272 ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING 



into this subject; we therefore place it among the deficien 

 cies under the title of prudential conversation, 10 which the 

 more attentively a man considers, the higher value he will 

 set upon it; but whether this be placed under rhetoric or 

 politics is of no great significance. 



We have already observed that the desiderata in this 

 art are rather appendages than parts of the art itself; and 

 all of them belong to the repository thereof, for the furnish 

 ing of speech and invention. To proceed in this view; first, 

 we find no writer that hath carefully followed the prudent 

 example of Aristotle, who began to collect popular marks 

 or colors of apparent good and evil, as well simple as com 

 parative. 11 These, in reality, are but rhetorical sophisms, 

 though of excellent use, especially in business and private 

 discourse. But the labor of Aristotle about these colors has 

 three defects; for 1, though they are numerous, he recites 

 but few; 2, he has not annexed their redargutions; and 3 T 

 he seems not to have understood their full use: for they 

 serve as well to affect and move as to demonstrate. There 

 are many forms of speech which, though significative of the 

 same things, yet affect men differently; as a sharp instru 

 ment penetrates more than a blunt one, supposing both of 

 them urged with equal force. There is nobody but would 

 be more affected by hearing this expression, How your 

 enemies will triumph upon this: 



&quot;Hoc Ithacus velit, et rnagno mercentur Atridse,&quot; 12 



than if it were simply said, This will injure your affairs: 

 therefore these stings and goads of speech are not to be 

 neglected. And since we propose this as a desideratum, 

 we will, after our manner, give a sketch of it, in the way 

 of examples; for precepts will not so well illustrate the 



10 The foundations for this are, in some measure, laid by the learned Morhof 

 in the sketch of his &quot;Homiletice Erudita.&quot; See &quot;Polyhistor,&quot; torn. i. lib. i. cap. 

 25. See also Jo. Andr. Bosii &quot;De Prudentia et Eloquentia Civili comparanda, &quot; 

 ed. Jense, 1698; and &quot;Prudentia Consultatoria in Usum Auditorii Thomasiani,&quot; 



Halas Magdeburg, 1721. Ed. 



3-8. 12 JEneid, ii. 104. 



