replied he; "only unbend, or rather, if possible, set at fiill liberty your mind." " If I remember right," said I, '" Atticus, what gave rise to the conversation vfas my observing that the oiuee of Deiotams, a moat excellent sovereign and a faithful ally, was pleaded by our fiiend Brutus, in my hearing, with the greatest elegance and dignity."
TI. " True," replied he; " and you took occasion, from the ill-success of Brutus, to lament the loss of a Mi administration of justice in the forum." " I did bo," answered I, " as indeed I frequently do; and whenever I see you, my Brutus, T am concerned to think where your wonderful genius, your finished erudition, and unparalleled industry will find a theatre to display themselves. For after you had thoroughly improved your abilities, by pleading a variety of important causes, and when my declining vigour was just giving way and lowering the ensigns of dignity to your more active talents, the hberty .of the stote received a fatal overthrow, and that eloquence, of which we are now to give the history, was condemned to por- patual silence." " Our other misfortunes," repUed Brutus, "I lament sincerely, and I think 1 ought to lament them; but as to eloquence, I am nut so fond of the influence and the glory I^Bws BliUTUE; OR, it bestows, as of the study and the practice of it, which nothing can deprive me of, while you are so well disposed to naaist me; for uo man can he au eloquent speaker who bos not a clear and ready coniBptiou. Whoever, therefore, applies himeelf to the study of eloquence, is at the same time im- proving his judgment, which is a talent equally noceeaary in ali military operations." " Your remark," said I, " is very just; and I have a higher opinion of the merit of eloquence, because, tiiough there is scarcely any person so diffident as not to persuade himself that he either has or may acquire every other accotnplishmeut which formerly could have given him consequence in the state, I can find uo person who has been made au orator by the success of his military pi-owesa. But that we may carry on the conversation with greater ease, let us seat ourselves." As my visitors had no objection to this, we accordingiy took our scats in a private lawn, near a statue of Plato. Then resuming the converaation, — "To recommend the study oreloqueuce," said I, " and describe its force, and the great dignity it confers upon thoBs who have acquired it, is neither our present design, uor has any iieces- aary connexion with it. But I will not hesitate to affirm, that whether it is acquired by art or practice, or the mei-e powers of nature, it is the most difficult of all attainments; for each of the five branches of which it is said to consist, is of itself a very important art; from whence it mayeaeily be conjectured how groat and arduous must be the profesidou which unit aud comprehends them all.
YII. " Greece alone is a sufficient witness of this; for th< she was fired with a wonderful love of eloquence, and has since excelled every other nation in the practice of it, yet she had all the rest of the arta much eai-lier; and bad not only invented, but even completed them, a considerable time before she was miatreas of the full powers of elocution. But when I direct my eyes to Greece, your beloved Athena, my Atticus, first strikes my sight, and is the brightest object in my view; for in that illustrious city the orator first made his appearance, and it is there we ehall find the earliest records of eloquence, and the first specimens of a diHCoorse conducted by rules of art. But even in Athena there is not a single production now extant whicli discovers any taste for ornament, or seems to have been the effi)rt of a. real orator, before the time of Peiioles (whoso name is prefixed to some orations which still remain) and his coutemporary Thucjdides; whn flourialied, not in the infimcy of the etate, but nhea it had arriTed at its full maturity of power. It is, however, supposed, that Pisiatratua, (who lived many years before,) together with Solon, who was something older, and Clisthenes, who survived them both, were very able speakera for t!ie ago tliey lived in. But some years after these, as may bo collected from the Attio annala, came ThemiatocleB, who ia said to have been as much diatinguiahod by bia eloquence as by hia political abili- ties; and after him the celebrated Pericles, who, though adorned with every kind of esceileaee, waa most admired for hia talents as a speaker, Cleon also, thoir contem- porary, though a turbulent citizen, was allowed to be a tolerable orator. These were immediately succeeded by Alcibiadea, Critias, and Theramcnes; the character of their eloquence may be easily infen'od from the writings of Thucy- dides, who lived at the same time; their discourses were nervous and stately, fuU of sententious remarks, and so exces- sively concise as to be aometimea obscure.
