Two Books of the Elements of Rhetoric

For what will he say about religion, about the nature of things, about Law, or finally about any part of life, if he is not instructed in that doctrine which contains those things?

Regarding the definition of Rhetoric, see Fabius Quintilian, Institutio Oratoria book 2, chapter 16.

Rhetoric, however, is an art which teaches the way and reason for speaking correctly and ornamentally. I call these precepts handed down to boys Rhetoric, the knowledge of which, although necessary for eloquence, yet requires many other aids of both nature and doctrine beyond this art. For all learned men hold these precepts, among whom many are inarticulate Latin: infantes; literally, those who cannot speak well, yet they have need of this art for judging, just as all have need of Dialectic Logic for judging. But as the end of Dialectic is to judge whether all things agree aptly in teaching, and to follow a certain way in teaching, so let us also establish the ends of Rhetoric: to judge a long oration, what the series of parts is, what the principal members are, and what the ornaments are. Furthermore, in speaking, for those not destitute of nature, it is to ensure that the oration has certain parts, and does not expose great matters briefly, like Dialectic, but adds the light of words.

ON THE DUTIES OF THE ORATOR.

Since every speech consists of things and words,