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when an orator , being himself ignorant of good and evil , and finding a people equally so , sets about persuading them , not by a < panegyric upon the ass under the name of the hbr&e * but upon Evil under the name of Good ; and having studied the opinions of the multitude , succeeds in persuading them to do what is bad instead of what is good , what sort of a harvest do you think that an oratory of this sort will reap V * But an indifferent one . '
Perhaps , however / resumed Socrates , ' we are too severe upon oratory . She may , perhaps , turn upon us , and say , You are trifling , my good friends—I do not compel any one to - learn to speak , who ia ignorant of the truth—I bid him learn the truth first , and report to me afterwards—The ground of my pretensions is , that without me , though a man were to know all possible truths , hfe would be no nearer to possessing the att of persuading . And in saying this , does she not speak
truth V * Yes , if the arguments which are coming should testify that she is an Art ; but I in a mariner hear the rustle of several arguments approaching , which assert that she is an impostor , and no Art , but an unartificial Routine . ' ' Call these arguments forth , then , and let us interrogate them . ' c Come forth , I beg you , and persuade Phaedrus that unless he philosophize sufficiently , he will never be capable of speaking on any subject * Question Phaedrus , and he will answer . Is not the
art of oratory , taken in a general sense , the influencing of the mind by discourse , not merely in courts of justice and public assemblies , but also fti private life , whether on great subjects or on Small V ' Not entirely so . It is generally on the occasion of trials in courts of justice that men speak and write by art ; and in deliberative assemblies they speak
by art : but otherwise not . ' ' Have you then heard tell only of the arts of oratory which were composed by Nestor and Ulysses at Troy , but not those of Palamedes V * No , nor of Nestor either , unless you call Gorgias Nestor , and Thrasymachus or Theodorus Ulysses . ' ' Tell me , then , what do adversaries in a court of justice do ? Do they not debate V * Yes . ' * About the just and unjust V * Yes . ' * He who does
this by art , can make the same thing appear to the same persons , either just or unjust ? ' ' Yes / * And in deliberative assemblies , he can make the same thing appear as he pleases , either good for the state , or the contrary ? ' He can / ' And do we not know that Palamedes of Elfca could speak by art , in such a manner that his hearers should think the
same things either like or unlike , one or many , stationary or moved V * Yes / The art of debate therefore , is not confined to courts of justice and public assemblies ; but if it be an art , there is but one single art which , whatever be the subject of discourse , can make all things appear similar , which are capable of so appearing , and which , if another person does the same thing deceptively , can expose the deception . 4
Is deception more likely to happen in those things which differ much , or in those which differ little ? ' In those which differ little / 4 You will more easily get round from a thing to its contrary , by insensible steps than all at once V No doubt . ' ' He , then , whose business it is to deceive another , and not to be deceived himself , must know accurately the resemblances and differences of things ? ' 4 He must / ' Can he , not knowing the real nature of a thing itself , distinguish the degree of resemblance which other things bear to that thing T 4 is impossible / * Since then , those who are deceived , and take
Untitled Article
634 Plato's btofogues ; the Phdtdrus .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 2, 1834, page 634, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2637/page/30/
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