The speaker's tools or techniques
     A speaker must first be able to find the data that will make his point convincing. Thesauruses and wide general knowledge are required for this..
     There must be some way to sort all this data so each item is disposed in its appropriate place. The choice of the memory loci is left up to each speaker's individual discretion.
     Next, the speaker will master the skill of eloquence,  defined as the ability to remember the right words to say at the right time and according to Aristotle, two things are needed to build this skill: namely the disposition of each thing in its appropriate memory locus and frequent meditation on them.

     Furthermore the speaker must speak expressively, which naturally takes on various forms through the tone of voice,  facial expression, body language, cultural manners and habits.

The five parts of a speech: 1. introduction, 2. narrative, 3. the proposition, or point 4. the arguments, 5. the conclusion.
1. A speech can be divided into five parts: first the introduction, meant to put the audience into the right mood for listening. The introduction must elicit an attentive, docile and benevolent attitude from the audience; needless to say, this must be for an honest motive. By Cicero's precept, however, the introduction is optional. We can just as well start a speech by invoking some authority, if the case allows it. And when dealing with matters of a humble sort, then the humbler the topic, the more we must work at capturing the listeners' willing ear by highlighting its main points even more strongly to make the audience attentive and benevolent. The way to make the audience docile or ready to follow your reasoning, is to give an introductory summary with an enumerated breakdown of the speech and its subject matter.
2. The second or narrative part must be clear, truly credible and brief. There are various narrative forms: comparative, natural, principal, external, and exemplary.
3. Third, the proposition of the case in point must above all be simple, stripped down to its bare essentials and presented in a summary form that includes an enumerated review of the main parts of the speech.
4. Fourth, the arguments developed must express approval for some things and disapproval for other things.
5. Fifth, the conclusion must go back over the most powerful points of the speech and briefly bring to mind all that was said in an epilogue where the beginning is tied to the end and the end linked back to the beginning, thus concluding the speech.

Seven kinds of discourse
     There are seven species of discourse: namely : persuasion, dissuasion, praise, condemnation, accusation, defense and solicitation.

Practical application
Having laid the bases we now come to the practical application of this art to rhetoric. First, the demonstrative genre or type of discourse, treated with the principles of this art : demonstrative discourse intends to praise or criticize certain things and as this art covers every conceivable topic, it offers the widest of fields to cultivate in the way of demonstration.

Three main divisions of topics: 1. the soul, 2. the body, 3. external things
Now, praise and condemnation can be brought to bear on three kinds of topics : namely things that relate 1. to the soul, 2. to the body, and 3.to external objects.

The demonstrative genre and the principles of the art

Goodness:
The goodness of the soul consists in the good use of one's faculties, the sharpness of wit, memory, etc.
The goodness of the body is in its beauty, health, cleanliness, etc.
External goodness consists in a wealth of things that can essentially be called good.Things belonging to the soul can attract stronger praise or condemnation than anything belonging to the body, or to external possessions, which are praised or decried only in view of soul. So we can vituperate against things contrary to goodness, like abuse of one's faculties and wit, physical deformities and poverty.
However, in GOD there is nothing that can be termed evil and that cannot be praised in every way, or considered as not good, or vituperated against in any way.

Greatness
The greatness of the soul is in magnanimity, cowardice or daring.
The greatness of the body is in its height, width, etc.
External greatness is in the possession of vast domains and empires. And by contrary things, we can praise or vituperate, because opposite things work in a similar way, as for instance if we praise a body for being smaller and yet more robust.

Duration
The duration of the soul is its constancy, in enduring through conditions and in putting secondary things to good use.
The duration of the body is in its longevity and its usefulness to a great number of people during that time.
External duration is in one's nobility, or wealth inherited from ancient times and so through these things, or their contraries, we can either praise or vituperate.

Power
The power of the soul is in its free will; as Cicero says, freedom is the power to live in the way you want.
The power of the body resides in living a continent way of life.
External power is displayed in the good use, or the tyrannical abuse of one's authority or empire.

Wisdom
The wisdom of the soul consists in holding to the golden mean.
The wisdom of the body is in rightly directing its movements.
External wisdom resides in a person's frugality, knowing how much you can spend of your resources and senses and how much you really dispose of. Spendthrifts lack this kind of knowledge and avaricious people have too much of it.