VIII. '■ But as soon as the force of a regular and well- ai^usted style was understood, a crowd of rhetoricians immedi- ately^ppeared, — such as Gorgias the Leontiue, Thrasymachus the Chalcedonian, Protagoras the Abderite, and Hippiaa the Blean, who were all held in great esteem, — with many othei-s of the same age, who professed (it must be owned rather too arrogantly) to teach their scholars /low the worse might he made, ly the force of eloquence, to appear the better cause. But these were openly opposed by Socrates, who, by a subtle method of arguing peculiar to himself, took every opportunity to refiite the principles of their art Hia instructive confer- ences produced a number of intelligent men, and PhUosopky is said to have derived her birth from him; not the doctrine of Pkysici, which was of an earEer date, but that Philosophy which treats of men and manners, and of the nature of good and evil. But as this is foreign to our present subject, we must defer the philosophers to another opportxmity, and return t» the orators, from whom I liave ventured to make a short digression. When the professors, therefore, above- mentioned, were in the decline of life, Isocrates made his appearance, whoso house stood open to all Groece as the school of eloquence. He waa an accomplished orator, and an excellent teacher j though he did not display his talents in the BRurcs; OB, splendour o^ the forum, but ch^isiied and improved within tbe walls of nn obscure academy, that glory which, in aij opinion, do orator has Biuce acquired. He composed many valuable Bpecimens of hia art, and taught the principles of it to others; and not only eKcelled his predeceBsore in every part of it, but first dieoovered that a certainr hythm tmd modu- lation should be observed in prose, care being takai, however, to avoid making verses. Before him, the DJtificial structure and harmony of language was unknown; — or, if there lire any traces of it to be diecovered, th^ appear to have been made without design; which, perhaps, will be thought a beauty; but wliatevcr it may be deecaed, it was, in the present case, the effect rather of native genius, or of accident, than of art and observation. For Natiire heraelf teaches us to close our BODtcDccs within certain limits; and when they ore thus con- fined to a moderate flow of expression, they will fi-eguentJy have an harmonious cadence; for the ear aione can decii^ what is full and complete, and what is deficient; and the course of our language will neeeasarily be regulated by our breath, in which it is eicesGively disagreeable, not only to &il, but even to labour.
IX. " After IsocratescomeLyidas, who, thoughuotpersMially engaged in forensic causes, was a very accurate and elegant composer, and such a one as you mi^t almost venture to pronounce a complete orator; for Demosthenes is the man who approaches the cliaracter so nearly, that you may apply it to him without hesitation. No keen, no arUul turns conid have been contrived for the pleadings he has left behind him, which he did not readily discover; nothing could have been expressed with greater nicety, or more clearly and poignantly, than it has been already expressed by him; and nothing greater, nothing more rapid and forcible, nothing adorned with a nobler elevation, cither of language or sentiment, can he conceived, than what is to be found in his orations. He was Boon rivalled by his coDtemporaries Hyperides, Machiaes, Lycurgua, Dinarchus, and Demades, {none of whose writings are estant,) with many others that might be mentioned; for this age was adorned with a profusion of good orators; and to the end of this period appears to me to have flouridied' that vigorous and blooming eloquence, which is distinguished by a natural beauty of composition, without disguise o ~ tation. When these orators were in the decline o' "' jguise or affidr M leof lii^tiMH 1 ON EMINENT ORAT0E3.
'8 Bucceoded by Phalereus, then, in the prime of youth. He indeed aurpaased them all in learning, but was fitter to appear on the parade, than in the field; and, accordingly, he rather pleased and entertained the Athenians, than inflamed their passions; and manihed forth into the dnst and heat of the forum, not from a weather-beaten tent, but from the shady recesses of Theophraatua, a man of consummate erudition. He was the first who relaxed the force of Eloquence, and gave her a soft and tender air; and he rather chose to be agi-ee- able, as indeed he was, than great and striking; bat agreeable in such a manner as rather charmed, than warmed the mind of the hearer. His greatest ambition was to impress his audience with a high opinion of his elegance, and not, as Eupolia relates of Pericles, to animate as well as to please..
