On this page
-
Text (1)
-
Untitled Article
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
-
-
Transcript
-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
mm — % ¦• but I mil admit it , that yoiir argument may be completed , and that Crorgias may be gratified / S . Whether is this true of a single mind only , and not true of two or more ? ' C . It is true of two , or . of any number . * & ' Then it is possible to gratify a number of minds * collected together , without regarding their greatest Good / C . * True / 8 . f What , then , are the pursuits which do this ? First of all , let us consider the art
of playing the flute . Does it not seem to you to pursue pleasure only , ami to care for nothing else ? ' C . * Yes / S . ' And that grave and magnificent art , tragic poetry , what is its aim ? Simply to gratify tbe spectators ? Or , if any things occur to it which are pleasant but bad , does it take care not to say them ; and if there be any thing disagreeable but useful , does it make a point of saying or singing this to the spectators , whether they are pleased with it or not ? ' C * It is evident that it chiefly aims at pleasure , and the gratification of the spectators '
S . * This , however , we designated as adulation / C . * We did / . SL * Now , then , if you take away' from poetry the rhythm and the metre and the music , is there any tiling remaining but discourse ? ' C . Nothing / S . And this discourse is addressed to the assembled people / C . * It is / < S . 4 Then poetry is a kind of oratory / C * So it seems / 8 , But rhetoric is oratory . Do not poets appear to you to rhetorize , upon the stage / C . ft Yes / S . * Now then we have found out a kind of rhetoric , addressed to a popular assembly , composed of men , women , and children , slaves and freemen , which we do not much admire . We call it a kind
of adulation / C . We do / 8 . * What then shall we say of the rhetoric which is addressed to the assembly of the Athenian people , or the people of any other state , consisting of freemen only ? Do the orators seem to you to have in view constantly the greatest good ; aiming solely at making the people as good as possible by their discourses ? Or do they , too , aim only at gratifying the citizens , neglecting the public interest for the sake of their
own private concerns , aad treating the people like children , attempting only to gratify them , and not caring whether they are made better or worse by the gratification ? ' C- * This is not a simple question . There are some who address the people really caring for them ; there are others such as you describe / & . ' It is sufficient . If this thing be of two kinds , one of them is adulation , and disgraceful , the other is laudable , contriving always that the minds of the citizens may become as good as
possible , and always persisting in saying what is best , whether it be pleasing to the hearers or not . But you do not know any instance of thia kind of rhetoric . Can you mention any orator who has acted in this manner ? ' C . 4 1 cannot mention any orator of the present day / S . Can you mention any one of the ancient orators , by whose means the Athenians became better than they were before he began to harangue them ? I do not know of any . ' C « * What ! have you never heard of
Themi 8 tocles , and Cimon , and Miltiades ; and Pericles , whom you yourse lf have seen ? all of whom were good men / S . * Yes , if Good casuists in what you at first called it , the satisfaction of our own desires and those of otWs : but if , as we afterwards were forced to admit , there be some desires the satisfaction of which makes us better , aed otkers which make us worse , and that the distinguishing of these from mch ° ttar is an art ; can you affirm that any of the men you njwi ^^ pnalMwd thatvt ? ' a « 1 cannot tell / S . * But if you oonaidtr wdUrai will
Untitled Article
¦ &atd * t Dialog *** ; ike Goteias . 613
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Nov. 2, 1834, page 813, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2639/page/67/
-