A Dialogue Concerning Oratory, Or The Causes Of Corrupt Eloquence - The Works Of Cornelius Tacitus, Volume 8 (of 8); With An Essay On - His Life And Genius, Notes, Supplements by Caius Cornelius Tacitus
page 170 of 259 (65%)
page 170 of 259 (65%)
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Mox et Socratico plenus grege mutet habenas
Liber, et ingentis quatiat Demosthenis arma. [b] Cicero has left a book, entitled TOPICA, in which he treats at large of the method of finding proper arguments. This, he observes, was executed by Aristotle, whom he pronounces the great master both of invention and judgement. _Cum omnis ratio diligens disserendi duas habeat partes; unam INVENIENDI, alteram JUDICANDI; utriusque princeps, ut mihi quidem videtur, Aristoteles fuit._ Ciceronis _Topica_, s. vi. The sources from which arguments may be drawn, are called LOCI COMMUNES, COMMON PLACES. To supply the orator with ample materials, and to render him copious on every subject, was the design of the Greek preceptor, and for that purpose he gave his TOPICA. _Aristoteles adolescentes, non ad philosophorum morem tenuiter disserendi, sed ad copiam rhetorum in utramque partem, ut ornatius et uberius dici posset, exercuit; idemque locos (sic enim appellat) quasi argumentorum notas tradidit, unde omnis in utramque partem traheretur oratio._ Cicero, _De Oratore_. Aristotle was the most eminent of Plato's scholars: he retired to a _gymnasium_, or place of exercise, in the neighbourhood of Athens, called the _Lyceum_, where, from a custom, which he and his followers observed, of discussing points of philosophy, as they walked in the _porticos_ of the place, they obtained the name of Peripatetics, or the walking philosophers. See Middleton's _Life of Cicero_, vol. ii. p. 537, 4to edit. [c] The academic sect derived its origin from Socrates, and its name from a celebrated _gymnasium_, or place of exercise, in the suburbs of Athens, called the _Academy_, after _Ecademus_, who possessed it in the time of the _Tyndaridæ_. It was afterwards purchased, and dedicated to the public, for the convenience of walks and exercises |
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