X, " Ton see, then, in the very city in which Eloquence ■was bom and nurtured, how late it was before she grew to maturity; for before the time of Solon and Pisistratus, we meet with no one who is so much as mentioned as an able speaker. These, indeed, if we compute by the Roman date, may be reckoned very ancient: but if by that of the Athe- nians, WB shall find them to be moderns. For though they flourished in the reign of Servius Tullius, Athens had then subsisted much longer than Rome has at present, I have not, however, the least doubt that the power of eloquence haa been always more or iesa conspicuous. For Homer, wo may snppoae, would not have ascribed such superior talents of elocution to UlyBses and Nestor, (one of whom he oelebrateB for his force, and the other for his sweetneas,) imleas thaait of speaking had then been held in some esteem; nor could the poet himself have attained a style so finished, nor exhibited such fine specimens of oratory, as we actually find in him. The time, indeed, in which he lived is imdetermined; but we are certain that he flourished many years before Romulus, and as eariy at least aa the elder* Lycnrgus, tho legislator of the Spartans. But a more particular attention to the art, and a greater ability in the practice of it, may be observed in Pisis- tratus. Ho was succeeded in the following century by The- mistocles, who, accordiug to the Roman date, was a person of the remotest antiquity; but according to that of the Athe- nians, he was almost a modem. For he lived when; Greece 1] the' I ami BRUTUa; OH, in the height of her power, and when the city of Rome but lutelj been emancipated from the shackles of r^a] tyranny; for the dangerous war with the Volsci, who were headed by Coriolaaus (then a voluntary exile), happeued nearly at the same time as the Peraian war; and we may add, that the fata of both commandorB was remarkably similar. Each of them, after distinguishing himself as an excellent citizeu, being driven from his country by the insults of an uagrateM people, went over to the enemy; and each of them repreased Ihe efforts of his resentment by a voluntary death. For 'though yon, my Atticus, have repreBented the death of Corio- " nufl in a different manner, you must pardon me if I do not ibscribe to the justness of your representation." XI. " You may use your pleasure," replied Atticus, with a smile; " for it is the privilege of rhetoriciaos to exceed the truth of history, that they may have an opportunity of em- bellishing the fate of their heroes: and aooordingiy, Clitarchos and Stratoclea have entertained us with the same pret^ fiction about the death of Themistocles, which you have in- vented for Coriolanua. Thucydides, indeed, who was himself an Athenian of the highest rank and merit, and lived ueoiij at the same time, has only informed us that he died, and was privately buried in Attica, adding, that it was suspected by some that he had poisoned himself. But these ingenioas writers have assured us, that, having slain a bull at the altar, he caught the blood in a large bowl, and, drinking it off, fell suddenly dead upon the ground. For this species of death had a tmgical air, and might be described with all the pomp of rhetoric; whereas the ordinary way of dying afforded no opportunity for ornament. As it will, therefore, suit your purpose, that Coriolanus should resemble Themistocles in everything. I give you leave to introduce the fatal bowl; and yon may still farther heighten the catastrophe by a solema sacrifice, that Coriolanus may appear in all respects to have been a second Themistocles." "I am much obliged to you," said I, "for yonr courtesy; but, for the future, I shall be more cautious in meddling with history when you are present; whom I may justly commend as a most exact and scrupulous relator of the Roman history; hut nearly at tho time we are speaking of (though somewhat later) lived tho above-men- 'Idoned Pericles, the illustrious sou of Xantippus, who fig ' iproved his eloquence by the friendly aids of Uteratore ^ r" f EMISEST OBATORB.
not that kind of literature which treats professedly of the art of speaking, of which there was then no regular Bjetera; but after he had studied under Anasagoras, the naturalist, he directed with alacrity his attention fi'om ahstruae and intricate speculations to forensic aud popular debates, cjiarmed with the sweetness of his language, and not only admired him for his fluency, but was awed by the superior force and terrors of his eloquence.
