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ARISTOTLE

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Originally appearing in Volume V23, Page 236 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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ARISTOTLE . During the three centuries from the See also:

age of See also:Alexander to that of See also:Augustus the fortunes of See also:rhetoric were governed by the new conditions of See also:Hellenism. Aristotle's scientific The method lived on in the Peripatetic school. Meanwhile See also:period the See also:fashion of florid declamation or strained conceits Alex fro"' - prevailed in the rhetorical See also:schools of See also:Asia, where, amid ender to mixed populations, the pure traditions of the best Augus-See also:Greek See also:taste had been dissociated from the use of the tus. Greek See also:language. The " Asianism " of See also:style which thus came to be constrasted with " Atticism " found imitators at See also:Rome, among whom must be reckoned the orator See also:Hortensius (c. 95 B.C.). See also:Hermagoras of Temnos in See also:Aeolis (c. to Herma- B.c.) claims mention as having done much to revive goras. a higher conception. Using both the See also:practical rhetoric of the See also:time before Aristotle and Aristotle's philosophical rhetoric, he worked up the results of both in a new See also:system, following the philosophers so far as to give the See also:chief prominence to " invention." He thus became the founder of a rhetoric which may be distinguished as the scholastic. Through the See also:influence of his school, Hermagoras did for See also:Roman eloquence very much what Isocrates had done for See also:Athens. Above all, he See also:counter-acted the view of " Asianism," that See also:oratory is a See also:mere knack founded on practice, and recalled See also:attention to the study of it as an See also:art' See also:Cicero's rhetorical See also:works are to some extent based on the technical system to which he had been introduced by Molon at See also:Rhodes. But Cicero further made an See also:independent use of the best among the earlier Greek writers, Isocrates, Aristotle and See also:Theophrastus.

Lastly, he could draw, at least in the later of his See also:

treatises, on a vast fund of reflection and experience. Indeed, the distinctive See also:interest of his contributions to the theory of rhetoric consists in the fact that his theory can be compared with his practice. The result of such a comparison is certainly to suggest how much less he owed to his art than to his See also:genius. Some consciousness of this is perhaps implied in the See also:idea which pervades much of his See also:writing on oratory, that the perfect orator is the perfect See also:man. The same thought is See also:present to See also:Quintilian, in whose See also:great See also:work, See also:Quin- De Institutione Oratoria, the scholastic rhetoric re- than. ceives its most See also:complete expression (c. A.D. 90). Quintilian treats oratory as the end to which the entire See also:mental and moral development of the student is to be directed. Thus he devotes his first See also:book to an See also:early discipline which should precede the orator's first studies, and his last book to a discipline of the whole man which lies beyond them. Some notion of his comprehensive method may be derived from the circumstance that he introduces a succinct estimate of the chief Greek and Roman authors, of every See also:kind, from See also:Homer to See also:Seneca (bk. x. §§ 46-131).

After Quintilian, the next important name is that of See also:

Hermogenes of See also:Tarsus, who under See also:Marcus Aurelius Hrmo• made a complete See also:digest of the scholastic rhetoric from genes. the time of Hermagoras of Temnos (See also:Ito B.c.). It is contained in five extant treatises, which are remarkable for clearness and acuteness, and still more remarkable as having been completed before the age of twenty-five. Hermogenes continued for nearly a See also:century and a See also:half to be one of the chief authorities in the schools. See also:Longinus (c. A.D. 26o) published an Art of Rhetoric which is still extant; and the more other celebrated See also:treatise On Sublimity (irepi ii>/iovs), if not writers. his work, is at least of the same period. In the later half of the 4th century See also:Aphthonius (q.v.) composed the " exercises " (irpoyvµvavµara) which superseded the work of 3 See See also:Jebb's See also:Attic Orators, ii. 445. Rhetoric"to Alexander.' Cicero. Hermogenes. At the revival of letters the treatise ofAphthonius 1 See also:tawdry or vapid, these writings occasionally present passages once more became a See also:standard See also:text-book.

Much popularity was of true See also:

literary beauty, while they constantly offer See also:matter of the highest interest to the student. In the See also:medieval system of See also:academic studies, See also:grammar, See also:logic and rhetoric were the subjects of the See also:trivium, or course followed during the four years of undergraduateship. Medieval See also:Music, See also:arithmetic, See also:geometry and See also:astronomy See also:con- study of stituted the quadrivium, or course for the three years Rhetoric from the B.A. to the M.A. degree. These were the seven liberal arts. In the See also:middle ages the chief authorities on rhetoric were the latest Latin epitomists, such as Martianus See also:Capella (5th cent.), See also:Cassiodorus (5th cent.) or Isidorus (7th cent.). After the revival of learning the better Roman and Greek writers gradually returned into use. Some new treatises were also produced. Leonard See also:Cox (d. 1549) wrote The Art or See also:Craft of Rhetoryke, partly compiled, partly See also:original, which was reprinted in Latin at See also:Cracow. The Art of Rhetorique, by See also:Thomas See also:Wilson (1553), afterwards secretary of See also:state, embodied rules chiefly from Aristotle, with help from Cicero and Quintilian. About the same time treatises on rhetoric were published in See also:France by Tonquelin (1555) and Courcelles(1557). The See also:general aim at this. period was to revive and popularize the best teaching of the ancients on rhetoric.

The subject was regularly taught at the See also:

universities, and was indeed important. At See also:Cambridge in 1570 the study of rhetoric was based on Quintilian, Hermogenes and the speeches of Cicero viewed as works of art. An See also:Oxford See also:statute of 1588 shows that the same books were used there. In 162o See also:George See also:Herbert was delivering lectures on rhetoric at Cambridge, where he held the See also:office of public orator. The decay of rhetoric as a formal study at the universities set in during the 18th century. The See also:function of the rhetoric lecturer passed over into that of correcting written themes; but his See also:title remained See also:long after his office had lost its See also:primary meaning. If the theory of rhetoric See also:fell into neglect,. the practice, however, was encouraged by the public exercises (" acts " and " opponencies ") in the schools. The See also:college prizes for " declamations " served the same purpose. The fortunes of rhetoric in the See also:modern See also:world, as briefly sketched above, may suffice to suggest why few modern writers , of ability have given their attention to the subject. Modern Perhaps one of the most notable modern contributions writers on to the art is the collection of commonplaces framed (in Rhetoric. Latin) by See also:Bacon, " to be so many spools from which the threads can be See also:drawn out as occasion serves," a truly curious work of that acute and fertile mind.

End of Article: ARISTOTLE

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ARISTOTLE (384-322 B.C.)

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