argument, which is called eloquence, and these rules are not
72 ox CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. [BOOK II.
are eleven, says what cannot be true under any circumstances ; but lie wlio says that it rained on the kalends of January, aUliough perhaps tlie fact is not so, says wliat possibly might have been. The definition and division, therefore, of what is false may 1x3 perfectly true, although what is false cannot, of course, itself be true.
Chap, xxx vi.— The rules of eloquence are true, though sometimes used topersuade men of what is false.
54. There are also certain rules for a more copious kind of argument, which is called eloquence, and these rules are not the less true that they can be used for persuading men of what is false ; but as they can be used to enforce the truth as well, it is not the faculty itself that is to be blamed, but the perversity of those who put it to a bad use. Xor is it owing to an arrangement among men that the exi:)ression of affection conciliates the hearer, or that a narrative, when it is short and clear, is effective, and that variety arrests men's attention without wearying them. And it is the same with other directions of the same kind, which, whether the cause in which they are used be true or false, are themselves true just in so far as they are effective in producing knowledge or belief, or in moving men's minds to desire and aversion. And men rather found out that these things are so, than arranged that they should be so.
Chap, xxxvii.— Use of rhetoric and dialectic.
55. This art, however, when it is learnt, is not to be used so much for ascertaining: the meanincr as for settini? forth the meaning when it is ascertained. But the art previously spoken of, which deals with inferences, and definitions, and divisions, is of the greatest assistance in the discovery of the meaning, provided only that men do not fall into the error of supposing that when they have learnt these tilings they have learnt the true secret of a liappy life. Still, it sometimes happens that men find less difficulty in attaining the object for the sake of which these sriencos are learnt, than in going through the very intricate and thorny discipline of such rules. It is just as if a man wishing to give rules for walking should warn you not to lift the hinder foot before you set down the front one, and then should describe minutely the way you ought to move the