CHAF. IO. — THE NECESSITY FOR PERSPICUITY OF STYLE.
24. Now a strong desire for clearness some- times leads to neglect of the more polished forms of speech, and indifference about what sounds well, compared with what clearly ex- presses and conveys the meaning intended. Whence a certain author, when dealing with speech of this kind, says that there is in it "a kind of careful negligence."1 Yet while taking away ornament, it does not bring in vulgarity of speech; though good teachers have, or ought to have, so great an anxiety about teaching that they will employ a word which cannot be made pure Latin without becoming obscure or ambiguous, but which when used according to the vulgar idiom is neither ambiguous nor obscure) not in the way the learned, but rather in the way the unlearned employ it. For if our translators did not shrink from saying, " Non congregabo conventicula eorum de sanguinibus," 2 because they felt that it was important for the sense to put a word here in the plural which in Latin is only used in the singular; why should a teacher of godliness who is addressing an un- learned audience shrink from using ossum in- stead of os, if he fear that the latter might be taken not as the singular of ossa, but as the singular of or a, seeing that African ears have no quick perception of the shortness or length of vowels? And what advantage is there in purity of speech which does not lead to un- derstanding in the hearer, seeing that there is no use at all in speaking, if they do not understand us for whose sake we speak? He, therefore, who teaches will avoid all words that do not teach; and if instead of them he can find words which are at once pure and in- telligible, he will take these by preference; if, however, he cannot, either because there are no such words, or because they do not at the time occur to him, he will use words that are not quite pure, if only the substance of his thought be conveyed and apprehended in its integrity.
25. And this must be insisted on as neces- sary to our being understood, not only in conversations, whether with one person or ' Cicero, Orator. 23; " Queedam etiam negligentia est dili- gens.
V' J shal'not assemble their assemblies of blood," Ps xvi 4 with several, but much more in the case of a speech delivered in public: for in conversa- tion any one has the power of asking a ques- tion; but when all are silent that one may be heard, and all faces are turned attentively upon him, it is neither customary nor de- corous for a person to ask a question about what he does not understand; and on this account the speaker ought to be especially careful to give assistance to those who cannot ask it. Now a crowd anxious for instruction generally shows by its movements if it under- stands what is said; and until some indication of this sort be given, the subject discussed ought to be turned over and over, and put in every shape and form and variety of ex- pression, a thing which cannot be done by men who are repeating words prepared be- forehand and committed to memory. As soon, however, as the speaker has ascertained that what he says is understood, he ought either to bring his address to a close, or pass on to another point. For if a man gives pleasure when he throws light upon points on which people wish for instruction, he be- comes wearisome when he dwells at length upon things that are already well known, es- pecially when men's expectation was fixed on having the difficulties of the passage removed.
For even things that are very well known are told for the sake of the pleasure they give, if the attention be directed not to the things themselves, but to the way in which they are told. Nay, even when the style, itself is al- ready well known, if it be pleasing to the hearers, it is almost a matter of indifference whether he who speaks be a speaker or a reader. For things that are gracefully written are often not only read with delight by those who are making their first acquaintance with them, but re-read with delight by those who have already made acquaintance with them, and have not yet forgotten them; nay, both these classes will derive pleasure even from hearing another man repeat them. And if a man has forgotten anything, when he is re- minded of it he is taught. But I am not now treating of the mode of giving pleasure. I am speaking of the mode in which men who desire to learn ought to be taught. And the best mode is that which secures that he who hears shall hear the truth, and that what he hears he shall understand. And when this point has been reached, no further labor need be spent on the truth itself, as if it required further explanation; but perhaps some trouble may be taken to enforce it so as to bring it home to the heart. If it appear right to do this, it ought to be done so moderately as not to lead to weariness and impatience.
Chap. XIII.]
ON CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE.
583 CHAP. II. THE CHRISTIAN TEACHER MUST SPEAK CLEARLY, BUT NOT INELEGANTLY.
26. For teaching, of course, true eloquence consists, not in making people like what they disliked, nor in making them do what they shrank from, but in making clear what was obscure; yet if this be done without grace of style, the benefit does not extend beyond the few eager students who are anxious to know whatever is to be learnt, however rude and unpolished the form in which it is put; and who, when they have succeeded in their ob- ject, find the plain truth pleasant food enough. And it is one of the distinctive features of good intellects not to love words, but the truth in words. For of what service is a golden key, if it cannot open what we want it to open? Or what objection is there to a wooden one if it can, seeing that to open what is shut is all we want? But as there is a certain analogy between learning and eat- ing, the very food without which it is impossi- ble to live must be flavored to meet the tastes of the majority.
