Page:The Dialogues of Plato v. 2.djvu/285

278  278 Analysis 451-456. Gorgias. words there are differences. What then distinguishes rhetoric Analysi.s. from the other arts which have to do with words? 'The words which rhetoric uses relate to the best and greatest of human things.' But tell me, Gorgias, what are the best ? ' Health first, beauty next, wealth third,' in the words of the old song, or how would you rank them? The arts will come to you in a body, each 452 claiming precedence and saying that her own good is superior to that of the rest How will you choose between them ? ' I should say, Socrates, that the art of persuasion, which gives freedom to all men, and to individuals power in the state, is the greatest 453 good.' But what is the exact nature of this persuasion ?— is the persevering retort : You could not describe Zeuxis as a painter, or even as a painter of figures, if there were other painters of figures ; neither can you define rhetoric simply as an art of persuasion, because there are other arts which persuade, such as arithmetic, which is an art of persuasion about odd and even numbers. Gorgias is made to see the necessity of a further limitation, and he now defines rhetoric as the art of persuading in 454 the law courts, and in the assembly, about the just and unjust. But still there are two sorts of persuasion : one which gives knowledge, and another which gives belief without knowledge ; and knowledge is always true, but belief may be either true or 455 false,— there is therefore a further question : which of the two sorts of persuasion does rhetoric effect in courts of law and assemblies ? Plainly that which gives belief and not that which gives knowledge ; for no one can impart a real knowledge of such matters to a crowd of persons in a few minutes. And there is another point to be considered : — when the assembly meets to advise about walls or docks or military expeditions, the rhetorician is not taken into counsel, but the architect, or the general. How would Gorgias explain this phenomenon ? All who intend to become disciples, of whom there are several in the company, and not Socrates only, are eagerly asking : — About what then will rhetoric teach us to persuade or advise the state ? Gorgias illustrates the nature of rhetoric by adducing the example of Themistocles, who persuaded the Athenians to build their docks and walls, and of Pericles, whom Socrates himself has heard speaking about the middle wall of the Piraeus. He adds 456 that he has exercised a similar power over the patients of his