You flatter me. But again I wholly agree with you. An understanding of rhetoric, in its classical meaning, can be one of the greatest areas of knowledge an individual can possess. Even for the sheer joy of that understanding alone, but enormously valuable if you pursue a career which includes public speaking, or internal debate, where you need to effectively persuade and convince others, and bring them round to your point of view.

It is startling and sad that two subjects, latin and rhetoric, which were de rigueur in a complete education less than a 150 years ago, are now largely forgotten.

By coincidence, my current reading is a book 'deconstructing' great speeches in history. It has the unfortunate title of "When they go low, we go high" based on the hypocritical words of the egregious Michelle Obama - the very opposite of what the Obamas did in reality. It's by Phillip Collins, who writes for The Times, and was Tony Blair's (yuk) speechwriter.

Worth a read if the practical application of rhetoric is of interest.