"Xwill&ow, th«r^ore, fi»-miui -orator forymi, if loanj oom- menoing so as] to ascertain, first of all, what he is able to do. Let him have a tincture of learning; let him have heard and read something; let him have received those very instruc- tions in rhetoric to which I ha-ve alluded. I will try what becomes him; what he can accomplish with his voice, his lungs, his breath, and his tongue. If I conceive that he may r2 DE OEATOBEJ OB, _ reach tlie level of emineut speakers, I will not only exhort him to persevere in labour, but, if lie Eeem to tne to be a good man,' will entreat him; bo much honour to the whole comniunity do I think that there is in an excellent orator, trho ia at the Eame time n good man. But if he shall appear likely, after he has done his utmost in evety way, to be numbered only among tolerable speakers, I will allow him to act ag he pleases, and not be very troublesome to him. But if he shall be altogether unfit for the profession, and wanting in senEe, I wiU advise him to make no attempts, or to turn himself to some other pursuit. For neither is h^ wjin can do escellently, to be left destitute of encouragement from ua, nor is be, who can. ilo some httle, to be deterred; because one seems to me tobethepart of a sort of divinity; the other, either to refrain from, what you cannot do extremely well, or to do what you can perform not contemptibly, ia tfo part of a reasonable human being; but the coaduct of the thmi character, to declaim, in spite of decency and natural deficiency, is that of a man who, as you said, Catuliis, of a certain haranguer, collects as many witnesses as possible of bis folly by a proclamation from himself Of him then, who shall prove such as to merit our exhortation and encou ment, let me so speak as to communicate to him only eix*nence has taught myself, that, under my guidance, may arrive at that point which I have reached ■without guide; for I can give him no better instructions.
• XXI, " To commence then, Catulus, by taking an example from our friesd Sulpiciug here; I fii-st heard him, wheii he was but a youtb, ia a cause of small importance; he was possessed of a voice, figure, deportment, and other qualifications suited for the profession which wa are cousidering. His mode of' speaking was quick and hurried, which was owing to his genius; his stylo animated and somewhat too redundtmt, which was owing to his youth. I was very far from entert, inige.^ whabB tanj^ teri^H bJ)nus dkendi ptrtlui. Cicero in thi^^l paa&oge, under the chnnuster of AntoDiuB. and in his Iqt. i. 3, 4, BigniSeft tliat thongt he thinka a good c impoHaniM in od orator, he does not den; that mneh eloquence ma; at tuue« he found in a man of bud character. Cato and Cicero spoke each.
According to Hie character of his own age. Quintjlinn, liL 1, goea back to the opinion of Cato. Aristotle had previously required good morala ^^ron.]
ON THE CHAKACTKK OF TEE OHATOB.
taining a Blight opinion of him, since I like fertility to ahow itself in a, young man; for, ns io vines, those branches which liaTe spread too luxuriantly are Tnoro easily pnmed than shoots are produced by culture if the stem ia defective; w>-I would wish there to bo that in a youth from vhich I loay toke-BomeliuDg away. The sap cannot be enduring in that ■which Attains maturity too Boon. I immediately saw his ability; nor did I Jose any time, but eshorted him to consider the forum aa his school for improving himself and to choose whom he pleased for a master; if he would take my advice, Lucius Crassus. To thi^ advice he eagerly listened, and assured me that he would act accordiugly; and added also, as a compli- ment, that r too should be a master to him. Scarce a year had passed from the time of this conversation and recom- mendation of mine, when he accused Caiua Norbanus,^ and I defended him. It is incredible what a difiereuce there appeared to me between him as he was then and as he had been a year before; nature herself led him irresistibly into the magnifJcent and noble style of Crasaus; but he could never have arrived at a aatisfactory d^ree of excellence in it, if ho had not directed his efforts, by study and imitation, in the same courae in which nature led him, so aa intently to contemplata Orassus with his whole mind and faculties.
XXII. "Let-this, then, he the fiwt of my precepts, to point out to the student whom he ^ould imitate, and in auoh a maauer that be may most carefully copy the chief excellen- oiea of him whom he takes for bis model. Let practice then follow, by which he may represent iu his imitation the esact resemblance of him whom he. chose as his pattern; not as I have known many imitatora do, who endeavour to acquire by imitation what is easy, or what is remarkable, or almost fculty; for nothing is easier than to imitate any person's dress, or attitude, or carriage; or if there is anything offensiva in a character, it ia no very difScidt matter to adopt it, and ba offensive in the same way; in like manner m that FusiuB, who eveu now, though be has lost his voice, rants on public topics, could never attain that nervous style of speaking which Caiua Fimbria had, though he succeeds in imitating his distortion of features and broad pronunciation; but be neither knew how to choose a pattern whom he would chiefly resemble, and in him that he did choose, be preferred copyiDg the blemishes. But be who shall Oft as ho ought, must first of all be very careful ia Baking this choice, and must use the utmost diligence to ftttaiu the chief excellencies of him whom he has approved.
