CONTENTS.

I. TRACES OF ORATORY IN EARLY LITERATURE.
The beginnings of literature itself in primitive verse concern-
ing Nature; in later poetry regarding human life; suc-
ceeded by philosophic prose. Appearance of the first
recorded rhetorical precept. Prose in history. Oratory in
the episodes of Herodotus' history. The speeches of his
characters. Thucydides also incorporated speeches with
his history. Oratory in the drama. Poetry and oratory
mingled by the dramatists and their successors. The
speeches finally predominate in the play. Theodectes,
tragedian and orator, marks the transition. Oratory tri-
umphs as a literary art. Public address in biblical ages.

ORATORY IN SICILY.

II. FORENSIC
Sicily Hellenic in character. Syracuse a resort of literary men
in the fifth century B. C. Empedocles. Aristotle's estimate
of him as a rhetorician. The art of methodical speech is
Hellenic. Favored by language, literature, and philos-
ophy, in fifth and sixth centuries B. C.; and finally by a
democratic government in Syracuse. Practical character
of early forensic oratory. In theory every citizen his own
advocate. Leads to delegated argumentation. Corax the
first instructor in legal oratory. His five rules. Their
anticipations of later treatises. Their foundation in
unchanging principles. Summary.

III. PROFESSIONAL SPEECH-WRITERS.

The occasion of their appearance. Antiphon marks the transi-
tion from the rhetorical school to the law-court and the
assembly. Formulated briefs. His topic of general prob-

ability. Becomes the pioneer of political, legislative, and
deliberative discussion. Develops former principles. His
style. Gorgias. His methods of instruction. Plato's Gorgias.
Practical and teachable, useful and scientific rhetoric, the
orator and the rhetorician. Lysias. Marks the transfer
of the science to Greece. Socrates' mention of him. His
rhetorical education. A wealthy manufacturer. Business
troubles force him into professional speech-writing.
Adapts his arguments to the characters of his clients.
Versatility of style. Master of prose-writing. His suc-
cess. Isocrates. Socrates' prophecy concerning his future.
Loss of fortune drives him into professional labors. His
school at Athens. His illustrious pupils. His improve-
ments upon the methods of his predecessors. Exalted
themes. Oratorical and ethical purpose. Results of his
instructions. The character of his professional work. The
extent of his literary influence. The pecuniary value of
his services and productions. Not a mere rhetorician.
His advancement of Greek oratory. The anomalous char-
acter of this period. Its contributions to the art and science
of rhetoric. The logographer's place in the growth of
forensic and deliberative oratory.

IV. ATTIC ORATORS.

Andocides. Orator of natural ability, so-called. His faults.
Lack of clearness and orderly arrangement, of proportion
and precision in illustration, and of earnestness, charged by
Hermogenes. Plutarch's uncharitable criticism. Illustra-
tion of the obverse and reverse sides of rhetorical criticism.
Faults might have been less if he had been less natural
and self-sufficing. Isæus. Suffers from his position be-
tween Lysias and Demosthenes. Transmits results of
former efforts to a greater successor. Catches the excel-
lencies and not the faults of his models. Clear, brief, and
graphic in diction; flexible, vigorous, animated, and earn-
est in style. Rapid in movement and skilful in arrange-
Cumulative reasoning crowned with appeal. Ad-
vances his profession by limiting it to private causes.
Adapts arguments to clients. A master of forensic dis-

ment.

cussion. Instructor of Demosthenes. Bondage to con-
ventionalisms his mistake. Review of the progress of
forensic oratory. Leading traits of principal orators.

V.-POLITICAL ORATORS.

Forensic oratory leads to deliberative. Four orators of the
best period. Lycurgus, the conservative. Characteris-
tics. Hyperides, the progressive patriot. Qualities of his
oratory. Estimates by Hermogenes and Longinus.
Æschines. Natural gifts and acquired accomplishments.
Drawbacks. Demosthenes, the culmination of Attic elo-
quence. Its earlier types. Elements in his phenomenal
achievement. Necessity of effort through loss of inheri-
tance. Shares in prosecution of his guardians. Training
under Isæus. Obstacles and hindrances. Apprenticeship
at speech-writing. Legal, historical, and political studies.
Beginning of professional career. Championship of
Athens. Manner and tone of early speeches. Their per-
vading principle. Labor in composition. Characteristics
of argument and style. Recognition of his genius.
Its highest achievement. Variety and versatility. The
task imposed upon his oratory. The patriot soldier's
indorsement of his own speech. His primacy among
ancient orators.

