Rhetoric   

though he knew that this meant death, and that otherwise he need not
die: yet while to die thus was the nobler thing for him to do, the
expedient thing was to live on.
It is evident from what has been said that it is these three subjects,
more than any others, about which the orator must be able to have
propositions at his command. Now the propositions of Rhetoric are
Complete Proofs, Probabilities, and Signs. Every kind of syllogism is
composed of propositions, and the enthymeme is a particular kind of
syllogism composed of the aforesaid propositions.
Since only possible actions, and not impossible ones, can ever have
been done in the past or the present, and since things which have not
occurred, or will not occur, also cannot have been done or be going to
be done, it is necessary for the political, the forensic, and the
ceremonial speaker alike to be able to have at their command
propositions about the possible and the impossible, and about whether
a thing has or has not occurred, will or will not occur. Further, all
men, in giving praise or blame, in urging us to accept or reject
proposals for action, in accusing others or defending themselves,
attempt not only to prove the points mentioned but also to show that
the good or the harm, the honour or disgrace, the justice or
injustice, is great or small, either absolutely or relatively; and
therefore it is plain that we must also have at our command
propositions about greatness or smallness and the greater or the
lesser-propositions both universal and particular. Thus, we must be
able to say which is the greater or lesser good, the greater or lesser
act of justice or injustice; and so on.
Such, then, are the subjects regarding which we are inevitably bound
to master the propositions relevant to them. We must now discuss each
particular class of these subjects in turn, namely those dealt with in
political, in ceremonial, and lastly in legal, oratory.
Part 4
First, then, we must ascertain what are the kinds of things, good or
bad, about which the political orator offers counsel. For he does not
deal with all things, but only with such as may or may not take place.
Concerning things which exist or will exist inevitably, or which
cannot possibly exist or take place, no counsel can be given. Nor,
again, can counsel be given about the whole class of things which may
or may not take place; for this class includes some good things that
occur naturally, and some that occur by accident; and about these it
is useless to offer counsel. Clearly counsel can only be given on
matters about which people deliberate; matters, namely, that
ultimately depend on ourselves, and which we have it in our power to
set going. For we turn a thing over in our mind until we have reached
the point of seeing whether we can do it or not.
Now to enumerate and classify accurately the usual subjects of public
business, and further to frame, as far as possible, true definitions
of them is a task which we must not attempt on the present occasion.
For it does not belong to the art of rhetoric, but to a more
instructive art and a more real branch of knowledge; and as it is,
rhetoric has been given a far wider subject-matter than strictly
belongs to it. The truth is, as indeed we have said already, that
rhetoric is a combination of the science of logic and of the ethical
branch of politics; and it is partly like dialectic, partly like
sophistical reasoning. But the more we try to make either dialectic
rhetoric not, what they really are, practical faculties, but sciences,
the more we shall inadvertently be destroying their true nature; for
we shall be re-fashioning them and shall be passing into the region of
sciences dealing with definite subjects rather than simply with words
and forms of reasoning. Even here, however, we will mention those
points which it is of practical importance to distinguish, their
fuller treatment falling naturally to political science.
The main matters on which all men deliberate and on which political
speakers make speeches are some five in number: ways and means, war
and peace, national defence, imports and exports, and legislation.