" What, let mo ask, do you conceive to be the reaaonirhy almost every &ge baa produced s, peouliai" style of speaking t a matter on which we cannot so easily form a judgment in r^prd to the orators of our own country, (because tb^ have, to say tlio trath, left but few writings trota which such judgment might be formed,) as those of the Greeks, from ■whose writings it may be understood what was the character and tendency of eloquence iu each particular age. The moet ancient, of whom there are any works extant, are Periclea*- and Alcibiades,^ and, in the same age, Thucydides, writers perspicacious, pointed, concise, abounding more in thougbiB than in words. It could not possibly have happened that they should all have the same character, unless they had pro- posed to themselves some one example for imitation. These were followed in order of time by Critias, Theramenes, and Lysiaa. There are extant many writings of Lysiaa, some of Critias;' of Theramenes* we only bear. They all still re- tained the vigorous style of Pericles, but bad somewhat more exuberance. Then behold Isocrates arose, from whose school/ ' Cioero, Brut. c. 7, Bsye that Home compoBit:oiia were in circulatioa under ibe name of Pericles; and Quintillan, liL 1, 12, lookii^ to Chat obeervatiDD of Cicero, tiLcitl; assHBte to those who denied the genniiia- nesfl of those compositions. See also Qoiut x. 2, 22; 10, 49. MUtndt.
' That Alcibiades left nothing in writing, though ha bad great repn» totiou OB a speaker, seeniB to be rightly inferred by Huhaken from DemoBtb. De Cor. c. 10. ThucydiiieB ia here mentioned uuoDg oraton^ on acoouut of the orations which he inserted in his histoiy. SUendt.
' He wrote not only orations, which are mentioned by Dionyn Halicani. da Lyaii jud. c 2, c£ de Isxo, o. 2, by Fhrymclitu, ap. Phob cod. IBS, and by others, but also tr^^edieii, elegies, imd other worlca. That he wBa eloquent and learned we are told by Cicero, De Or. iiL S4, Brut, c 7. Senrichaen. The remaina of his writings were collected br Bach, 1827. SlUndt.
* The eloquence of TherameneB is mentioned by Cicero, iiL 16, Brut. c. 7. The writings whjeh Suidas enumerates as being bis were doubtless spurioua. See Buhnken, Hiat. Crit. Or. Gr. p. xl. EUendi.
' The words majttler Mtoruni, ovinimti, which, though ratained by OrelliuB, are pronounced spuriovia by Lambinus, Eraasti, Huhnkon, Bchatz, and Ellendt, are left untranslated. " They cannot be Cicero'H words," says Kllendt, " even though they are found quotsd by N II,] ON THE CHARiCTEE OP THE ORATOR. 24T as fi-otn the Trojan horse, rone but real heroeB proceeded; but Bome of tliem were desiroua to bo distinguished on pamde, Bome in the field of battle. XXIII. Accordingly those Theopompi, Ephori, Philisti,' Naucratie,^ and many others, differ in genius, but in their manner bear a. strong reaem- bhince both to each other and to their mnsterj and those vho applied themeelvoB to causes, as Demosthenes, H3rperides, .£scliine^ Lycurgus, Dinorchus, and a multitude of others, although they were diasimilar in abilities one to another, yet were all engaged in imitating the same kind of natural excellence; and as long as the imitation of their manner lasted, 60 long did that character and system of eloquence prevail. Afterwards, when these were dead, and all recolleo- tion of them grew gradually obscure, and at last vanished, more ki and remiss modes of speaking prevailed. Subse- quently Demochares, who, they say, was the son of I)emo> Bthenes' sister and the famous Bemetrins Phalereus, the most polished of all that class, in my opinion, and others of like talents, arose; and if we choose to pursue the list down to the present times, ne shall understand, that, as at this day all Asia imitates the famous Meneclea of Alabanda, and his brother Hierooles, to both of whom we have listened, so there has always been some one whom the generality desired to resemble.
