The de Compositione of Dionysius of Halicarnassus Considered with Reference to the Rhetoric of Aristotle: A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of the Dep

Book excerpt: Excerpt from The De Compositione of Dionysius of Halicarnassus Considered With Reference to the Rhetoric of Aristotle: A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of the Department of Literature, Science, and the Arts of the University of Michigan for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Moreover, Aristotle explains that exordia which do not set forth the end or object of a speech are not true exordia, but merely means of remedying defects in the audience, serving to get their attention, remove prejudice, and the like. They are used in this way because the audience is corrupt. If this is not the character of the audience' there is no need of an exordium, except for the mere purpose of stating the facts summarily, that it may not be, as it were, a body without a head (iii. Besides the exordium a speech contains necessarily two parts, exposition and proof; the peroration is some times found as a third part, but it is not necessary to a speech. Probably, then, in Aristotle's opinion, the exordium is the begin ning, the exposition the middle, and the proof the end. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.