Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 20.djvu/533

Rh RHETORIC 515 emolument, and its occupant was invested with a jurisdic- tion over the youth of Athens similar to that of the vice- chancellor in a modern university. Thus it is said of Theodotus, the first holder of the chair of sophistic as constituted by Marcus Aurelius, Trpoeo-n? 8e /cat TIJS TWV 'AQrjvaiuv vedr^ros Trpwros (Philostr., Vit. Soph., II. ii. p. 566). The Antonines further encouraged rhetoric by granting immunities to its teachers. Three " sophists " in each of the smaller towns, and five in the larger, were exempted from taxation (Dig., xxvii. 1, 6, 2). The wealthier sophists affected much personal splendour. One of them, Polemon (c. 130 A.D.), was attended on his journeys by an enormous retinue slaves, beasts of burden, horses, and hounds while he himself drove in a costly equipage. Another, Adrian of Tyre (c. 170 A.D.), was drawn to his lectures by horses " with silver bits," wore the richest attire and the rarest jewels, and en- deared himself to the Athenian students by the entertain- ments which he provided for them. In all this foppery there was calculation. The aim of the sophist was to impress the multitude. Popular applause was the breath of life to him. His whole stock in trade was style, and this was directed to astonishing by tours de force. The scholastic declamations were chiefly of two classes. (1) The suasoriee were usually on historical or legendary subjects, in which some course of action was commended or censured ; thus Juvenal, alluding to his school days, cries " I, too, have counselled Sulla to resign, And taste those joys for which dictators pine." These suasoriae belonged to deliberative rhetoric (the (3ovevTt.Kov ytvos, deliberativum genus). (2) The contro- versies turned especially on legal issues, and represented the forensic rhetoric (Si/caj/iKov yeVos, judiciole genus). But it was the general characteristic of this period that all subjects, though formally "deliberative " or "forensic," were treated in the style and spirit of that third branch which Aristotle distinguished, the rhetoric of e7n.'8eiis or "display." The oratory produced by the age of the academic sophists can be estimated from a large extant literature. It is shown under various aspects, and pre- sumably at its best, by such writers as Dion Chrysostom at the end of the 1st century, ^Elius Aristides in the 2d, Themistius, Himerius, and Libanius in the 4th. It would be unjust to deny that, amid much which is tawdry or vapid, these writings occasionally present passages of true literary beauty, while they constantly offer matter of the highest interest to the student of the past. In the mediaeval system of academic studies, grammar, logic, and rhetoric were the subjects of the trivium, or course followed during the four years of undergraduateship. Music, arithmetic, geometry, and astronomy constituted the quadrivium, or course for the three years from the B.A. to the M. A. degree. These were the seven liberal arts. Accord- ing to Hallam (Lit. Eur., vol. i.), the idea of a trivium and quadrivium dates from the 6th century. The well-known memorial couplet can be traced to c. 1420 A.D. : Gram, loquitur, Dia. vera docet, Rhet. verba colorat : Mus. canit, Ar. numerat. Gco. ponderat, As. colit astra. A shorter formula was " lingua, tropus, ratio ; numerus, tonus, angulus, astra." In the Middle Ages the chief authorities on rhetoric were the latest Latin epitomists, such as Martianus Capella (5th century), Cassiodorus (5th century), or Isidorus (7th century). After the revival of learning, the better Roman and Greek writers gradually returned into use. Some new treatises were also produced. Leonard Cox (died 1549) wrote The Art or Craft of Rhetoryke, partly compiled, partly original, which was reprinted in Latin at Cracow. The Art of Rhetorique by Thomas Wilson (1553), after- wards secretary of state, embodied rules chiefly from Aristotle, with help from Cicero and Quintilian. About the same time, treatises on rhetoric were published in France by Tonquelin (1555) and Courcelles (1557). The general aim at this period was to revive and popularize the best teaching of the ancients on rhetoric. The subject Rhetoric was regularly taught at the universities, and was, indeed, at * important. At Cambridge in 1570 the study of rhetoric tieg was based on Quintilian, Hermogenes, and the speeches of Cicero viewed as works of art. An Oxford statute of 1588 shows that the same books were used there. In 1620 George Herbert was delivering lectures on rhetoric at Cam- bridge, where he held the office of public orator. The decay of rhetoric as a formal study at the universities set in during the 18th century. In 1712 Steele regrets that Oxford and Cambridge have "grown dumb in the study of eloquence." The function of the rhetoric lecturer passed over into that of correcting written themes ; but his title remained long after his office had lost its primary meaning If the theory of rhetoric fell into neglect, the practice however, was encouraged by the public exercises ("acts' and " opponencies ") in the schools. The college prizes fo "declamations" served the same purpose. The fortunes of rhetoric in the modern world, as briefly Modem sketched above, may suffice to suggest why few modern writers 01 writers of ability have given their attention to the subject, rhetoric. Perhaps one of the most notable modern contributions to the art is the collection of commonplaces framed (in Latin) by Bacon, " to be so many spools from which the threads can be drawn out as occasion serves," a truly curious work of that acute and fertile mind. He called them " Antitheta." A specimen is subjoined : UXOR ET LlBERI. For. ' ' Attachment to the begins from the family. " state "Wife and children are a dis- cipline in humanity. Bachelors are morose and austere." "The only advantage of celi- bacy and childlessness is in case of exile." Against. " He who marries, and has children, has given hostages to fortune. " " The immortality of brutes is in their progeny ; of men, in their fame, services, and institu- tions. " "Regard for the family too often overrides regard for the state. " This is quite in the spirit of Aristotle's treatise. The popularity enjoyed by Blair's Rhetoric in the latter part of the 18th and the earlier part of the present century was merited rather by the form than by the matter. Campbell's Philosophy of Rhetoric, which found less wide acceptance than its predecessor, was superior to it in depth, though often marred by an imperfect comprehension of logic. But undoubtedly the best modern book on the subject is Whately's Elements of Rhetoric. Starting from wiiately. Aristotle's view, that rhetoric is " an offshoot from logic," Whately treats it as the art of " argumentative composi- tion." He considers it under four heads : (1) the address to the understanding ( = Aristotle's Aoyt/o; TTIO-TIS) ; (2) the address to the will, or persuasion ( = Aristotle's ^$1/07 and TraOrjTLKrj Trtcms) ; (3) style ; (4) elocution, or delivery. At the outset he makes some judicious remarks on the popular objections to the art. "It has been truly observed that ' genius begins where rules end.' But to infer from this, as some seem disposed to do, that, in any depart- ment wherein genius can be displayed, rules must be useless, or useless to those who possess genius, is a very rash conclusion. What I have observed elsewhere con- cerning logic, that 'a knowledge of it serves to save a waste of ingenuity,' holds good in many other depart- ments also." "A drayman, we are told, will taunt a comrade by saying, ' you 're a pretty fellow,' without