§1.2.1ἔστω δὴ ἡ ῥητορικὴ δύναμις περὶ ἕκαστον τοῦ θεωρῆσαι τὸ ἐνδεχόμενον πιθανόν.
Let rhetoric, then, be the capacity to observe the persuasive limits concerning each subject.
τοῦτο γὰρ οὐδεμιᾶς ἑτέρας ἐστὶ τέχνης ἔργον· τῶν γὰρ ἄλλων ἑκάστη περὶ τὸ αὑτῇ ὑποκείμενόν ἐστιν διδασκαλικὴ καὶ πειστική, οἷον ἰατρικὴ περὶ ὑγιεινῶν καὶ νοσερῶν, καὶ γεωμετρία περὶ τὰ συμβεβηκότα πάθη τοῖς μεγέθεσι, καὶ ἀριθμητικὴ περὶ ἀριθμῶν, ὁμοίως δὲ καὶ αἱ λοιπαὶ τῶν τεχνῶν καὶ ἐπιστημῶν·
For this is the function of no other art; for each of the other arts is instructive and persuasive about its own underlying subject, as medicine is about healthy and diseased things, and geometry is about the properties that happen to belong to magnitudes, and arithmetic is about numbers, and likewise for the rest of the arts and sciences.
ἡ δὲ ῥητορικὴ περὶ τοῦ δοθέντος ὡς εἰπεῖν δοκεῖ δύνασθαι θεωρεῖν τὸ πιθανόν, διὸ καί φαμεν αὐτὴν οὐ περί τι γένος ἴδιον ἀφωρισμένον ἔχειν τὸ τεχνικόν.
Rhetoric, on the other hand, seems to have the capacity to observe the persuasive concerning, so to speak, any given subject; therefore, we say that it does not have its technical domain concerned with any single defined genus.
§1.2.2τῶν δὲ πίστεων αἱ μὲν ἄτεχνοί εἰσιν αἱ δʼ ἔντεχνοι.
Now, of the modes of persuasion, some are non-artistic and others are artistic.
ἄτεχνα δὲ λέγω ὅσα μὴ διʼ ἡμῶν πεπόρισται ἀλλὰ προϋπῆρχεν, οἷον μάρτυρες βάσανοι συγγραφαὶ καὶ ὅσα τοιαῦτα, ἔντεχνα δὲ ὅσα διὰ τῆς μεθόδου καὶ διʼ ἡμῶν κατασκευασθῆναι δυνατόν, ὥστε δεῖ τούτων τοῖς μὲν χρήσασθαι, τὰ δὲ εὑρεῖν.
By non-artistic I mean all those that are not provided through our own agency but were already there to begin with, such as witnesses, evidence under torture, written agreements, and things of that sort; by artistic, those that can be constructed through the method and through our own agency. Consequently, of these, one must use the former and discover the latter.
§1.2.3τῶν δὲ διὰ τοῦ λόγου ποριζομένων πίστεων τρία εἴδη ἔστιν· αἱ μὲν γάρ εἰσιν ἐν τῷ ἤθει τοῦ λέγοντος, αἱ δὲ ἐν τῷ τὸν ἀκροατὴν διαθεῖναί πως, αἱ δὲ ἐν αὐτῷ τῷ λόγῳ διὰ τοῦ δεικνύναι ἢ φαίνεσθαι δεικνύναι.
Of the modes of persuasion provided through speech, there are three kinds: for some reside in the character of the speaker, others in disposing the listener in a certain way, and others in the speech itself, through demonstrating or seeming to demonstrate.
§1.2.4διὰ μὲν οὖν τοῦ ἤθους, ὅταν οὕτω λεχθῇ ὁ λόγος ὥστε ἀξιόπιστον ποιῆσαι τὸν λέγοντα·
Now, persuasion through character occurs when the speech is so spoken as to make the speaker credible.
τοῖς γὰρ ἐπιεικέσι πιστεύομεν μᾶλλον καὶ θᾶττον, περὶ πάντων μὲν ἁπλῶς, ἐν οἷς δὲ τὸ ἀκριβὲς μὴ ἔστιν ἀλλὰ τὸ ἀμφιδοξεῖν, καὶ παντελῶς.
For we believe decent people more and more quickly, on all subjects simply, but on subjects where there is no exact certainty but rather room for doubt, we trust them completely.
δεῖ δὲ καὶ τοῦτο συμβαίνειν διὰ τοῦ λόγου, ἀλλὰ μὴ διὰ τοῦ προδεδοξάσθαι ποιόν τινα εἶναι τὸν λέγοντα·
But this too must come about through the speech, and not through a prior opinion about what sort of person the speaker is.
