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‘Now (attention to) style (mode of speaking) is nevertheless in some slight degree necessary (has some slight portion of necessity) in every kind (department) of instruction: for it makes some difference in the clearness of an explanation whether we speak in one way or another; not however so much (as is generally supposed), but all this is mere fancy (φαντασία ‘the mental presentation, a mere copy, without reality, note on I 11. 6), and addressed to (for the sake of, to gratify) the hearer: for no one teaches geometry in this way’. These tricks and graces of style, declamation and acting, have no power of instruction, and therefore are never addressed to any student; but only to a popular audience like that of the orator, which requires to be flattered or have its ears tickled (as Plato says in the Gorgias [463 C, κολακείας μόριον τὴν ῥητορικήν, and 502 E, ὥσπερ παισὶ...χαρίζεσθαι]); to be amused and conciliated, as well as instructed and convinced
Commentary on the Rhetoric of Aristotle. Edward Meredith Cope. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press. 1877.
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