CHAP. 12. — THE AIM OF THE ORATOR, ACCORD- ING TO CICERO, IS TO TEACH, TO DELIGHT, AND TO MOVE. OF THESE, TEACHING IS THE MOST ESSENTIAL.
27. Acccordingly a great orator has truly said that " an eloquent man must speak so as to teach, to delight, and to persuade/'1 Then he adds: " To teach is a necessity, to delight is a beauty, to persuade is a tri- umph."2 Now of these three, the one first mentioned, the teaching, which is a matter of necessity, depends on what we say; the -other two on the way we say it. He, then, who speaks with the purpose of teaching should not suppose that he has said what he has to say as long as he is not understood; for although what he has said be intelligible to himself, it is not said at all to the man who does not understand it. If, however, he is understood, he has said his say, whatever may have been his manner of saying it. But if he wishes to delight or persuade his hearer as well, he will not accomplish that end by putting his thought in any shape no matter what, but for that purpose the style of speak- ing is a matter of importance. And as the hearer must be pleased in order to secure his attention, so he must be persuaded in order to move him to action. And as he is pleased 1 Cicero, Orator. 21: " Est igitur eloquens qui ita dice/, ut probel, ztt deiectet, ut flectat." Not quoted accurately by Augus- 2 "Prooare, necessitatis est; delectare, suavitatis; flectere, Victoria."
if you speak with sweetness and elegance, so he is persuaded if he be drawn by your prom- ises, and awed by your threats; if he reject what you condemn, and embrace what you commend; if he grieve when you heap up ob- jects for grief, and rejoice when you point out an object for joy; if he pity those whom you present to him as objects of pity, and shrink from those whom you set before him as men to be feared and shunned. I need not go over all the other things that can be done by powerful eloquence to move the minds of the hearers, not telling them what they ought to do, but urging them to do what they already know ought to be done.
28. If, however, they do not yet know this, they must of course be instructed before they can be moved. And perhaps the mere knowledge of their duty will have such an effect that there will be no need to move them with greater strength of eloquence. Yet when this is needful, it ought to be done. And it is needful when people, knowing what they ought to do, do it not. Therefore, to teach is a necessity. For what men know, it is in their own hands either to do or not to do. But who would say that it is their duty to do what they do not know? On the same principle, to persuade is not a necessity: for it is not always called for; as, for example, when the hearer yields his assent to one who simply teaches or gives pleasure. For this reason also to persuade is a triumph, because it is possible that a man may be taught and delighted, and yet not give his consent. And what will be the use of gaining the first two ends if we fail in the third? Neither is it a necessity to give pleasure; for when, in the course of an address, the truth is clearly pointed out (and this is the true function of teaching), it is not the fact, nor is it the in- tention, that the style of speech should make the truth pleasing, or that the style should of itself give pleasure; but the truth itself, when exhibited in its naked simplicity, gives pleas- ure, because it is the truth. And hence even falsities are frequently a source of pleasure when they are brought to light and exposed. It is not, of course, their falsity that gives pleasure; but as it is true that they are false, the speech which shows this to be true gives pleasure.
CHAP. 13. THE HEARER MUST BE MOVED AS WELL AS INSTRUCTED.
29. But for the sake of those who are so fastidious that they do not care for truth un- less it is put in the form of a pleasing dis- course, no small place has been assigned in 5^4 ON CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE.
[Book IV.
eloquence to the art of pleasing. And yet even this is not enough for those stubborn- minded men who both understand and are pleased with the teacher's discourse, without deriving any profit from it. For what does it profit a man that he both confesses the truth and praises the eloquence, if he does not yield his consent, when it is only for the sake of securing his consent that the speaker in urging the truth gives careful attention to what he says? If the truths taught are such that to believe or to know them is enough, to give one's assent implies nothing more than to confess that they are true. When, how- ever, the truth taught is one that must be carried into practice, and that is taught for the very purpose of being practised, it is use- less to be persuaded of the truth of what is said, it is useless to be pleased with the man- ner in which it is said, if it be not so learnt as to be practised. The eloquent divine, then, when he is urging a practical truth, must not only teach so as to give instruction, and please so as to keep up the attention, but he must also sway the mind so as to subdue the will. For if a man be not moved by the force of truth, though it is demonstrated to his own confession, and clothed in beauty of style, nothing remains but to subdue him by the power of eloquence.
CHAP. 14. — BEAUTY OF DICTION TO BE IN KEEP- ING WITH THE MATTER.