XII. " This age, therefore, which may be considered as the iufiincy of the art, fumished Athens with an orator who almost reached the summit of his profession; for an emulation to shine in the forum is not uBually found among a people who are either employed in settling the form of their govern- ment, or engaged in war, or stru^hug with difficulties, or subjected to the arbitrary power of kings. Eloquence is the attendant of peace, the companion of case and prosperity, and the tender ofispriug of & free and well-eBtablished constitu- tion. Aristotle, therefore, informs ns, that when the tyrants were espelled from Sicily, and private property, after a long interval of servitude, was secured by the administratioa of justice, the SicUiana, Coras and Tisias, (for this people, in general, were very quick and acute, and had a natural turn for disquisition,) first attempted to write precepts on the art of speaking, Before them, he says, no one spoke by prescribed method, conformably to rules of art, though many discoursed Tery sensibly, and generally firom written notes; but Prota- goras took the pains to compose a number of dissertations, on such leading and general topics aa are now called commtn placet. Gorgias, he adds, did the same, and wrote panegyrics and invectives on every subject; for he thought it was the province of an orator to bo able either to eioggerato, or estcnuate, as occasion might require. Aatiphon,the Rhom- nusian composed several essays of the same species j and (according to Thucydides, a very respectable writer, who was present to hear him) pleaded a capital cause in his owq defence, with as much eloquence as had ever yet been dis- played by any man. But Lysias was the first who openly professed the art; and, after him, Theodorus, being better Tetsed in the theory than the practice of it, began to compose orations for others to pronounce j but confined to himself the art of composing them. In the Bame manner, Isoerates at first declined to teach the art, but wrote speeches for other I BBCTua; OB, people to deliver; on which account, being often proseoated for assisting, contrary to law, to ciroiunTent one or another of the parties in judgment, he left off composing orations fi^^ other people, and wholly applied himself to preficribe ruI^H and. reduce thom into a aystem. ^H Xlll. " Thus, then, wc have traced the birth and ori^a.j^| the orators of Greece, who were, indeed, very ancient, as I hn^B before ohaeryed, if we compete by the Boman annalB; but of a much later date, if yte reckon by their owu j for the Athe- nian state bad si^ialized itself by s. variety of great osploits, both at home and abroad, a considerable time before she became onamooi'ed of the charms of eloquence. But this noble art was not common to Greece in general, but almost peculiiir to Athens. For who has ever heard of an. Ai^ve, a. Corinthian, or a Theban orator, at the times we are speaking of! uuless, perhaps, some merit of the kind may be allowed to Eparainoudas, who was a man of nucommon erudition. But I have never read of a Lacedemonian orator, ii-om the earUest period of time to the present. For Menelaua himself thon^ said by Homer to have poasessed a sweet elocution, is like- wise described as a man of few words. Brevity, indeed, upon some occasions, is a real exoeUence; but it is very h.v &om being compatible with the general charaoter of eloquence. The alt of speaking was likewise studied, and admired, beyond the limits of Greece j and the extraordinary honours which were paid to oratory have perpetuated the names of many foreigners who had the happiness to excel in it. For no sooner had eloquence ventured to ssJl &oni the Pineeus, but she traversed all the isles, and visited every part of Asia; till at last, iafeoted with their manners, she lost all the purity and the liealthy complexion of the Attic style, and indeed almost forgot her native language. The Asiatic orators, therefore, though not to beundervaluedfor the rapidity and the copious variety of their elocution, were certainly too loose and luxu- riant. But iJie Bhodians were of a sounder conatitutioTt, and more resembled the Athenians. So much, then, for the Greeks; for, perhaps, what I liave already said of them is more than was necessary," " Respecting the necessity of it," answered Brutus, "there isnoocoaaion to speakj but what you have said of them has raitertained me so agreeably, that instead of being longer, it has been much shorter than I coul ' have wished." "A very handsome compliment," swd I; ^^^Ktima to begin with our coantiTiDea, of whom it la di£Scult ^| Mt to giTe any further account than nhat we are able to conjee- ^M ' tore from our imnalB. ^M 9 XIV. " For who can question the address and the capacity ^M I of Brutus, the illuBtrious founder of your famiiy; — that ^ of Erutusi the illuBtrious founder of your famiiy; — tiiat Brutus, who so readily discovered the meaning of the ora^;le, which promised the