|
29. But for the sake of those who are so fastidious that they do not
care for truth unless it is put in the form of a pleasing discourse, no
small place has been assigned in eloquence to the art of pleasing. And
yet even this is not enough for those stubborn-minded men who both
understand and are pleased with the teacher's discourse, without
deriving any profit from it. For what does it profit a man that he
both confesses the truth and praises the eloquence, if he does not
yield his consent, when it is only for the sake of securing his consent
that the speaker in urging the truth gives careful attention to what he
says? If the truths taught are such that to believe or to know them is
enough, to give one's assent implies nothing more than to confess that
they are true. When, however, the truth taught is one that must be
carried into practice, and that is taught for the very purpose of being
practised, it is useless to be persuaded of the truth of what is said,
it is useless to be pleased with the manner in which it is said, if it
be not so learnt as to be practised. The eloquent divine, then, when
he is urging a practical truth, must not only teach so as to give
instruction, and please so as to keep up the attention, but he must
also sway the mind so as to subdue the will. For if a man be not moved
by the force of truth, though it is demonstrated to his own
confession, and clothed in beauty of style, nothing remains but to
subdue him by the power of eloquence.
|
|