[24]
A very few critics have raised the question as to
what may be the instrument of oratory. My definition of an instrument is that without which the material
cannot be brought into the shape necessary for the effecting of our object. But it is not the art which requires an instrument, but the artist. Knowledge
needs no instruments, for it may be complete
although it produces nothing, but the artist must
have them. The engraver cannot work without his
chisel nor the painter without his brush. I shall
therefore defer this question until I come to treat of
the orator as distinct from his art.
Quintilian. With an English Translation. Harold Edgeworth Butler. Cambridge. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1920.
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