However, if I were to indulge my own inclinations in expatiating on this
subject, I should go
No one of those who have laid down rules for oratory has ever doubted
that it is an art. It is clear even from the titles of their books that
their theme is the art of rhetoric, while Cicero de Inv. I. v. 6. The
titles in question are such as Ars rhetorica, Ars
Hermagorae, etc. artistic eloquence. And it is not merely the
orators who have claimed this distinction for their studies with a view
to giving them an additional title to respect, but the Stoic and
Peripatetic philosophers for the most part agree with them.
Indeed I will confess that I had doubts as to whether I should discuss this portion of my inquiry, for there is no one, I will not say so unlearned, but so devoid of ordinary sense, as to hold that building, weaving or moulding vessels from clay are arts, and at the same time to consider that rhetoric, which, as I have already said, is the noblest and most sublime of tasks, has reached such a lofty eminence without the assistance of art.
For my own part I think that those who have argued against this view did not realise what they were saying, but merely desired to exercise their wits by the selection of a difficult theme, like Polycrates, when he praised Busiris and Clytemnestra; I may add that he is credited with a not dissimilar performance, namely the composition of a speech which was delivered against Socrates.
Some would have it that rhetoric is a natural gift though they admit
that it can be developed by practice. So Antonius in the de Oralore
knack derived from experience, but denies that it
is an art:
this statement is however not intended to be accepted by us as the
actual truth, but is inserted to make exordiam, state the facts of the case, prove,
refute and plead for mercy just as an orator does in his peroration.
To this is added the quibble that nothing that is based on art can have existed before the art in question, whereas men have always from time immemorial spoken in their own defence or in denunciation of others: the teaching of rhetoric as an art was, they say, a later invention dating from about the time of Tisias and Corax: oratory therefore existed before art and consequently cannot be an art.
For my part I am not concerned with the date when oratory began to be
taught. Even in Homer we find Phoenix Il. ix. 432. i.e. the copious style by
Nestor, the plain by Menelaus, the intermediate by Ulysses. Il. xv. 284. Il.
xviii. 497 sqq.
It is sufficient to call attention to the fact that everything which art
has brought to perfection originated in nature. Otherwise we might deny
the title of art to medicine, which was discovered from the observation
of sickness and health, and according to some is entirely based upon
experiment: wounds were bound up long before medicine developed into an
art, and fevers were reduced by rest and abstention from food, long
before the reason for such treatment was
So too building should not be styled an art; for primitive man built himself a hut without the assistance of art. Music by the same reasoning is not an art; for every race indulges in some kind of singing and dancing. If therefore any kind of speech is to be called eloquence, I will admit that it existed before it was an art.
If on the other hand not every man that speaks is an orator and primitive man did not speak like an orator, my opponents must needs acknowledge that oratory is the product of art and did not exist before it. This conclusion also rules out their argument that men speak who have never learnt how to speak, and that which a man does untaught can have no connexion with art.
In support of this contention they adduce the fact that Demades was a waterman and Aeschines an actor, but both were orators. Their reasoning is false. For no man can be an orator untaught and it would be truer to say that these orators learned oratory late in life than that they never learned at all; although as a matter of fact Aeschines had an acquaintance with literature from childhood since his father was a teacher of literature, while as regards Demades, it is quite uncertain that he never studied rhetoric and in any case continuous practice in speaking was sufficient to bring him to such proficiency as he attained: for experience is the best of all schools.
On the other hand it may fairly be asserted that he would have achieved greater distinction, if he had received instruction: for although he delivered his speeches with great effect, he never ventured to write them for others.
Aristotle, it is true, in his Gryllus
Critolaus and Athenodorus of Rhodes have produced many arguments against this view, while Agnon renders himself suspect by the very title of his book in which he proclaims that he is going to indict rhetoric. As to the statements of Epicurus on this subject, they cause me no surprise, for he is the foe of all systematic training.
These gentlemen talk a great deal, but the arguments on which they base their statements are few. I will therefore select the most important of them and will deal with them briefly, to prevent the discussion lasting to all eternity.
Their first contention is based on the subject-matter; for they assert that all arts have their own subject-matter (which is true) and go on to say that rhetoric has none, which I shall show in what follows to be false.
Another slander is to the effect that no art will acquiesce in false opinions: since an art must be based on direct perception, which is always true: now, say they, rhetoric does give its assent to false conclusions and is therefore not an art.
I will admit that rhetoric sometimes substitutes falsehood for truth,
but I will not allow that it does so because its opinions are false,
since there is all the difference between holding a certain opinion
oneself and persuading someone else to adopt an opinion. For instance a
general frequently makes use of falsehood: Hannibal when hemmed in by
Fabius persuaded his enemy that he was in retreat by