gard of any of the particulars above mentioned, than belongs to him. In one word, he must not be vain; for vanity, tho' it may be concealed for fome time, will break out upon certain occafions, and give great offence to those you converfe with. And, laftly, a man, in order to be polite, must have the fenfe of the pulchrum and decorum, and of what is graceful and becoming in fentiments and behaviour, without which there is nothing amiable or praise-worthy among men. And, as this fenfe is the foundation of all virtue, it was not, I think, without reafon that the Stoics reckoned politenefs, or urbanity as they called it, among the virtues.

CHAP. VII.

Dialogue writing is converfation upon the Subject of fome art or science.-Not a mere catechifm, but of the poetic kind, having a fable with characters and manners; -not therefore real converfation, fuch as the Socratic converfations recorded by Xenophon.-Plato the great dialogift of antiquity.-His dialogues fictions even as to the matter.-Some of them admirable pieces of poetry;—but he does not fucceed when he delivers whole fyftems of Science in that way.-Ariftotle's manner in fuch works much better.-The file of dialogue fhould be fimple.-Plato's file not fo in fome of his dialogues.-A poetical arrangement of the words affected by him. -Cicero the next great dialogift of antiquity;—his manner quite different from Plato's:-Wherein that difference confifts. -His file alfo very different from Plato's; great variety of matter in his phi

lofophical dialogues.-The fect of philoJophy, to which he was addicted, furnished arguments upon both fides of a question. -They are full also of examples from both Greek and Roman hiftory.-The rhetoric of them better than of his orations,—his dialogues on the fubject of eloquence, and in general his writings upon eloquence, the best part of his works.-Eloquence the delight and ftudy of his life ;-philoSophy he only applied to when he could do nothing better.-Nothing therefore new or excellent in his philofophical works;—but his rhetorical, admirable of the kind. Only two rhetorical dialogues; -of these the one De Oratore, the best thing that ever Cicero wrote;—it is perfect of the kind, having both fable and characters:-The perfonages in this dialogue ;-not all the fame the fecond day that they were the firft:-The difference accounted for :-The time and place of the dialogue marked:-The endurance of it also:-That more confiftent with probability, than the length of Some of Plato's difputations:-It is divided into Q q

VOL IV.

two days. The difputation of the first contained in Cicero's first book.-The fubject of that difputation.-The fecond day's difputation divided into two conversations; the one in the forenoon, the other in the afternoon.-The forenoon's converfation comtained in the fecond book.—Antonius the Speaker there, who goes thro' all the fubject matter:-The narration is agreeably diverfified by one of the perfonages explaining that part of eloquence, which confifts in pleasantry and facetiousnefs.-The third conversation in the afternoon of the fecond day.-This contain-ed in Cicero's third book.-The Scene of it changed.-Craffus the chief Speaker there, who explains all the ornaments of Speech. The exordium of this third book very fine, and very pathetical, giving an account of the calamities, which, after that befel the commonwealth, and in which most of the fpeakers in that dialogue perished.Of the grand idea of an orator which Craffus had. It comprehends, according to him, the knowledge of arts and Sciences.-In antient times, the knowledge of things and words was

not divided. This divifion firft made in the Schools of philofophers.—Answer to the objection that it is impoffible to learn So many things.-A paufe after this in the converfation, which is interrupted by Cotta putting Craffus in mind of the province he had undertaken, which was to explain the manner of an oration, as Antonius had done the matter;-Craffus accordingly explains the ornaments of fin-. gle words;-of words in compofition;of rhythms ;-of what is decent and proper; and lastly, of pronunciation and accent.-Cicero concludes the dialogue, with a compliment to his friend Hortenfius from the mouth of Craffus.-Of the decorum obferved in this last day's converfation with respect to those who speak.The Speech of Craffus the most laboured part of the dialogue-Cicero there gives his own idea of the perfect orator.—That idea a true idea;-without that univerfal knowledge, an orator cannot be rich in the ornaments of Speech, nor have that elevation of mind necessary for a great. Speaker. He cannot be such a speaker as Pericles. The dialogue upon the whole