Profane Rhetoric and Rhetors.— At this early period in the history of rhetoric, there could be no rules for its acquirement and use, since that which is held to be a divinely in spired gift cannot be affected by earthly means.
But the practical Greeks and Romans, and be fore them, to some extent at least, the Baby lonian and other cultured races of Asia Minor, had developed orators quite apart from the per son of the sovereign and the service of re ligion. These rhetors, as they were called in Greek, were intimately connected with the civic life of the Greek community. Already in the case of these men, the old idea of the divine in spiration of the spoken word had pretty well disappeared or was accepted only in the general sense that ancient tradition is accepted. The rhetors who appeared before the Greek public as public orators, lawyers, prosecutors and de fenders, in the legal sense, soon found the great necessity of becoming masters of the principles of rhetoric with their most effective application. This called into being teachers of rhetoric and oratory who gradually organized rhetorical expression into a science far-reaching and all-embracing within its own special prov ince. Aristotle is credited with having made Empedocles the inventor of rhetoric. He prob ably was one of numerous early Greek teachers each of whom contributed his part to the grad ual development of the science of the spoken word; but the real organizer of the art of rhet oric seems to have been Corax of Syracuse who put forth his method about 446 s.c. It was not until some 30 years later that the new method of Corax, as further perfected by one of his pupils, became known in Athens. There it at once be came immensely popular with the Athenian orators; and teachers of the Syracuse method of rhetoric sprang up everywhere. Isocrates, himself one of the greatest orators of his age, founded a noted school of rhetoric, whose in fluence lasted throughout his life and was main tained afterward by his pupils. This influence extended from 390 B.C. to the middle of the lat ter half of the century. Aristotle (q.v.) who published his rhetoric in 322 s.c. has done per haps more than any one other man to give a clear perception of the province, object and rules governing rhetoric. Corax, who had pro duced his system of rhetoric for the democratic lawyers and professional pleaders who had sprung up after the fall of the tyrant Thrasy deus (472 s.c.) and the establishment of a democracy, divided his subject into five parts corresponding to the development of the public speech; poem, narrative, arguments, additional remarks and peroration; and he showed, by illustration, how to develop and use each. His tart" became the basis of the procedure of the subsequently -great orators-of Greece. Aristotle presented clearly principles given in a very' gen- Aral, concrete manner by Corax. Aristotle's 'work, which is divided into three books, dis -cusses at -length and with wonderful power of analysis the nature -and obleet of rhetoric, the means of and the manner of hand these !Means in order to secate the best effects; He divides the province of rhetoric into deliberative, forensic and epidictic. In the lat ter part of. the work he deals at length with ex pression, the art of delivery and skill in ar rangement. The whole book proceeds on the assumption that rhetoric' is • an art and the province of the teacher is to show to his pupils the true principles of this' art the chief aim of which should be to prove one's point or to ap pear to do so. At length Aristotle discusses in
a very scientific manner all the problems of rhetoric and its teachings, as he sees them. So well did he handie'his subject that not only did his work take the place of that of Corax, but most on rhetoric sinoe Ifs day have followed him more or leas closely. For more than 300 years the scientific•method of Aristotle formed the basis of rhetoric study and pro cedure for those orators and schools who fol lowed the purer traditions'of Greece; but it was opposed by an increasingly large body of orators and teachers of rhetoric who followed the florid Asiatic style of oratory, depending upon practice for perfection, and decrying scientific rules. 'Mete two systems were used by Hermagoras of Temaos (in ./Eolis) as the bases of a new system of rhetoric which at tempted to reconcile the two schools by applying the practice of the one to the scientific tion of the other (110 s.c.). This became the ruling system of rhetoric in Italy and did much for the training of the foremost Roman speakers, orators and jurists, Cicero, Quin tilian ('De Institutione Oratoria,' 90 a.n.), Longinus of Rhetoric.' 260 A.D.) and Aphthonius in 4th century). All contributed important marks on the subject of rhetoric. In the 16th and 17th centuries many Modern Rhetoric European universities paid considerable attention to the teaching of rhet oric and their textbooks were for the most part the old Greek and Roman writers already mentioned. After this the teaching of rhetoric in schools and universities gradually became less and less effective, to meet however .vith a very imperfect revival in the 19th century. Among the well-known works of rhetoric be longing to the Renaissance are 'The Art or Craft of Rhetoryke,' by Leonard Cox (1540); of Rhetonque) by Thomas Wilson (1553); several treatises (in French) by Tonq,nelin (1555) and Courcelles (1557). To the modern 'are of rhetoric belong such popular books as !Blair's (Rhetoric,' Campbell's (Philosophy of Rhetork,) Whately'S 'Elements of Rhetoric' and a large number of for schools. In the United States there arose, in the latter half of the -19th century, various schools of oratory, rhetoric and dramatic art, which aimed teach their pupils the principles of rhetoric BO as to' fit them for the stage, the pulpit and 'the forum. Teachers in these schools have pub lished' works on rhetoric, oratory and dramatic art; but these publications, where really valu nblei bare been aimbst altogether based on the principles expounded in the works already men =tioned. German and French schools have also paid considerable-attention to the teaching of rhetoric from the point of view of the spoken word' All modern, universities have depart ments of rhetoric, though too often the teach ing of the rhetoric department is confined to the exposition of the principles of correct and ef fective composition in prose and verse, without any attempt to apply these principles to practical public speaking. The result of this neglect to combine theory and practice is shown in the very defective oratory and rhetorical presenta tion by the public speakers of the day.