6
There is just this difference, that some effects must be clear without explanation,Those produced by situation. whereas others are produced in the speeches by the speaker and are due to the speeches. For what would be the use of a speaker, if the required effect were likely to be felt without the aid of the speeches?
7
Under the head of Diction one subject of inquiry is the various modes of speech, the knowledge of which is proper to elocution or to the man who knows the master artRhetoric is a master art in relation to elocution, since it decides the effects to be produced, and elocution decides how to produce them. So the doctor’s art is master to that of the dispenser, and the art of riding to that of the maker of bridles.—I mean for instance, what is a command, a prayer, a statement, a threat, question, answer, and so on.
8
The knowledge or ignorance of such matters brings upon the poet no censure worth serious consideration. For who could suppose that there is any fault in the passage which Protagoras censures, because Homer, intending to utter a prayer, gives a command when he says, Sing, goddess, the wrath? To order something to be done or not is, he points out, a command.
9
So we may leave this topic as one that belongs not to poetry but to another art.
