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‘The next subject to be treated of is style’ (the manner of expressing oneself; including not only the language, but the manner of delivery; both in voice, declamation, the pronunciation, tone, rhythm, &c.; and—here Aristotle stops, and the Latin rhetoricians add—action, the appropriate gesticulation, management of the hands and the body in general, and expecially the features): ‘for it is not sufficient to know what to say, it is necessary also to know how to say it; and this contributes greatly to the impression conveyed of a certain character in the speech’. The tone of voice, the expression of the features, the gestures employed, the kind of language used, quite independently of the arguments, will materially assist the impression of moral (or any particular) character which the orator wishes to assume, on the minds of the audience. The ἦθος of III 16.8 is part of this, the moral character imparted by the choice of language, of terms, tone and expression, significant of moral purpose, προαίρεσις.
Commentary on the Rhetoric of Aristotle. Edward Meredith Cope. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press. 1877.
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