24
My purpose in recounting all this is that if, in what I say at the beginning, anything strikes you as incredible, or impracticable, or unsuitable for you to carry out, you may not be prejudiced and turn away from the rest of my discourse, and that you may not repeat the experience of my friends, but may wait with an open mind until you hear to the end all that I have to say. For I think that I shall propose something which is in line with both your duty and your advantage.
25
And yet I do not fail to realize what a great difference there is in persuasiveness between discourses which are spoken and those which are to be read, and that all men have assumed that the former are delivered on subjects which are important and urgent, while the latter are composed for display and personal gain.Cf. Isoc. Letter 1.2-3. See Jebb, Attic Orators, ii. p. 67.
26
And this is a natural conclusion; for when a discourse is robbed of the prestige of the speaker, the tones of his voice, the variations which are made in the delivery, and, besides, of the advantages of timeliness and keen interest in the subject matter; when it has not a single accessory to support its contentions and enforce its plea, but is deserted and stripped of all the aids which I have mentioned; and when someone reads it aloud without persuasiveness and without putting any personal feeling into it, but as though he were repeating a table of figures,—
27
in these circumstances it is natural, I think, that it should make an indifferent impression upon its hearers. And these are the very circumstances which may detract most seriously also from the discourse which is now presented to you and cause it to impress you as a very indifferent performance; the more so since I have not adorned it with the rhythmic flow and manifold graces of style which I myself employed when I was youngerSee Isoc. 12.1-2. and taught by example to others as a means by which they might make their oratory more pleasing and at the same time more convincing.
