“Eloquence (oratory)”, Kant says, “is the art of giving to a serious exercise of the understanding the character of a free imagination game; poetry is the art of giving to a free imagination game the character of a serious exercise of the understanding.
As we said in the first Teaching of this course, an orator could get little fruit from his natural qualities when he has not cultivated them and, in this sense, in relation to the need of cultivating those qualities that one receives, we can adhere to the Latin motto: Poeta nascitur, orator fit.
Strictly speaking, “figure” is to change the use or meaning of words, which facilitates the speech. These forms of thought or language should be of two essential features, which are rightly called by this name: they may be easily replaced by a simpler form or by certain non-figured form, and they may express an idea or thought more vividly, graciously or energetically.
Philosophical line and development of its principles.
In rhetoric, the formation of the speech is divided as follows: exordium or introduction, proposition, division, narration, argumentation or part of proof, refutation, pathetic part or of effects, epilogue or conclusion.
The orator should find arguments and present them duly arranged, embellish them with words, and express them with decency and decorum. All this has been called invention, disposition, elocution and pronunciation.
Rules to prepare the speech. Above all, an orator should devote especially to read selected books, where serious erudition and substantial ideas, and beauty and language energy go hand in hand.
A contemporary writer said: “It is not an orator he who gets ready, arranges and classifies properly ideas, or he who produces them with harmony and graces of the eloquence by flattering ears and imagination at the same time, but he who possesses these two talents and knows how to reunite and practice them”.
Popular eloquence. Its tribune is the environment, and its audience, the people. Through it you can try the most daring and less controlled flights, the boldest images and the most vivid and profound emotions in comparison with eloquence of other types.
What is conversation? It is short improvisation constantly changing subject and object, and even opening and deepening them. Any preparation is impossible in it because conversation permanently change its face. So you cannot anticipate replies, or think answers beforehand, or calculate where the conversation might lead.
Simplicity is the essential quality of all beauty: “simplex munditus”.
One of the first and more obvious distinctions in style is a consequence of the greater or lesser extension of author’s thoughts.