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| The Proper Age and the Proper Means for Acquiring Rhetorical Skill.
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Chapter 3.—The Proper Age and the
Proper Means for Acquiring Rhetorical Skill.
4. But the theories and rules on
this subject (to which, when you add a tongue thoroughly skilled by
exercise and habit in the use of many words and many ornaments of
speech, you have what is called eloquence or oratory)
may be learnt apart from these writings of mine, if a suitable
space of time be set aside for the purpose at a fit and proper
age. But only by those who can learn them quickly; for the
masters of Roman eloquence themselves did not shrink from saying
that any one who cannot learn this art quickly can never thoroughly
learn it at all.1936
| 1936 Cicero de Oratore, iii.
31; Quinctil, Inst. Orat. i. 1, 2. | Whether this be true or not, why
need we inquire? For even if this art can occasionally be in the
end mastered by men of slower intellect, I do not think it of so
much importance as to wish men who have arrived at mature age to
spend time in learning it. It is enough that boys should give
attention to it; and even of these, not all who are to be fitted
for usefulness in the Church, but only those who are not yet
engaged in any occupation of more urgent necessity, or which ought
evidently to take precedence of it. For men of quick intellect
and glowing temperament find it easier to become eloquent by
reading and listening to eloquent speakers than by following rules
for eloquence. And even outside the canon, which to our great
advantage is fixed in a place of secure authority, there is no want
of ecclesiastical writings, in reading which a man of ability will
acquire a tinge of the eloquence with which they are written, even
though he does not aim at this, but is solely intent on the matters
treated of; especially, of course, if in addition he practise
himself in writing, or dictating, and at last also in speaking, the
opinions he has formed on grounds of piety and faith. If,
however, such ability be wanting, the rules of rhetoric are either
not understood, or if, after great labor has been spent in
enforcing them, they come to be in some small measure understood,
they prove of no service. For even those who have learnt them,
and who speak with fluency and elegance, cannot always think of
them when they are speaking so as to speak in accordance with them,
unless they are discussing the rules themselves. Indeed, I think
there are scarcely any who can do both things—that is, speak
well, and, in order to do this, think of the rules of speaking
while they are speaking. For we must be careful that what we have
got to say does not escape us whilst we are thinking about saying
it according to the rules of art. Nevertheless, in the speeches of
eloquent men, we find rules of eloquence carried out which the
speakers did not think of as aids to eloquence at the time when
they were speaking, whether they had ever learnt them, or whether
they had never even met with them. For it is because they are
eloquent that they exemplify these rules; it is not that they use
them in order to be eloquent.
5. And, therefore, as infants
cannot learn to speak except by learning words and phrases from
those who do speak, why should not
men become eloquent without
being taught any art of speech, simply by reading and learning the
speeches of eloquent men, and by imitating them as far as they
can? And what do we find from the examples themselves to be the
case in this respect? We know numbers who, without acquaintance
with rhetorical rules, are more eloquent than many who have learnt
these; but we know no one who is eloquent without having read and
listened to the speeches and debates of eloquent men. For even
the art of grammar, which teaches correctness of speech, need not
be learnt by boys, if they have the advantage of growing up and
living among men who speak correctly. For without knowing the
names of any of the faults, they will, from being accustomed to
correct speech, lay hold upon whatever is faulty in the speech of
any one they listen to, and avoid it; just as city-bred men, even
when illiterate, seize upon the faults of rustics. E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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