It would be extraordinary if these splendid harangues made no impression upon him. But it must be observed that he does not pass any general criticism upon Pericles, or any other orator. And it is possible also that a fear of offending the Macedonian royal family may have prevented Aristotle from praising the anti-Macedonian statesman, though he was the greatest orator among the ancients.
After treating of style, Aristotle briefly discusses arrangement. He divides a speech into exordium, statement, proof, and peroration, and says something on the points to be aimed at in each. He adds some shrewd advice on the use that may be made of putting adroit questions to an opponent; and he mentions with approval the maxim of Gorgias that “when your adversary is earnest you should silence him with ridicule, and when he tries ridicule you should silence him with earnestness.” He neatly winds up his ‘Rhetoric’ with the specimen of a peroration: “I have spoken—you have heard. You have the matter before you—judge of it.”
Aristotle’s little treatise called ‘Poetic,’ or the ‘Art of Poetry,’ is very interesting, but it does not take the modern or romantic view of Poetry. Aristotle does not seek to find here—
“The light that never was, on sea or land,
The consecration, and the Poet’s dream.”
He simply defines poetry as one of the imitative arts, “such as dancing, flute-playing, painting,” &c.: these different arts, he says, have each their own in-
