Rhetoric is the counterpart of Dialectic. Both alike are concerned with
such things as come, more or less, within the general ken of all men and belong
to no definite science. Accordingly all men make use, more or less, of both;
for to a certain extent all men attempt to discuss statements and to maintain
them, to defend themselves and to attack others. Ordinary people do this either
at random or through practice and from acquired habit. Both ways being
possible, the subject can plainly be handled systematically, for it is possible
to inquire the reason why some speakers succeed through practice and others
spontaneously; and every one will at once agree that such an inquiry is the
function of an art.

Now, the framers of the current treatises on rhetoric have constructed but a
small portion of that art. The modes of persuasion are the only true
constituents of the art: everything else is merely accessory. These writers,
however, say nothing about enthymemes, which are the substance of rhetorical
persuasion, but deal mainly with non-essentials. The arousing of prejudice,
pity, anger, and similar emotions has nothing to do with the essential facts,
but is merely a personal appeal to the man who is judging the case.
Consequently if the rules for trials which are now laid down some states --
especially in well-governed states -- were applied everywhere, such people
would have nothing to say. All men, no doubt, think that the laws should
prescribe such rules, but some, as in the court of Areopagus, give practical
ef                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    