contenderim esse operis nostri, proprieque ad artem oratoriam pertinere. Quint. Proem.

23 Sit igitur orator vir talis, qualis vere sapiens appellari potest, nec moribus modo perfectus (nam id mea quidem opinione, quanquam sint qui dissentiant, satis non est) sed etiam scientia, et omni facultate dicendi; qualis adhuc fortasse nemo fuerit. Sed non ideo minus nobis ad summa tendendum est; quod fecerunt plerique veterum, qui etsi nondum quenquam sapientem repertum putabant, præcepta tamen sapientiæ tradiderunt. Ibid.

has declared himself to the same effect," and these opinions, though disputed by a late noble Lord, will not be disregarded." Indeed, in this view, the general classical education so long continued in our schools and universities, will be found to aim manifestly at the same very important object, the institution of an orator. The education of the British youth seems to have been modelled upon the very plan of Quinctilian. All the learning of the ancients is their study; they read their historians, their poets, their orators, their philosophers; they comment upon them, they commit them to memory, they write expressly in imitation of their most beautiful passages. And all this is associated with, and refined and enlightened by, a perfect system of morality unknown to the heathens; and this is the food of the ingenuous mind from the first dawn of reason to the last hours of old age. No wonder the compositions of our writers should be elegant and chaste. But why are not their orations eloquent? Nothing can be more favourable to eloquence than the peculiar

24 Quamobrem, si quis universam, et propriam oratoris vim definire, complectique vult, is orator erit mea sententia, hoc tam gravi dignus nomine, qui, quæcumque res inciderit, quæ sit dictione explicanda, prudenter, et composite, et ornate, et memoriter dicat, cum quadam etiam actionis dignitate. Sin cuipiam nimis infinitum videtur, quod ita proposui, quacumque de re, licet hinc, quantum cuique videbitur, circumcidat, atque amputet: tamen illud tenebo, si, quæ cæteris in artibus aut studiis sita sunt, orator ignoret, tantumque ea tencat, quæ sint in disceptationibus, aut in usu forensi: tamen his de rebus ipsis si sit ei dicendum, cum cognoverit ab iis, qui tenent, quæ sint in quaque re, multo oratorem melius, quam ipsos illos, quorum eæ sunt artes, esse dicturum . . ... Hoc profecto efficiet, ut quamcunque rem a quoque cognoverit, de ea re multo dicat ornatius, quam ille ipse, unde cognorit. Cicero de Orat. l. i. c. 15.

25 Tacitus agrees with Cicero. Itaque hercule in libris Ciceronis deprehendere licet, non geometriæ, non musicæ, non grammaticæ, non denique ullius ingenua artis scientiam ci defuisse. Ille dialecticæ subtilitatem, ille moralis partis utilitatem, ille rerum motus causasque cognovit; ita enim est, optimi viri, ita ex multa eruditione, ex pluribus artibus, et omnium rerum scientia exundat et exuberat illa admirabilis eloquentia; neque oratoris

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circumstances and character of the inhabitants of the British islands. They possess a constitution the freest upon earth, which has been for ages maintained and improved by public discussion: their liberal religion enjoins by its ordinances frequent discourses upon the most elevated and interesting subjects; their taste is refined and discriminating, their genius is noble and ardent.26 Eloquence of the highest character ought, therefore, it should seem, to be the abundant produce of such a soil. They require only attention to the single point of delivery to place their talents upon equal terms with all the excellence of antiquity. The want of this attention chills the ardour, and weakens the splendour of their compositions; whereas, the very purpose of animated delivery would warm and excite them. Demonstration suits but few of the questions which occur in human affairs, persuasion applies to all. The delivery and the composition mutually act upon and affect each other; where the delivery is to be cold, the compo

vis et facultas, sicut ceterarum rerum, angustis et brevibus terminis cluditur: sed is est orator, qui de omui quæstione pulchre et ornate et ad persuadendum apte dicere, pro dignitate rerum, ad utilitatem temporum, cum voluptate audientium possit. Hæc sibi illi veteres persuadebant; ad hæc efficienda intelligebant opus esse, non ut rhetorum scholis declamarent, nec ut fictis nec ullo modo ad veritatem accedentibus controversiis linguam modo et vocem exercerent; sed ut his artibus pectus implerent, in quibus de bonis ac malis, de honesto ac turpi, de justo et injusto disputatur. Hæc enim est oratori subjecta ad dicendum materia. Dial. de Oratoribus, c. 30, 31.

Tacitus, or the author of this dialogue, appears to have fully adopted the opinion of Cicero: against which may be weighed that of the noble Lord in modern times.

Cicero, in his book de Oratore, in order to raise the dignity of that profession, which he know himself to be at the head of, asserts, that a complete orator must be a complete every thing, lawyer, philosopher, divine, &c. That would certainly be well, if it were possible; but man's life is not long enough, &c. &c. Chesterfield's Letters.

This statement of Cicero's opinions is not perfectly correct.

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natura sublimis et acer.

Nam spirat tragicum satis et feliciter audet.

Hor.