RHETORIC (Gr. OrePecirrixvq, the art of the orator), the skilful use of language for the persuasion or influence of others. Out of this primary meaning of the term have grown other secondary senses. These embrace the artistic use of language, skill in discourse, the power of persuasion, the influence exercised by this power, ostentatious display of language, gaudy and tawdry use of speech, the prostitution of one's honesty and honor by the use persua sive language employed to gain ignoble ends, artificial oratory as opposed to natural and un affected speech. Rhetoric thus includes, in the widest use of the term, the art of orator whether written or spoken. It, therefore, in dudes public speaking,. delivery of a discourse, speech, etc., composition, written or spoken, recitation, elocution, with special reference to the scientific rules governing all of these. The ancient Greeks use the term rhetoric largely in the sense of the art of persuasion ; and this is the more general sense in which the word is used to-day. Modern writers on the subject of rhetoric have analyzed and dissected the term and followed into all sorts of ramifica tions, and broadened its scope so as not only to include everything relating to the art of composition but also the investigation of the psychological problems related thereto, the effect of rhetorical speech upon hearers or readers and its reactive effect upon society. While this philosophical aspect of the question is in line with the spirit of scientific investiga tion of cause and effect, of the age in which we live, it cannot be considered more than an in teresting and illuminating commentary upon the subject of rhetoric itself, which in no way concerns itself with moral purpose, its one great object being to persuade an audience by means of the written or spoken word. This was the one primary aim of the American In dian, who gave very great attention to the strict rhetorical form and force of his public speeches.
The Graphic Rhetoric which has been skilfully and artfully employed by savage, barbaric, semi-barbaric and civilized races alike, to the one great end, persuasion, formed the guiding force of the spoken word long before there were writers to define its provinces and uses and to lay down laws for its proper em ployment and rules for its acquirement. In
early times the great orator was looked upon as a person inspired by the gods just as much as were the prophet and the poet. The effective rhetorical use of words to the more primitive mind had something strangely mysterious and divine about it. This is embodied graphically in the Biblical statement : °In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." (John i, 1). The idea con veyed in the graphic introduction of John is that of the orator, divine orator creating die world by the power of his word just as the earthy orator moves the imagination and the hearts of men by the beauty and strength of his oratorind presentation of his thoughts. The public utterances of the kings of Egypt were held to be the divinely-inspired words of the highest of their gods, Ra, whose representa tives the sovereigns were held to be upon earth; and they were likened to the strong and 'shining beauty of the great sun himself. In most of the Asiatic countries the power of .oratory was accredited to a like divine origin. This idea was carried to its logical conclusion among the Semitic races, and more especially among the Jews, the fiery utterances of whose great priests were held to be the revelations of the divine prophets of the God of gods and the Lord of hosts. Thus throughout the long ages stretching from barbarism to the present, the one great object of oratory and rhetoric has been persuasion, the moving of the minds of men. Among the Jews the rhetorical speeches and writings of their prophets and the lofty religious compositions of their poets, historians and chroniclers were early collected and guarded as the sacred possession of the race.