228 ROMAN PHILOSOPHY. 



' Treatise^on The ' Treatise on Rhetoric,' addressed to Herennius, though edited 

 with his works, and ascribed to him by several of the ancients, is 

 now generally attributed to Cornificius, or some other writer of the 

 same period. 



These works consider the art of rhetoric in different points of view, 

 and thus receive from each other mutual support and illustration, 

 while they prevent the tediousness which might else arise from same- 

 ness in the subject of discussion. Three are in the form of dialogue ; 

 the rest are written in his own person. In all, except perhaps the 

 4 Orator,' he professes to have digested the principles of the Aristotelic 

 and Isocratean schools into one finished system, selecting what was 

 best in each, and, as occasion might offer, adding remarks and pre- 

 cepts of his own. 1 The subject is considered in three distinct lights f 

 with reference to the case, the speaker, and the speech. The case, as 

 respects its nature, is definite or indefinite ; with reference to the 

 hearer, it is judicial, deliberative, or descriptive ; as regards the oppo- 

 nent, the division is fourfold according as the fact, its nature, its 

 quality, or its propriety is called in question. The art of the speaker 

 is directed to five points: the discovery of persuasives (whether 

 ethical, pathetical, or argumentative), arrangement, diction, memory, 

 delivery. And the speech itself consists of six parts : introduction, 

 statement of the case, division of the subject, proof, refutation, and 

 conclusion. 



c De inven- His treatises l De Inventione ' and ' Topica,' the first and nearly the 

 tioue.' l as t of his compositions, are both on the invention of arguments, 



which he regards, with Aristotle, as the very foundation of the art; 

 though he elsewhere confines the term eloquence, according to its 

 derivation, to denote excellence of diction and delivery, to the exclu- 

 sion of argumentative skill. 3 The former of these works was written 

 at the age of twenty, and seems originally to have consisted of four 

 books, of which but two remain. 4 In the first of these he considers 

 rhetorical invention generally, supplies common-places for the six 

 parts of an oration promiscuously, and gives a full analysis of the two 

 forms of arguments, syllogism and induction. In the second book he 

 applies these rules particularly to the three subject-matters of rhetoric, 

 the deliberative, the judicial, and the descriptive, dwelling principally 

 on the judicial, as affording the most ample field for discussion. This 

 treatise seems nearly entirely compiled from the writings of Aristotle, 

 Isocrates, and Hermagoras ; 5 and as such he alludes to it in the 

 opening of his ' De Oratore ' as deficient in the experience and judg- 

 ment which nothing but time and practice can impart. Still it is an 

 entertaining, nay useful, work ; remarkable, even among Cicero's 

 writings, for its uniform good sense, and less familiar to the scholar, 



1 De Invent, ii. 2 et 3 ; ad Fam. i. 9. 



2 Confer de part. Orat. with de Invent. 3 Orat. 19. 



4 Vossius, de Nat. Rhet. c. xiii. ; Fabricius, Bibliothec. Latin. 



5 De Invent, i. 5, 6 ; de Clar. Orat. 76. 



