BY MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO.

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The persons introduced in this dialogue are Cicero and his son.  It is not known when, or under what circumstances it was written.

I. Cicero Fil. I wish, my father, to hear from you in Latin the rules which you have already given me in Greek, concerning the principles of speaking, if at least you have leisure and inclination to instruct me in them.

Cicero Pat. Is there anything, my Cicero, which I can be more desirous of than that you should be as learned as possible?  And in the first place, I have the greatest possible leisure, since I have been able to leave Rome for a time; and in the next place, I would willingly postpone even my own most important occupations to the furthering of your studies.

C.  F. Will you allow me, then, to ask you questions in my turn, in Latin, about the same subjects on which you are accustomed to put questions to me in regular order in Greek?

C.  P. Certainly, if you like; for by that means I shall perceive that you recollect what you have been told, and you will hear in regular order all that you desire.

C.  F. Into how many parts is the whole system of speaking divided?

C.  P. Into three.

C.  F. What are they?

C.  P. First of all, the power of the orator; secondly, the speech; thirdly, the subject of the speech.

C.  F. In what does the power of the orator consist?

C.  P. In ideas and words.  But both ideas and words have to be discovered and arranged.  But properly the expression “to discover” applies to the ideas, and the expression “to be eloquent” to the language; but the arranging, though that is common to both, still is usually referred rather to the discovery.  Voice, gesture, expression of countenance, and all action, are companions of eloquence; and the guardian of all these things is memory.

C.  F. What?  How many parts of an oration are there?

C.  P. Four:  two of them relate to explaining any subject,—­namely, relation and confirmation; two to exciting the minds of the hearers,—­the opening and the peroration.

C.  F. What?  Has the manner of inquiry any divisions?

C.  P. It is divided into the infinite, which I term consultation; and the definite, which I call the cause.

II. C.  F. Since, then, the first business of the orator is discovery, what is he to look for?

C.  P. He is to seek to find out how to inspire those men whom he is desirous to persuade, with belief in his words; and how to affect their minds with such and such feelings.

C.  F. By what means is belief produced?

C.  P. By arguments, which are derived from topics either existing in the subject itself, or assumed.