[16]
Aristotle seems to have implied that the sphere of the
orator was all-inclusive when he defined rhetoric as
the power to detect every element in any given subject
which might conduce to persuasion; so too does Patrocles who omits the words in any given subject, but
since he excludes nothing, shows that his view is
identical. For he defines rhetoric as the power to
discover whatever is persuasive in speech. These definitions like that quoted above include no more than
the power of invention alone. Theodorus avoids this
fault and holds that it is the power to discover and to
utter forth in elegant language whatever is credible in
every subject of oratory.
Quintilian. With an English Translation. Harold Edgeworth Butler. Cambridge. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1920.
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