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1 power , replied Socrates , if possessed to the degree which conistitutes a perfect orator , is probably , or perhaps necessarily , governed Iby the same laws as any other power . If you have natural capabilities iyou may become an eminent orator , by the aid of knowledge and study ; jjfyou are wanting in any of these respects , you will be so far imperfect . But so much of it as is Art , appears to me to be acquired by a
method not similar to that which Lysias and Thrasymachus use . ' * How then ?* * Pericles is perhaps the most complete orator ever known / 4 What then V 'All the greater arts require the study of the abstruse * parts of nature : from which alone loftiness and potency of intellect are derived : the qualities which , together with great natural aptness , Pericles possessed . He acquired them , as I imagine , by his intercourse with Anaxagoras , by whom he was introduced into the higher parts of
knowledge , and penetrated to the nature of the thinking and the unthinking faculties of man , the subject which Anaxagoras chiefly treated of ; and from this Pericles drew , for the art of speaking , as much as was applicable to it / * How so ?* * The art of oratory resembles that of medicine . In both , it is necessary to distinguish and subdivide the nature of body on the one hand , of mind on the other ; if you intend
to follow art , and not a mere empirical routine , in giving health and strength to the former by medicine and sustenance , and producing in the latter , by speech and precept , virtue and any persuasion which you desire . ' * This seems reasonable ; but is it possible to comprehend well the nature of Mind , except by comprehending the nature of the universe V * If Hippocrates is to be believed , even the body can be understood only by that method . ' * He speaks well : but besides
Hippocrates , it is proper to interrogate likewise the argument , and discover whether it also will assent . Let us see then . Is not this the proper mode of examining into the nature of any thing—first to consider whether it is simple or manifold : then , if it is simple , to examine into its powers , that is > what affections it is capable of causing in other things , and other things in it : if , on the contrary , it consists of a variety of sorts , to enumerate them , and make the same inquiry with respect to each of the sorts ; viz . in what manner it acts upon , and is acted
upon by , other things ? ' * Undoubtedly ; any other method would be Me a blind man ' s walk . ' * But it is clear , that he who would teach another the art of speaking , must teach him accurately the nature of that which his speaking is intended to act upon ; and this is , the mind . 4 Agreed / 4 It is obvious , therefore , that Thrasymachus , and any other who seriously attempts to teach oratory , must first examine and explain very carefully , whether the mind is one thing , perfectly resembling it&erf ,
Or like the body , of many different kinds : since this is what we found to be the meaning of what we call unfolding its nature . Next , he must teach in what manner the mind , by its nature , affects , and is affected byf ° fher things : and , thirdly , classing the different kinds of mind , the different modes of speaking , and the various properties of both , he m ust adapt the one to the other , and show , what sort of mind , is or it
n < n persuaded , by what sort of speech , and why / * Most true ; and in n other way is it possible either to speak or write according to art . * 1 Since , in short , the end of speech is to influence the mind , he who understands oratory as an art , must know what are the different kinds of toiad ; what are the different modes of speaking ; and , that a mind of such
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Plato ' s Dialogues ; the Phtedrur , $ 99
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 2, 1834, page 639, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2637/page/35/
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