Will
The will of the soul is in its desire to do good within the law of the Lord.
The will of the body is its libido and a certain corrupting influence on the soul.
External will shows up in obedience and good manners.

Virtue
The virtue of the soul resides above all in its fortitude and then the other virtues as well.
The virtue of the body is in its robustness and skill.
External virtue consists in the armies, battalions or platoons at your command.

Truth
Truth for the soul consists in the equality between the things it understands and its understanding of them.
Truth for the body lies in its natural, simple and unaffected disposition. Moses conceded that women could wear makeup.
External truth is seen in works, its opposite is hypocrisy,as in Matthew 24: "You are like whitewashed graves."

Glory
Glory for the soul is in its mental tranquillity, perturbations and fury are opposed to this.
Glory for the body resides in its rest, not that it should find rest in apathy, but rather the rest sought by meritorious teachers and warriors.
External glory is fame of the kind that Livy pursued.
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The demonstrative genre and the respective principles
Having dealt with the absolute principles of Figure A., let us now turn to the respective principles of Figure T., in which the demonstrative genre finds an overabundance of things to express, especially in praising things as one beauty is compared to another, even greater beauty. And as Aristotle says in his first book on rhetoric : examples are formed by comparing one part to another and one similar thing to another, insofar as they belong to the same general class of things where one thing is more obvious than the other in their comparison. This kind of mutual comparison between things allows the discourse to grow exponentially, two by two.

Difference, concordance and contrariety
Differences among human souls take on a multitude of forms, as there are as many different souls as there are individuals.
The differences among bodies are seen in the harmony of their composition.
External things can be compared in terms of wealth, name, fame or glory.
And thus we can praise or vituperate with difference and also with concordance through likenesses, and with contrariety through unlikeness.

Beginning
The beginning in a soul is seen in the good or bad principles, images or idols that it harbors.
The beginnings of a body are seen in the parents, in food, and in those who have nurtured and educated it.
The beginning of external things, as for instance when we say that Remus and Romulus were the founders of Rome. And also, the good or evil origins of things, as when asking about the origins of someone's wealth, which could be an inheritance, or the fruit of work and study, etc.

Middle
The mediators for the development of a soul are its preceptors, be they good or bad. This is how Aristotle is said to have been the intermediary through whom Alexander was able to develop so many skills.
The means for conditioning the body are fasting for slenderness, overeating for obesity and exercise for agility.
The means for acquiring external things are for instance, the money spent to acquire titles and honors.

End
In the end, a soul will be counted among the holy souls unless it has abandoned all hope.
The end of the body could be in a worthy burial, or in death by torture or by the noose.
About the end of external possessions, we can ask whether someone has gambled away their goods, or whether their lineage has come to an end in them.

Majority, Equality and Minority
Soul: Virtues, sciences and ingeniousness.
Body: Beauty, robustness, skills.
External: Wealth, nobility, favors, etc.

THE QUESTIONS

Conjectural, legitimate, and jurisdictional considerations
The Questions of this art are applicable to the judicial genre of discourse. And according to Cicero, the judicial genre involves controversial topics. And it has three constituent parts, namely conjectural, legitimate and jurisdictional. The questions "whether" and "what" apply to conjecture; the question "of what" applies to legitimacy and finally the question "why" applies to jurisdictional matters. The other questions, as they are accidental, apply to conjecture within a legitimate context. Let us take, for instance, a case of theft : "how much" could apply to the burly, suspicious looking guest coming in through a window. "What kind", or "what quality" could apply to the poison detected through the livid blue color found in a murder victim's heart, or the envy detected in the heart of the suspect. By asking "where", we may consider the dignity, the inner layout and the size of a place.The question "when" considers times, seasons, divisions of years and days. The questions "how" and "with what" seek out instruments, such as weapons, or poison.

THE SUBJECTS
Three modes of application: by authority, likeness or example.
Note that there are three ways we can use the nine subjects to deal with the pros and cons of an argument: namely with reference to some authority, or through making comparisons with likenesses or by quoting examples. Right now, we are chiefly interested in the manner of raising arguments for or against a point, as this is basically the stuff of which the strength of a discourse consists, its very lifeblood as it were.