οὐ γάρ, ὥσπερ ἔνιοι τῶν τεχνολογούντων, οὐ τίθεμεν ἐν τῇ τέχνῃ καὶ τὴν ἐπιείκειαν τοῦ λέγοντος, ὡς οὐδὲν συμβαλλομένην πρὸς τὸ πιθανόν, ἀλλὰ σχεδὸν ὡς εἰπεῖν κυριωτάτην ἔχει πίστιν τὸ ἦθος.
For we do not, like some of those who write textbooks, exclude the decency of the speaker from the art, as if it contributed nothing to the persuasive; rather, one might almost say that his character possesses the most sovereign power of persuasion.
§1.2.5διὰ δὲ τῶν ἀκροατῶν, ὅταν εἰς πάθος ὑπὸ τοῦ λόγου προαχθῶσιν· οὐ γὰρ ὁμοίως ἀποδίδομεν τὰς κρίσεις λυπούμενοι καὶ χαίροντες, ἢ φιλοῦντες καὶ μισοῦντες· πρὸς ὃ καὶ μόνον πειρᾶσθαί φαμεν πραγματεύεσθαι τοὺς νῦν τεχνολογοῦντας.
And persuasion through the listeners occurs when they are led into passion by the speech; for we do not render our judgments in the same way when we are grieving and when we are rejoicing, or when we love and when we hate; which is the sole point with which we say the current writers of textbooks attempt to busy themselves.
§1.2.6περὶ μὲν οὖν τούτων δηλωθήσεται καθʼ ἕκαστον, ὅταν περὶ τῶν παθῶν λέγωμεν, διὰ δὲ τοῦ λόγου πιστεύουσιν, ὅταν ἀληθὲς ἢ φαινόμενον δείξωμεν ἐκ τῶν περὶ ἕκαστα πιθανῶν.
Now concerning each of these, they will be made clear when we speak about the passions. But persuasion through speech occurs when we demonstrate truth or apparent truth from the persuasive means available in each particular case.
§1.2.7ἐπεὶ δʼ αἱ πίστεις διὰ τούτων εἰσί, φανερὸν ὅτι ταύτας ἐστὶ λαβεῖν τοῦ συλλογίσασθαι δυναμένου καὶ τοῦ θεωρῆσαι περὶ τὰ ἤθη καὶ περὶ τὰς ἀρετὰς καὶ τρίτον περὶ τὰ πάθη, τί τε ἕκαστόν ἐστιν τῶν παθῶν καὶ ποῖόν τι, καὶ ἐκ τίνων ἐγγίνεται καὶ πῶς, ὥστε συμβαίνει τὴν ῥητορικὴν οἷον παραφυές τι τῆς διαλεκτικῆς εἶναι καὶ τῆς περὶ τὰ ἤθη πραγματείας, ἣν δίκαιόν ἐστι προσαγορεύειν πολιτικήν.
Since, then, the modes of persuasion come about through these, it is clear that to grasp them belongs to him who is able to syllogize, and to observe concerning characters and virtues, and thirdly concerning the passions—what each of the passions is, what quality it has, and from what sources and in what manner it arises. Consequently, it turns out that rhetoric is, as it were, a branch of dialectic and of the study concerning characters, which it is just to address as politics.
διὸ καὶ ὑποδύεται ὑπὸ τὸ σχῆμα τὸ τῆς πολιτικῆς ἡ ῥητορικὴ καὶ οἱ ἀντιποιούμενοι ταύτης τὰ μὲν διʼ ἀπαιδευσίαν, τὰ δὲ διʼ ἀλαζονείαν, τὰ δὲ καὶ διʼ ἄλλας αἰτίας ἀνθρωπικάς· ἔστι γὰρ μόριόν τι τῆς διαλεκτικῆς καὶ ὁμοίωμα, καθάπερ καὶ ἀρχόμενοι εἴπομεν·
For this reason, too, rhetoric slips under the guise of politics, and those who lay claim to it do so partly through lack of education, partly through boastfulness, and partly through other human causes; for it is a certain part of dialectic and its likeness, just as we said at the beginning.
περὶ οὐδενὸς γὰρ ὡρισμένου οὐδετέρα αὐτῶν ἐστιν ἐπιστήμη πῶς ἔχει, ἀλλὰ δυνάμεις τινὲς τοῦ πορίσαι λόγους.
For neither of them is a science of how any defined subject is, but both are certain capacities for providing speeches.