ORATORY. 
was Cicero, who has likewife, by his rules, ity the beft 
plan, both to practife and teach the art. He alfo mentions 
Cornificius, oe ec the father, Celfus, Lenae, 
Virginius, iny, a 
_Quinétilian himfelf en he higheft ahead el for 
a . Jer 
theory and 
aes a enumerated the principal eat of anti- 
quity, in ow mention 
will chiefly appear when it is ea ieee to influence alae, 
and to perfuade to a€tion 5 and in this view it may be con- 
cifely defined, «*the art of perfuafion.”” A popular writer 
has diftinguifhed three kinds, or degrees, of eloquence ; for 
an account of which, fee ELoQuENce. It has been obferved 
by feveral authors, ‘that eloquence is to be looked for only 
in free ftates. This obfervation is appropriately and beauti- 
Liberty, he fays, i is the nurfe 
excelling in every art. 
among thofe who are ld arp of liber 
flave become an orator; he can on aan Pp 
certain limitations, are 
juttified by hiftory and obfervation. For although under 
arbitrary governments, that are civilized, and that encourage 
the arts, ornamental eloquence may flourifh, that eloquence 
which i is calculated more to foothe and pleafe, than to co ne 
ecnducted among them by reafoning and oe and by a 
fkilful application to the paffions and interefts of a popular 
affemb 
In fuch a ftate, and among fuch a people, eloquence, 
that kind of eloquence which was moft effe€tual for con- 
a 
application to the arts of fpeech ; and in this way he rofe t 
the’ po Of fucceeding orators we have 
particular ei ta ee ae commencement of the Pelopon- 
appeared, and carried. eloquenc 
to a great ist: 5 > Tach a height that he was never ae 
wards furpafféd. His eyigel was fo forcible and vehe. 
ment, that it triumphed ov ns 
as 
he orations in th 
fa ame 
ce acqu uired, gave 
e birth 
toa fet of men, called Rhetoricians or p- 
e Pe 
Thefe men profeffed the art of giving receipts for m king 
all forts of orations, for or again a aufe _ 
They were the firft who, with this view, aes of common 
places, and the artificial invention of arguments and ae 
for every fubjet. Accordingly they may be juftly deemed 
the firft corruptors of true eloquence; and they 
To this ae belong alfo Ifeus and ce (See 
their articles.) The former is diftinguifhed for being the 
mafter of Demotthenes, who raifed eloquence to a higher 
oi ie of {plendour than any other perfon who ever bore the 
me of an orator. For the circumftances of his life, and 
ae charaéter of his eloquence, particularly compared with 
of oe 
lereus, who lived in the next age to Demofthenes, attained 
fome charaGter, jee he is reprefented as a flowery rather than 
imed at - 
ance. i 
ther than warmed them.’’ After his time we hear of no.more 
Grecian orators of any note. 
If we held to the He and progrefs of eloquence among 
the ans, we fhall find that they were long a martial 
nation, aes: rude, and unfkilled in arts of any kind 
The Romans always acknowledged the Grecians as their 
mafters in every part of eee To this purpofe Horace 
{peaks of them in his Epift. ad Aug 
“< When conquer’d Greece ein in her = ae hale 
She triumph’d o’er her favage conqueror’ hear 
Taught our rough verfe its numbers to refine, 
And our rude ityle with elegance to fhine.”’ 
rane: 
the popular kind, public Treeline b ae at an early period 
an engine o nt, and was employed for gaining 
diftin@io power. But in the rude unpolifhed times 
t 
of the ftate, “tee {peaking could hardly be deemed elo- 
quence. 
