266 Harry M. Huhhell, Ph.D., 



Those who define art fall into the error of expecting that one 

 definition will cover all arts {or rather that all arts fulfil equally 



I, 3, fr. all the requirements of the definition), in order to obtain what 



l = buppl. j.|^gy ^^jj ^i^g union of arts (o-wSeo-/xos). Then when they find an 

 art which has some characteristic not shared by the others, as is 

 frequently the case, they exclude it from the position of an art. 



I, 4, Col. In the sciences there is frequently an interchange of function : 



~ "^^ ■ two sciences produce the same result.^ But this does not prove 



that they are not arts.* It is not unheard-of for the same result 



to be accomplished by two arts, and perhaps this is the best way 



of distinguishing the merely useful from the necessary art. 



Objections can be made to most if not all of the arguments 

 here mentioned (i. e. in the gap between fr. I and Col. I). The 

 worst class of arguments are those which act as boomerangs and 

 demolish the position of the disputant. As far as these argu- 

 ments are concerned no one can object to the opponents' saying 

 that there are perfect artists and imperfect ones as well. It is 



Col. III. unfair to blame the perfect artist for the failures of his imper- 

 fect colleague. But that is what the present critics are doing. 

 The end of rhetoric is to persuade in a speech ; consequently it 

 is idle to mention other means of persuasion, such as beauty. 

 If laymen sometimes persuade by means of a speech it does not 



Col. IV. follow that they persuade better or more frequently than the 



trained rhetor.^ 



Apart from the aforementioned obscurities you will -find that 

 many of the arguments overstep the bounds of the facts under 

 discussion and are built up on double meanings of words. Many 

 of the arguments do not differ in validity, but by a variety of 

 examples display the fertility of the inventors. Then. too. in 

 these arguments there is a great deal of bare assertion, entirely 

 unsupported by argument (dKarao-Kcvov, KaracrK£t'i/ = constructive 

 argument). 



" E. g. Sculpture and music both produce pleasure. 



* Philodemus seems to use ^7r((7-T?}/xr? and t^x^t] interchangeably. 



^ If Philodemus here as elsewhere, notably in Book II, seems to cham- 

 pion the cause of Rhetoric it is because he is refuting the arguments 

 against rhetoric in order to show that they are inadequate, and that the 

 only true answer to the claims of rhetoric comes from the Epicurean 

 school. 



