Two Books of the Elements of Rhetoric

This section continues from the previous page's discussion on the utility of rhetorical precepts.
moved prudent men to devise precepts, so that they might provide for everyone in common, and prepare adolescents, not so much for speaking correctly, as for understanding the writings of others with prudence. And those same men saw that, just like the practitioners of other arts, Orators are made by imitation. Therefore, if there were any in the crowd of learners whom nature had fashioned as suitable for speaking, after they had learned the way of understanding and judging the orations of eloquent men, they were led into the forum and to the cases, and were ordered to observe and imitate the great and excellent Orators in action. Wherefore we too shall hand down Rhetoric for this use, so that it may aid adolescents in reading good authors, who indeed cannot be understood at all without this way. Since this is so, it is sufficiently clear that these precepts are necessary for everyone. Furthermore, it will not be difficult for those who are aided by nature to speak to imitate the understood authors. For Orators cannot be produced without imitation, nor does imitation proceed without the knowledge of precepts.

Eloquence is the faculty of speaking wisely and ornamentally. For in order to speak well, the primary requirement is a perfect knowledge of those things about which the speech is instituted. For it is madness, not eloquence, to speak about things unknown and unexamined. Since, however, the knowledge of things is necessary for speaking...