2^4 ADVANCEMENT OF LEAP.XIXG, [ BOOK VI. 



vate'd by writers. But to form a ju«jt estimate, eloquence 

 is certainly inferior to wisdom. The great difference between 

 'them appears in the words of God to Moses upon his reiosing, 

 for want of elocution, the charge assigned him : " Aaron 

 shall be thy speaker, and thou shalt be to him as God."* But 

 for advantage and popular esteem, -wisdom gives place to 

 eloquence. " The wise in heart shall be called prudent, but 

 the sweet of tongue shall find gi'eater things," says Solomon ;^ 

 clearly intimating that wisdom procures a name and admira- 

 tion, but that eloquence is of greater efficacy in business and 

 civil life. And for the cultivation ot this art, the emulation 

 betwixt Aristotle and the rhetoricians of his time, the 

 earnest study of Cicero, his long practice and utmost endea- 

 vour every way to dignify oratory, hath made these authors 

 even exceed themselves in their books upon the subject. 

 Again, the great examples of eloquence found in the orations 

 of Demosthenes and Cicero, added to the perfection and 

 exactness of their precepts, have doubled its advancement. 

 And therefore the deficiencies we find in it rather turn upon 

 certain collections belonging to its train, than upon the 

 . doctrine and use of the art itself. 



But in our manner to open and stir the earth a little 

 about the roots of this science, certainly rhetoric is sub- 

 servient to the imagination, as logic is to the understanding. 

 And if the thing be well considered, the office and use of 

 this art is but to apply and recommend the dictates of reason 

 to the imagination, in order to excite the affections and will. 

 For the administration of reason is disturbed three ways ; 

 viz., 1. either by the ensnaring of sophistry, which belongs to 

 logic ; 2. the delusion of words, which belongs to rhetoric ; 

 or 3. by the violence of the affections, which belongs to 

 ethics. For as in transacting business with others, men are 

 commonly over-reached, or drawn from their own purposes 

 either by cunning, importunity, or vehemence ; so in the in- 

 ward business we transact with ourselves, we are either, 

 1; undermined by the fallacy of arguments; 2. disquieted and 

 Bolicited by the assiduity of impressions and observations ; or 

 3. shaken and carried away by the violence of the passions. 

 ,Nor is the state of human nature so unequal, that these artd 



• Exodus iv. 14, 15, 16. ► Prov. j. 21. 



