The logicians school-master: or, A comment upon Ramus logick.: By Mr. Alexander Richardson, sometime of Queenes Colledge in Cambridge. Whereunto are added, his prelections on Ramus his grammer; Taleus his rhetorick; also his notes on physicks, ethicks, astronomy, medicine, and opticks. Never before published.

Ideòque Plato.

Now Plato being an honest man in Greece, and those that were called Sophistae, abusing this Art, and making the common people by it beleive, That God was evil, and truth falshood: he was angry with them, and so called it The Art of Cookery, of Flat∣tery, of Painting, of Enchanting: though indeed it was by the fallacies of the Arguments in Logick: and thereupon that name Sophistae, which before was a name of honour, became afterwards a name of re∣proach. Now (as I said before) it was not Rhe∣torick, but false reason of Logick; only the Rheto∣rick set a gloss upon it, and these names are as it Pla∣to should say, though this be a kind of Musick which in it self is good, yet thus it ought not to be used, but is unneedful, and therefore he calleth it a kind of sauce, and painting out of a thing: or as if he should say, a cup of poyson fweetned with honey. And Aristotle following his Master Plato, said it was in a good Common-wealth unneedful: but indeed Rhe∣torick is a kind of Musick, which is good and need∣ful.

The Romans of long time would not admit of Rhetorick, and among the Turks I think that they will never receive it: and indeed rude people, yea, and all kind of people are easily deceived by Rheto∣rick; not in regard of judgment, but of the affecti∣on of love, which embraceth it, and voluptas is the object of affection. Now indeed here lyeth the fal∣lacy, in that a Speech being seasoned with Rheto∣rick, passeth by the understanding, and so the Will takes hold of it, and whilest the Will doth hastily embrace it, the reason cannot examine it: and so in Tropes, it is respected of Rhetoricians to bring sounding words to tickle the ear, but the understand∣ing is not well pleased, because it doth not under∣stand it: and Rhetorick is the art of affection as it sweetneth the speech, for the affection of love is so greedy of it that it will not let the understanding take it, therefore Rhetorick is said to be the art of affection, Grammer of things to be understood; but this is nothing, for they are both of Speech and so are Arts to entertain bonum.

Now for the Turks, I think they will never em∣brace it, for they are as God's rods to whip his Christians withal. We have already heard what Rhetorick is: now followeth the distribution; and that is into Elocution and Pronunciation: for accor∣ding to rhe double act of this art must this art be di∣stributed, for we have already heard that Speech is God's Creature given unto man to be a Carrier from man to man; and that because one man's eye cannot see all things, which being only a bare testimony, is not easily received, and therefore must be sugared or sauced, that it may be more sweet and pleasant, and

also more evident. Now Speech is adorned by speech, or by gesture, for though Speech be consi∣dered in gesture, yet not the Speech properly, but the sound or tenour of it: For in that Oration, where both speech and gesture are answerable one to another, that is most plain, and takes the most effect in the hearts of the hearers: and gesture is a kind of dicere, and therefore when they use pleading in Courts, they use gesture, that there may be a more pleasant dicere consisting of these two parts: so that Speech is adorned either with speech or gesture. The First of these is called Elocutio of eloquor, which though for notation it be the same with pronuncia∣tio, yet in definition and in use they are distinct. This is first because elocutio may be without pronunciatio, as are Tully's and Demosthenes his Orations: and se∣condly, Pronunciatio may be improperly of that which is meerly Grammatical; therefore elocutio must go before, so that according to the double sweetning of Speech must Rhetorick have these two parts.