" Whoever, then, -shall se^ to attain such resemblance, let him endeavour to acquire it by irequent and laborious eseroiee, and especially by oO'mposition; and if our friend Sulpicius would practise this, his language would be more compact; for there is now ia it at times, as farmers say of their ' Henriohaen Had EUendt read Philitr^ Piuligtiia, apparently, from the way in whicii he ia meationed in c. 13, has, as Ellendt observes, no ^ace here. "Fhiliscus of Mlletua, a disciple uf laocmtea (nee Anon. Tit. Iboct.), and nmater of TimenuB tbe bistoriau (eea Suidaa, imdaF Fhili^cus and Timffiua), wrote a treaties on rheturic, orations, and a life of LycurguB, noticed by Olympiodonis in Comment, ad Flat. Ooi^. Hod other works. See Ruhnken, Hist. Crib Qr. Or. p. iTiTiii OoeU. de Situ et Orig, Syraens. p. lit." Senrtchim.
' NaaecsteB, a native of Ecythne, ooUed 'imKiiiTBes limpai by Dio- nTniis HalicamaSBensis, Rhet. vL 1, wu diatingumhed for the compoai- ban of funeral orations. He eeems also to have written on riictoiie. See Cicero, Da Onit. iii. H; Brut. Gl; QuintiL iil 6, S j alio Taylor, Lectt Lys. a, 3, p. 232; Bulmk. Hist. Grit. Or. Or. fi. Izzxiv. ifn^ I DE or&tore; or, com nhen in the binds, amiilst tbe greatest fertility, a Eoit of luiuriance which ought to be, as it were, oaten down ^ by the use of the pan." Here Sulpiciua observed, " You advise me rightly, and I am obliged to you; but I think that Antoniua, have never written much." " As if," rej' toniuB, " I could not direct others in matters in which I deficient myself; but, indeed, I am supposed not to write even my own accounts. But in this particular a judgmeat may he formed &om my circumstances, and in the other irom my ability in speaking, however small it bo, what I do in either way. We see, however, that there are many who imitate nobody, but attain -what they desire by their own natural powers, without resembling any one; a fact of whioh an instance may be seen in you, Ctesar and Cotta; for one of 70U has acquired a kind of pleasing humour and wit, unusual in the orators of our country; the other an extremely keen and subtle speoiea of oratory. Nor does Curio, who is abont your age, and the son of a fiither who was, in my opinion, very eloquent for his time, seem to me to imitate any one much; but by a certain force, elegance, and copiousness of fiipression, has formed a sort of style and character of eloquence of his own; of which I was chiefly enabled to judge in that cause which he pleaded against me before the Cen-j tumvJri, in behalf of the brothers Coasi, and in which nffjj quality was wanting in him that an orator, not merely fluency, but of judgment, ought to possess.
XXIV. " But to OMiduot, at length, him whom -ws forming to the management of causes, and those there is considerable troutals, judicial trials, and <,__ suits, (somebody will perhaps laugh at the precept which Iam going to give, for it is not so much sagacious as necessary, and seems rather to proceed from a monitor who ia not quite a fool, than from a master of profound learning.) our first ' Thia is one of Virgil's diroctions to the farmer in the first Oaorgia,.
wharo he givea the reason for il^ 1 Qiiid, qui ne graridia procumbat culmua uristiB, J Luxurieox segetum teaerd depaecit ia barbS^ Ciuu priTtiiim Bulcoa ffiqunnt eata? — Georg. L IH.
And Pliuy, 1. 18: " Liu:urie» segetuto castigatur dento pecoria, ia heclitt duotaiat, at dopaatEB quidem vel sEepim uullam in apioa injuliian sentiunt: ita jnvenilia ubertaa et luxuriBa omtionU etjlo et Hllduitale scribendi quasi absiunitur et ropdmi' " " yoi^J aoM M ^^^BtlV.] ON TnB CHARACTEn OF THE ORATOR, precept for him Bhall bo, That wbfttcrer raroses he undert^ea to plead, lie must acquire a minute and thorough knowledge of tbem. U'hia is not a. precept laid down iu the sckools; for easy causes ara given to boys. ' Tho law forbids a stranger to ascend the wall j he ascends it; be beats back the enemy; he is accused.' It is no trouble to uaderstoud such, a cause as this. They are right, therefore, in giving no precepts about JearDtQg the cause; for Buch is generally the form of causes in the schools. But in the forum, wills, evidence, contracts, covenants, stipulations, relationship by blood, by affinity, decrees, opininna of lawyers, and even the lives and characters of those concerned in the cause, are all to be investigated; and by negligence in these particulars we see mauy causes losf^ especially those relative to private conceruB, as they are often of greater iutricacy, Thus some, while they would have their business thought very estenaive, that they may seem to fly about the whole forum, and to go from one cause to another, speak upon causes which they have not mastered, whence they incur much censiu-e; censure for negligence, if they voluntarily undertake the businosa, or for perfidiousnesa, if they undertake it under any engagement;^ but such censure is asauxedly of worse couBequence than they imagine, since nobody can possibly speai on a subject which he does not understand, otherwise than to his own disgrace; and thus, ■while they despise the imputation of ignorance, which is in reality the greater fault, they incur that of stupidity also, which they more anxiously avoid.
