making people like what they disliked, nor in maldng them do
CHAP. XII.] CICErcO'S DEFINITION OF OEATOEY. 139 of the mode in wliicli men who desire to learn ought to be taiif^ht. And the best mode is that which secures that he who hears shall hear the truth, and that what he hears he shall understand. And when this point has been reached, no further labour need be spent on the truth itself, as if it re-i quired further explanation ; but perhaps some trouble may be taken to enforce it so as to bring it home to the heart. If it appear right to do this, it ought to be done so moderately as not to lead to weariness and impatience.
CnAP. XI. The Christian teacher must s]peah clearly, hut not inelegantly.
26. For teaching, of course, true eloquence consists, not in making people like what they disliked, nor in maldng them do what they shrank from, but in making clear what w^as obscure; yet if this be done without grace of style, the benefit does not extend beyond the few eager students who are anxious to know whatever is to be learnt, however rude and unpolished the form in which it is put ; and who, when they have succeeded in their object, find the plain truth pleasant food enough. And it is one of the distinctive features of good intellects not to love words, but the truth in words. For of what service is a golden key, if it cannot open what we want it to open ? Or w^hat objection is there to a wooden one if it can, seeing that to open what is shut is all we want ? But as there is a certain analogy between learning and eating, the very food without which it is impossible to live must be flavoured to meet the tastes of the majority.
Chap. xii.— Tlie aim of the orator, according to Cicero, is to teach, to delight, and to move. Of these, teaching is the most essential.
27. Accordingly a great orator has truly said that "an eloquent man must speak so as to teach, to delight, and to persuade." ^ Then he adds : " To teach is a necessity, to delight is a beauty, to persuade is a triumph."^ Now of these three, the one first mentioned, the teaching, which is a matter of necessity, depends on what we say ; the other two on the way we say it. He, then, who speaks with the purpose of
Cicero, Orator. 21 : "Est igitur eloqiiens qui ita dicet, ut probet, ut delectet, ut flectat. " Not quoted accurately by Augustine.
"Probaie, necessitatis est; dclectare, suavitatis ; llectcre, victorisc."