Manual of Sacred Rhetoric

Book excerpt: There must be art in the doing of any work in which complex means have to be employed to do it well; for art is the skillful use of such means, whether the work be a kitchen table or an epic poem. Now, Preaching relying on divine help, undertakes a very difficult and complicated work, namely, to move the will of another from a state of apathy or opposition to activity in a definite direction. To do this, several means have to be employed: obstacles and prepossessions have to be removed; interest has to be awakened; the intellect has to be enlightened by exposition and illustration; the feelings have to be aroused and enlisted; the will itself has to be brought under the direct influence of motives calculated to determine it to action. Aeterna Press