ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING 271 



regard a present good, while reason, seeing far before it, 

 chooses also the future and capital good. And therefor, 

 as present things strike the imagination strongest, reason 

 is generally subdued; but when eloquence and the power of 

 persuasion raise up remote and future objects, and set them 

 to view as if they were present; then imagination goes over 

 to the side of reason, and renders it victorious. 



Hence we conclude, that rhetoric can no more be accused 

 of coloring the worst part, than logic of teaching sophistry. 

 For we know that the doctrines of contraries are the same, 

 though their use be opposite ; and logic does not only differ 

 from rhetoric, according to the vulgar notion, as the first is 

 like the hand clenched, and the other like the hand open; 

 but much more in this, that logic considers reason in its 

 natural state, and rhetoric as it stands in vulgar opinion; 

 whence Aristotle prudently places rhetoric between logic 

 and ethics, along with politics, as partaking of them both. 

 For the proofs and demonstrations of logic are common to 

 all mankind, but the proof and persuasion of rhetoric must 

 be varied according to the audience, like a musician suiting 

 himself to different ears. - 



&quot;Orpheus in sylvis, inter Delphinas Arion.&quot; 8 



And this application and variation of speech should, if we 

 desire its perfection, extend so far, that if the same things 

 were to be delivered to different persons, yet a different set 

 of words should be used to each. 9 Though it is certain that 

 the greatest orators, generally, have not this political and 

 sociable eloquence in private discourse ; for while they en 

 deavor at ornament and elegant forms of speech, they fall 

 not upon that ready application and familiar style of dis 

 course which they might with more advantage use to partic 

 ulars. And it were certainly proper to begin a new inquiry 



8 Virg. Eel. viii. 56. 



9 For one of the most perfect exemplifications of this rule, see Lord 

 Brougham s discourse to the Glasgow University and to the Manchester Me 

 chanics Institution. Ed. 



