that task could seem imperfect unless Rhetoric had been added. But since I had once obligated myself to you with the promised Dialectics, I feared that you would not be satisfied unless you had the whole gift. I pray, however, that Christ may govern and bless your studies.

Small decorative woodcut ornament (fleuron) depicting a stylized botanical motif with three stems.

FIRST BOOK

ON THE ELEMENTS

OF RHETORIC.

An ornamental woodcut drop cap letter 'I' is decorated with two birds standing on either side of the vertical bar of the letter.
At the beginning, adolescents must be warned for what use the common precepts of Rhetoric were first handed down. For they will read more willingly when they have known what utility they ought to take from them. Acute and skilled men, who first produced this art, did not by any means think that these precepts make men eloquent, or that they are sufficient for acquiring eloquence. For eloquence first