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.
1
Diction as a wholeA translator is bound to render this chapter, since the balance of evidence is in favour of its inclusion. But the readaer is advised to skip it, since it is written from the point of view of grammar and philology, and does not, like the succeeding chapter, deal with the literary use of words. It is also very obscure. Students should refer to Bywater’s edition. is made up of these parts: letter, syllable, conjunction, joint,A joint, as defined below, appears to be a word which indicates the beginning or end of a clause. noun, verb, case, phrase.
2
A letter is an indivisible sound, not every such sound but one of which an intelligible sound can be formed. Animals utter indivisible sounds but none that I should call a letter.