30. And so much labor has been spent by men on the beauty of expression here spoken of, that not only is it not our duty to do, but it is our duty to shun and abhor, many and heinous deeds of wickedness and baseness which wicked and base men have with great eloquence recommended, not with a view to gaining assent, but merely for the sake of being read with pleasure. But may God avert from His Church what the prophet Jeremiah says of the synagogue of the Jews: "A wonderful and horrible thing is committed in the land: the prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests applaud them with their hands;1 and my people love to have it so: and what will ye do in the end thereof? " 2 O eloquence, which is the more terrible from its purity, and the more crushing from its solidity! Assuredly it is "a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces." For to this God Himself has by the same prophet com- pared His own word spoken through His holy prophets.3 God forbid, then, God forbid that with us the priest should applaud the false 1 " And the priests bear rule by their means." (A V > • Jer. v. 30, 31 (LXX.). 3 Jer. xxiii. 29.
prophet, and that God's people should love to have it so. God forbid, I say, that with us there should be such terrible madness! For what shall we do in the end thereof? And assuredly it is preferable, even though what is said should be less intelligible, less pleasing, and less persuasive, that truth be spoken, and that what is just, not what is in- iquitous, be listened to with pleasure. But this, of course, cannot be, unless what is true and just be expressed with elegance.
31. In a serious assembly, moreover, such as is spoken of when it is said, " I will praise Thee among much people,"4 no pleasure is derived from that species of eloquence which indeed says nothing that is false, but which buries small and unimportant truths under a frothy mass of ornamental words, such as would not be graceful or dignified even if used to adorn great and fundamental truths. And something of this sort occurs in a letter of the blessed Cyprian, which, I think, came there by accident, or else was inserted de- signedly with this view, that posterity might see how the wholesome discipline of Christian teaching had cured him of that redundancy of language, and confined him to a more dig- nified and modest form of eloquence, such as we find in his subsequent letters, a style which is admired without effort, is sought after with eagerness, but is not attained with- out great difficulty. He says, then, in one place," Let us seek this abode: the neighbor- ing solitudes afford a retreat where, whilst the spreading shoots of the vine trees, pendulous and intertwined, creep amongst the support- ing reeds, the leafy covering has made a por- tico of vine."5 There is wonderful fluency and exuberance of language here; but it is too florid to be pleasing to serious minds. But people who are fond of this style are apt to think that men who do not use it, but em- ploy a more chastened style, do so because they cannot attain the former, not because their judgment teaches them to avoid it. Where- fore this holy man shows both that he can speak in that style, for he has done so once, and that he does not choose, for he never uses it again.
CHAP. 15. THE CHRISTIAN TEACHER SHOULD PRAY BEFORE PREACHING.
32. And so our Christian orator, while he says what is just, and holy, and good (and he ought never to say anything else), does all he can to be heard with intelligence, with pleasure, and with obedience; and he need not doubt that if he succeed in this object, 4 Ps. xxxv. 18.
5 Cyprian, a<i Donat. Ep. i.
Chap. XVI.]
ON CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE.
585 and so far as he succeeds, he will succeed more by piety in prayer than by gifts of oratory; and so he ought to pray for himself, and for those he is about to address, before he attempts to speak. And when the hour is come that he must speak, he ought, before he opens his mouth, to lift up his thirsty soul to God, to drink in what he is about to pour forth, and to be himself filled with what he is about to distribute. For, as in regard to every matter of faith and love there are many things that may be said, and many ways of saying them, who knows what it is expedient at a given moment for us to say, or to be heard saying, except God who knows the hearts of all? And who can make us say what we ought, and in the way we ought, ex- cept Him in whose hand both we and our speeches are? Accordingly, he who is anx- ious both to know and to teach should learn all that is to be taught, and acquire such a faculty of speech as is suitable for a divine. But when the hour for speech arrives, let him reflect upon that saying of our Lord's, as better suited to the wants of a pious mind: " Take no thought how or what ye shall speak; for it shall be given you in that same hour what ye shall speak. For it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you." ' The Holy Spirit, then, speaks thus in those who for Christ's sake are delivered to the persecutors; why not also in those who deliver Christ's mes- sage to those who are willing to learn?
CHAP. 16. HUMAN DIRECTIONS NOT TO BE DESPISED, THOUGH GOD MAKES THE TRUE TEACHER.
