RHETORIC. The grade of this class cannot easily be defined. For it trains to perfect eloquence, which comprises two great faculties, the oratorical and poetical, the former chiefly being the object of culture; nor does it regard only the practical, but the beautiful also. For the precepts, Cicero may be supplemented with Quintilian and Aristotle. The style, which may be assisted by drawing on the most approved historians and poets, is to be formed on Cicero; all of his works are most fitted for this purpose, but only his speeches should be made the subject of prelection, that the precepts of the art may be seen in practice. As to the vernacular, the style should be formed on the best authors. The erudition will be derived from the history and manners of nations, from the authority of writers and all learning; but moderately, as befits the capacity of the students. In Greek, the fuller knowledge of authors and of dialects is to be acquired. The Greek authors, whether orators, historians, or poets, are to be ancient and classic: Demosthenes, Plato, Thucydides, Homer, Hesiod, Pindar, and others of the kind, including Saints Nazianzen, Basil, and Chrysostom. The compilers of the preliminary _Ratio_ throw out some very useful hints, relative to the work and scope of this class. They say, for instance, that the students of Rhetoric "are to be assisted with almost a daily exposition of some poet, to derive thence the variety and richness of poetic imitation and diction." Again, "nothing dialectic is to be made the subject of prelection in this class, since rhetoricians are to be kept as far away as possible from the style, invention, and spirit of dialectics." "Two or three years" are spoken of as spent in this grade.[337] At any rate, "all our day-scholars or boarders[338] should spend one year in Rhetoric before they enter on Philosophy; this should be brought home to their parents. The others, who attend our courses from outside,[339] should be persuaded to do the same."[340] If they still insist upon entering the philosophical curriculum at too early an age, special means are suggested to discountenance such a practice. All these five grades are evidently so connected as not to overlap one another. Neither are they to be multiplied, except in the sense of allowing more than a single division, when scholars are very numerous. If all the grades cannot be maintained in any place, "the higher ones, as far as possible, are to be kept, the lower being dispensed with."[341] THE PHILOSOPHICAL CURRICULUM. With the side branches sufficiently learned, with the boy's native talents "stimulated" or "cultivated," as the _Ratio_ frequently expresses itself,[342] and his memory enriched with the fullest materials for style in two languages, Latin and the vernacular, while Greek has subsidized his culture, the student enters on the study of Philosophy, using scholastic Latin as the vehicle of expression.