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ON CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE
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by St Augustine of Hippo |
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Ch 23. How the various styles should be
mingled |
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52. Now it is a matter of importance to determine what
style should be alternated with what
other, and the places where it is necessary that any particular
style should be used. In the majestic
style, for instance, it is always, or almost always, desirable
that the introduction should be
temperate. And the speaker has it in his discretion to use the
subdued style even where the
majestic would be allowable, in order that the majestic when it is
used may be the more majestic
by comparison and may as it were shine out with greater brilliance
from the dark background.
Again, whatever may be the style of the speech or writing, when
knotty questions turn up for
solution, accuracy of distinction is required, and this naturally
demands the subdued style. And
accordingly this style must be used in alternation with the other
two styles whenever questions of
that sort turn up; just as we must use the temperate style, no
matter what may be the general tone
of the discourse, whenever praise or blame is to be given without
any ulterior reference to the
condemnation or acquittal of any one, or to obtaining the
concurrence of any one in a course of
action. In the majestic style, then, and in the quiet likewise,
both the other two styles occasionally
find place. The temperate style, on the other hand, not indeed
always, but occasionally, needs the
quiet style; for example, when, as I have said, a knotty question
comes up to be settled, or when
some points that are susceptible of ornament are left unadorned
and expressed in the quiet style,
in order to give greater effect to certain exuberances (as they
may be called) of ornament. But
the temperate style never needs the aid of the majestic; for its
object is to gratify, never to excite,
the mind.
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Ch 24. The effects produced by the
majestic style |
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53. If frequent and vehement applause follows a speaker, we
are not to suppose on that account
that he is speaking in the majestic style; for this effect is
often produced both by the accurate
distinctions of the quiet style, and by the beauties of the
temperate. The majestic style, on the
other hand, frequently silences the audience by its
impressiveness, but calls forth their tears. For
example, when at Caesarean in Mauritania I was dissuading the
people from that civil, or worse
than civil, war which they called Ceterva (for it was not
fellow-citizens merely, but neighbours, brothers, fathers and sons
even, who, divided into two factions and armed with stones, fought
annually at a certain season of the year for several days
continuously, every one killing whomsoever he could), I strove
with all the vehemence of speech that I could command to root out
and drive from their hearts and lives an evil so cruel and
inveterate; it was not, however, when I heard their applause, but
when I saw their tears, that I thought I had produced an effect.
For the applause showed that they were instructed and delighted,
but the tears that they were subdued. And when I saw their tears I
was confident, even before the event proved it, that this horrible
and barbarous custom (which had been handed down to them from
their fathers and their ancestors of generations long gone by and
which like an enemy was besieging their hearts, or rather had
complete possession of them) was overthrown; and immediately that
my sermon was finished I called upon them with heart and voice to
give praise and thanks to God. And, lo, with the blessing of
Christ, it is now eight years or more since anything of the sort
was attempted there. In many other cases besides I have observed
that men show the effect made on them by the powerful eloquence of
a wise man, not by clamorous applause so much as by groans,
sometimes even by tears, finally by change of life.
54. The quiet style, too, has made a change in many; but it was
to teach them what they were ignorant of, or to persuade them of
what they thought incredible, not to make them do what they knew
they ought to do but were unwilling to do. To break down hardness
of this sort, speech needs to be vehement. Praise and censure,
too, when they are eloquently expressed, even in the temperate
style, produce such an effect on some, that they are not only
pleased with the eloquence of the encomiums and censures, but are
led to live so as themselves to deserve praise, and to avoid
living so as to incur blame. But no one would say that all who are
thus delighted change their habits in consequence, whereas all who
are moved by the majestic style act accordingly, and all who are
taught by the quiet style know or believe a truth which they were
previously ignorant of.
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Ch 25. How the temperate style is to be
used |
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55. From all this we may conclude, that the end arrived at by the
two styles last mentioned is the
one which it is most essential for those who aspire to speak with
wisdom and eloquence to secure.
On the other hand, what the temperate style properly aims at,
viz., to please by beauty of
expressions, is not in itself an adequate end; but when what we
have to say is good and useful,
and when the hearers are both acquainted with it and favourably
disposed towards it, so that it is
not necessary either to instruct or persuade them, beauty of style
may have its influence in
securing their prompter compliance, or in making them adhere to it
more tenaciously. For as the
function of all eloquence, whichever of these three forms it may
assume, is to speak persuasively,
and its object is to persuade, an eloquent man will speak
persuasively, whatever style he may
adopt; but unless he succeeds in persuading, his eloquence has not
secured its object. Now in the
subdued style, he persuades his hearers that what he says is true;
in the majestic style, he
persuades them to do what they are aware they ought to do, but do
not; in the temperate style, he
persuades them that his speech is elegant and ornate. But what use
is there in attaining such an
object as this last? They may desire it who are vain of their
eloquence and make a boast of
panegyrics, and suchlike performances, where the object is not to
instruct the hearer, or to
persuade him to any course of action, but merely to give him
pleasure. We, however, ought to
make that end subordinate to another, viz., the effecting by this
style of eloquence what we aim at
effecting when we use the majestic style. For we may by the use of
this style persuade men to
cultivate good habits and give up evil ones, if they are not so
hardened as to need the vehement
style; or if they have already begun a good course, we may induce
them to pursue it more
zealously, and to persevere in it with constancy. Accordingly,
even in the temperate style we must
use beauty of expression not for ostentation, but for wise ends;
not contenting ourselves merely
with pleasing the hearer, but rather seeking to aid him in the
pursuit of the good end which we
hold out before him.
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