MEMOIR OF ARISTOTLE. 89 



suasion; and although he lays down excellent rule* 

 for the structure of sentences, and the skilful use of 

 ornaments in style, he cautions the orator to consi- 

 der them as subordinate to the proper business of 

 his profession. He dissuades him from imitating 

 the practice, then too common, of appealing to the 

 passions of the hearers, rather than to their judg- 

 ment and understanding ; but he recommends him 

 to study every variety of human character, and to 

 'vail himself of the moral feelings, and even of the 

 natural prejudices, of his auditory. His division of 

 the art is threefold, according to the different occa- 

 sions on which it was employed among the Greeks : 



1 . The deliberative ; or its use in political debates. 



2. The judicial; or its use in popular assemblies, as 

 those of Athens, in which the people collectively 

 exercised the judicial functions. 3. The demonstra- 

 tive; or its use in panegyric and invective, where 

 the orator had only to gratify his hearers by a dis- 

 play of eloquence. In these several heads of in- 

 quiry, he has given an admirable analysis of the mo- 

 tives by which mankind at large are commonly ac- 

 tuated in their conduct and opinions. All the wind- 

 ings and recesses of the human heart he has ex- 

 plored ; all its caprices and affections ; whatever tends 

 to excite, to irritate, to amuse, or to gratify it, have 

 been carefully examined ; the reason of these pheno- 

 mena is demonstrated, and the method of creating 

 them is explained. Nothing, in short, has been left 

 untouched, on which Rhetoric, in all its branches. 



