Cicero reminds us that when it comes to giving a speech, you must consider the kind of audience you are giving the speech to, to know what approach to use in your speech.
There is the Honorable Cause and the Astonishing Cause which address those who respectively agree or disagree with the position taken by the speech. The low cause addresses those who do not feel that a topic is important and the doubtful cause addresses those who partially agree and partially disagree with the speaker, and the obscure cause addresses those who do not fully understand the issues involved.
According to Cicero each type requieres a different approach to the persuasion process. But what of a full audience in which you do not know what kind of people you are speaking to? then what? what kind of speech will you give then?
So many questions! the answer is simple, according to Quintilian, the best speech is the one that is given by the heart, a true virtuous speech by a honest person goes a long way. Rather than trying to figure out who you are talking to in your audience, if you speak from the heart you have a chance to touch all who are listening rather than if you fake it or are trying to speak falsely just to please.
Cicero says that it is important that the speaker knows well the subject he is talking about before going into a speech, but Quintilian reminds us that if you speak truthfully from the heart you will always know what you are talking about because you are speaking what you know to be true. If you attempt a lie in a speech it will be noticed and you will loose your audience.
The conclusion of both opinions of these writers is that a good speech is one spoken with truth and knowledge of what you are talking about.