Authorities
We can quote authorities of divine, angelic or human nature., as we refer to the places where their sayings are recorded. Thus in quoting GOD, we can invoke Holy Scripture; and in quoting angels, we can refer to hermetic philosophy, such as the Emerald Table of Hermes Trismegistus. "I heard a good demon say to me...etc."
For human authority, we can refer to canonic texts or texts of law.

Likenesses
Likenesses can be drawn from all nine subjects, as an instrument can be likened to a ship, or the string of a lyre to a bowstring, or the three points of a bowstring to the three potentials of the soul (memory, intellect and will). A pipe organ with all its stops can be likened to the imagination, and swallows returning at springtime to false friends when talking of friendship. From the vegetative potential we can draw the likeness of men who resemble seeds fallen on stony ground. In the elements we see earth, for instance, showing us an example of thankfulness. And from the heavens, the life force flows like a beam of bright light piercing through water.
These likenesses must not be abstruse, or obscene, or beside the point, or impertinent. They must be well adapted to the matter at hand.

Examples
We can draw examples from the subjects at will, as in taking the example of an ant, or a lion, or the element earth, or of some saint; but we draw examples chiefly from the three subjects from which authorities were selected in a previous paragraph, namely GOD, angels and humans. And a wealth of examples can be drawn from history, especially sacred history, and everything we have said up to now regarding persons can also apply to any other topic or subject that can be reasonably raised in this world, on the condition that we properly choose the apt epithet to make our point. Thus we can praise a dog for its fidelity, a donkey for its stubbornness, an elephant for its docility, a pelican for its solicitude, a bee for its usefulness, a lion for its bravery, a hare for its timidity, a parrot for its beauty, a monkey for is mimicry, a tiger for its meanness. Even flowers seem to have some kind of sense as they turn to face the sun and thus we can praise or decry both living and inanimate things. And everything said above regarding the demonstrative genre can be applied in its own way and for its own intent and purpose, to the deliberative and judicial genres.

Deliberation and the four elements
In deliberating, we can consider things in view of the four elements. Thus, earth relates to the boundaries of kingdoms and empires. Water, to the ebb and flow of tides. Air, as in choosing wind direction when engaging in battle and also fire, as when deciding whether to invade the enemy's camp by day or by night.

The judicial genre and the four elements
In the judicial genre, earth can be considered in the division of land, or in instances of earthquake, landslides, etc. Water, as in gathering rainwater for storage. Air, as in windmills driven by air. Fire, as in fires, etc.

The nine predicates: Quantity, Quality, Relation, Action, Passion, Situation, Habit , Place, Time.
The nine accidental predicates can equally be applied to the above three genres or types of cases. For instance, if we praise Plato for his massive upper arms and large pectoral muscles, we are dealing with the predicament of quantity. And quality, in praising the same for his wisdom. And relation, as we praise his relation as a master to his disciples. And action, as we go back over his works and accomplishments. Passion, as we praise his patience and endurance and hard work. Situation, or disposition as in praising the symmetry of his limbs. Habit can be seen in clothing, as in the mantle of Diogenes. Place, as in considering his native land, and his voyages to Sicily. Time, as the period of world history in which he rose to fame, and the new developments that were taking place at that time.
You must gather many examples like the one above from the Bible: take for instance Goliath, in chapter 17 of the first book of Kings. And John the Baptist, dressed in camel's hair, and girded about the loins with a leather belt. And you can proceed likewise in applying the art to all the genres of rhetorical discourse.

Memory loci
All the above things are called memory loci by Aristotle and Cicero expands on this when he says that all particulars can be held up to question and that whatever has been proved to be universally true, must be proved again to hold for each particular case that it is applied to. The disposition of the loci, or so to say, the filing system, or memory garden, or memory palace, is up to each individual speaker to choose and build personally.
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Standards of style and elegance
Fr. Bernard de Lavinheta continues this chapter by quoting thirty precepts of Latin composition. Our contemporary readers can refer to any standard work of this kind in the language of their choice.

HERE ENDS THIS EXCERPT FROM FR. BERNARD DE LAVINHETA'S "EXPLANATION AND PRACTICAL COMPENDIUM OF THE ART OF BLESSED RAYMOND LULL."
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