§3.2.1nec diu nos moretur quaestio, quae rhetorices origo sit.
Nor let the question of what is the origin of rhetoric detain us long.
nam cui dubium est, quia; sermonem ab ipsa rerum natura geniti protinus homines acceperint (quod certe principium est eius rei), huic studium et incrementum dederit utilitas, summam ratio et exercitatio?
For who can doubt that, since men as soon as they were born received speech from Nature herself (which is certainly the beginning of that matter), utility gave to it study and increase, and reason and exercise gave to it the highest perfection?
§3.2.2nec video, quare curam dicendi patent quidam inde coepisse, quod ii, qui in discrimen aliquod vocabantur, accuratius loqui defendendi sui gratia instituerint.
Nor do I see why some should think that the care of speaking began from this, that those who were brought into some danger began to speak more accurately for the sake of defending themselves.
haec enim ut honestior causa, ita non utique prior est, cum praesertim accusatio praecedat defensionem; nisi quis dicet, etiam gladium fabricatum ab eo prius, qui ferrum in tutelam sui quam qui in perniciem alterius compararit.
For this cause, though it is more honorable, is yet not by any means the prior one, especially since accusation precedes defense; unless someone will say that even the sword was fashioned first by him who prepared iron for his own protection, rather than by him who prepared it for the destruction of another.
§3.2.3initium ergo dicendi dedit natura, initium artis observatio.
Nature therefore gave the beginning of speaking, observation the beginning of the art.
homines enim, sicuti in medicina, cum viderent alia salubria, alia insalubria, ex observatione eorum effecerunt artem, ita, cum in dicendo alia utilia, alia inutilia deprehenderent, notarunt ea ad imitandum vitandumque, et quaedam secundum rationem eorum adiecerunt ipsi quoque; haec confirmata sunt usu, tum quae sciebat quisque docuit.
For just as in medicine, when men saw some things to be healthy and others unhealthy, they formed an art from the observation of them, so in speaking, when they discovered some things to be useful and others useless, they noted them for imitation and avoidance, and they themselves also added certain things according to the system of those; these were confirmed by usage, and then each taught what he knew.
§3.2.4Cicero quidem initium orandi conditoribus urbium ac legum latoribus dedit, in quibus fuisse vim dicendi necesse est; cur tamen hanc primam originem putet, non video, cum sint adhuc quaedam vagae et sine urbibus ac sine legibus gentes, et tamen qui sunt in iis nati et legationibus fungantur et accusent aliqua atque defendant et denique alium alio melius loqui credant.
Cicero indeed gave the beginning of speaking to the founders of cities and the givers of laws, in whom there must have been the power of speaking; yet why he should think this to be the first origin, I do not see, since there are still certain wandering peoples without cities and without laws, and yet those who are born among them both perform embassies, and accuse and defend certain things, and finally believe that one person speaks better than another.