supremacy to him who diould first salute " bie mottfer;' — that Brutua, who, under the appearance of Btupidity, concealed the most exalted understanding; — who dethroned and banished a powerful monarch, the son of an. illustrious sovereign; — who settled the state, which he had rescued from arbitrary power, by the appoLKtment of an aanoal magistracy, a r^ular system of laws, and a iree and open course of justice; — and who abrc^ated the authority of his colleague, that he might banish from the city the smallest vestige of the regal name 1 — events which could never have been produced without exerting the powers of persuasion! We are likewise informed that a few years after the expulsion of 4^ kings, when the Plebeians retired to the banks of the Anio, about three mUes from the city, and had possessed dieoiaelves of what is called the Sacred Mount, Marcus Vale- rius the dictator appeased their fury by a pubUc harangue; for which he was afterwards rewarded with the highest posts of honour, and was the first Roman who was distinguished by the surname of Maarimus. Nor can Lucius Valerius Potitua be supposed to have been destitute of the powers of utterance, who, after the odium which bad been excited agaiost the Patricians by the tyraunicai govemmeat of the Decemviri, reconciled the people to the senate by bis prudent laws and conciliatory speeches. We may likewise suppose, that Appius GlitudiuB was a man of some eloquence; since he dissuaded. the senate from consenting to a peace with king Pyrrhus, though they were much inclined to it. The same might be said of Caiua Fabricius, who was despatched to Pyrrhus to treat for the ransom of his captive fellow-citizens; and of Tiberius Coruncanins, who appears, by tbe memoirs of the pon- tifical college, to have been a person of the greatest genius; ' The words hore aUttded to occur in IJvy: " Imperium Bummum BoaiBB habebit, qui Testrlln) primus, O Jutohbb, oaouluin nmlri tulerit," Thie at fimt wan interpmted of Turquin, wlio klsBed his mothsi'. But Brutus gave the words a dlfTerent and more ingeuioue turn; he illus- trated their raeanicg by falling down and kissing tha eartli, ths < I L ERUTCs; on, I aud likewise of ManiuB CuriuB (then a tribune of the people}, who, when the luterres Appiua /he Blind, an able speaier, held the Comitift contrary to law, refusing to admit any conBul of plebeian rank, preTailed upoa the senate to protest gainst the conduct of his antagoniBt; which, if we consider that the Msenian law was not then in being, was a very bold 'attempt, We may also conclude that Maroua PompiiiiM was a man of abilities, who, in the time of his conaulahip, when he was soJemaiziag a public sacrifice in the proper habit of his office, (for he was also a Flatoen Carmentalis,) he^ng of the mutiny and insurrection of the people against the eenaU, rushed immediately into the midst of the assembly, covered as he was with his sacerdotal robes, and qnclled the sedition by his authority and the force of hia clocntion. I do aot pretend to have historical evidence that the persoaa here mentioned were then reckoned orators, or that any sort of reward or encouragemeut was given to eloquence; I ouly inler what appears very probable. It is also recorded that Caius FlaminiuB, who, when trihun e of the people, proposed the Uw for dividing the conquered territories of the Gauls and Ficeni among the citizens, and who, afler his promotion to the consulship, was slain near the lake Thrasimcnus, became vet; popular by historical talents. Quintos Masimns Ycrrucosaa was likewise reckoned a good speaker by his coutemporaries; OS was also Quintus Metellus, who, in the second Punic war, was joint- consul with Luciua Vetnrius Philo.
XV. " But the fii-at person wo have any certain account of, who was publicly distinguished as an orator, and who really appears to have been such, was Marcus Comelius Cethegiis; whose eloquence is attested by Quintus Ennius, a voucher of the highest credibility; since he actually heard him spea)^ and gave him this character after his death; so that there ia no reason to suspect that he was prompted by the warmth of his Iriendship to exceed the bounds of tnitfa. In the ninth book of his Annals, he has mentioned him in the following Additnr orator Comeliu' suaviloquenti Ore Cetbegus Murcu', Tuditano collegn, 'Add the orator Marcus Comelius Cethegus, so much admired for his mellifluent tongue; who was the colleague of Tuditanua, and the son of Marcus.' He expressly calls him an orator, yon.
HElIAItES ON EMINENT ORATORS.
Bee, and attributes to him a remarkable sweetness of elocution; which, even in the present times, is an eseellence of which few are poseeffled: for some of our modem orators are so insuffer- ably harsh, that they may be said rather to bark than to speak. But what the poet so much admires in his friend, may certainly be cousidered as one of the principal omainents of eloquence. He adds: IB dictna, oUia popularibtis olim.