"It is my ouBtom to use my endeavour, that every one of my clients may give me instructions in his own affairs him- self, and that nobody else be present, so that he may speak ■with the greater freedom.- I am accustomed also to plead to him the cause of his fidveraary, in order to engage him to plead his own, and state boldly what he thinks of his own oase. When ho is gone, I conceive myself iu three oharactere, ' JfojTui offemio vel neglii/eBtia^ susceplii rehui, vd perfidiic, receptii. Sedptre ia used with a referenco to others, \>j nhom ire idlow soms dnC; to be laid upon ua; suwnpers regards only nunielvsa. Ellendl, ' /mrlia. Tbie poasoga puzzled Lioobmus and otheca, who did not see how tho reproach of inertia in aa orator could he greater thui that of tardilat, or Btnpidity. But intrtia here aignifiea artit ignorantia, jmoniace of hia eit, which is doubbleaa the greuteet fault in on orator. fcrbuTg.
DE obatobe; or, DE obatobe; or, my own, that of the adversary, and thnt of the judge. What- ever ciroumatance is such as to promise more support or aa- BiHtance than obstruction, I resolve to speak upoa it; where- ever I find more harm thim good, I eet aside and totally reject that port entirely; and thus I gain this advantage, that I consider at one titae wbat I shall say, and say it at anothei; two things which most speakers, relying upon their genius, do at one and the same time; but certainly those very persons would speak considerably better, if they would but resolve to take one time for premeditation, and auother for speaking.
" When I have acquired a thorough understanding of the business and the cause, it immediately becomes m.y con- sideration what ground there may be for doubt, For of all poiatsthat are disputed among mankind, whether the case is of a criminal nature, as eonoerning an act of violence; or controversial, as concerning an inheritance; or deliberative, as on going to war: or personal, as in panegyric; or (Ogu- mentative, as on modes of life; there is nothing in which the inquiry is not either what has been done, or is being done, or will be done, or of what nature a thing is, or how it should be designated. "~XXV. "Our causes,- *«oh at lerat aa coBCMB-eriminal matters, are geoemily defended by the plea of aotguilty; for in charges of extortion of money, which are the most im- portant, the facts are almost all to be denied; aud in those of bribery to procure offices, it is seldom in our power to distin- guish munificence and liberality from corruption and criminal lai^ess. In accusations of stabbing, or poisoning, or emberale- ment of the public money, we necessariiy deny the charge. On trials, tlierefiirc, the first kind of causes isthat -which arises from dispute aa to the feet. In deliberations, the dis- cussion generally springs from a question as to what is to be done, rarely about anything present or already done. But oftentimes the qnestion is not whether a thing is a fiict or not, but of what nature it is; as when the consul, Caius Carbo, in my hearing, defended the cause of Opimiua before the people, he denied no circumatanee of the death of Caius Oracchus, but maintained that it was a lawful act for the good of his country; or, as when Publius Africanus replied to the same Carbo, (then tribune of the people, engaging in pohtical affairs w" ' ON THE CHAEACTBR OP THE OBATOIl.
