FORENSIC ELOQUENCE. CHAPTER I. ORATORY IN GENERAL.-ITS POWER AND INFLUENCE IN POPULAR GOVERNMENTS.-GREEK AND ROMAN ORA TORS.-DEMOSTHENES.-CICERO. It is customary to speak of oratory or eloquence as an art or as a gift. To a certain extent it partakes of the nature of each. It is an art because there are certain rules and principles the observance of which will promote excellence in oratory; and it is also a gift, because after learning the usual and well-known precepts of rhetoric and grammar, there seems to be something still lacking to make the speaker eloquent, something that must be supplied by nature, like plumage to the bird or voice to the singer. A perfectly accurate definition of oratory, therefore, it may be difficult to find, but in view of the many attributes of eloquence which are well known. and easily recognized, it is also quite unnecessary. Cicero, who, with Demosthenes, shares supremacy in the art among the ancients, in various eloquent paraphrases describes the qualities of the true ora tor with great clearness and elegance. Thus in one passage he lays it down that "the great object of an orator is to persuade;" in another he says that the tendency of every speech is either to discuss some general question without specifying persons or times, or some point where particular times or persons are specified." Speaking of the same subject in another connection, he tells us that "eloquence is not the product of an art but that art is derived from eloquence," and again, that "it is the art of speaking with judgment, skill, and elegance, and has no determined limits within which it can be confined." The conditions favorable to its cultivation first claim attention. What state of society is suited to its growth? The answer to this question affords a starting-point to our inquiries. All public speaking necessarily implies a person speaking, an audience to which the speech is addressed, and a subject or theme for discussion. Where one of these elements is wanting, there can be no field for oratory. Wherever, therefore, occasions are presented for the discussion of propositions of public interest, there we must look for excellence in speech. These opportunities are to be found in what may be termed popular governments, that is, those in which public measures are submitted to the judgment of the people, or assemblies composed of individuals who represent them. Where the government is arbitrary, where it is regulated by the will |