VI.-ARISTOTLE, THE RHETORICIAN.

A century's growth of oratory, under Greek criticism, civil
liberty, and literary contests develops Attic excellencies.
Material accumulated for a science of rhetoric, in compo-
sitions of various styles and values. The power to analyze
and classify these is found in Aristotle. Favoring cir-
cumstances and qualifications. Literary and scientific
habits. Acquaintance with orators and their methods.
Reduction of particular modes to general principles of
speech. Substitution of laws for rules and precepts. His
estimate of predecessors. His definition of rhetoric.
Division of the subject. Proof in his system. Compre-
hensiveness and minuteness of his analysis. Example in
his division of Deliberative Oratory. Other examples. Not

a minute philosopher merely. Develops and exhausts the

subject in a large and manly way. The father of rhetorical

science. Permanent value of his work. His style. His

analytic methods useful to writers. Lack of emotive ele-

ment alleged. His theory and art of composition. His

philosophy of rhetoric.

VII. EARLY ROMAN Orators.

Slow development of Latin literature. Its indebtedness to
Greek inspiration. Diffusion of the Greek language.
Persistence of the Latin. Prose composition favored by
the Roman character. A rugged speech natural to the
Latin race.
A sturdy and martial oratory precedes other
forms of literature. Which in turn antedate the maturity
of eloquence. Cato the Censor and his vigorous prose.
Contemporaries of Cato. Scipio Africanus Major and
Minor. Sulpicius Galba. Rutilius Rufus. The Gracchi.
Tiberius and Caius. Other orators. Greek influence and
culture. Mark Antony. Crassus. Cicero's opinion of
him. Hortensius. His Asiatic style.

VIII. RHETORICAL SCHools.-Cicero, the RHETORICIAN.

Conflict of literary tastes. The Attic and Asiatic controversy.

Its causes. Criteria of style. Quintilian's dictum. The

law of diversity. Rhetorical study becomes retrospective

and imitative. Hellenic teachers of oratory at Rome, and

Roman youth at Athens. Rhetoric a remunerative profes-

sion. The exalted position of oratory in ancient education.

The rhetorical works of Cicero. A digest of previous trea-

tises with his own additions. His division of the subject.

With Aristotle he emphasizes invention as the foundation

of the art. The De Oratore. Qualifications of an orator.

Symposia. The De Claris Oratoribus and Orator. His

rhetorical position as affected by his philosophical and

moral codes. Philosophical studies contribute to oratorical.

The ethical element in his system. His eloquence affected

by his times. Resumé of influences and oratorical examples.

IX.-CICERO, THE ORATOR.

His life outlined. Fidelity to his own rhetorical system. De-
tails of construction and argumentation. Variety of method.
Adaptation. Latinity. Diction. Harmony of sound and
sense. Examples. Excellencies. Strictures. Overbalan-
cing merits. Compared with Demosthenes. In comprehen-
siveness; multitude-moving power. Demosthenes' single-
ness of aim. Cicero's broader culture. Pleasantry; sobriety.
Cicero's advantage of living in a later age. Differing mo-
tives and methods of address. Contrasting styles. Rapidity
of movement. Demands of modern taste. Values of con-
cise and copious expression. Roman taste pleased by
stately splendor. Cicero's ethical sentiments illustrated in
his eloquence. His struggles between the desire to please
and to do right. Quintilian's summary of his virtues.

X.--CICERO'S SUCCESSORS AND QUINTILIAN.

Oratory declines in vigor and advances in finish. Becomes
servile with the loss of liberty. Reactions and Asian ten-
dencies. Neglect of deliberative oratory under tyrants..
Public speech restricted to the courts; and to rhetorical
schools. Ends in mere declamation. Rare exceptions.
Mostly "sound and fury." Temporary revival under Nerva.
The highest literary ambition. Pliny the Younger as an
advocate. Tacitus, the historian, as an orator. Weight,
force, and dramatic character of his eloquence. Return of
downward tendencies. Pedantry and affectation. Culmi-
nate in Fronto's praise of dust and smoke. Quintilian.
Early training. Imperial favor. Champion of the Cice-
ronian style. The training of an orator. Ethical element.
Follows Aristotle. Wide reading. Elocution. Critical esti-
mates of Cicero, Cæsar, and contemporary orators. Gen-
erosity of his criticism. A ripe scholar before he began to
write. Literary modesty. Exhaustive character of his
Institutes of Oratory. Outline of his system. Its compre-
hensiveness. Relation to his own and subsequent times.