either of truth or falsehood, who will dare to say that truth in
CHAP. II.] USE OF RHETORIC LAWFUL. 121 ascertained. I shall treat first of the mode of ascertaining, next of the mode of making known, the meaning."^ As, then,
I have already said a great deal about the mode of ascertaining the meaning, and have given three books to this one part of the subject, I shall only say a few things about the mode of making known the meaning, in order if possible to bring them ^11 within the compass of one book, and so finish the whole work in four books.
2. In the first place, then, I wish by this preamble to put a stop to the expectations of readers who may think that I am about to lay down rules of rhetoric such as I have learnt, and taught too, in the secular schools, and to warn them that they need not look for any such from me. Not that I think such rules of no use, but that whatever use they have is to be learnt elsewhere ; and if any good man should happen to have leisure for learning them, he is not to ask me to teach them either in this work or any other.
Chap. ii.—It is lawfulfor a Christian teacher to use the art of rhetoric.
3. Now, the art of rhetoric being available for the enforcing either of truth or falsehood, who will dare to say that truth in the person of its defenders is to take its stand unarmed against falsehood ? For example, that those who are trying to persuade men of what is false are to know how to introduce their subject, so as to put the hearer into a friendly, or attentive, or teachable frame of mind, while the defenders of the truth shall be ignorant of that art ? That the former are to tell their falsehoods briefly, clearly, and plausibly, while the latter shall tell the truth in such a way that it is tedious to listen to, hard to understand, and in fine, not easy to believe it ? That the former are to oppose the truth and defend falsehood with sophistical arguments, while the latter shall be unable either to defend what is true, or to refute what is false ? That the former, while imbuing the minds of their hearers with erroneous opinions, are by their power of speech to awe, to melt, to enliven, and to rouse them, while the latter shall in defence of the truth be sluggish, and frigid, and somnolent ? Who is such a fool as to think this wisdom ? Since, then, the
' Book i. chap. 1.