very different views,^ and asking a question about the death of Tiberius Gracchus,) 'that he seemed to have been lawfully put to death." But every thing may be asserted to have beau done lawfully, which is of such a kind that it may be said that it ought to have been done, or was properly or necessarily done, or done unawares, or by accident Then the question, ' what a thing should be called,' arisea when there is a dispute by what term an act should be designated; as waa the great point of dispute between myself and our friend Sulpicius ia Norbanna'fl cawM; for though I admitted most of the charges made by him on the other side, I still denied that treason had been committed by Norbanus; on the signification of which word, by the Apuleian law,^ the whole cause depended. And in thia species of causes some lay it down as a rule, that both parties should define clearly and briefly the term that gives rise to the question. This seems to mo estremely puerile; for it is qiiite a different thing from defining words, when any dispute arises among the learned about niattera relating to science; aa when it ie inquired, what is an art, what is a ]aw, what is a state! On which occasionB rea£on and learning direct, that the whole force of the thing which you define should be expressed in such a manner that there be notbingoDiitted or superfluous; but this neither Snipiciiia did in that cause, nor did I attempt to do it; for each of ua, to the best of our abilities, enlarged with the utmost copiousness of language upon what it was to commit treason. Since, in the first place, a definition, if one word is objectionable, or may be added or taken away, is often wrested out of our hands; and in the next, the very practice itself savours of school learning and almost puerile exercise; and beside, it cannot penetrate into the mind and understanding of the judge, for it glides off before it has made any impression.
XXVI, " But in that kind of causes in which it is disputed of what nature any thing is, the contest often arises from the interpretation of writing; when there can be no contro- versy but about something that is doubtful For even the oaae, in whioh the written letter differs from the intention, ' Becanae he was them attached to tlie port; of the OnucM. Proutt, ' A law of LiiduB ApulsiUB SatumiDuB, tribune of tlie people, a.ti.c.
6G2. It ia also meutianeil iu c. 49, But oeitber the cause nor nil^ect DB OBATOItB; OR, inTolves a epecies of doubt, ■which ia cleared up when tho words which are wanting are supplied; and such addition being made, it is maintained that the intention of tho writ- ing was clear; and if any doubt arises from contradictory writings, it is not a new iind of controversy that arises, but a, cause of the former sort ia doubled;^ imd this can either never be determined, or must be so determined, that by supplying the omitted words, the writing which ■wa defend, whichsoever of the two it is, may be rendered complete. Thus, of those causes whicit arise from a contro- versy about a writing, when anything ia espressed ambi- guously, there exists hut one kind. But as there are many Borts of ambiguities, (which they who are called logicians Beem to me to understand better than other men; while those of <mr profession, who ought to know them ftdl seem to be ignorant of them,) so that is the most freqi ia occurrence, either ia discourse or writing, when a quest arises from a word or words being left out. They another mistake when they distinguish this kind of cai which consist in the interpretation of writing, from those which it ia disputed of what nature a thing is; for there nowhere so much dispute reepecting the exact nature ' thing as in regard to writing, which is totally sepamted from controversy concerning fact. There are in all, therefore, three Borts of motters, which may possibly fall under doubt and discussion; what is now done, what has been done, or what is to be done; what the nature of a thing is, or bow it should be designated; for as to the question which some Greelis add, whether a thing bo rightly done, it is wholly included in the inquiry, what the nature of the thing is XXVII, [^But to return to my own method. When, hearing and understanding the nature of a cause, I pre to examiue the subject matter of it, I settle nothing until have ascertained to what point my whole speech, bearing immediately on the question and case, must be directed. I then very diligently consider two other points; the one, bow to reeoaunend mysel£ or those for whom I plead; the other, how to sway the minds of those before whom I speak to that ' SuperUn-ii gentra canua dupiieatttr. Ellendt eiplsjns tlieBO words Qua: " in the same cause, the uUegiitioiis of the twu partiea ara judged -- ■ HepamtB quebtiona of the same kinil."
lAHAUTEH OF THE ORATOl ■which I desire. Thus the whola business of Bpeaking rests upou three things for success in persuaainn; that we prove ■what we maintain to be tme; that we concihate those who hear; that we produce in their minds whatever feeling our cause may require. For' the purpose of proof, two kinds of matter present themselves to the orator; one, conaistiiig of- sneh things as are not invented by him, bat, as appertaining to the cause, are judiciously treated by him, as deeds, testi- monies, covenants, contracts, EKjuninations, laws, acts of the senate, precedents, decrees, opinions of lawyers, and whatever else ia not found out by the orator, but brought under hia notice by the cause and by hia cUeiits; the other, consist- ing entirely in the orator's own reasoning and arguments: so that, as to the former head, be has only to handle the arguments with which he ia furnished; ss to the latter, to invent arguments likewise. Those who profess to teach elo- quence, after dividing causes into several kinds, suggest a number of arguments for each kind; which method, though it may be better adapted to the instruction of youth, in order that when a ease ia proposed to them they may have some- thing to which they may refer, and from whence tbey may