Chapter 36.—The Rules of
Eloquence are True, Though Sometimes Used to Persuade Men of What
is False.
54. There are also certain rules
for a more copious kind of argument, which is called eloquence, and
these rules are not the less true that they can be used for
persuading men of what is false; but as they can be used to enforce
the truth as well, it is not the faculty itself that is to be
blamed, but the perversity of those who put it to a bad use. Nor
is it owing to an arrangement among men that the expression of
affection conciliates the hearer, or that a narrative, when it is
short and clear, is effective, and that variety arrests men’s
attention without wearying them. And it is the same with other
directions of the same kind, which, whether the cause in which they
are used be true or false, are themselves true just in so far as
they are effective in producing knowledge or belief, or in moving
men’s minds to desire and aversion. And men rather found out
that these things are so, than arranged that they should be
so.