33. Now if any one says that we need not direct men how or what they should teach, since the Holy Spirit makes them teachers, he may as well say that we need not pray, since our Lord says, " Your Father knoweth what things ye have need of before ye ask Him; " 2 or that the Apostle Paul should not have given directions to Timothy and Titus as to how or what they should teach others. And these three apostolic epistles ought to be constantly before the eyes of every one who has obtained the position of a teacher in the Church. In the First Epistle to Timothy do we not read: " These things command and teach?"3 What these things are, has been told previously. Do we not read there: " Rebuke not an elder, but entreat him as a father? " 4 Is it not said in the Second Epistie: "Hold fast the form of sound words, which thou hast heard of me? " 5 And is he not there told: " Study to show thyself ap- proved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth?"6 And in the same place: "Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with all long-suffering and doctrine."7 And so in the Epistle to Titus, does he not say that a bishop ought to " hold fast the faithful word as he hath been taught, that he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to con- vince the gainsayers? " 8 There, too, he says: " But speak thou the things which become sound doctrine: that the aged men be sober," and so on.9 And there, too: " These things speak, and exhort, and rebuke with all au- thority. Let no man despise thee. Put them in mind to be subject to principalities and powers," IO and so on. What then are we to think? Does the apostle in any way con- tradict himself, when, though he says that men are made teachers by the operation of the Holy Spirit, he yet himself gives them directions how and what they should teach? Or are we to understand, that though the duty of men to teach even the teachers does not cease when the Holy Spirit is given, yet that neither is he who planteth anything, nor he who watereth, but God who giveth the in- crease? " Wherefore though holy men be our helpers, or even holy angels assist us, no one learns aright the things that pertain to life with God, until God makes him ready to learn from Himself, that God who is thus addressed in the psalm: " Teach me to do Thy will; for Thou art my God."12 And so the same apos- tle says to Timothy himself, speaking, of course, as teacher to disciple: " But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned, and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them." 13 For as the medi- cines which men apply to the bodies of their fellow-men are of no avail except God gives them virtue (who can heal without their aid, though they cannot without Flis), and yet they are applied; and if it be done from a sense of duty, it is esteemed a work of mercy or benevolence; so the aids of teaching, ap- plied through the instrumentality of man, are of advantage to the soul only when God works to make them of advantage, who could give the gospel to man even without the help or agency of men.
5 2 Tim. i. 13.
7 2 Tim. iv. 2.
6 2 Tim. ii. 15.
586 ON CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE.
[Book IV.
CHAP. 17. THREEFOLD DIVISION OF THE VARI- OUS STYLES OF SPEECH.
34. He then who, in speaking, aims at en- forcing what is good, should not despise any of those three objects, either to teach, or to give pleasure, or to move, and should pray and strive, as we have said above, to be heard with intelligence, with pleasure, and with ready compliance. And when he does this with elegance and propriety, he may justly be called eloquent, even though he do not carry with him the assent of his hearer. For it is these three ends, viz., teaching, giving pleas- ure, and moving, that the great master of Roman eloquence himself seems to have in- tended that the following three directions should subserve: "He, then, shall be elo- quent, who can say little things in a subdued style, moderate things in a temperate style, and great things in a majestic style: " J as if he had taken in also the three ends mentioned above, and had embraced the whole in one sentence thus: " He, then, shall be eloquent, who can say little things in a subdued style, in order to give instruction, moderate things in a temperate style, in order to give pleas- ure, and great things in a majestic style, in order to sway the mind."
CHAP. 18. THE CHRISTIAN ORATOR IS CON- STANTLY DEALING WITH GREAT MATTERS.
35. Now the author I have quoted could have exemplified these three directions, as laid down by himself, in regard to legal ques- tions: he could not, however, have done so in regard to ecclesiastical questions, — the only ones that an address such as I wish to give shape to is concerned with. For of legal questions those are called small which have reference to pecuniary transactions; those great where a matter relating to man's life or liberty comes up. Cases, again, which have to do with neither of these, and where the in- tention is not to get the hearer to do, or to pronounce judgment upon anything, but only to give him pleasure, occupy as it were a middle place between the former two, and are on that account called middling, or moderate. For moderate things get their name from modus (a measure); and it is an abuse, not a proper use of the word moderate, to put it for little. In questions like ours, however, where all things, and especially those addressed to the people from the place of authority, ought to have reference to men's salvation, and that not their temporal but their eternal salvation, and where also the thing to be guarded against is eternal ruin, everything that we say is important; so much so, that even what the preacher says about pecuniary matters, whether it have reference to loss or gain, whether the amount be great or small, should not seem unimportant. For justice is never unimportant, and justice ought assuredly to be observed, even in small affairs of money, as our Lord says: " He that is faithful in that which is least, is faithful also in much." * That which is least, then, is very little; but to be faithful in that which is least is great. For as the nature of the circle, viz., that all lines drawn from the centre to the circumfer- ence are equal, is the same in a great disk that it is in the smallest coin; so the great- ness of justice is in no degree lessened, though the matters to which justice is applied be small.